You probably heard about this – it was in all the papers; it was in radio and television news reports; it was a “hot topic” on the call-in-talk shows.
A minister in North Carolina had members of his church voted out of the church because they had voted for a Presidential Candidate different from the one he voted for and supported.
In October last year (2004) he preached a sermon in which he told the congregation who he was supporting for President of the United States… and he said that if any of them were planning to vote for the other major candidate, they should come to the altar and repent and then vote for his candidate… or they should resign from any leadership position and get out of the church right away.
After the election, the pastor called for the church to “vote out” of the membership nine people who did not vote for his candidate. They were voted out. Among the ones rejected that night were leaders of the church who had been members there for some 30 or 40 years.
Well, of course, the media picked up on this. Lawyers got involved and the church was told that their “partisan action” could jeopardize their tax-free status. Forty other members in the 400 member congregation resigned in protest. A few days later, the pastor resigned and went away.
This is a sad story to me for a couple of reasons.
- First, it’s just sad that it ever happened in the first place.
- But, also, it is sad to me because it is a “haunting reflection” of what happens in our society right now.
It’s a sad symptom of our times. People and groups today (it seems to me) are becoming more polarized. I understand the “checks and balance value” of the party systems, but it does appear that some are becoming more venomous toward those not in their group. We are forgetting now to disagree without being disagreeable.
We are in danger of becoming.....
Excessively judgmental,
Extremely critical,
Excessively closed-minded,
Extremely negative and,
Excessively partisan,…
So much so that some want to totally reject and repudiate anybody who differs with them.
Remember the Peanuts cartoon where Lucy is chasing Charlie Brown. She is shaking her fist at him and screaming:
“I’ll get you, Charlie Brown. I’ll get you. And when I get you, I’m going to knock your block off!”
Suddenly, Charlie Brown screeches to a halt. He turns and in a very mature way says:
“Wait a minute, Lucy. You and I are relatively small children with relatively small problems and if we can’t sit down and talk through our problems with love, respect and understanding, how can we expect the great nations of the world to sit down and talk through?” And then, “Pow!” Lucy slugs him and says: “I had to hit him quick, he was beginning to make sense!!!”
That’s what closed-minded people do. They don’t want to listen to another person’s point of view. So, they hit them quick. They think that anybody who disagrees with them is the enemy... the enemy who must be silenced. And some, sadly, even go so far as to think that anybody who disagrees with them is the enemy of God.
Put that over against this: One of the most effective and colorful Congressmen to ever go to Washington was a crusty old gentleman from Texas. His name was Sam Rayburn. He served in Congress for over 50 years, the last ten or more as Speaker of the House. But the real greatness of Sam Rayburn was not in the public positions he held or the political power he wielded. It was in his common touch and his love for people.
One day he heard that the teenage daughter of a Washington reporter had died. This reporter had on occasion been critical of Sam Rayburn. Nevertheless, early the next morning, Mr. Sam went over to that reporter’s house and knocked on the door. The reporter answered the door and was somewhat stunned to see the Speaker of the House standing there.
“I just came by to see what I could do to help you. I’m so sorry about your daughter’s loss… and I want to help you any way I can.”
The reporter obviously touched, said: “Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker, but I don’t think there’s anything you can do. We’re handling all the arrangements.” “Well, let me ask you something,” said Sam Rayburn. “Have you had your coffee this morning?”
When the reporter said no, they hadn’t gotten around to that yet. “Well, I’ll make it for you,” Mr. Sam said. And into the house he went. As he was fixing the coffee in the kitchen, the reporter said to him. “Mr. Speaker, I thought you were having breakfast at the White House this morning with the President.”
“Well, I was, but I called the President and told him that I had a friend who was having some trouble this morning and that I wouldn’t be in today.”
Now, that incident… that act of kindness, that spirit of love and compassion must have made God smile because that is so akin to the nature of God.
But, where has that bigness of spirit gone? Where has that kind of respect and thoughtfulness gone? This is the question that looms dramatically before us each and every day (indeed, each and every moment) of our lives, namely this:
Will I be big or little?
Will I be kind or hateful?
Will I be self-giving or self-absorbed?
Will I be open or closed?
Will I be part of the solution or part of the problem?
Will I be extremely gracious or extremely judgmental?
Actually, we see that question played out in a fascinating way here in the 12th Chapter of John. Remember the story with me. Jesus is on His way to the Cross. It is six days before Passover. The Crucifixion is less than a week away… and He knows it.
He stops in Bethany to visit with His good friends, Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Just a few days before, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead… and now they all sit down to have dinner together… and Mary does a beautiful, but extravagant thing for Jesus.
“She kneels before Him and anoints His feet… generously pouring out costly perfumed oil on our Lord’s feet and then she wipes and dries His feet with her hair.”
Why did she do that?
- Some say it was an act of gratitude in which she was thanking Jesus for raising her brother Lazarus from the dead.
- Some say it was an act of consecration in which she was baptizing the feet of Jesus to encourage Him to go into the Holy City and do what had to be done.
- Other says it was an act of preparation in which she was anointing His body for the death which was to come in Jerusalem a few days later.
But the story doesn’t end there. After doing this beautiful thing, Mary is criticized and ridiculed and rebuked harshly by Judas… because Judas disagrees with what she has done.
“What a waste!” he complains.
“How foolish! How stupid! Look what we could have done with all the money we could have gotten from selling that perfumed oil. Think of how many poor people we could have fed!”
Now, let me hurry to point out that Judas had no intention of doing that at all. It wasn’t even his oil. But, it sounded good and he expected Jesus to praise him for his wisdom and prudence.
But, to his surprise, Jesus was not impressed with his harshness toward Mary who was, after all, one of their hosts and one of Jesus’ closest friends and who in his opinion had just done a gracious, kind, loving beautiful thing for him.
Now, the point of the story is simply this:
Sometimes it’s just O.K. to be extravagant. Sometimes in the name of love and kindness and gratefulness… it’s O.K. (indeed it’s beautiful) to be extravagant.
Let me show you what I mean with three thoughts.
I. FIRST OF ALL, IT’S BEAUTIFUL TO BE EXTRAVAGANT IN OUR COMPASSION.
Of all the places Mary is mentioned in the Bible, this gesture of love and compassion recorded here in John 12 is the most beautifully/ memorable. It was an extravagant expression of love, generosity and compassion.
Richard Nixon was the 36th Vice President of the United States; and, the 37th President of the United States. He is the only man to have been elected twice to the Vice Presidency and twice to the Presidency.
However, he may always be remembered as being the ONLY U.S. President to have resigned from office. His resignation, of course, came in response to the complex of scandals called the Watergate Conspiracy.
A few years after his resignation, Richard Nixon came back to Washington, D.C. to attend the funeral of Hubert Humphrey, the man Nixon had defeated in the Presidential Election of 1968.
The holding room in the church was packed with powerful, political dignitaries, but one man, Richard Nixon, stood all alone against a wall. Even though he had received a full pardon from President Gerald Ford, people still saw Nixon as political poison… so, they all shunned him. No one spoke to him. No one looked at him. No one acknowledged him.
It was his first visit back to our nation’s capitol, since that dark, fateful day when he departed the White House in a Marine Helicopter… and now he was back, but he stood there alone.
But then, President Jimmy Carter entered the building. He greeted friends and colleagues warmly. Suddenly, President Carter saw Richard Nixon standing off in the distance all alone. He realized what was happening.
President Carter’s heart went out to Richard Nixon. Immediately, in full view of everyone, President Carter walked straight over to Richard Nixon. He took his hand, he embraced him and then loud enough for all to hear, President Carter said to Richard Nixon: “Welcome home, Mr. President! Welcome home!”
That simple act of compassion was a turning point for Richard Nixon and in a way for our nation… because it allowed Richard Nixon to regain some of his stature as an elder statesman… and it paved the way for both Democratic and Republican successors to the Presidency to consult with Nixon regarding foreign policy.
Now, I’m sure that there were some there that day who criticized President Carter for welcoming Nixon back so warmly… but somewhere in heaven God was smiling… because our God is loving and merciful, forgiving and compassionate… and He wants us to be that way too.
And the truth is that we are all welcomed into the family of God only because of God’s extravagant generosity and grace and forgiveness and compassion in Jesus Christ.
So, the choice is our. We can be condemning, or condescending, or critical toward others… or like Mary and even more like God, we can reach out to others with love, we can be extravagant in our compassion.
II. SECOND, WE CAN BE EXTRAVAGANT IN OUR CARING.
In John 12, Mary’s act was without question an act of caring.
Some years ago, I was a pastor in a college town in another state. One of my favorite persons in that congregation was a wonderful, older man. Most everyone in that community called him, Mr. Joe
Mr. Joe was a kind-spirited man who was always gracious, thoughtful and considerate to everyone. He was a real Christian gentleman. He was what I would call a “sweet conservative.” He loved life. He loved people. He loved the church. He loved the Bible. He loved his Sunday School Class. He loved our nation. He loved our President, whoever he was and he prayed for his President and his Pastor every single day. He loved his wife, Mrs. Betty.
Mr. Joe and Mrs. Betty had been married for nearly 60 years… when one night she died in her sleep. Mr. Joe was devastated. They had been child-hood sweethearts and they had been an inspiration to everyone who knew them by the way they had loved and cared for each other over the years.
At Mrs. Betty’s funeral, the church was packed. I was not surprised by that, but I was surprised to see Gene there.
Gene was also a member of our church and he was the most liberal college professor in town. I had no idea that he and Mr. Joe were friends. Their approach to life was so different. They were both devoted Christians, but socially, politically, religiously… they were at the opposite ends of the pole. One was old, one was young. One a conservative; the other a liberal. One a life-long Republican; the other a life-long Democrat.
And yet, here was Gene at the funeral… and on top of that, Gene was the lead pallbearer. In addition… as the Memorial Service began Gene went over and sat beside Mr. Joe. Gene put his arm around Mr. Joe’s shoulders and held him and patted him and comforted him throughout the service.
I was touched to see this, but I was mystified. I had no idea they were close friends… an unlikely pair, this older conservative man and this young brilliant, fiercely liberal professor.
After the service, I mentioned to Mr. Joe that I didn’t realize that he and Gene were friends. “Oh,” he said. “We are next-door neighbors, have been for years and we take care of each other. Gene is a terrific neighbor and a dear and wonderful friend. We have had coffee together every Wednesday morning for the last 10 years. We see so many things differently. We laugh about it. I tell him, ‘he cancels out all of my political votes,’ but I love Gene… he is like a son to me.”
I asked Gene about their friendship and he said: “I love Mr. Joe so much. We had an instant friendship when we first met. He is a great man. When my sister died in a tragic accident recently, Mr. Joe sat up with me all night. I’ve told him that he is like a father to me and there is nothing I wouldn’t do for him… except vote the way he does.”
Isn’t that beautiful? Two men so different and yet united in the Christian spirit of caring. It’s beautiful to be extravagant in our compassion and in our caring.
III. THIRD AND FINALLY, IT’S BEAUTIFUL TO BE EXTRAVAGANT IN CHRIST-LIKENESS.
Mary’s act in John 12 was so Christ-like because it represents sacrificial love.
There’s a story about a 94-year old man who seemed to be wandering aimlessly down the sidewalk. A police officer spotted him and said: “Sir, are you O.K.? You look troubled and sad. May I help you?”
“I am so said,” said the 94-year-old man. “A month ago, I married a beautiful and loving younger woman.
She’s a wonderful cook.
She’s a wonderful care-giver.
She keeps the house in perfect order.
She is wonderful, affectionate.
She loves me so much and I love her so much.”
The police officer said: “Well, sir that sounds wonderful! She sounds wonderful! Why are you so despondent?”
“Because,” said the older man, “I’m 94 years old and can’t remember how to get home.”
That can happen to us spiritually. We can forget how to get home. Well, if that happens to you, remember Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life. He is the One who can bring us home to what God wants us to be.
Last week, one of our charter members died. Her name was Louise Elledge, or as we called her affectionately, “Weezie.” Among Weezie’s devotional materials, stuck in her Bible was a powerful piece of writing which was a beautiful summary of Weezie’s life. Weezie was always upbeat and always positive and always loving… because she lived out these words:
TODAY I REDEDICATE MYSELF TO LIVE LIFE ABUNDANTLY
Today I promise myself:
To be strong, so that nothing can upset the peace of my mind.
To talk health, happiness, and hope to every person I meet.
To make my friends feel that there is something good and beautiful in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything, and to be optimistic about life.
To think only of the best, work toward doing the best, and expect only the best.
To be just as happy about the success of others as I am about my own.
To forget any mistakes of the past and to press forward to greater achievement in the future.
To give so much time to improving myself that I have no time to criticize others.
To be too strong for fear, too kind for anger, and too happy for worry.
To lift up my heart in prayerful trust each day, so that Christ may show forth, in me.
TODAY I REDEDICATE MYSELF TO LIVE LIFE ABUNDANTLY