"God's Wish List"
The law that inspires people to love.
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Text: Leviticus 19:9-18
Just a few days ago, I received an e-mail from a friend, with an attached article from the Times of London on October 14, 2006. Before I opened the attachment, I read the message from the sender, himself a prominent businessperson and someone concerned for the state of the world. He said, “Maybe you will find this inspiring, Andrew. Maybe it will be in accord with the things that you believe to be true at the moment.”
So, in great anticipation, I opened it and read the article. When I had finished, I was deeply moved, for indeed the sender had been right about the impact it would have on me. The article was about Baroness Cox, who had been the Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom. She is a well known, well established, well respected woman, now in her late sixties, a grandmother, a mother, a wife, a leader in the British community, someone who had all the benefits of power and had exercised many of them.
The article, however, was about a different kind of woman. It wasn't the sort of thing that you expect to read about somebody in the House of Lords! It was about a person who had dedicated her life to helping the poor and the needy. It is the story of a deeply committed Christian woman who wants to make the world a better place. This is a woman who has travelled to Nagorno Karabakh 61 times, and has been to the heart of the poverty in the Sudan 18 times, and who has travelled to the Philippines, North Korea, Nigeria and Indonesia.
She is a woman who has stood by people who are suffering and who are facing conflict. On more than one occasion her life has been threatened and on more than one occasion there has actually been a dictate that she be executed if she enters a country. Yet, she keeps going back. She is not intimidated by the threats. She is not worried about death. She is not frightened of the possibility of becoming one of the many martyrs that still exist in this world.
The Times quotes this incredible statement from one of her books. As I read it, I was deeply moved:
All around us in North America and in Western Europe, there is a search to fill a spiritual vacuum, but the real heroes of my life somehow get caught up in trial and tribulation. God is, as the psalmist said, ”˜a very present help in trouble.' We, who are not at that stage of suffering and deprivation and horror, seem to find it much harder to experience this.
The writer asks her if she does not get scared amongst such horrors. She answers, “I regularly have my fit of faithless, fearful dread before a visit. In Nagorno Karabakh in the early 90s, I was constantly under fire. They told me I was nearly killed 22 times. It is only natural to shrink from that prospect. But, I am not the sort of Christian who believes that if you pray, everything will be all right. You have to be prepared to pray the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane, ”˜Lord, I love to come home to my loved ones and let not my will, but your will be done.' You may not come back, but the spiritual riches of serving others outweigh any risk that has been taken.”
Now, here is a woman who has all of the privileges and all the powers of this world, but who faces death by going to help the needy and the poor.
This is inspirational, because I really do believe that God is getting a bad name in the world and in the press at the moment. It seems that whenever there are human conflicts and problems, they are put at God's feet. It is as if somehow God is the source, the reason for human aggravation, dissent and violence, as if God somehow condones internecine conflicts, as if faith in God is at the heart of all that is wrong in the world.
And then, I read something like this, of someone who is prepared to lay down her life for others, regardless of their ethnicity or denomination or background or religion or culture because of her faith in the God in whom she believes. Baroness Cox feels she takes the love of Christ with her, even if it means potentially losing her own life.
I also feel that many people make a distinction between law and love. They think that somehow the law of God and the teachings of the Bible are fraught with restriction and oppression and that they constrain human beings, whereas love is considered to be invigorating and joyful and life-giving. The law is depicted as a negative thing, as a source of conflict and enmity, in opposition to love, which is a source of unity, a source of compassion and of community.
When I read the scriptures, it seems to me the law, even in its Old Testament guise, is nevertheless born out of the heart of a loving God. The law to care for others, the law to protect the weak, the law to lift up the lonely, the law to do the righteous thing, are actually manifestations of the love of God for humankind. In this morning's text from the Book of Leviticus, there is a clear example of when law and love combine, for the law that we find here is the law that inspires people to love. It is, as I call it, “God's Wish List.”
The Book of Leviticus as we read it today was probably compiled after the people of Israel had come back from exile, and you even see passages in it that talk of the exile. Yet, many parts of this book were written hundreds of years earlier dating back even to Moses. Today's passage goes back to that time, when the people of Israel were wandering in the wilderness after coming out of Egypt, a time I have been talking about for the past two weeks. This passage articulates the law of God. It is like the legal case books that we have today, where precedent builds on precedent, which builds on precedent, and unfolds and expands and develops into a code of law.
Today's passage includes what is known as the ”holiness code,” which enabled the Israelites to deal with the problems they face around them. It is the codification of God's will for them. Now, it is true to say that in the New Testament, many of the minor laws and the law itself as a means of salvation are pushed to one side as Christ is elevated: We see this is in Book of Galatians. Nevertheless, there is a wonderful phrase in the middle of our passage this morning that says, “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” It is on the basis of that that God wants us to live. Even the New Testament uses exactly the same quote: “Be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1, verse 15) The Apostle Peter, in other words, understood that even the earliest Christian community needed to live up to God's wish list, needed to be obedient to the Holy God, needed to be a holy people.
Here is the key: This holiness is not an abstract idea. This holiness is not a philosophical sense of what we are to be. It is to be demonstrated in real, honest, ethical living. It is to be borne out in the daily example of the people of God. Holiness is not just an attitude; holiness is a complete response to the will and the purpose of God. When we look at this passage, we can say to the world around us and to ourselves, “Look, here is God's wish list. Are we willing to live up to it? Are we willing to carry this wish list into the world?”
Look how it begins. First of all, you must support the poor. Leviticus tells the field owner at harvest time to make sure always to leave something around the borders. Don't pick up everything off the ground; always leave something for the poor and the homeless and the landless so they can eat. In other words, if you are a landowner, always be charitable; always make sure that there is room on the borders of your land to help the poor and needy.
Now, the Bible says here in Leviticus that this does not mean that we should show partiality to the poor as opposed to the rich. It is not about choosing one socio-economic group over the other; it is about the need for justice and equity for everyone, regardless of their condition. To have that equity we need to make sure that the poor are taken care of and the needy are provided for.
There is a wonderful story about Mahatma Gandhi that illustrates this. One day when he was getting on a train in India, his shoe fell from his foot and landed on the tracks. He couldn't reach down to pick it up, because the train had already started to move. Then, he did something absolutely crazy: He took off his other shoe and threw it out of the window. One of the men next to him said, “What are you doing? Have you lost your mind? You now have no shoes!” Gandhi replied, “If a poor man comes along and sees one shoe on the track, he will now be able to find another one alongside it, and he will be able to walk.” Gandhi was inspired to do this by the teachings of Jesus Christ: “Whatever you do for these the least of my children, you have done it for me.”
That is the power of the Book of Leviticus! That is the power of the law of God! We are to care for the poor and the needy. This month, we have celebrated the Mission and Service Fund of the United Church of Canada. Many of you might have read the story in our bulletin of the young man who went to the Fred Victor Centre here in Toronto, an organization that this church supports. He had lost his job and his identity when he turned to the centre as a homeless person. It became known that he was a good cook, so they asked him to cook in Friend's restaurant, there in the Fred Victor Centre. He started to get a reputation as a great cook, his name became broadly known, a restaurateur found out about him and invited him to take a job and he was able to stand on his own two feet. When the Fred Victor Centre was in danger of having to close that restaurant, it was a gift from the Mission and Service Fund of the United Church that enabled it to keep going, in order to help young men like the one I have mentioned.
We need, then, to help the poor to help themselves. We need to provide the means for the poor to be able to survive: not to show them partiality as if we are doing them a favour, but to show them the love of God. That is what is commanded.
There is also a sense in here where you care and protect the vulnerable. There is a wonderful part in the Book of Leviticus, and it says, “Do not help the blind man stumble, but make sure that he does not, and do not curse or defile the deaf person who cannot hear.” In other words, protect the vulnerable and protect the weak, care for them.
One of the beautiful ministries here at Eaton Memorial, that many people may not fully understand is the Handicapable ministry, founded by Bill Fritz and now under the leadership of David McMaster. This is a ministry to people who are vulnerable: It brings them into this church; it gives them a sense of identity; it allows them to eat together and to worship the Lord. I invite any of you to drop in on a Wednesday evening and see the people of Handicapable. It is an amazing ministry!
You don't do a ministry like this just out of sentiment. You do it because it is part of God's wish list. This is what God wants us to do. This is our calling. When God touches the hearts of people and moves them to act, amazing things take place. I read an incredible story not long ago about a child who was born in 1975 in New York State. During a difficult birth his skull was cracked and his brain was temporarily starved of oxygen. He was clinically blind and clinically deaf. As a result of the pressure on his brain, he experienced as many as 20 seizures a day. Even as a young man growing up, he did not outgrow these seizures. Due to extensive food allergies, he could eat only one form of food - a meat purée made by the Gerber Baby Food Company.
The only problem was that after about 10 years, Gerber announced that they were going discontinue this particular product. His mother, realizing this was the only food her son could safely ingest, went to all the surrounding states and bought up as much of this particular product as she could. However, she could only buy enough for five years.
The fifth year was approaching and she thought her son was going to starve. Then a Christian who worked for Gerber heard about their plight, convinced other people working in the factory to donate their time. He got approval from the USDA to have the food re-registered and for several days set the factory in motion again to make enough food to last this young man's life. They did it voluntarily; they did it generously; they gave of themselves. For five more years that young man, Richard Dunn, lived. Eventually, he succumbed to his illnesses and died.
It was the inspiration of one person moved by the word of God that caused others to rally around and help this vulnerable young man. This is not an optional thing. This is something that the Lord wills: We are called to care for the vulnerable.
To care for our neighbour is also a big part of the Book of Leviticus. In a statement of what we are not to do to our neighbour, there is a wonderful positive expression of God's love. The writer of Leviticus says, “You are not to slander your neighbour. You are not to defraud your neighbour. You are not to endanger your neighbour. You are not to take revenge on your neighbour.”
Can you imagine, my friends, what the world would be like if we listened to the word of God? Can you imagine what the world would be like if we did not defraud one another? If the people of Enron and Worldcom et.al. had actually taken the Book of Leviticus seriously, we would not have had the terrible crises that swept the business and the accounting world. Can you imagine if we would only listen to “You do not slander,” what political debate would be like? How unfortunate it is that slander has become the sling and the arrow and the weapon of the politically expedient! How sad that debates are not held about ideas, but about personalities. Can you imagine what our world would be like if we never endangered our neighbours, but instead protected them, looked out for their wellbeing? Can you imagine what the world would be like if we didn't take revenge on those with whom we disagreed? What a world!
This is not an ideal vision: This is a command; this is a call. This is what the Protestant reformers understood. They understood the power of God to change people's hearts and lives and minds, and then bring their behaviour into conformity with the will and the wish of Almighty God. Can you imagine what a world would be like that listened and cared for the poor and protected the vulnerable, and loved the neighbour? But, after every single stanza in this passage, there is the phrase, “I am the Lord your God.” We do these things because this is God's will. That is why I get so frustrated, so hurt and so sad when I hear the things that God does that help blamed on Him when they hurt.
When you hear these days about the clash of civilizations, the confrontations between peoples in the name of God, whom are we really listening to? I was always a great fan of Margaret Mead, the anthropologist. A student once came up to her and asked, “Dr. Mead, can you point to us the first signs, anthropologically, of the existence of human civilization?”
Mead thought about it, and said, “Yes, when I find a healed femur.”
So the student said, “What are you talking about - a healed femur?” He was expecting her to say the existence of pots and knives and crockery and, maybe, even weapons, something to show signs of people being civilized.
She said, “No! No! No! Those are not the signs of civilization. Those are merely the signs of the existence of humanity.” A civilization is when you find a healed femur, she said, because in a world where the fittest survive, where the strongest survive, if you find a healed femur, then someone must have provided that injured person with care, someone must have protected him or her while the bone was healing, someone must have gone out and hunted and gathered and brought food to that person while his or her body was mending. “A civilization,” said Mead, “is only a civilization when there are signs of human compassion.”
A civilization, then, is not determined by the power that it has over others, or by the size of its armies or the grandeur of its buildings or the wealth of its people or the splendour of its art or the articulate nature of its speakers or the profundity of its literature. Civilization is determined by the level of compassion that its people show to one another and to the stranger. That is what the Book of Leviticus is getting at. That is the kind of society that God wanted Israel to be in the wilderness. That is God's wish list for all of us, for all time. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.