It’s an Epidemic
Matthew 4:23-25
August 10, 2008
A man asked his friend, “What color are your pastor’s eyes?” He answered, “I don’t know. When he prays He closes his eyes and when he preaches I close mine.”
As many of you know, we’ve examining some important issues for our congregation. This week we are going to look at a hugely important issue that God has laid on my heart: AIDS. Unfortunately this week there is, well, some bad news. There is an epidemic raging. Millions are suffering and dying from it. And well the really bad news is that the church, the people of God, has responded abysmally to it. Of course it is the AIDS epidemic.
Now wait a minute, though. Don’t tune me out just yet. I know its tempting but hang with me.
A man would come home every night from work, only to be hit with the day’s calamities by his wife. One night he said to her, “‘Honey, before you hit me with everything that has gone wrong, would you at least let me sit down and enjoy a good night’s meal’? The next night, as soon as he came through the door his wife said to him, ‘Honey, hurry up and eat, I have something terrible to tell you.’”
Yes, there is bad news but this should not be depressing because we have the ultimate good news. We read from Matthew 4 earlier. Jesus came announcing the good news that a new way of living had come. He told people that they should be looking to God not the government, not Caesar, not even their religious leaders to help them but look to God and to live out God’s ways. To show them the blessing of the kingdom that leads to life, he healed hundreds if not thousands of people.
Jesus told them how God desires us to be whole people. He touched them and healed them physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Now let me ask you this, do you think that they got sick again? Sure. Maybe not with their original ailment. But certainly they got sick and you know what else they died. Because this body has been corrupted. But one day when Jesus comes again all will be set right and we will be resurrected just as Jesus was resurrected and we will finally show the glory of God in the way that we were meant too.
So in the meantime, this means showing people God’s love. It means helping them as they suffer for we do suffer in this life, in this decaying world, that needs to be made new. It means that we have a sure and certain hope that the suffering and then death in this life is not the final answer. Death does not have the last say. So we are called to pray for others. We are called to minister to the least of these. We are called to share and show the love of Christ.
Now I have three hopes from this sermon.
Three Hopes
1. We will pray more fervently for people with AIDS.
2. We will seek to be more informed.
So often we ignore these issues not because we are uncaring but because we are so bewildered. We hear so many different stories and we so many contradictions and the problems seem so huge that we sort of give up. We give in to apathy. This, I’m convinced, is what the enemy wants for us more than anything else.
I want to show you a video. This video pokes fun at us. It exaggerates what really is a serious concern. It exaggerates so that maybe we might laugh at ourselves while we decide to do better.
[Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYQy-0bz7tI ]
3. We will encourage those among us who are called to be deeper commitment.
I don’t think all of us here will be convicted to more to a deeper level but maybe a few of us. Sometimes we have a danger when God impassions our hearts with an issue, or ministry, or concern that everyone will feel the same. This often happens when people go a on a mission trip or work camp. I have to watch myself and be careful about being frustrated when not everyone responds to issues like homelessness and AIDS in the same level of intensity. We all need to remember to not get frustrated over another person’s lack of excitement for an issue but also remember that it is okay to be frustrated and call people who claim to follow Jesus on the carpet that seem to have no passions or commitments.
I believe that maybe some of us or maybe just one of us might be called to go a little deeper into this issue and work a little harder, and do a little more, and be involved in a deeper way. We all then need to encourage one another to find those areas that God impassions us for and encourage one another to pursue those areas with fire, power, and conviction!
Pedro, Rose and Chembe regularly visit the grave of their mother who died from an HIV/AIDS illness. Their grandfather, 75, now takes care of them.
Here’s a fact: over 15 million children have been orphaned worldwide because of AIDS. 15 million children. Think about that number. Close you eyes and just try to imagine what that would look like.
I remember the audacity and ignorance of a well-known Evangelical who boldly declared that AIDS was God’s judgment. Anybody remember that? We’ve come a long way, I hope, from that view. Millions of people have contracted AIDS as the result of unfortunate and tragic circumstances that had nothing to do with their immoral choices.
For example, many women around the world have AIDS because they have no rights and they have no choice over the timing and manner of sex. For many it is because their mates make immoral choices and then the women contract the disease from them because they cannot refuse intercourse if they even knew their partner had the virus. For women and children, they are forced into slavery including sexual slavery and are exposed that way.
Every 15 seconds someone dies from AIDS. Let’s be silent and wait. 33 million people live with HIV. Last year, 2.5 million were newly infested. It has been called the great humanitarian crisis of our day.
Two-thirds of people in Africa live with HIV. Three-quarters of all deaths due to AIDS occurs in Africa, which has just over one-tenth of the world’s population.
2.5 million children worldwide have HIV. Besides the 15 million children who are already orphaned, another 6,000 children are orphaned each day mostly in Africa. By 2010, this number could reach 20 million. By 2020, 12 percent of Africa’s workforce could die from AIDS—58 million people.
However, organizations like World Vision (www.worldvision.org) have trained children in values-based HIV-prevention (770,000 in 2006 alone). Orphans are receiving care. Church leaders are being mobilized.
What Can We Do?
• Dig Deeper
Be better informed and do some research. Let this inform you and your prayers.
www.micahchallenge.org.us
www.worldvision.org
These are good places to start.
• Pray
o For empowerment of women
o For western governments and pharmaceuticals to allow inexpensive anti-retroviral drugs to be made available
o For the halt of human trafficking and rescue of its victims
o For Acting On Aids—college student program
• Listen
Listen for what God may be saying to you about this. Matthew 4:23 “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.”
To help you pray and listen. I have a prayer station set up. Take a marble from the red water and place it on the cloth. Let the marble be a symbol of your prayer for huge crisis. There are also cards that you can reflect and meditate on to focus your prayers.
Let this time be a time of response to what God is saying. Let it be a time of prayer. Let it be a time to contemplate where God is calling you.
