"Who Cares?"
Christ calls us to care.
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Bill Fritz
Sunday, February 23, 2003
Text: Acts 3:1-9
In just five years Dr. Michael La Bella had made an outstanding name for himself in Miami, Florida. He was popular with the doctors and nurses. Patients by the hundreds sought him out. All readily voted that he was an outstanding physician. He said he was a native of Naples, Italy. He had been educated at Cambridge in England, hence his English accent.
Now, all foreign doctors entering Florida must present their credentials and carry out a one-year probationary period in which they write an extrance exam. Dr. La Bella did all this and out of 1,990 candidates he stood 92nd in the class. Not bad!
Not bad considering that Dr. La Bella was a fraud! The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had incriminating evidence about him. He was a convicted drug dealer from Toronto who had fled to the U.S., and so Dr. Michael La Bella was arrested.
His medical colleagues were shocked. He seemed so competent. But La Bella had never lived in Naples. He was not a graduate from Cambridge. His English accent was carefully cultivated. All he knew about medicine he had learned from reading medical encyclopedias.
His patients were the most upset. "Dr. La Bella was the best family doctor I ever had," said one. Another claimed that he is alive today only because of Dr. La Bella's care. His former patients, with one voice and one accord, all said, "Dr. La Bella made house calls. He listened. He really cared for us."
Friends, if caring love can be this powerful even when it is conveyed by someone fraudulent, consider how powerful it can be when it is authentic.
That caring love is abundantly illustrated in the early Christian church as recorded in the Book of Acts. Consider that caring love in the passage read to us this morning.
Peter and John, two disciples of Jesus, were going to church to worship. Perhaps they were late and in a hurry as we often are. But at the door of the church temple, squatting on the slab-stone was a lame man. He was lame from birth and he was begging for a handout. Other worshippers were pushing by. Perhaps some threw a few spare coins his way. Others were distracted. Others looked the other way. Still others avoided this man. But Peter and John had learned well from Jesus. Jesus was always arrested by any human need. And now they saw this man in need. The man was begging for money. Peter said to him, "Silver and gold I have none. But what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise and walk!" And Peter helped him to his feet. He lifted him. And the Scripture tells us the man immediately received healing. He stood up and walked. And as the reality of what had happened sunk in, he walked and leapt and praised God.
Peter and John conveyed the healing reality of Jesus Christ by their tender loving care, and I believe that the same Lord Jesus Christ Calls us to do this today. We are called to do this in three ways:
I First We Are Called To Be A Believing People
a) Peter and John, disciples of Jesus were two such men who believed. They believed in the power of God. They believed that Jesus was alive and that Jesus by the very power that raised him from the dead was at work in and through them. Peter and John were not well off economically. "Silver and gold I have none," said Peter. "But what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise and walk." Peter prayed expecting that God would heal the man, and He did.
b) Do you and I pray believing and expecting God to answer our prayers? Sometimes I have to ask myself, "Do I believe? Do I really believe?" Because I doubt and I take God for granted. But by experience I know that God is able to provide even in the little things that we pray for.
When I was minister in Barrie, late one night I had a desperate need. A minister friend and I had travelled to Baltimore, Maryland for a church conference. The conference ended late Friday night and we set out in his car for the long drive back home to Toronto. From Toronto I was going to take the bus back to Barrie. We arrived late that night at Yorkdale and reality hit. The last bus for Barrie had left. I had missed it! The next bus was Sunday and that would get me there long after it was time for worship. What to do? My friend had to lead worship on Sunday too.
So I hatched a game plan. He would drop me off at Highways 7 and 400 and I would hitch-hike. After all, in my younger days I had been in the Air Force and we often hitch-hiked. So I stood by the dark, desolate, speedway as cars mercilessly careened by. Fifteen minutes, 30 minutes, one hour, I was feeling sorry for myself and I was in panic mode. I started to hear some of my own sermons about prayer. So I prayed: "Help!"
And friends, I do believe that God answered my very self-centred prayer. Almost immediately my panic, frustration and fear evaporated and I experienced a serenity and calm on that cool and starry night. Then I said, "Thank God," as a car slowed and stopped. I ran for my ride and suddenly on the car's roof, bright red strobe lights came on. It was the Ontario Provincial Police. "Did you know that it's illegal to hitch-hike on Highway 400?"
"Yes, sir."
But the officer was kind. He told me that I could hitch-hike from the ramp where cars slowed down, and miracle of miracles, after a short wait a ride appeared, with the driver taking me right to my door.
God answers prayer. Sometimes it's "yes" and sometimes it's "no," and you and I are called to be a believing people. For no matter what happens, "God is for us and not against us."
"God who did not spare his own son, but delivered Him up for us all, shall He not also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
I have a dear sister in Saskatchewan. Her whole body has been invaded by devastating rheumatoid arthritis. She prays for ease and healing, but so often that ease does not happen. Unbelievers may say "God doesn't answer prayer, your sister is not healed." But I tell you God answers prayer, for my sister is given amazing strength and courage daily. She always has such a positive, cheerful attitude that she encourages all those around her.
c) God calls us to be a believing people. Friends, are we a believing people? Do we believe that God answers prayer, not always necessarily as we desire, but in ways that ultimately lead us into great good?
II We Are Called To Be A Caring People
a) Peter and John cared. They really did. Others were in a hurry, they avoided, they rushed by, but Peter and John stopped. They looked directly at the man and spoke to him.
Here in Toronto there are street people on many corners. They want a hand-out, and many of us give them a loonie or so. God is telling me to do something more - to stoop down and talk to them and ask them about their family and tell them that God loves them. The look, the word, the touch can be healing.
b) Mary Ann Bird, who is an author, tell this story: She was born with a disability. She had a cleft palate. The doctors corrected her impediment but the surgery left an ugly scar. When she went to school she felt terribly self-conscious and embarrassed when other children asked about the scar. She even invented a story that she fell on some broken glass as a baby and had to have surgery. None of this assuaged her pain, timidity and low self-esteem.
Then all that changed. In Grade Four Mary Ann had a new teacher: Miss Leonard. Miss Leonard was round and sunny with shining brown hair and sparkling blue eyes and she smelled so good. Mary Ann adored Miss Leonard, but she didn't dare let Miss Leonard notice her. She feared that Miss Leonard would ask her about her scar.
One day Miss Leonard conducted the listening test. In the listening test, children, one by one, would go to the end of the room and face the wall and, the teacher would whisper a sentence. The student had to repeat the sentence. "Johnny, I like your new shoes. Susie, what a pretty ribbon you have in your hair." Mary Ann dreaded her turn. What would Miss Leonard say to her? Mary Ann heard Miss Leonard say, "Mary Ann, I wish you were my little girl."
That expression of caring love was like a light switch going on for Mary Ann. It was as if the sun began to shine. So she had an impediment, so what? So her face was disfigured, so what? So others asked questions, so what? Miss Leonard cared. A surge of self-love instead of self-loathing flowed through Mary Ann. She knew she was loved. She knew she was worthwhile.
The Great God Almighty is saying to all his people, "You are my man. You are my woman. You are my child." God is especially speaking those words to those who are on the margins of society. He is speaking those words to the lost, the least and the lonely - to those who are broken.
When Jesus walked this earth He communicated the caring love of God. His hands healed, His voice affirmed, His heart drew people to God the Father. When Jesus left this earth, He left behind the Church so that we might be the hands, the voice, the heart of caring love to those who are broken.
I have seen that caring love in action right here in our church, in the food bank. People come. I can see the tentativeness, the brokenness, the fear in their eyes. But Christian men and women embrace and affirm them. They speak welcome - the look, the word, the touch. Caring love is in our midst and who knows who will be ransomed, healed, restored and given hope? In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise and walk.
III We Are Called To Be A Sharing People
a) Peter and John shared. They may not have had any money but they shared their faith. Peter said: "Silver and gold I have none, but what I have I give you, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise and walk." And the man got up out of his bed of paralysis and he walked, he was healed.
b) Because you and I know the healing power of Christ we share our faith, our money and our prayers for a world in need. And this is the hallmark of the Christian Church - always to share the faith with others. For example, when the United Church of Canada was born in 1925 it was a sharing church from the very beginning. Local congregations raised money to pay their own way and they laid aside a significant portion to give to struggling churches and mission enterprises both in Canada and beyond. The Mission and Service Fund came into being.
That Mission and Service Fund has touched me personally. I am the last of seven children in our family. We all lived on a small farm in Bonnyville, Alberta. My brother and five sisters were all born at home. My mother was aided in giving birth by a midwife. But even before I was born I was difficult! I was coming into the world feet first. The midwife knew that a doctor and hospital were needed. We were Roman Catholic in faith but lucky for me in Bonnyville in 1934 there was a small United Church mission with a modest 10-bed hospital. When my mother was admitted to that hospital no one asked: "What is your religion?" They saw a need and responded. Because people in this church and others gave to the mission fund that hospital was there. That hospital saved my life. "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise and walk."
Now let's fast-forward: Years later I stepped out of the Roman Catholic Church and into the United Church. I responded to Christ's call to minister in His name. I became a minister of the Olde Davenport Church in Toronto. As an old established church we were ministering in an area of great need and the ministry was succeeding, but we needed help. I turned to Timothy Eaton Memorial Church and - listen to this - I am quoted right in your own history book, "A Great Church In Action" by Shirley Ayer:
W.R. Fritz, minister of the Olde Davenport Church commented in the United Church Observer: 'I tried several churches with no results. Then I called Eaton Memorial. Their response was instantaneous in terms of realistic Christian witness. They asked, "What are your needs?" I told them. They circulated what I wrote and went to work. They provided us with clothing, with personnel and hard cash for our outreach ministries.'
Today, Davenport-Perth Church, as it is now known, continues to be supported by Eaton Memorial and the Mission and Service Fund. But mere statistics can never describe the healing work of Christ. For Jesus said, "The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news preached to them." (Luke 7:22)
I shall never forget one Christmas. That week had been an arduous one as we delivered scores of boxes of food and help to families in need. I had just concluded the last of two Christmas Eve worship services. People of all walks of life came to celebrate the birth of Christ. I had a sense of peace and fulfilment, but I was bone-tired and slid into bed well past midnight. Joan was still dealing with the children's presents under the tree, for soon it would be our family Christmas. As I was drifting into dreamland the unwelcome telephone jarred me out of bed. A monstrous tragedy had just occurred in the community. A mother, grandmother and aunt were killed. Five children were instantly orphaned. I hurried to the home to find five bewildered, broken children cowering in one corner of a room. Our church gathered the children up, and members of the congregation embraced them. Christians in the community cared and shared, but we could never have done it alone. This church, Eaton Memorial, shared money, caring, love - this church supported us.
That horrific tragedy had a happy ending. Every one of those five children, adults now, is doing very well. One of them even became a minister in the United Church of Canada, ordained in this church in 1977. "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise and walk."
Friends, today we live in a world that is broken and hurting. It is a world that seems to have lost all hope. But wait. The power of Christ is with us still through His Church. For we are called to be a believing people, a caring people and a sharing people. "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise and walk!"
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.