Caring

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon
Sunday, September 25, 2011

As I was preparing for this message and I saw that the pillar we were working on this week was that of “Caring,” I immediately thought of two things. I thought of my daughter, Madison, and I thought of beehive ball. I guess that takes a little bit of explanation, doesn’t it?

When I saw it was caring, I immediately thought of my daughter, Madison, because, I know that I’m completely unbiased in this estimation, I believe she has a very caring and kind heart. I think God has just gifted her that way, which leads me to beehive ball.

Now beehive ball, you probably know it from the more traditional way and that’s called soccer, but when they’re really little, it doesn’t really resemble soccer. It more resembles beehive ball. In other words, you have a bunch of little children sort of flying around erratically to the soccer ball that eventually, maybe, perhaps it makes it into the net at one or either sides of the field. So it’s really more like beehive ball.

Now how does that relate to caring and Madison? Well, it relates because Madison was always much more interested in the fellow players of both teams than she was in playing the game. As you might imagine, if you have a group of young children on the field, running around erratically, trying to kick a ball, someone’s going to get hurt. Kids fall down, kids get kicked or maybe they just get frustrated and cry because no matter how many times they are flailing their legs, they never connect with the ball. Madison was always the one who would go over and pick them up or put her arm around them and console them, which was okay except that there were a few inopportune moments for that.

So let’s just say, theoretically, she gets a breakaway and she’s leading down the field in front of the rest of the beehive and she’s heading towards the goal and then, theoretically, there’s a dad on the side going, “Yes, she’s going to score! Uh-huh!” And there’s an opposing player coming at her, but the opposing player falls so this dad thinks to himself, “Yes! It’s a clean shot. She’s going to score.” That’s what Dad thinks. Madison stops midstride, walks over, picks her up, dusts her off, makes sure she’s okay. Meanwhile, the beehive has caught up and they take it down to the other end of the field. But Madison didn’t care. She really has a kind and caring heart, but I worry. I’m worried because I’m afraid that caring heart could turn to a cold heart. What I mean is as we get a little bit of life on us and if we get our hands slapped enough times, if we open ourselves up to be kind and caring and we’re rebuffed or rebuked by that, then pretty soon, we don’t have a caring heart. It turns to a cold heart.

So this particular quality of being a person of character, of having a caring heart is important to me because I think there’s a real danger for all of us to have a caring heart turned to a cold heart.

This morning, we want to dig in, once again, and see what does it mean to be a caring person? We look at Jesus because He is the embodiment of what it means to be a caring person. The importance of that in our lives, the importance because He is caring, that can help us ward off having a cold heart. And then if we can reflect Jesus’ love and care to the people around us, I believe we can have an impact, an impact on our community.

What does it mean to have a caring heart, to be a caring person? If we look to the life of Jesus, I believe we can see what it means to be a caring person. Now first off, when you’re dealing with a word like care or caring, there’s a whole host of definitions that you can use for that. And there are lots of different words you could use to describe what it means to be a caring person.

So in typical fashion for me, I boiled it down to three. I think there are three top qualities to what it is to have a caring heart or to be a caring person. The first one is compassion. If you’re going to have a caring heart, you’re going to be a person who cares for others and is kind, you have to be compassionate.

We see that written all over Scripture. Both Old Testament and New Testament, our God is a God who has compassion for His people. If we narrow it down to the New Testament, we certainly see it in the life of Jesus. It’s written all over the gospel where He has compassion on either crowds or on individuals.

This morning, let’s just take a look at the gospel of Matthew and three instances of where it’s recorded. We have two blind guys at the side of the road. Jesus passes by and they call out to Him that they want help. Now the crowd isn’t too keen on this and they’re trying to quiet the two down. They’re busy. They don’t want to be bothered by them, but they don’t stop.
How does Jesus react? It says, “Jesus had compassion on them and He touched their eyes. Immediately, they received their sight.”

If we flip back to Chapter 14, now here Jesus has been putting in some long days. He’s been putting in some long weeks and He hasn’t had a day off in quite awhile, so He decides He needs a rest. So He gets in a boat and He’s looking for kind of a quiet place, just some down time, recoup, get reenergized. It doesn’t work out so well.

The boat lands. He looks out. A great big crowd of people is waiting for Him. Now if that were me, I’d say, “Really? Can’t I get a day off? Honestly, people, can you leave me alone for a minute?” That’s not how Jesus reacts. Instead, “When Jesus landed, He saw the large crowd. He had compassion on them and healed their sick.”

One more, Matthew 9. Now in this instance, Jesus has been traveling around from town to town, synagogue to synagogue, preaching His message. He only has three years, right? His ministry is only going to last from 30 to 33. So He’s traveling around preaching and He looks up and He sees yet another crowd of people. It seems endless. It says this about Jesus, “When He saw the crowd, He had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless. They were like sheep without a shepherd.”

My point is if you want to know what compassion is, look to Jesus. He is the epitome of what it is to be a compassionate person, so let’s dig into that then. What does that word mean? What does it mean to be compassionate or to have compassion? If you dig down to it, the word itself means “a deep emotional response,” a deep emotional response to a tragedy, to pain, to trouble in someone else’s life. So it’s caring. It’s concern but it’s way beyond that. It’s like empathy on steroids. It is a gut-wrenching, inside of you, deep-seeded, uncomfortable aching for what another person is going through.

If we go to the Old Testament, the word that we translate “compassion,” that root word in Hebrew actually refers to the womb of a woman. So that deep inside of you or the connection that I made for that is the connection between a mother and her children. There’s such a strong bond. I know dads have it too, but there’s a strong bond between moms and their child that when a child is hurting, Mom hurts. And sometimes I think Mom hurts worse than the child. That’s compassion, that aching inside.

So when Scripture says that Jesus had compassion on the crowd, it means His heart was being ripped out of Him. He had angst inside of Him as He yearned for His people, as He hurt for His people and the pain He saw them going through, that’s compassion.

But compassion is always linked to action. It’s always linked to an appropriate action that follows it. Otherwise, you can’t say you have compassion for someone. Somebody is hurting, somebody’s in pain and you just say, “Um, that’s too bad,” and walk away. No, by definition, compassion says that it leads you to do something about it.

Our three instances, the two men are blind. They come to Jesus because they want to be healed. It says, “Jesus had compassion on them, touched their eyes, they could see.” He wants to have a solitary time to Himself, a little bit of a getaway. He gets off the boat and He sees the crowd of people. He has compassion on them and He heals the sick. You read a little bit further on, that’s the feeding of the 5,000 so He feeds them as well. And the last one, He’s going town to town. He’s desperately trying to preach His message to all who will hear, but the task is endless. He looks up and there’s another crowd of people, a sea of people standing in front of Him. It says they’re like sheep without a shepherd, they’re so lost. And so He follows that by saying, “Pray to the Lord of the harvest that He send workers into the field. Ask God to raise up leaders and under shepherds because I can’t reach all of my people in three short years.” Compassion. It’s always followed by action. If we have a caring heart, a caring heart is compassionate.
And compassion always leads to action. You can’t be compassionate and not do something about it.

So in other words, when you find out that your neighbor is going through just an ugly divorce, you don’t just feel bad for them but you listen to them because that’s what they need more than anything else. They just need an open ear to pour out their hearts. It means that when a friend of yours is really going through some tough physical times and having some medical problems and things aren’t getting done around the house, you don’t just feel bad about that. No, you go over and you do some projects or maybe you make a meal or maybe you mow the lawn or, I don’t even want to bring this up but it’s just around the corner, you shovel the snow. That’s what compassion is. You feel it deep inside but that means you want to do something about it. That’s what it means to be caring.

The second thing about a caring person is time, if they’re willing to give up their time. There’s no more of a dramatic way to show that you care than to give time to another individual because none of us have it. We’re all given 24 hours each day and my guess is we could fill up 26 hours. We’re all overcommitted. We all have lots of things we need to get done. When you give of your time to someone, when you make time for someone, that shows you care.

Now I used to think that busy schedules were just in our generation. No, no, no. I think it dates back to the beginning of time. Look at the Scripture and how many times people thought Jesus was too busy. He has the blind guys calling on the side. The crowds are like, “Will you be quiet? He doesn’t have time for you. He has people to see, places to go. He has lessons to teach. Leave Him alone.” Jesus says, “No, no, no, no. I have time for these two.” And He takes time.

How about the baptism we just witnessed a few moments ago? We read about the time that parents were bringing children to Jesus, right? They just wanted to have their kids see this great teacher, this Messiah that had come. Somewhere along the way, the disciples get it in their head that Jesus doesn’t have time for them. He can’t be bothered by that. Scripture says, “He was indignant.” That’s a harsh word. He was indignant with His disciples. He was insulted at the very idea. He said, “No, no, I have time for the kids. You bring them on.”

A dramatic way to show that you care is to give time. When your daughter comes up and says, “Hey, Dad, can I show you something,” and you’re right in the middle of the game, that’s a moment of decision right there because I know the disappointment in the eyes when you say, “I’ll see it later. You can show me another time.” And I know the elation in the eyes when you stop and say, “No, no, no, no. Let me see it right now.” Time. Time is a dramatic way to show that you care.

Forgiveness. If time is a dramatic way to show you care, the most powerful way you can demonstrate that you care is through forgiveness because, in forgiveness, it costs you something. If somebody has hurt you, somebody has insulted you, if somebody has done something wrong to you, it will cost you something to forgive that person. It means you’re going to give up something. You’re going to give up having revenge. You’re going to give up being angry with them. You’re going to give up retribution. You’re going to give up maybe even justice by offering forgiveness. It is costly. It will cost you something to forgive someone because an infraction, a debt is owed.

I recently read it described this way. Let’s say you invite some people over to your house and for some ridiculous reason, they decide to start playing catch in your house. They’re throwing a baseball back and forth and, all of a sudden, it smashes. It smashes your prized possession, a family heirloom of a lamp that has been passed down through generations. It is priceless to you. They fall over themselves apologizing, wanting to replace it. Somebody has to pay for the lamp. Either they’re going to pay or you’re going to absorb the cost. Forgiveness says you absorb the cost. “That’s okay. I got it.”

Isn’t that what God has done for you? Hasn’t He absorbed the cost? God is very clear. He created a perfect world of perfect people, and He designed heaven for perfect people. But we went against that. All the time, we turn our back on God. All the time, we disobey God. Things we say, things we don’t say, things we do, things we don’t do. All the time. You know it. I know it. Each one of us is guilty. We’ve sinned against God. There’s an infraction. We’ve insulted Him. We’ve hurt him. There’s a debt to be paid and the debt, the only way to pay it, God says, is it costs you eternity and eternity is separated from God but yet God says He wants you in heaven with Him. Well, someone has to pay the debt. God said, “I’ll absorb it.” And it cost Him everything. So God gave us His Son. And Jesus hangs on a cross and He not only gives His life but Scripture tells us that He went through hell, what we were deserving, the payment that was demanded of us, Jesus absorbed it and paid the debt.

No more powerful way to see the love and the care of God than through the forgiveness that He gives us through His love. A powerful way for you to tell another person that you care is to learn how to forgive as Christ has forgiven you. Be a caring person, a kind person, a caring heart. It’s compassion. It’s making time. It’s forgiving as God has forgiven you. This is important stuff. It’s important for us because I believe there is a real danger for everyone of us to have our caring heart turned to a cold heart.

Think about the days when you were younger. Weren’t you much more vulnerable? Weren’t you much more willing to be kind and to show other people that you care? And then you get slapped around a few times. You get burned a couple times. You get ridiculed a couple of times. You’re called foolish. You’re taken advantage of one too many times. Then pretty soon, you start calculating more than caring because a calculating heart, that’s how you get ahead. That’s how you make it in this world. We mask it because we don’t want to say that about ourselves, so we’ll say, “Nothing personal, it’s just business.” Does that mean you can be ruthless? “No, no, no. I’m just competitive by nature.” What does that mean? Does that excuse you from doing any kind of behavior to get what you want so you can win? Do you see what I’m saying? You get enough life on you and that caring heart turns to a cold heart, but a cold heart’s an empty heart. An empty heart. You have to guard against that.

That’s why we look to Jesus and His love and His care. It warms our hearts. It helps us ward off having a cold heart because Jesus has compassion for you. He aches when you’re in pain. It’s gut-wrenching to Him to see you struggle and that’s why He reaches out. He gives you strength that you didn’t know you had. He comforts you when you think you’re inconsolable. He has compassion for you. He will make time for you. Anytime, day or night, He says that you are to come to Him in prayer and He will listen and He will answer.

And He has forgiven you. I don’t care what’s in your past. It doesn’t matter what you have done. Jesus has already paid the debt of your sin. Even if you haven’t been able to forgive yourself, God has forgiven you. He absorbed the cost already. That’s what the cross is all about. You may be remembering it, but Scripture says that God chooses not to remember our sins anymore. You cannot experience that kind of love and care and not be changed. If you have truly experienced God’s love and care, then you understand what it is that God had compassion on you. You know what it is that God has forgiven you and He has taken the weight off of your shoulders. You cannot be changed. It warms your heart. It warms it to the point that you want to reflect that same love and care to those who are around you, and that’s where we can make an impact. That’s where we can make a difference in our world.

As Jesus embodies this quality of caring, we also can embody this quality of caring because there is a world out there that thinks nobody cares. You have heard people lament, maybe you’ve lamented, “It doesn’t matter anyway.” You’ve heard people say, “Nobody cares.” Over 36,000 people take their own lives in this country every year. I wonder how many of them thought, “Nobody cares.” I care. You care. God cares. Our hearts have been touched by God’s love and compassion and kindness and caring. It’s warmed our hearts. We need to reflect that to the people around us, to show them compassion, to not only feel bad for them but spend some time with them. Maybe it means instead of walking away from the neighbor, even though you don’t have 45 minutes, you just stop in the driveway and say, “How are you? How’s it going?” And just let them pour out their hearts. Maybe it’s a kind act to somebody at work. Maybe there’s something between you and somebody else and forgiveness just needs to take place.

Reflect God’s care and kindness. One person, one act can make a big difference. Just one person. One person taking time for someone who didn’t think anyone cared. One kind act to a stranger who thought that nobody even knew he existed. One lunch period sitting with the kid who no one else wants to sit with. Huge difference.

One congregation saying to their community, “God cares and so do we.” We can make a difference. We can build a community of character and it’s important. And it’s concerning to me because I’m worried, because I have a little girl who has a very kind and caring heart and I don’t want to see it go cold. I believe that God’s gifted her with that kind of caring and kind heart, but I believe He’s given it to you, too. I believe He has warmed all of our hearts with His love. Therefore, we want to ward off it turning to a cold heart and we want to reflect the love and concern that Christ has for all around us. We want to build a community of character, a community that cares. Amen.