Christian Traits (4) - Helping Others

We’re continuing the theme of the five Christian activities I started out on previous visits.  I know some of you remember the actions!  We:

•           Worship

•           Pray

•           Study the Bible

•           Help others

•           Spread the Good News

First of all, we looked at worship, where we recognised that worship is not just coming to Church occasionally, or even every Sunday – even that is less than 1% of our time.  No, worship is our total response to God’s saving grace.  If we truly recognise what He’s done for us, what He’s given us, we’ll want to respond every day.  Again, I’m not talking of coming to church every day – rather, making our everyday activities become worship.  We approach them in the way we believe Jesus would.

Next, we looked at prayer – not just as a means of asking God for what we want – a heavenly shopping list – but part of an ongoing conversation with Him.  Though we often need to prepare ourselves, to remember just who we’re talking to.

Finally, we looked at the Bible – 66 books that make up a handbook of life.  I used my car repair manual as a guide: the publishers (Haynes) take each model of car, take it apart – completely apart – to the last nut and bolt – and then put it all back together.  They then write it all up for us.  They can tell me how to fix almost any fault in my car because they’ve done it.  So it is with our Bible – written by people who have been through almost every life experience – lives taken apart and then put back together.  It means that, in our Bible, we can find everything we need to know about living for God.

Today, I’m going to look at the fourth Christian activity – helping others.

Worship, prayer and study are all ways to build ourselves up – we may worship, pray and study together at times but, as we’ve seen, these are all Christian activities that we need to continue when we’re apart.  They should be very much intrinsic parts our daily life – indeed, our lifeline, telephone line and refuelling line.  Without regular contact with God, speaking to Him and listening to Him, we can do very little.  However, with Him, we can do anything!  And, having looked at building ourselves up with the first three actions [show them] we’ve moved onto why.

It’s been asked “If we’re here to help others, what are the other her for?”  Usually asked in jest, it does have a serious side.  It could be answered that those needing help are here to be helped, but that seems just too simple – and, perhaps, arrogant – for who are we to judge who needs (or, more importantly, doesn’t need) help.  But let’s consider the point.  God doesn’t put people in need – we’re all His children and He wouldn’t do anything to hurt us.

I wouldn’t hold the story of Job up as the definitive model of God’s behaviour toward us, for it almost seems as though God and the Devil are taking a bet on how Job will react.  We probably shouldn’t read too much into this part but, for me, one of the messages in the story (and there are many other messages there if we dig into it) one message is that God will not necessarily stand in the way of Satan when it comes to worldly matters.  If you remember the story, Job is held up by God as a model follower; Satan reckons, however, that Job is only faithful because of all he gets from God – so God allows Satan to take it all away – read to the end and you’ll see that Job remains faithful and the Devil is confounded.  My point, though, is that God didn’t take anything away – he just didn’t stop Satan.

And Satan is still at work in the world today – he won’t finally be defeated by Jesus until the last days – but we can get in his way.  We can undo much of the harm and hurt he’s causing – by helping those who need help.

But why should we help others?  I’m sure we could go round and come up with dozens of reasons:

•           It’s was Jesus’ instruction – the second commandment – to love others as you love yourselves.  If we see another person in a situation we wouldn’t want to be in ourselves, and we can help, we should.

•           It was Jesus’ example – He turned nobody away when they asked for His help.  Nor should we.  I mentioned, in a previous sermon on prayer that, just as we ask God to send us help at times, so we may often be the answer to somebody else’s prayer.

•           I also mentioned, when speaking of worship, that everything we do should be in response to God’s grace to us – how much greater will our worship be if we’re doing the work Jesus would be doing if He were here in body today.  Well, actually, He is here in body – although it’s our bodies, through the Holy Spirit.  In Romans 12, Paul says “So then, my brothers and sisters, because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to you: offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him.  This is the true worship that you should offer.”

We help because we want to.  It’s important that we remember that we can’t work for our own salvation.  Salvation comes from God through Jesus – He is the only way – and it is through God’s freely given grace – Paul from Ephesians 2 “But God’s mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ.  It is by God’s grace that you have been saved.”  Nothing we do to help others will add to or take away from that grace; but if we have received the Holy Spirit we will feel compelled to respond.

I could have chosen numerous readings to illustrate the need for action to accompany faith; James, the one I did chose, speaks of faith without actions being meaningless.  That is not to say that the lack of action is diminishing faith, or that actions add to faith, rather that true faith demands action.  Action, carrying on with Jesus’ pastoral role is the visible outpouring of faith. 

You may have wondered where my other reading this morning fitted in – Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We did prayer two sermons ago!  But it, more than anything, shows what may be the core aspect of helping one another.

Many people, when we talk of helping those in need, think of missionary and aid work – supporting the work of Christian Aid, Oxfam, World Vision, Compassion – raising and donating money towards their work is as far as the majority will go, though a few will actually give up months or years of their time in going out and being hands-on where those hands are needed.  In either case it is badly needed support.  I think I previously mentioned Mother Teresa as somebody who lived for God and her life, her work, was hour-by-hour worship.

But reaching out a helping hand is just as valuable at home.  All around are people who need help – not always in big ways – but often in need.  Their lives may not be on the line if you don’t help, but you can make a difference.  I’m talking about the housebound gent who would love somebody to run the occasional errand down the local shop – and realising that somebody cares enough to even ask if they can help.  The neighbour who is catching a bus to quite near where you’re driving; just looking in on somebody to check they’re OK – somebody to talk to – or just somebody who will listen.  Smaller communities aren’t yet as bad as the cities where you never speak to your next-door-neighbour, but the community spirit is rarely as strong as it was a few decades ago.  We’re far more mobile – we move home far more often – and we have far more sophisticated communication tools – the phone, whether landline or mobile, is ubiquitous; we can talk to friends and family across the world whenever we want, yet we don’t talk to the person right next to us.

And our churches will go that way, too.  Christians aren’t meant to be loners – not only do we need to congregate to worship but we also need to congregate as a community.  We should be supporting one another throughout the week – if we can’t be a loving and caring community, who can?

Which is why I chose the Gethsemane reading.

Jesus needed support from His friends.  He knew what was about to happen, he knew He had to face crucifixion alone but, for this short time of prayer, He wanted His friends nearby.  He hadn’t asked them to pray, just to watch out.  Even Jesus, the Son of God, needed the support of His friends.  They let Him down and fell asleep, which meant Jesus felt even more alone, abandoned.  He came through, though – He triumphed for us, in spite of human failings.  But our friends may not be so strong; when they need our help, they may really need it.

[Worship], [prayer], [Bible study] and [helping others] – yes, we need to support those in need across the world, but we must also ensure we support our own community – each other.  We are all members of Christ’s body here.

Amen