They were here a minute ago
John 13:34-35
We have witnessed an awful lot of different things related to war in the past month or so. We know more about the weapon systems than ever before, we know about the MRE’s, Meals Ready to Eat. Also called Meals Rejected by Ethiopians. POW –Prisoner of War, MIA – Missing in Action, RPG – Rocket propelled grenade. We watched as the forces drove across the desert and made rapid advances. Now they are looking for enemies, to bring them to justice.
But what we have heard and seen all through the campaign, were bits and pieces about missing service people. The ambush or crash the people were missing. It is important to the military command that every person that they have in harm’s way is accounted for. They don’t want any mysteries out there. The military is a sort of family, even if they are from all different backgrounds and places, that have a definite understand of the value of the individual.
In our scripture today, we are going back to the evening of the Passover meal. When Jesus says that he is giving a new commandment. But it sounds failure. It sounds like the commandment that he sez is the second most important.
Mark 12:31 The second is this, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these."
But this time is different. “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Instead of neighbors we are to love each other. And instead of self we are to do it like Jesus did it.
I believe that the model that Jesus is asking us to use it that of a family. We are to love each other no matter what. Isn’t that how Jesus demonstrated love.
That’s hard isn’t it? To love each other even in a family can be challenging.
From the outside most families look pretty good. We see families at church and as far as we can tell they are perfect.
You know I believe that even in the best of families it is not always perfect. We get on each other’s nerves. Like on family vacations, I remember when mom and dad decided we would go to California in the Land-yacht station wagon. Three seats, the one in the back facing backwards. Luggage on top and in the back so that 3 kids have to share the middle seat. The dilemma – 3 kids… two windows.
Three kids picking at each other, wining and fighting and we had not left the city limits of Irondale Alabama (a few miles).
By the time the day ended there were invisible lines which were no man’s land, established by mom, who sat for hours with teeth gritted just waiting for the next cry of foul, from the back seat.
Mom and Dad probably did not like us very much after only a few hours of travel. But the never stopped loving us. Yes they threatened to stop the car in the middle of Texas and put one or all of us out of the car. But they never actually pulled off and left any of us there…… for long.
Jesus came into the world to demonstrate the kind of love that God had for his creation. He may not like us much when we act like we do, but He will never stop loving you. When we hop out of the car, God never puts it in gear, he sits and waits with the doors unlocked and call our names asking us to get back in the car. That is God’s kind of Love.
When Jesus called his disciples to love one another like he had loved them. He was telling them, look at how I do it and copy me. He is telling us the same.
Jesus came into this world and demonstrated the family relationship that God has always meant for mankind to have. The one on one relationship like Adam had in the Garden.
Jesus came into the world to show us how to love and live as a family. We think of a family as physically belong to each other. For Christians, Jesus Christ is the common bond, the church is a family tied together by our faith.
The military family we see on TV is tied together by the common goal of serving their country. They are a volunteer gathering of people from all over our country and they train just in case they are called to action. The spend years just practicing with the general hopes that they will never really have to use their skills. When they do, bad things happen to people that are not in their family, and all too often they happen to some that are.
Have you noticed the focus of the military changed in Iraq. Even before the fighting calmed, they were counting heads. Figuring out who was missing, for whatever reason. They desperately wanted to know about the POW’s, how they were, where they were. They did not want to leave any casualty unaccounted for. They wanted to know hat happened to their family members for their sake and also for the sake of their physical families.
You know, except for the shooting and tearing up stuff the military organization would make a good church structure. And in reality they do a better job with the watching out for and helping one another then we do sometimes.
The rescue of Private Lynch for example. Consider all the risk that they knew about. Was the information true? Was it just some type of trap? The physical risk of going to the hospital even if it was not a trap was incredible.
They could all have died trying to get her back. Isn’t that Christ like, willing to risk them selves because one of the family had a need, and was in trouble.
In the military family someone made a wrong turn and the result was that some were wounded and unable to help themselves. The rescue team did not go there to punish her but to bring her back home to safety.
Folks I had a totally different message planned for today. I had a short week because of some oblations to school and to working a spiritual retreat. That message was not what God had in mind for you this morning.
The thing that God placed on my heart this morning was the number of MIA’s (Missing in Action) we have in our church. The people that were here and are now missing. Some dropped out years ago and others more recently.
Some of these people are the wounded that have not been able to make it. The wounds may be physical, health concerns. They may be emotional; they were hurt by word or action, maybe years ago. Some have been wounded by this world because of own wrong turns.
Sometimes we know their story and don’t want to face them or we think bad things about the situation and just want to stay out of it. I guess if we really know what is going on it might be ok to leave it alone. It is not the ones that we know what is going on that bother’s me. It is the one’s that we let drop through the cracks. The ones that just disappeared and we never found out what happened. We never found out if the had a need that family and God could solve.
Why have we let them go! Why have we let them fade out of sight without mounting a search party? There should not be a single person that has been tied to this church that we as a church family have not kept up with.
If they have found a new church that is right for them. Then praise God and know that they are being cared for.
If they are alone or lost we are commanded by Jesus to Love them. That means we never stop trying to get them home. Even if they say no, we don’t write them off. A family cares about it’s members. A family loves it’s members no matter what.
What I am afraid of, we have not established the sense of family that Jesus demonstrated. We let our missing and wounded just stay out there, lost. We just leave them out there in the desert to wither and die.
I guess it is easy to understand when we see someone that really goofed up, drifted into drugs, or credit card debt and lost everything. You know they have to learn on their own.
Then there are those that are too sick to make it here, I might miss them a little, but if they can’t come well - they can’t come.
The ones that were just so aggravating, we should be glad to be rid of them, they were trouble anyway. We are better off without them…..
That is not what Jesus demonstrated. He demonstrated loving everyone in the family even when they goofed up royally or acted badly, even if they nailed him to a cross, he forgave them because they had the potential of being part of his family.
Jesus did things for people that he did not know. He touched people that no one else would touch. He had meals with sinners that the religious wrote off years ago. He loved his Disciples even when they denied him, when they ran off, when they acted ashamed of Jesus. He found them and restored them and he demonstrated God’s love to them.
Jesus wants us to live and love by demonstration.
There are several people that have disappeared from our church that most of you know nothing first hand about what happened. If we lived like Jesus demonstrated you would all want to find out. We should all want to let the wounded know that somebody cares.
We would all want to be able to show them that the father, and their brother and even each of us care enough to check on the shut-in and the missing. That all of us love them, even if and maybe especially if they made some mistakes.
That the church, their church loves them and is there for them. They want to help the with the obstacles and problems.
Today I am not talking about the people on the outside, I am talking about family, the ones that should be on the inside. Some of them fear that they are forgotten, or unlovable and their wounds just won’t get better.
Folks, If the military family will risk life and limb to recover a wounded, lost and even dead comrade, why won’t we risk, a harsh word, and embarrassing silence, or a disappointing trip.
In the early church they were known for their absolute love of each other. They took care of the helpless, they reached out to the lost. They just loved each other enough to want to help. To showed that they cared.
What is our problem today? Is it self-absorption? We don’t even notice they are gone. As long as we find what we need and someone shows us that we are cared for, it is ok. I don’t really think that’s it.
I would guess that the biggest problem we have is that we fear the situation and saying or doing the wrong thing. That is a danger but if you approach any situation with the Love of Christ, it will work out.
Someone tells about a little girl whose best friend died in a car accident. She went over to visit the deceased friend’s parents a week later. When she got home from the visit, her Dad asked, "Why did you go over so soon after Shirley’s death?"
"To comfort Shirley’s mother," said the child.
"What could you do to comfort her?" asked her Dad.
The little girl replied, "I climbed into her lap, and I cried with her."
There are people here that know every story. They have visited and sent cards. They have told the MIA’s that we all care. That it is ok, we can fix it. That they are loved.
But, unfortunately, when we are the one’s that are missing, one voice means very little. On voice seems so trivial. One voice in a stadium will not inspire the team and it may not convince a wounded soul of anything.
A family looks for the lost members. A family sends out search parties and call out the person’s name. They risk something of themselves because part of them is missing. Every part, every person in the family of God is of infinite value.
If we follow Jesus commandment, we will love one another, sometimes love hurts, but love also heals even the deepest of wounds.
What have you done for Him lately?
Don’t leave the wounded without care, Search for the MIAs and let them hear the caring in our voices.
34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
All Glory be to God!
