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.