Christianity Uncensored: Love Uncensored Series

Friends, just a word. We need to respect the elderly among us. They’ve seen more in their lives than most of us could imagine. I hope, someday I hope, I get a little respect for gray hair or no hair or whatever I’m left with. We need to respect that generation that has gone on before us.

This could be transformative. Imagine if you start to apply the Golden Rule in your house. Are there any milk jug drinkers here? You grab the milk jug and drink from the milk jug? Some of you do this but you’re not going to raise your hand. You know who you are. Just imagine what would happen if you bust the fridge open and grab that gallon of milk, pop the top on it, you have it up to right here and you are about to chug the family milk. But then you stop and say, “Wait a minute, is this consistent with the Golden Rule? Would I really want to drink my sister’s backwash from the milk jug?” Then you grab a cup and you set it down. You actually go ahead and pour yourself a glass of milk. It’s living out the Golden Rule in our lives and in our work places. Treating people like we would like to be treated. God will show up and He’ll do an amazing thing in the midst of that.

The second thing is to accept God’s love. If we are really going to live out this “Love your neighbor as yourself’,” we apply the Golden Rule and we accept the love of God. Sometimes it’s hard. I find in my own power and ability I can’t always love other people but out of God’s love I can love them. In fact, when you look at Jesus’ statement about the most important commandment, He says the first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your strength, all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul. The first commandment is about loving God vertically. Then you are able to love one another, love your neighbor as yourself, horizontally. Accept God’s love for you.

I heard a story about Father Damian who was a Catholic priest in the late 1800’s. He went to one of the islands in Hawaii that was set aside as a leper colony. This was a horrific place. People basically went there to die. There was violence and rape on the island. It was a lawless, horrible place to be until Father Damian showed up. He went to these people that no one else would go to. He loved these people that no one else would love. He taught them how not just to die but how to live. He built buildings, schools, choirs, and bands. He brought music to them. By hand he built two thousand coffins so that when they died they could be buried with dignity. He transformed this leper colony. They loved him for it. But you know, he wasn’t very careful. He wouldn’t always wash his hands after he bandaged their wounds. When no one else would touch them, he would touch them. Sometimes he would even share his pipe. He would eat food from the same vats that they did. He wasn’t always careful. He used to preach to them and begin his message with the words, “We brethren.” Then one day he was pouring some scalding hot water and he poured part of it over his hand. He noticed that he didn’t feel the heat. He realized it was a classic sign of leprosy. He noticed as the days and weeks wore on that he was indeed showing more and more signs of leprosy. Those people on that island never forgot the day that he stood up and he didn’t begin his message with, “We Brethren.” He began his message with, “We Lepers.” He loved them so much that he became one of them.