Topical
March 15th, 2009
Love the Unlovable
(accompanied by CIY Video Baht by Derek Hammeke)
Look at the face of the child on this picture. Can you see something that is missing from the childs eyes? Innocence. These are not the eyes of a child hopeful about the future and curious about the world. These are the eyes of a child robbed of joy who has had their childhood stolen from them. This is a tragic story. Sophia was taken from her life and put into such a horrible place. With her however, there is at least a light at the end of the tunnel. She has found something that was robbed from her a long time ago: hope. Sohpia has a home with a ministry called Rapha House. The sad thing is there are so many who havent. For 27 million estimated people who are still held in slavery right now this is a problem. What is worse it is believed that 50,000 slaves are transported into the U.S every year. This is not just a problem abroad this is a problem that has come into our own backyards. Now you have face to go along with the cause. If we can watch this happen and not be affected we have lost our heart. A world that ignores issues like these is a world that has lost its heart.
Imagine it was your daughter who was kidnapped and sold into slavery like this to be used as a toy. Imagine being so poor you used one of your children as collateral on a loan so that you could eat knowing you could not pay it back and your child would be taken into slavery. Imagine living in a world where this happening all around you. Imagine having to watch these innocent children being taken from the homes and sold into slavery like this knowing what would happen to them. How do you feel? Does this anger you? I will be honest with you in my flesh watching this video makes me angry. I want to get a bunch of soldiers and fly over and deal with anyone who has ever taken a child into slavery like this because it is wrong. A child cannot defend them self. How dare anyone take advantage of an innocent helpless child like that I find myself wishing they be punished for their crimes. It makes me angry. Im not proud of it but that is what I feel in my flesh. I want retribution. I want to be there when these people pay for what they did to these little girls. I will be honest with you, the first time I watched this video I wished that I was Gods source of vengeance and that He would send me to make things right. Is that the emotion you feel? It is mine but is that the response that honors God? Is that how God would have you respond to a situation like this? Its easy to be angry but is it right?
Does something inside you stir when you see this video? We see this story and our breaks for Sophia. We have a special place in our hearts for the wronged, and for those who have been taken advantage of. We should have a love for girls like Sophia who have been robbed. They have had their identity, their joy, their hope, their innocence, and their lives stolen away from them. One of the reasons Christ came we see in Isaiah 61: Jesus came to set the captives free. Things like this stand against the mission of Jesus and His goal. Jesus is a liberator who came to free the captives of this world. Yet the way He does that is not the way that we would. Our concept of justice is to solve this problem by punishing everyone who allowed it happen. We naturally seek vengeance and retribution. This is not our place. It is not our place to run out seeking vengeance or justice against these slavers no matter how terrible they may be.
We accept and believe that people matter to God. We just dont totally accept what that means. Look at one of the smallest books in the Bible: Philemon which is only 25 verses in its entirety. This letter is written by Paul to a slave owner. Paul is making an appeal to Philemon on behalf of his son in the faith Onesimus who Paul cares about deeply. Onesimus was a slave owned by Philemon who ran away and Paul having brought Onesimus to a relationship with Christ sends him back. He writes this loving letter asking Philemon to be merciful and kind to Onesimus and not to treat him as a slave but as a brother.
Abraham Lincoln said during the Civil war: If slavery isnt wrong then nothing is wrong. We look at slavery as wrong and as slavers as evil and we forget that they are people and as people they matter to God. You know what makes us different as the church? Do you know how we are unlike any other social justice or civil rights organization on the planet? We have been called to love. Not just to love the slave but to love the slaver. There are many people in the world who would see a video like this and whose heart would break for these girls and children sold into slavery. The difference in the church¦is that our hearts should also break for the ones who have taken them. It is our place to love both slave, and slaver as Paul did in his with Philemon. It is not easy but the very cross that set us free demands that we love these people who take slaves. We dont love what they do. What they do should make us angry. But dont you see God loves them just as much as He loves you. Look at the command that Jesus gives us in the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:43:
Mt 5:43 You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Mt 5:44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, Mt 5:45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Mt 5:46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? Mt 5:47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Mt 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
If we love only the lovely how are we any different from the world? We are not just called to love. We are called to love the unlovable. We could send over all the money and manpower in the world to rescue one girl at a time but it wont change much because the source of the problem still exists. I tell you the truth in order for this situation to change we need the love of God. As the church we are Gods redemptive tool and if we do not share our love with the world, with these people who are taken as slaves and with those who have taken them. If we dont show the love of God to the world, things like this will never change. If we want to put an end to these terrible things we need to live out the love of God for until theses slavers see His love there will always be slaves.
What we hope this will accomplish today, is to stretch your heart. We want to deepen your capacity to love. As our eyes are now opened can we turn to anger and try to seek vengeance or we can turn to love and to pray for the people who hurt us, to pray for those who persecute you. Jesus told us what to do, then He showed us with His life where on the cross He cried out to God a prayer for the very people that were torturing Him. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. So our goal is to grow our hearts from Father avenge them for this injustice to Father forgive them, and let them experience your love. God did not promise there would be no pain. But God did promise He would take away that pain someday. Can you find a place in your heart for girls like this who have had their lives stolen away? Can you find a place for the ones who did the stealing? Can you learn to love as your father in Heaven loves?
