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May 2, 2010—Fifth Sunday of Easter

Lectionary Texts: Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35

Sermon Text: John 19:26-28 and Mark 15:34

The Seven Responses to the Cross: The Call to Compassion and Social Justice

Franklin Graham would later write, “I was shaken from my sleep by the rapid sound of machinegun fire. What in the world am I doing here? I asked my first night in the heart of Africa’s Angola. From the beginning of this trip I had struggles with a strong sense of foreboding, and now I couldn’t shake a feeling in my stomach. The incessant clatter of machine guns and the accompanying sounds of breaking glass, shouting men, and another blast from the muzzle of a Russian AK-47 once again shattered the momentary silence and made it impossible to sleep. I knew it, I thought. I knew I’d end up dying in this place.

I was drawn to war-torn Angola in the early eighties through the invitation of Dr. Steve Duncan. I met him while speaking at a missions conference in Florida. Steve was a well-educated Boston man and a skilled surgeon. He was preparing to leave for Angola as soon as he could raise support and make the logistical arrangements. Steve made quite an impression on me as he told of his desire to serve the Lord in a foreign country. I knew he could be earning enough money to buy anybody’s version of the great American Dream. Instead, all he talked about was taking God’s gospel to Angola – a country that at the time was in the throes of a particularly vicious and ugly civil war.”1 So began a life that was rich in service to the Kingdom by Franklin Graham that continues today in so many ways through the Samaritan’s Purse International Christian relief and evangelism organization.

Jesus Christ looked down from His own cross of suffering at His beloved mother and His tender-hearted disciple John and spoke these words, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple “Here is your mother.” In response we must cry out, “I see those hurting around me and accept the call to compassionate service.” Just as Jesus refused to shirk the duties of the eldest son to care for His widowed mother, we too, must understand our obligation as disciples to share the gospel through a lifestyle of compassion. Surrounded by a world in need, Christ has chosen to meet the real needs and problems of the world around us through the empowerment of spiritual delegation to us, His living disciples. We are to be Christ’s hands and feet to the world around us. We must accept the call to Christ’s ministry of compassion. This ministry of compassion to the world is a message of hope and empowerment through a return to urban ministries, providing much needed supplies and volunteers following a natural disaster, organizing events that raise the awareness of real community needs, and ministries that touch people one person at a time. We truly are the answer He has sent to this needy world.

Here in Orlando, we saw the hand of God reach our local community through the work of Nazarenes and One Heart, Many Hands in the week prior to General Assembly. Almost one hundred homes were painted and repaired in the name of Jesus! The workers prayed for the residents and their neighbors. Bridges were built in the community that still influences Orlando today. A church on the Kansas City District discovered there were over thirty-five hundred homeless in their community and the pastors organized a motorcycle rally to raise awareness and funds to help meet the need in their area. The question we must ask ourselves is, “What am I doing to meet the needs in my community?” We must also be willing to see the real problems around us and actually take the steps necessary to meet people at their point of need. We can no longer wait for someone else to begin the process. We must act now. We must act strategically. We must act under the direction of God’s Holy Spirit with love and enthusiasm.

Parker York had seen the suffering that his wife was going through with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Flossie had gone from 125 pounds to 86 pounds in weight. Her brief moments of forgetfulness had digressed to the need for continuous, round the clock care. He constantly met all of her needs from feeding, diapering, bathing, and maintaining their home. One Friday morning she seemed to step out of her illness and in seemingly complete clarity asked, “Do you want me?” Mr. York, overcome with emotion, hugged her and kissed her and said, “Of course I want you, Flossie.” She soon returned to her previous state, but the question remains. There are so many in the world who are asking the same question and through compassionate ministry we cry out with a resounding, “Yes!”2 We must say “Yes!” to the opportunities that Christ brings along our path.

Jesus again cries out and now says, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” We must cry out in response, “We will reach out to those in bondage with the liberating message of the cross.” We see in this scene the powerful effect that sin’s separation has caused our Lord. It is almost unbearable. Sin has a powerful effect upon humanity and the Church is called to share the hope of a gospel that reunites people with a holy and loving God who sacrificed His Sin to restore relationship and bring spiritual freedom too those bound by sin. Compassion must be lived out both locally and globally. As Nazarenes, we are rooted in compassion. The Glory Barn of Los Angeles under Phineas Bresee was known for its ministries to the homeless, alcoholic, young unwed mothers, and many others in need. We dare not turn from our spiritual roots and leave behind the things that were part of us from the beginning. On the mission field, at home and abroad, some of our greatest victories have begun as works of restorative ministries. This passage of scripture is recorded in the book of Mark to a largely Roman audience that viewed slavery as a way of life and even prospered from it. Today, we tend to look the other way concerning many of our societal ills. We must let people know that bondage doesn’t have to be their way of life. Like the Samaritan traveling Jericho’s road, we need not, we dare not, pass on the other side. We must go to those who are wounded by sin and bring help and life to them once again.

From the cross, as a victim of great judicial injustice, Christ cries out, “I am thirsty.” We must respond that we too were once thirsty and we are sent to those who also are thirsty. We truly live in a dry and thirsty land full of injustice and pain. Christ’s Kingdom will ultimately bring justice to all and right the wrongs of this world. In completing the prophecies of scripture, Christ made sure all was fulfilled. We too must fulfill the mandates of the Word of God. Deuteronomy 16:20 states, “Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.” There is a new breeze blowing through the Church that we are still trying to fully comprehend. It is the call to bring justice to the land. We, Nazarenes, as a holiness people, still hunger and thirst for righteousness to prevail all around us. This truly is a call for us to depart from our complacency. The gospel has brought justice, progress and equity to many cultures. It was in the first century Church that Priscilla took the preeminent instructional role over her husband Aquila; Philemon received Onesimus, the runaway slave, back to himself “no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother;” and Jews and Gentiles worked out their cultural differences. It is a mandate for all believers to call for justice in the midst of this present world and to take a stand for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Brother Yun, known as the Heavenly Man, was in prison for preaching Jesus Christ to the people of communist China during the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. He had been publicly humiliated and tortured for his faith. He, however, counted it all joy to be able to suffer for Christ. Though he was hungry and often beaten, when forced to share his cell with a violent murderer, Brother Yun shared food and cleaned wounds in the name of Jesus. Eventually, Brother Yun was able to share the hope of Jesus Christ with this once violent man and even baptized him using a portion of their meager drinking water rations.3 Social justice must take place even when it is not easy or convenient.

The time to reach out and meet the needs of our community is today! We have people in our congregation today who have come to Jesus through the compassionate work of this local church. We would love to share each of their testimonies to the power of God to deliver them from drugs, alcohol, and pains of the past. Only in Jesus Christ can we truly be free indeed. Today, we are all being issued a challenge. The first part of that challenge is to go out and meet with the people of our community and discover the real needs and challenges they face, and then we must develop a strategy for meeting those needs in a tangible, biblical way. Lastly, we must train and make the plan a reality.

The challenge today is to yield to the drawing of the Holy Spirit in the area of service to others. The Church must minister outside of its doors and past the boundaries of the property line. Some may even be called into full-time Christian service. We must all yield to the call of the Spirit and be agents of compassion and justice.

1. Graham, Franklin. Living Beyond the Limits, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1998, p. 1.

2. McHenry, Raymond. Something To Think About, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. Peabody, Massachusetts, 1998. p. 50.

3. Hattaway, Paul. The Heavenly Man, OMF Literature Inc., Manila, Philippines, 2002, p. 149. 27.