July 6 – Sermon
Gracious Father, You sent Your Son to reveal Your grace, to proclaim Your forgiveness, and to assure us of eternal life in Your heavenly kingdom. Through the power of Your Holy Spirit, please strengthen us for service and empower us for witness. This we ask in Jesus’ holy name. Amen.
When God asked Cain in Gen. 4:10, if he knew where Abel was, he replied: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
God’s answer was loud and clear: Yes! You are!
We who profess that we are Christians, are to be concerned about others because God was concerned about us through Christ and loved us so much that Jesus died for us.
Through Christ, God looks at us with love.
Through Christ God looks past our sins and sees us as his children. He loves us with an overpowering love that never ends.
Here’s an example of this kind of love.
“A poor sharecropping family in Georgia had a little money left over after the harvest so they got out an old Sears catalog and tried to pick out something everyone in the family would like and enjoy. After much discussion, they decided to get a mirror.
The mirror arrived and each took a turn looking in it. The father frowned, mother smiled, and their little girl giggled. Their young son Willie was the last to look in the mirror. As he looked at himself, he was shocked at what he saw. Willie had been kicked by a mule when he was a toddler; his face was distorted, scarred and deformed.
“Mom”, Willie finally asked,” did you know all this time that I looked like this?”
The mother answered, “Yes Willie I knew.”
“and you still loved me?” he replied.
“Yes Willie, I still loved you. Your face didn’t make any difference. I love you because you’re mine.”
God’s love is the same; He loves us because we are His. In the same way we are to love our neighbor as a brother or sister in Christ. The bond of love which holds us to God as His children should also hold us to one another in the body of Christ.
But like Cain, we have a very difficult time answering yes to Cain’s question “Am I my brothers, keeper?”
Do I really reach out in love to others?
Think of the people here this morning—or better still about those who are not here this morning. Do you consider them brothers and sisters in Christ? Have you reached out in love to those people?
Paul in the letter to the Galatians, speaks about how a person in Christ should act. Paul admonishes us to use Christ as the standard for our conduct, not what someone else might have done. Paul is saying that we are responsible for our own actions and conduct. Your conduct is not the judge of your neighbor’s conduct. Christ is the means by which we measure when judging our own behavior. In Christ’s actions we see the kind of lives He has called us to live. We are to be an extension of Christ Jesus in this world.
When we look to ourselves what do we see? Busy, busy, busy…do this, do that, go here, go there. We even get caught up in this business of doing church work. Do we take time for people, for relationships, for caring, for extending a hand in friendship or a listening ear?
In our gospel lesson this morning Jesus answers the question “Am I my brother’s keeper” with a loud yes as he sends out the 72—2 by 2 to proclaim: “The kingdom of God has come to you.” He sent them out to towns, and into people’s homes with a message of hope and healing and they returned filled with wonder, and joy, and surprise because even the demons were subject to them. They saw Christ’s power come alive thru them.
Our witness for Christ must always be about what Christ has done in our lives. That doesn’t require a theological degree; it doesn’t require eloquent words, just be yourself.
So what kinds of things are discussed outside on the church sidewalk after church? Would it be a discussion of what worship was like? Or about what scripture that was used for the sermon? Would the discussion be about a concern for a missing brother or sister?
We should feel as comfortable talking about kingdom work, as we are about the weather or the crops. Our talking about the kingdom of God–our witnessing to Jesus as our savior, should be in the ordinary places we go…as the priest hood of all believers, all of us are in the mission field everyday of our lives.
“Am I my brother’s keeper”? Paul in Galatians says, “Yes! “if a person is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore that person in a spirit of gentleness. “
Paul is saying if a brother or sister in Christ needs help with spiritual matters, with daily conduct, with a problem of faith, it is a brother’s duty to help. Our help is to come not from judgment, but from a spirit of gentleness. The same gentle spirit that Christ used as he forgave sins and led people back to God.
Paul continues to say “we should bear another’s burden…” That more simply put is helping someone as they feel the brokenness of this world. That can mean a whole range of problems, situations, and events. We are to witness with the good news of Christ, we are to gently help a brother or sister as they face a temptation and we are to help shoulder the brokenness of this world for another.
Christ has commanded us–Christians to be His hands, His feet and His voice.
A pastor trained a group of people to witness for Jesus. Then they went out to practice what they had learned. When they returned, a young man was complaining about one of the people he had visited.
“I’ tried to tell him about Jesus and how much He loved him. I tried to tell him that Jesus wanted him to live a life of grace, and that Jesus would help him with the burdens he was caring.
But the man replied, “I am a poor old man and I work from sunup to sundown. I stagger under a heavy load and I feel nothing of the love of God. I feel nothing of God carrying my burdens. I feel nothing of His grace for me. ”
The pastor looked at the disheartened young man: “If you had offered to help him carry his load, he may have listened to you because he would have not only heard about ’the love of God for him, but he would have seen the love of God in you.’’
Am I my brother’s keeper?
Amen
