Commitment

The scriptures referred to are Mark 14:1-15:47.

Most of the Sundays this Lent our Old Testament readings have featured one of the covenants God made with humanity. We have read about the covenants made with Noah, with Abraham, and with the newly liberated nation of Israel. Last Sunday we read how God told Jeremiah that he was going to make a new covenant with his people—one that is not external but one which is written in their hearts. This Thursday we will hear Jesus inaugurate that covenant, using the elements of the Passover. But today we have read about his making and sealing that covenant, not symbolically but literally, with his blood and with his life.

He could easily have avoided this. Under cover of darkness he could have slipped from the garden in Gethsemane to Bethany, just 2 miles away, on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. He had been staying there with his friends, Lazarus, Mary and Martha. They would have hidden him. Lazarus, I'm sure, would have been willing to die for him, having no fear of dying anymore. But Jesus didn't avoid the cross. Like his Father, he was true to his covenant. He was committed.

Commitment is the 6^th C in RN Caroline Kingdon's list of the elements of care for her patients. She says, “A commitment to our patients and populations is a cornerstone of what we do.” And the same is true of God. We have a history of failure to live up to our part of the covenants, and at any point God could have given up on humanity and walked away. But he didn't. He will at times “hide his face” from us, which is the Bible's way of saying that he lets us suffer the consequences of what we do. But he is always there when we cry to him, waiting for us to turn from our doomed attempts to control the world back to the one who really does. He is like a parent who says, “When you are done with this foolishness, I will still be here for you.”

And just as Caroline is committed not to something abstract but to her patients, so too God is committed to his people. Some people seem to think God is more committed to his glory or to justice or to holiness than to people. But you don't have to look far in the Bible to see that isn't true. When Moses asked to see God's glory, God says, “I will make all my goodness pass before your face, and I will proclaim the Lord by name before you; I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.” (Exodus 33:19) No mention of justice or holiness there, just grace and mercy. That's his glory: how he treats people. When God does manifest his glory to Moses, God says, “Yahweh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abiding in loyal love and faithfulness...,” a description which is repeated throughout the Hebrew Bible: in the Torah, and in the Psalms, and in the prophets. Jonah even states it is the reason he didn't want to preach to Nineveh: because he knew that God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. (Jonah 4:2) He knew God would forgive even Gentiles if they repented. That's the kind of God he is.

And we see that commitment in his son, Jesus. When he talks about God's glory, it becomes obvious that he is talking about his works of healing, and especially his crucifixion and resurrection. (John 9:3; 12:23-33) In other words, it is what Jesus did to heal and save others that glorified God. Like his Father, Jesus is committed to people and what is good and healthy for them, both physically and spiritually.

And you can't be more committed to people than to die for them. In John, just prior to the last supper, it says, “Just before the Passover feast, Jesus knew that his time had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now loved them to the end.” (John 13:1) Real love is a commitment to the well-being of the beloved. You don't let anything get in the way of that. Not even death. As Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) And though Peter said he would lay down his life for Jesus, when the moment came, he chickened out. (John 13:37-38) Jesus stuck to his commitment.

And Jesus expects us to commit ourselves to him as well. He said, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) And the apostles did ultimately commit themselves to following Jesus and most, including Peter, were martyred.

As I've said before, we in the West will probably never have to die for our faith. But that doesn't get us off the hook in terms of committing our lives to Jesus. He said that if we wish to be his followers, we must deny ourselves. Another translation would be “disown.” We have to give up what we think are our rights to follow him. It's very much like what a soldier does when he signs up. The Declaration of Independence lists as unalienable rights those to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But when you join the military, you voluntarily give up your liberty to do whatever you want. You give up the right to pursue happiness if it interferes with duty. You will even give up your life if necessary in fulfilling your duty. Just as Jesus gave up his life and took up his cross. That is what we too signed up for when we decided to follow Jesus.

Last week, we spoke about courage as doing the right thing even when it is risky. Commitment is similar. Commitment is doing something you promised to do even when there are reasons for you to break that promise. There may be seemingly good reasons not to fulfill your promise, like what you've committed yourself to is very difficult, even to the point that you sometimes think it may be nearly impossible. There are less good reasons, like it is just massively inconvenient for you or for others involved. It may be a pretty poor reason, like you just don't feel like it. Most successful people don't let any of those reasons stop them from keeping their commitments. They persevere.

We celebrate visionaries who come up with great ideas. But those ideas don't go anywhere unless people commit themselves to making those ideas become reality. The unsung heroes are those who, though they may not have dreamed up the vision, work out exactly how to realize it. Edison and Jobs came up with great ideas but it was the people under them who made those ideas into actual things.

Jesus proclaimed the good news about the reign of God coming near. But he also showed what it looked like when a person was ruled by God. He showed what it was like when a person exhibited God's compassion and care and competence. He showed how to communicate the good news to others. He showed courage in the face of opposition. And he showed commitment by completing his mission and going to the cross. Had he decided he had done enough that night in Gethsemane and took off for Bethany to avoid his arrest and execution, where would we be? We would not be saved. We would still be in our sins. We would not be reconciled to God. If Jesus had not given his life for us, we would not have eternal life. But Jesus went through something we can barely imagine because of his commitment, not only to God, but to us.

That's why the Christian is called to do more than to simply worship. He is called to make Jesus' vision of the the reign of God in his life a reality. He is called to serve God by serving others. As it says in 1 Peter, “Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God.” (1 Peter 4:10) A Christian who only goes to church and prays and reads the Bible is as useless as a nurse who goes to seminars and webinars and talks to other nurses and studies her textbooks but doesn't actually put her skills and knowledge to work helping patients. Christianity is not merely a contemplative religion; it is an active one. Yes, we are to take time out to commune with God, like on the Sabbath. But the Sabbath is only one day out of seven. Yes, we should spend time each day praying and reading our Bible. But not all day. Primarily we are to live our faith, in the world, among other people, showing God's love and forgiveness and justice in what we say and do. And that takes commitment.

If a soldier has a day off and no tasks to perform, he can choose to do whatever occurs to him, within reason. But if he has a mission that day, everything is subordinated to the mission. The mission doesn't get aborted because Stanley wanted to see the new episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, or Kim wanted to try out the new Thai restaurant, or Terry needed to mow the lawn. That's why, when a bunch of people said they would follow Jesus but had something to do first, he said they were not fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:57-62) The mission comes first.

You've no doubt heard of or even seen the controversial movie The Last Temptation of Christ. The idea is that while on the cross the devil offers Jesus something he didn't have: a normal human life. No mission, just a wife and kids and even some pleasures that he denied himself. And after a vision of what such a life could be, Jesus rejects it and finds himself back on the cross. I'll bet that was a temptation Jesus had to conquer. Just to have a normal uneventful life, with no higher duty or mission taking priority over everything else. Unfortunately, it is a temptation many Christians succumb to. We just want to be a decent person with a reasonably happy life, not a person called by God to dedicate ourself to a mission which requires sacrifice. Again where would we be if Jesus had that attitude? We'd be lost.

We live in a lost world, a world that needs saving. A world that needs Jesus and his message of hope. It needs people dedicated to delivering on his promise of healing and restoration and justice. It needs people who have taken on the mission of making a reality of Jesus' vision of a kingdom where the God who is love reigns. It needs the same kind commitment on our part that Jesus displayed in his life and especially in his journey to the cross. Because commitment is a key element of following Jesus.

Courage

The scriptures referred to are Psalm 51:1-13.

Over 100 times the Bible records the words, “Do not be afraid.” Most often it is God or an angel assuring a human being who is understandably freaked out by the encounter. But fear cannot be made to disappear on command. In fact, frequently when someone does something brave they will confess afterwards that they didn't feel brave or heroic at the time. They may have been overwhelmed by another emotion, like anger or love or loyalty; they may have gone numb, feeling neither fearful nor courageous; or they may have been afraid the whole time. Which makes me wonder if courage is actually an emotion. After all, we don't tell ourselves or others to “Feel brave” but to “Be brave.” I think courage is not actually a feeling but a decision to act in spite of an awareness of the danger your action exposes you to.

Aristotle and C.S. Lewis said the virtues are not the opposite of one specific sin but lie in between 2 opposite types of bad behavior or attitudes. Thus love is not merely to be distinguished from hate, which, like love, is a strong feeling about someone, but it must also be distinguished from indifference, which is not really having any feelings about the person. Similarly, the ethical treatment of other human beings lies between abuse on the one hand and neglect on the other. And courage lies between cowardice, too much concern over danger, and recklessness, which is too little concern about the danger. The person who hangs off the side of a tall building just to get a selfie for their Instagram is not courageous but foolhardy. The person who goes into a burning building to save someone is brave.

Courage is the 5^th element that RN Caroline Kingdon says is necessary to treat her patients with ME/CFS. She writes, “Courage enables us to do the right thing for the people we care for, to speak up when we have concerns.” And that is the essence of courage: doing the right thing even when doing so is scary. As C.S. Lewis said, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.”

Oddly enough, one of the things is that you can't really say of movie heroes is that they are brave. Most of them can take a lot more punishment than a normal human being. They may feel pain but they are usually able to shake it off. After the action sequence that opens each James Bond film, 007 ought to be in the hospital for months. And some superheroes, like Wolverine or the Hulk, are practically immortal. If you can't die, does it really take courage to fight some other superpowered being? Yeah, they usually care about saving lives or upholding morality but they rarely have much at stake personally. Which is why the supervillains always kidnap their loved ones and use them for leverage. Because if you have nothing to lose, you have nothing to fear.

In the West we Christians don't have to worry about suffering physically for the faith. Our risks are being embarrassed or ostracized for our stands on certain issues. Recently popular Bible teacher Beth Moore left the Southern Baptists because of their growing pushback to her advocacy for sexual abuse victims, of whom she is one. Her denomination has been complacent about the issue and even complicit with abusers within the leadership. In response she has been subjected to sneering and cruel attacks by Christians, who forget that our chief command is to love with a love that is patient and kind, not arrogant or rude, not irritable or resentful, and which does not insist on its own way, as Paul reminds us. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Moore's stance, unlike her critics, is biblical. While the sexually abused are not specifically mentioned, the Bible does proclaim God as the champion of underdogs. As Psalm 103:6 says, “The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.” Note that he works for justice “for all the oppressed.” Psalm 146 expands on that, saying of God, “He upholds the cause of the the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.” (Psalm 146:7-9) And we are to do the same. In Isaiah, God says, “Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:16-17) Proverbs tells us: “Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves, for the legal rights of those on the verge of destruction. Speak up, judge fairly; defend the cause of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:8-9) Speaking up for and helping the powerless and disadvantaged is not political; it's biblical. But to do so takes courage.

You know what also takes courage? Asking for forgiveness. It's at the heart of a recent British miniseries starring Dawn French called The Trouble with Maggie Cole. And the trouble is that when a bit tipsy she spills all the village gossip to a journalist. When what she says ends up in the local paper, on the radio and on the internet, her friends are offended and she is mortified. But rather than crawl into a hole and die, she seeks out every person whose dirty secrets she has spilled, and asks forgiveness. Often she finds out that the rumors she had repeated were wrong. But I was enchanted, not just by the humor and sweetness and accuracy of what it's like living in a small community, but also the fact that it was about the damage gossip can do, and the necessity of fessing up to one's faults and seeking forgiveness from those you hurt. How often do we see that in entertainment? Or, for that matter, in real life?

Psychopaths, sociopaths and narcissists never confess to doing wrong or ask for forgiveness. Nor do they forgive others. And, coincidence or not, we have seen the emergence of the non-apology by celebrities and politicians. “I am sorry if anyone was offended...” they say, rather than say, “I am sorry for causing offense to...” “Mistakes were made” they say, rather than “I made mistakes.” And because they don't admit to being wrong, or express regrets, they don't learn from their mistakes. Even Sherlock Holmes, hardly a humble man, once messed up so badly in a case in Norbury that he says to his friend, “Watson, if it should ever strike you that I am getting a little overconfident in my powers, or giving less pains to a case than it deserves, kindly whisper 'Norbury' in my ear, and I shall be infinitely obliged to you.” And indeed when Holmes did something thoughtless that offended Watson he did apologize to him and at least once asks his forgiveness. And he is fictional. We may not have to face Professor Moriarty in a life and death struggle on the edge of the Reichenbach Falls, but surely real people should be capable of summoning up the courage to admit their faults and ask for forgiveness.

There is an additional component to Caroline Kingdon's definition of courage. “It means we have the personal strength and vision to innovate and embrace new ways of working.” She's not talking about change for the sake of change and novelty. She treats patients with ME/CFS, a condition with at present no known cause and no reliably effective treatments. The test to definitively detect it hasn't been invented yet and most doctors don't understand it. Many think it isn't even real physical disease but treat it as a mental illness. It's literally taken decades for doctors to admit that approach didn't work. But it's real hard for most doctors to say the words, “I don't know.” I think they are afraid to admit that. But now long-haul Covid, which so closely resembles ME/CFS, is forcing many to admit that they need to take seriously diseases that don't fit into the neat categories in their medical textbooks.

It takes courage to make changes. What's strange is that it takes courage even when those changes are obviously needed. They say that doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is insane. I say it's stupid. After enough unsuccessful attempts, you should have enough data to know that what you're doing isn't working. James Kraft kept trying to figure out a way to keep cheese from spoiling. Mind you cheese is almost as old as mankind and for about that long, once you cut into a wheel of cheese, the process of it drying out and growing mold began. Kraft tried a simple technique of putting a wedge of cheese in a sterilized jar and that extended the life by days but it didn't make it shelf-stable. He tried pasteurizing the cheese but that resulted in a gooey mess that separated. He finally tried adding emulsifiers and that did it. And when he convinced the army to send his canned cheese to the troops in Europe in World War 1, men came back loving the stuff. Now for better or for worse it's what most kids think of as cheese. I can't get my granddaughter to eat any mac and cheese that doesn't come in a blue and yellow container.

Today we face a lot of problems in the world with no easy answers. We keep trying the same things. They aren't working. And I think it's a failure of both moral imagination and courage. It takes courage to try something new. It take courage to go into unfamiliar territory. Like the apostles did.

They were ordinary Jews, whom Jesus sent all over the world to spread the good news. They were proclaiming an unfamiliar message and some in power didn't like it. They didn't like the message that Jesus, not the emperor, was King of kings and Lord of lords. They didn't like a message that said that God loved folks they deemed unlovable and forgave folks that they thought were unforgivable. They didn't like the message that the kingdom of God was a state where the last were first and the first were last. They didn't like that the church was a community in which there was neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female for all were one in Christ. That message was threatening to those in power and most of the apostles were martyred.

Today the unfamiliar territory we are being sent into isn't geographical so much as domains where power is used to oppress and to perpetuate injustice. We need to venture into areas of life and society where they need the good news of God's love and grace and transformation.

Like race. When Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan, he showed that loving your neighbor transcended race and religion and that anyone could be an agent of mercy and healing. And Jesus' followers, once shown by the Spirit to expand their horizons beyond their fellow Jews, brought in people of every race and tribe and tongue. And missionaries have translated the entire Bible into 704 languages as well as translating the New Testament into 1551 additional languages. In some cases they had to invent a written script for a purely oral language, making the culture one that could be recorded.

We need to venture into areas like government and business. When Jesus invited himself to the home of Zacchaeus the tax collector, he showed how following him led to honesty and the end of corruption. And, maybe not so surprisingly, most whistleblowers are deeply religious people.

We need to venture into areas like economics. In Jesus' parable about the vineyard owner who keeps hiring workers later and later and still pays them a good wage, he illustrates both the importance of paying people a fair wage and how some still will see that kind of generosity as wrong. Sociologist Rodney Stark traces capitalism to the monasteries of the Middle Ages. If so, it appears to need a reformation.

We need to venture into areas like healthcare. In Matthew 12:15, we are told “Great crowds followed him and he healed them all.” (emphasis mine) Which reminds me: in the West, public hospitals did not really exist until the church started them in the late 4^th century, after Christianity was legalized in the Roman empire. Thereafter they spread wherever the church went.

The modern university was also an innovation of the church, as were its forerunners, the cathedral school and monastic school, which date back to the 6^th century. How else would people be able to understand God's Word and God's creation without being educated? And because the most educated people were usually clergy, many of the first scientists were clergy.

Contrary to popular belief, the church did not inhibit science for most of its history. In fact it usually advanced by having the courage to innovate. And to use the latest technology. The church has always been among the earliest adopters of communication technology. Martin Luther's reformation might never have gotten traction had it not been for Gutenberg's movable type printing press. By the way, Gutenberg's first complete book was the Bible. The first films were shown to a paying audience in 1895; the Salvation Army made the first Christian film in 1899. The first commercial radio broadcast was sent out by KDKA in Pittsburgh on November 2, 1920. The same station sent out the first religious radio broadcast, which was a service held at Calvary Episcopal Church, on January 2, 1921. Though the first TV station began broadcasting in 1928, it wasn't until the wave of prosperity after the Second World War that the average family could afford a television. And the first regular religious broadcaster on TV was Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen, whose program Life Is Worth Living began in 1952 and got better ratings than Milton Berle. But Sheen was no newcomer to the technology. He had presided over the very first religious service ever broadcast on TV, an Easter service in 1940. Most people first got access to the internet in the 1990s. Today there are thousands of Christian websites and 55% of churches have one. Which means our church's messages can reach the world.

The church started as a dozen men following Jesus, to whom he said often “Do not be afraid.” Once they were empowered by the Holy Spirit, they displayed courage not only in the face of danger but in the face of the new and unfamiliar. And look where it has led. A woman asked a pastor who was not wearing his collar what he did for a living. He said, “I work for a global enterprise. We've got outlets in nearly every country in the world. We've got hospitals and hospices and homeless shelters. We do marriage work. We've got orphanages. We've got feeding programs, educational programs. We do all sorts of justice and reconciliation things. Basically, we look after people from birth to death and we deal in the area of behavioral alteration.” The woman said, “Wow! What's it called?” And he said, “It's called the church.”

And it never would have happened if the church had decided to play it safe. Because courage is a key element of following Jesus.

Communication

The scriptures referred to are Ephesians 2:1-10.

Most animals can communicate. Rattlesnakes make their noise to let you know they are there and they are dangerous. Cats mark things with their scent glands to tell other cats, and probably dogs, what is theirs. (And you thought Kitty was showing affection by rubbing you with her head.) Male birds sing to warn other male birds that this is their territory and to tell female birds that they would make wonderful mates. Bees do a dance to tell other bees where the pollen is. Animals are really good at communicating what is essential.

But the communicators par excellence are humans. We can communicate a lot more about every subject conceivable and in incredible complexity and nuance. We can but we often don't communicate well. Especially about what is essential. Why is that?

RN Caroline Kingdon lists communication as the 4^th C in her elements of nursing her patients. She says, “Communication is central to successful caring relationships and to effective team working.” And using the metaphor of Jesus as the Great Physician and we as his spiritual healthcare team, it is obvious that good communication is of vital importance. Last time we talked about what not to say to people suffering and about actually listening to them. This time I'd like to talk about how we can communicate the gospel, the good news about Jesus, to others.

A speaker at a Campus Crusade event once caricatured the way some Christians tell people about Jesus this way:

“Hey, have you heard the Good News?”

“No. What is it?”

“You're going to hell!”

You won't find many Episcopalians or ELCA Lutherans taking that approach but we do have some tone-deaf ways of telling others about Jesus. That is, if we can bring ourselves to broach the subject at all.

Part of our reluctance is an aversion to precisely the canned presentation taught by organizations like Campus Crusade. Yet they can work. The wonderful preacher Barbara Brown Taylor was converted in college by a girl using that method. But afterwards Taylor felt abandoned by the other girl, who just left Barbara's dorm room, doubtless feeling she had put another notch in her belt for the Lord. It was Taylor's curiosity about what she had just committed herself to that led her to investigate Christianity and eventually led her into the Episcopal priesthood.

The good news is not really that hard to summarize. As I've said, it's all about Jesus: who he is, what he has done for us and can do for us, and what our response should be. What is difficult is communicating it to a specific person in a specific situation in a way that is helpful and does not feel forced.

Which requires, as we said last time, listening. What is the person chiefly concerned about? What is driving them? In other words, what are their needs, their desires, their fears? What has shaped them? What event or events in their past has led to the way they approach things in the present? Or to their view of the future?

It shouldn't be an interrogation, just a conversation. But these are things that can help you present the gospel to the person, should the opportunity arise.

I am fortunate in that my collar announces who I am and a bit about what my purpose is. And when inmates approach me it is generally because they have spiritual questions and concerns. In other words, they are interested in Ultimate Matters. It might be harder for people to see you that way. You will have to convince them by how you live your life and how you talk and act. For people to share their concerns about God and spiritual matters in their life with someone, they have to see that person as kind and wise.

When people do approach you wanting to talk about spiritual matters it is generally for either answers, or advice or for reassurance.

The hardest thing to deal with, in terms of specific Biblical and theological knowledge, is the category of people looking for answers. They may be legitimate questions about puzzling verses or events in the Bible or the nature and character of God. Or they may be skeptics with a “gotcha” question that is actually just meant to show how foolish your beliefs are. This range of questions is so broad that we can't deal with them here. There are excellent books on such questions, by people like C.S. Lewis and Lee Strobel and Peter Kreeft. There are good websites like reasonablefaith.org. If you don't have an answer, just say so and say you'll look it up and get back to them. If they sincerely want to know, they will thank you. If they mock you, they didn't really want a serious answer.

The main thing is not to let the discussion, even if sincere, get too far from the gospel of Jesus. You can fall down the rabbit hole of creationism, or abortion, or homosexuality, all important issues, and miss the essential ones about who Jesus is, what he offers and how we should respond. Acknowledge that there are Christians who hold different opinions on these important issues but emphasize their agreement on the essential nature of trusting in Jesus, accepting his grace and forgiveness and following him.

Sometimes people will come to you for advice. Usually there is a big problem or several going on in their life and they want a spiritual and/or moral viewpoint. I have found that if you listen long enough you will find that the person may give away the answer in what they say. They may not realize it and you just have to point it out. For example, you might go, “I notice you said that maybe you should talk to him about this? Have you?” If they say “Yes,” you can ask, “And how did that go?” If they say “No,” ask why not? The obstacle might be a practical one or it might be an emotional or psychological one. Or they may know what they should do and they might actually be seeking confirmation or permission to do something they are considering. Hopefully, it's to do the right thing! If not, tell them why that choice might not be the wisest thing to do.

A lot of times people are looking for reassurance. Often they are worried that they have exhausted God's patience with them or that he has given up on them or that they have committed the unforgivable sin. With such people I reassure them of God's love and grace and his great patience with us.

First I find out if it truly is a sin. People can feel guilty about things over which they have no control, like the actions of other people. Or they are obsessed with thoughts of what they would have or could have or should have done to prevent some tragedy that in reality they had not foreseen. I assure them that God does not hold us responsible for such things, as that would have required superpowers that we humans don't have.

If they have sinned, or feel strongly that they have despite what I say, I ask if they have confessed their sin to God. Usually they have. If not, we can pray right there and confess it and ask forgiveness. And then I quote 1 John 1:9: “...if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I really urge you to memorize that verse because it brings relief to so many people who should realize God has already forgiven them.

Sometimes they are concerned because they have a sin they keep committing and they think God has run out of patience with them and has stopped or will stop forgiving them. I point out how in Matthew 18, when Peter asks how often he should forgive his brother—7 times?—Jesus says, “Not seven times, I tell you, but seventy-seven times!” (Matthew 18:21-22) Another way to translate it is “70 times 7!” And if we are supposed to be that forgiving, how much more forgiving is God! The important thing is that we ask for his forgiveness and then try to do what Jesus told the woman taken in adultery: “Go and sin no more.” That may require some big changes in your life, like staying away from certain people or places or situations where you might be tempted, the way a recovering alcoholic might have to avoid drinking buddies or his favorite watering hole. It might mean getting an accountability partner, someone whom you can call when you feel tempted. But just as AA is willing to take someone back even if they have fallen off the wagon and must start over, so is God willing to forgive us when we sincerely repent and go to him for help. What's worse than falling is not trying to get up and walk again but wallowing in one's failure. As long as we desire to start over, God is there with forgiveness and help in the form of his Spirit and Christ's body on earth, the community of his people.

As for the unforgivable sin, if you look at the context in the Bible it becomes clear it is not a one-time act but a persistent stance where one refuses to see God at work in acts of goodness and mercy. Jesus was healing people and his critics were saying that he was casting out demons using the power of the ruler of demons. (Matthew 12:22-32) Jesus essentially says that anyone who sees the Spirit of God at work and says it is evil instead is so far gone spiritually that they can't be forgiven. Why? Well, for one thing, they will not repent and turn to God for forgiveness. If you think your doctor is evil, you will not let him touch you, much less treat you. You will not follow his advice. So ultimately he can't heal you. The same applies to God. He can't help those who see him as evil and reject his help and his words.

Which means if you do desire to repent and turn to him, you have not committed the unforgivable sin. After all, Peter denied Jesus 3 times when Jesus could have used someone one his side. Jesus forgave him and used him to bring the good news to others. (Luke 22:54-62; John 21:15-19) Paul persecuted the church. He thought those who followed Jesus were heretics. He was actually responsible for some of their deaths. (Acts 22:3-4) But when he encountered Jesus, he acknowledged him and changed. God forgave him and used him to bring the good news to others. No one who wishes to be forgiven is unforgivable.

Too often Christians do not know how to communicate the good news of what God has done and is doing through Jesus. For instance, some think that telling people they are sinners and need to repent is an effective witness. How would you feel if a nurse walked through a restaurant, stopped at your table and told you that what you're eating is evil and was going to kill you? Would that have the effect on you that the nurse hoped it would? Probably not. But if you knew your neighbor was a nurse, and you were having problems after eating certain foods, you might go and ask them about it.

We aren't living in the first century where the good news of Jesus is largely unknown and novel. In fact it may be harder because most people in the US consider themselves Christians, though they live lives almost indistinguishable from anyone else's. And sadly many tend to tune out religious talk. What's novel is someone actually trying to follow Jesus in how they live. That's the way we proclaim the gospel in a world inundated with communications on every known medium. We preach with our lives.

Again if you were out of shape and out of breath and your neighbor who was the same age as you seemed healthier and in better shape, you might get to talking to him or her and eventually ask what their secret was. And if they were once in the same shape as you but changed, you might be willing to try the diet or exercise regimen they were on. Or if they used to have the same symptoms or illness as you, you might decide see their doctor. That's a way we Christians can bring people to Jesus. When others ask what helps us, tell them about Jesus and how he helped you.

And don't lie. If you still find certain aspects of your Christian life hard, share that. Nobody is perfect, not even the people in the Bible. Thank God our salvation doesn't rest on our ability to do things perfectly. We are saved by God's grace, his undeserved and unreserved goodness toward us. And sharing what you still struggle with will help others, especially new Christians. After all, the best description of sharing the gospel is what Martin Luther said: it is simply one beggar telling another beggar where to go for bread.

And that kind of humility might help you share the gospel. You don't have to come off as a theologian or a Bible scholar or a paragon of virtue. Just tell people what and more importantly Who helped you when you needed it. You would readily recommend a doctor who helped you. Why not Jesus, the Great Physician who heals us of our spiritual and moral sicknesses?

Telling others the good news is not optional for the Christian. Jesus commanded us to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” And if that scares you, he added helpfully, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20) Moses was also reluctant to be God's spokesperson before his people and—talk about a tough audience—Pharaoh. God assured Moses he would be with him and used him to free his people.

Learning to communicate the gospel is essential. Because communication is a key element of following Jesus. 

Competence

The scriptures referred to are Exodus 20:1-17.

In high school I was in our production of The Music Man. I think I got a part because I had memorized the entire “Trouble in River City” patter song from the soundtrack album we had at home. But I didn't get the lead of Professor Harold Hill. The part I actually got was that of the anvil salesman who tries to expose Hill as a fraud. I really love that musical. Which makes me uncomfortable in view of the fact that were Harold Hill real, I would be on the side of the anvil salesman. Hill is a conman, manufacturing a crisis and then selling a solution that doesn't stand up to critical thinking. He sells band instruments but he really doesn't know how to teach the kids to play them. He uses the “think” method, which is just substituting positive thinking for actual instruction. He is also a womanizer, targeting Marion the librarian as a potential conquest. The reason the story of this sleazy guy is such a beloved musical is not just because of Meredith Wilson's great songs and the perfect casting of Robert Preston and Shirley Jones in the movie. It's because of this idea we have in America that if you just wish hard enough, your dreams will come true, as the song from Pinocchio assures us at the beginning of almost every Disney production. But anybody who's actually succeeded will tell you wishing alone doesn't accomplish much. You need to master what you are trying to do. You need to put in the time learning and practicing what you want to do until you know how to do it and do it well. You need to be competent.

Competence is the 3^rd C word that British RN Caroline Kingdon listed as a key element of treating her patients with ME/CFS. Now of course what she means by competence is the “clinical and technical knowledge to deliver effective care and treatments...” But she also says, “Competence means all those in caring roles must have the ability to understand an individual's health and social needs.” So competence for a nurse means understanding not just medical knowledge and techniques but also understanding the person to whom they are giving care. So how does that apply to our metaphor for this sermon series, of Jesus being the Great Physician and we being his spiritual healthcare team?

What we offer as Christians is the gospel, the good news of who Jesus is, what he has done and can do for us and how we can respond to it. That's the knowledge we are trying to apply. But unfortunately, as a people of the Book, the Bible, many Christians don't seem to know as much about it as they think they do. In 2007 a survey found that in a nation where 78.4% of US adults identified as Christian only 14% could name all 10 Commandments. More people could name all 7 ingredients of a Big Mac (25%) or all 6 kids of the Brady Bunch (35%). I guess it's something that 55% of them knew that the Golden Rule is not one of the Ten Commandments. However only 45% knew that the 4 Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But 74% of Americans could name all 3 Stooges.

Clearly a lot of people who call themselves Christians are deficient in basic knowledge of the contents of the Bible. The Ten Commandments give us a basic moral framework. It reveals how to show our love for God through commitment and loyalty to him, by not putting other things ahead of him, by not misusing his name or misrepresenting him, and by dedicating one day a week to him. It reveals how to show love for other people by respecting and caring for our parents, by not harming others, by not being unfaithful to our partners, by respecting the property of others, by speaking the truth and not having designs on things that belong to others. I wonder how many people, if surveyed, would recognize that the Two Great Commandments underlie the Ten. I wonder how many people know and more importantly understand the truths of the Bible summarized in the Apostles' Creed. For that matter, given that the average American home has 4 Bibles, and that there are numerous free Bible apps for your phone and other devices, I wonder how many people read the Bible regularly, or have even read it through once. How ignorant of the basics of Christianity can one be and still claim to be a Christian?

Being a Christian is not like declaring a political party affiliation where they don't really care if you understand what they actually stand for as long as you vote for them. “Disciple” literally means “student.” Being a Christian means having at least a basic knowledge of the beliefs and behaviors. EMTs and CNAs know the basics of what is healthy for a person and what is not and they know how to help and they know to do no harm. Yet on a clergy Facebook page, a colleague relayed the story of a parent who killed their family including an infant. And a “helpful friend” told the grandmother that the baby wouldn't go to heaven because it wasn't baptized. Which is saying that God is not merciful and gracious but a stickler for technical details. And the colleague was telling us what they were doing to help the grandmother and asking for additional advice on undoing the damage done by the supposedly “helpful friend.”

And this is why we as Christians need not only to know the Bible and basic theology but know how to apply it to real people in real situations. And sometime we have to know when not to be too doctrinaire. Once when I was working in a nursing home I was attending to a patient in their room when another patient fell right outside the door. She cut her scalp and was bleeding profusely. Now standard protocol would be for me to leave the other patient, strip off my gloves, wash my hands, and put on other gloves before touching the second patient to avoid possible cross contamination. But I stripped off my gloves as I ran to the fallen patient, yelling for someone else to help me and to call 911. Cradling her, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a 4 X 4 gauze and held it to the bleeding patient's wound with ungloved hands. Technically I broke sterile technique. Nobody said a thing about it, even after reading the incident report. They understood that there is a hierarchy of values in giving needed care in an emergency.

Jesus touched bleeding women and lepers and corpses, rendering himself ritually unclean. After every healing, he shouldn't have been able to touch anyone else for a day. In the eyes of the experts he also broke the rules whenever he healed on the Sabbath. He didn't do it to flout the rules. He did it to obey the greater commandment to love one's neighbor. The rules are there to guide us in behaving as God wants us to: as his loving and just people. The Spirit is there in us to make sure we right thing even when it's not the ideally correct thing.

If a cop pulls you over for speeding, only to find you are trying to get a woman in labor or a bleeding person to the hospital in time, he will not likely give you a ticket. He will speed ahead of you, lights and siren going, letting you speed in his wake. He has the discretion to do that when someone's life and health are at stake. But only a fool would think that gives you a blanket permission to speed at other times.

In Caroline Kingdon's power point presentation, she emphasizes listening to the patient first of all. She doesn't want to make a knee jerk decision based on an incomplete understanding of what is going on. And I think for Christians it is hard for us when faced with someone suffering to just listen to them and not subject them to our thoughts about God. We are told of Job's friends, “When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.” (Job 2:12-13) In other words they showed the culturally appropriate signs of grief and then simply sat with him, saying nothing. Had they continued that way, they truly would have been Job's comforters. But they just couldn't resist trying to fit his tragedy into their understanding of theology, so they opened their mouths and tried to justify why this happened to him.

Rule number 1 of dealing with a suffering person: when faced with an unspeakable tragedy, don't speak! Don't tell them God has a purpose in this or that it was God's will or that the angels took their loved one. That is not helpful at this point. And don't tell them their loved one isn't going to heaven. You don't know that. Jesus said not to pass verdicts on people; that's not our job. Our job is to weep with those who weep. Be a shoulder to cry on, a chest to beat against in anger and grief, a sounding board for the person who cannot understand why this has happened. Job questions God's justice while his friends defend God. And at the end God sides with Job! He's a big God; he can take our grief. Read the psalms. They are full of people asking God why is he letting this happen to them and how long will it go on?

Competence in helping someone starts with learning to listen to the person. Want to hear a terrible fact? A study found that on average a doctor will listen for 11 seconds before interrupting their patient! Don't be like that! Let the person talk and pay attention to what they say. You may learn that the situation is more complicated than you thought. I have known people who, when their loved one died after a long and miserable illness, were wrestling not only with their grief but with a sense of relief. And then guilt for feeling relieved that they wouldn't have to deal with catheters and diapers and wheelchairs and IVs and seeing their love one waste away or suffer pain or disappear into dementia. God hears our cries. We need to do the same for each other.

Caroline Kingdon deals with patients with ME/CFS, a condition which as yet has no known cause and no reliable treatments. Because of the internet, many of us have done considerable research on it because the vast majority of doctors know little about it. That may change because long-haul Covid sounds just like ME/CFS, as Dr. Fauci pointed out. But, because of the scarcity of solid facts, Kingdon says even well-informed patients may have some erroneous knowledge. She says it may need gentle correction.

Competence in showing compassion and care for a person having a crisis is knowing when and if you should correct erroneous ideas about God and spiritual matters. If it is trivial, on the level of thinking God really has a long white beard, leave it be. If it is essential to the issue at hand, only say something if you have studied the matter in detail and prayed on it. Otherwise refer them to their clergy or a chaplain. They should be trained for this. What you can do is reassure them of God's love, mercy and grace.

Kingdon says we should “acknowledge where we stand with our professional knowledge of ME/CFS and the paucity of treatments.” In the same way we Christians should not pretend to be omniscient and know the reasons why God has allowed the tragedy to occur. It may be hard to say “I don't know why...” your child died or your brother overdosed or your wife got cancer. But it's better to be honest than to pretend that you know precisely what God's role was in this. His role now, as yours should be, is to comfort the afflicted.

Now if you have gone through the same thing or something extremely similar, you can, when and if appropriate, share that fact. If they are fighting despair and you have too, share that. If they are stunned and unable to think and you have been there too, share that. If they are angry with God and you went through that, share it. It doesn't eliminate the pain but it does help if someone feels they are not alone in feeling the pain.

And don't forget to be practical. If their refrigerator is full of casseroles sent by friends and acquaintances, think of something else they need. Maybe instead of food, they need detergent. Maybe the kids need to be driven to school or soccer. Maybe someone needs to be driven to the store or the doctor's or to see the funeral director. And don't think that they don't need you after a funeral. Often after the bustle of dealing with that is over, the full sense of the loss starts to settle in. Be there for them.

But the hardest problems to deal with are the ongoing ones, like the chronically ill person and their caregiver, if there is one. When suffering is going on every day with no end in sight, that can cause crises of faith in the person suffering, in the caregiver and in the Christian trying to help. Actually the sufferer might have a crisis of hope, that things are never going to get better. And the caregiver might simply be exhausted. And the Christian might suffer compassion fatigue. When the horizon seems too far away, focus on each step. Focus on the moment. When the big picture is terrifying, think small. Find small and maybe even ephemeral joys. Provide small Sabbaths, breaks in the routine, times for rest and replenishment. The way you eat an entire elephant is one bite at a time.

Now this is going to sound contradictory in a sermon on competence, but remember what G.K. Chesterton said: “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly the first time.” The first time you do anything it is most likely going to suck. But if it is worth doing, you do it anyway. And you do it again. And again. And you improve. You note what you are doing wrong and try to do it better. And you continue trying to do things better.

To be competent as disciples we need to read and know the Bible and be able to understand and communicate the essentials. The Creeds and the catechism help. There are excellent books out there spelling out the basics of the faith as well as how to help people. Be well-informed but also be humble. Remember that just being there for someone can help. It's what we chaplains call a ministry of presence. Listening, truly hearing and understanding what another person is saying, is becoming a lost art. Revive it. And you may have to hear the person go over the same thing again and again as they try to understand it and fit into their personal story this horrible plot twist. Be patient.

And remember that we have a God who knows firsthand what suffering is. Not just physical pain, but being misunderstood, being misrepresented, being persecuted, being betrayed, being abandoned by friends and apparently by God. Not only Jesus' knowledge but his experience makes him competent to understand and help us in our suffering. And we should aim to be competent in helping others too. Because becoming competent is a key element of following Jesus.

Care

The scriptures referred to are Psalm 22:23-31.

Why did God bother to send Jesus to live in this world as a human being? Just to show off? Some people think that way. They think God does everything for his own glory. And they can find scriptures that seem to say that. God wants everyone to know that he is God and he is in charge. In Exodus God says to Moses about the miracle he is about to do concerning the Red Sea, “And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gained honor because of Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.” (Exodus 14:18) But if that is all God is trying to accomplish, surely he could just impress them with his miracles? Why involve the Israelites? Why rescue a bunch of—let's face it—whiny, ungrateful slaves who just moments before were saying that Moses must have brought them out to die into the wilderness because there weren't enough graves in Egypt? (Exodus 14:11-12) When God initially speaks to Moses he says, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a land that is both good and spacious, to a land flowing with milk and honey...” (Exodus 3:7-8) Nothing about glory and honor there. He is doing this for the Israelites who are suffering. He is not only going to rescue them but give them a good land. It sounds like he cares for them.

And that is why God sent Jesus. He cares for us. He cares what happens to us. And he makes that care known in what he does. In fact, when Jesus talks about how he will glorify God it is not only through his work but ultimately through his self-sacrificial death. That would have confused the average person back then because glory was something you achieved through victory over your enemies, not by being killed by your enemies. But the glory the cross revealed was the depth of God's love and how far he will go to save us. Because he cares for us.

And Jesus showed that daily by healing and feeding people and teaching them words of wisdom that would guide their lives. He was caring for them.

This sermon series is based on 6 words starting with C which RN Caroline Kingdon used to define how she treated her patients. The second word is “care.” And here is how she defined it: “Care is our core business and that of our organizations; and the care we deliver helps the individual person and improves the health of the whole community. Caring defines us and our work.” Now of course she is speaking about nursing but in the metaphor we are working with—Jesus as the Great Physician and we as his healthcare team—it just takes a little adjustment to see that this is true of the church. Substitute “love” for “care.” How did Jesus say the world would know we are his disciples? “...if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

Care is just love made concrete. As it says in 1 John, “We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians. But whoever has the world's possessions and sees his fellow Christian in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God reside in such a person? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth.” (1 John 3:16-18) Just as James shows us that true faith manifests itself in deeds, John demonstrates that love works the same way. Real love comes out in what we do.

So care, God's love manifested in actions, is our core “business,” so to speak, and that of any church organization. I am not saying that talking about issues is unnecessary. Discussions are important to defining problems and getting consensus. But too often the church illustrates the saying, “When all is said and done there is a lot more said than done.” In 18 years as clergy I have been to innumerable conferences and presentations and workshops about why church membership is shrinking. I have heard a lot of expert analysis and some very good insights on the problem. I have not heard that much in terms of concrete solutions. And I think our reluctance to do anything until we have worked out the perfect solution has paralyzed us at precisely the time when we should act. I think we need to try the best solutions we can come up with at the time and put them into practice, always knowing we can tweak or improve things as we see how they are working.

And I think our best solution is to return to what Jesus did and what the first Christians did: be focused on caring for others. People with physical and psychological needs generally have to have those met before they turn to their spiritual needs. Jesus' ministry really took off when word got out that he could heal people. Matthew tells us, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria...” And people came to hear him preach? No, it says, “...and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region around the Jordan followed him.” (Matthew 4:23-25) It's hard to worry about your spiritual health when your head hurts or your tooth aches or you are having seizures. Or you are hungry or homeless. Jesus understood the hierarchy of human needs 2 millennia before Maslow articulated them.

In the church, as well as in healthcare as Caroline Kingdon was talking about, “care is the core of our business and organizations.” If the church, the visible part of the body of Christ, doesn't care about people, people won't care about Christ. Folks won't care about the state of their souls if we don't care about the state of their bodies.

And, yes, sometimes a person is in a bad state physically or psychologically because they are in a bad state spiritually. If they think that God hates them or is indifferent to their problems or is punishing them or that they are worthless, that can impact their mental and physical health. But it works the other way as well. If they are suffering because of being laid off or being discriminated against or being homeless or abused or neglected, that will spill over into their spiritual life and impair its proper functioning. When Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are poor...Blessed are you who hunger now...Blessed are you who weep now...” (Luke 6:20-21) that was radical, because people in his day thought God must not like the poor and hungry and sad and rejected. After all, he heaped his blessings on the rich and not them, didn't he? If it seems like God has given up on them, then they can give up on God.

But just as deprivation can cause someone to focus on this world rather than the realm of the spirit, so can having too much. If having money and power can end someone's other problems, like not having food or shelter or healthcare, it stands to reason it can make them feel they don't need anything more spiritually. Yet the fact that they have possessions and power doesn't mean that they are not spiritually impoverished. If you read enough biographies of great men, you will often find they had a void in their lives they tried to fill with wealth and/or beautiful companions and/or pleasure and/or even more achievements, none of which seem to make them content. It's like trying to unlock the door to a treasure room with the wrong set of keys. When Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God,” his disciples were amazed and said, “Who then can be saved?” To which Jesus replied, “With humans this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:23-27) We all need God's grace, rich or poor.

But how we get this across to each group is different. With the deprived and desperate, we must first take care of their immediate needs. As James says, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well-fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” (James 2:15-16) They can't eat faith. First we must feed their bodies; then we can feed their souls.

With the well-off, they need to realize that their problem cannot be solved by doing more of the same thing that got them worldly success. Rather than trying to acquire more stuff, they need to realize their spiritual poverty and learn to humbly receive God's grace. And like the rich young man who prompted Jesus' remark about the camel and the needle, they probably need to let go of stuff rather than accumulate more. All that clutter in their lives can get in the way of seeing Jesus and all that baggage can hinder following him.

Of course, we can see a solution that helps both groups: those who have more than enough can help those who don't have enough. The rich and powerful can use their gifts for making money and running organizations to help the less fortunate. Paul says to Timothy, “Command those who are rich in this world's goods not to be haughty or set their hope on riches, which are uncertain, but on God who richly provides us with all things for our enjoyment. Tell them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous givers, sharing with others.” (1 Timothy 6:17-18)

Similarly, when speaking to the Israelites before entering the land he was giving them, God says, “However, there should not be any poor among you, for the Lord will surely bless you in the land he is giving you as an inheritance, if you carefully obey him by keeping all these commandments that I am giving you today.” (Deuteronomy 15:4-5) And immediately after this, God gives this commandment, “If a fellow Israelite from one of your villages in the land that the Lord your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive to his impoverished condition. Instead, you must be sure to open your hand to him and generously lend him whatever he needs...There will never cease to be some poor people in the land; therefore, I am commanding you to make sure you open your hand to your fellow Israelites who are needy and poor in your land.” (Deuteronomy 15:7-8, 11) And lest you think this only means helping out fellow citizens, God says, “The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so you must love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:34) God loves all; so must we.

Now not all Christians are materially rich, but we can still spend our time and our talents on caring for others. Churches can offer child care or senior care or literacy programs or food pantries or AA meetings or counseling. Right now these things have been curtailed severely by the Covid crisis and communities are suffering. Diseases of despair, like drug and alcohol abuse, overdoses, and suicides, are skyrocketing and actually lowering life expectancy in this country. Loneliness and depression are increasing. Not just because churches are closed but insofar as they offer help with these issues, yes.

Remember that Kingdon says, “...the care we deliver helps the individual person and improves the health of the whole community.” She is talking about medical care but I can tell you as a nurse that hopelessness can kill. I have seen patients give up and die. And studies show that individuals with firm religious beliefs tend to score low on measures of depression. Also the higher the church membership in a metropolitan area and its suburbs, the lower its suicide rate. The same goes for countries. Most western European nations, with their lower church attendance rates, have higher suicide rates than the US, the most religious country in the West. Sociologist Rodney Stark writes, “The annual American suicide rate hovers around 11.0 per 100,000, compared to 21.1 in Belgium, 20.0 in Finland, 18.0 in France, and 17.4 in Switzerland (the Russian rate is a shocking 34.3).” In addition, life expectancy at age 20 for those who regularly attend church is 7.6 years greater than those who don't attend.

In explaining this, Stark says, “First are the direct effects of religious beliefs that offer hope, meaning, and comfort as well as the capacity to dispel guilt by way of confession and forgiveness....Second is the provision of a socially supportive group that can serve as an effective refuge, even for the sad and lonely.” Belief and belonging are key parts of being a Christian. As is behavior, such as refraining from habits that damage one's body, which Paul tells us is “the temple of the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:19) And also behaviors that help others, such as taking care of those who are disadvantaged and diseased. Studies show that altruistic behavior is an important part of happiness. God created us to help others and to derive meaning, purpose and joy from doing so.

Not that caring for others is always fun or easy. About half of us who are married are going to find ourselves taking care of our spouse in their final illness. I can guarantee you that at times that will be difficult, both physically and emotionally. There will be times when it will be heartbreaking. There will be times when no matter how much you love that person, you will not like them at the moment, as they resist your efforts to help, or even forget who you are and fight you out of confusion. But it is as much a part of life as the pain of giving birth and the hard work of raising children. My mother once told me that she would not be taking care of my father whenever he faced his final illness. But she did, despite being divorced from him for as long as my wife and I were married. Love makes us do extraordinary things.

Care can also lead to understanding. When I was a home health nurse I had a patient who was very much the opposite of me in many ways. His home was filled with the mounted heads of all the animals he hunted and shot. Some were African animals that were raised in America for the express purpose of being hunted. He was so into guns that he actually had molds and machines he used to make specialized bullets for antique guns for himself and fellow hobbyists. So here I was taking care of a serious wound for a man who caused the deaths of many creatures simply for his own pleasure. Yet over the weeks, as we talked while I dressed and redressed his wound, I got to know things about him I never would have guessed. I didn't approve of what he did but I saw him as a fellow flawed human being. As I cared for him, I came to care for him.

In 1 Peter it says of God, “Cast your cares upon Him, because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7) And as Christians we are to care about other people, regardless of whom they are in relation to us. And it is not to be shown in abstract declarations of belief or love but in concrete actions of helping and healing, which are godly behaviors.

After God saves the Israelites at the Red Sea, leading them over by dry land and then closing the waters over their pursuers, Moses and the children of Israel sing about God's victory. From the archaic Hebrew of the poem, we think it is the oldest passage in the Bible. And the people call God “a man of war.” But after the song, God says of himself, “I am Yahweh who heals you.” That's how God defines himself. And Jesus, God in the flesh, came as a healer. He makes people better, both physically and spiritually. And we are to do likewise. Because giving care is a key component of being a follower of Jesus.