February 13, 2005

Family & Friendship Sunday

 

The day is over, you are driving home. You tune in your radio. You hear a blurb about a little village in India where some villagers have died suddenly of a flu that has never been seen before. Three or fourpeople are dead, and they're sending some doctors over there to investigate it. You don't think much about it, but on Sunday, coming home from church, you hear another radio spot. Only now it's not three villagers, it's 30,000 villagers in the back hills of this particular area of India!On TV that night, CBC runs a little blurb; people are heading there from the disease center in Atlanta because this disease strain has never been seen before.

By Monday morning when you get up, it's the lead story. Now it's not just India; it's Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and before you know it, you're hearing this story everywhere and they have coined it nowas "the mystery flu." The Prime Minister and U.S. President make comments that we are all praying and hoping it will go well over there. But everyone is wondering, How are we going to contain it?

That's when the President of France makes an announcement that shocks Europe. He is closing their borders. No flights from India, Pakistan, or any of the countries where this thing has been seen. And as you are watching CBC before going to bed, your jaw hits your chest when a weeping woman is translated from a French news program into English: There's a man lying in a hospital in Paris dying of the mystery flu. It has come to Europe. Panic strikes.

As best they can tell, once you get it, you have it for a week before you know it. Then you have four days of unbelievable symptoms. And then you die. Britain closes its borders, but it's toolate. It shows up in South Hampton, Liverpool, North Hampton. On Tuesday morningthe United States closes its borders, and then the Prime Minister of Canada announces: "Due to a national security risk, all flights to and from Europe and Asia have been canceled. If your loved ones are overseas, I'm sorry. They cannot come back until we find a cure for this."

Our nation plunges into an unbelievable fear. People sell facemasks. People ask"What if it comes to this country?" and preachers say, "It's the scourge of God." On Wednesday night,you are at a school meeting when somebody runs in from the parking lot and says, "Turn on a radio, turn on a radio!" And with everyone listening to a little transistor radio, the announcement is made: “Two women are lying in a Long Island hospital dying from the mystery flu.” Within hours, this thing just sweeps across the U.S., and into Canada: California. Florida. Massachusetts. British Columbia.Quebec.It's as though it's just sweeping in from the borders. People are working around the clock trying to find an antidote. Nothing is working.

But then, all of a sudden the news comes out: The code has been broken! A cure can be found! A vaccine can be made! It's going to take the blood of somebody who hasn't been infected.So, sure enough, all through the Midwestern US, Central Canada, and Ontario, everyone is asked to do one simple thing: Go to your local hospital and have your blood type taken. That's all we ask of you. When you hear the sirens go off in your neighbourhood, please make your way quickly, quietly, and safely to the hospitals.

When you and your family get down there on Friday night, there is a long line, and nurses and doctors are coming out, pricking fingers, taking blood, and putting labels on it. After they do this with your family, they say, "Wait here in the parking lot and if we call your name, you can be dismissed and go home." You stand around with your neighbours, scared, wondering if this is the end of theworld.

Suddenly a young man comes running out of the hospital screaming. He's yelling a name and waving a clipboard. What? He yells the name again. And your son tugs on your jacket and says, "Daddy, that's me." Before you know it, they have grabbed your boy. Wait a minute. Hold on! And they say, "It's OK, his blood is clean. His blood is pure. We want to make sure he doesn't have the disease. We think he has got the right type."

Five tense minutes later, out come the doctors and nurses, crying and hugging one another - some even laughing. It's the first time you have heard anybody laugh in a week, and an old doctor walks up toyou and says, “Thank you, sir. Your son's blood type is perfect. It's clean, it is pure, and we can make the vaccine.” As the word begins to spread all across that parking lot, people are screaming, praying, laughing, and crying.But then the gray-haired doctor pulls you and your wife aside and says, "May we see you for a moment? We didn't realize that the donor would be a minor and we need. . . we need you to sign a consent form."

You begin to sign and then you see that the number of pints of blood to be taken is empty. "H-h-h-how many pints?" That’s when the old doctor's smile fades and he says, "We had no idea it would be a little child. We weren't prepared. We need it all!" "But…but ... You don't understand." "We are talking about the world here. Please sign. We need it all!" "Can’t you give him a transfusion?" "If we had clean blood we could. Can you sign? Would you sign?" In numb silence, you do. Then they say, "Would you like to have a moment with him before we begin?"

Can you walk back? Can you walk back to that room where he sits on a table saying, "Daddy? Mommy? What's going on?" Can you take his hands and say, "Son, your mommy and I love you, and we would never ever let anything happen to you that didn't have to be. Do you understand that?" And when that old doctor comes back in and says, "I'm sorry, we've got to get started. People all over the world are dying." Can you leave? Can you walk out while he is saying, "Dad? Mom? Dad? Why – why have you forsaken me?"

And then next week, when they have the ceremony to honour your son, some folks come with a pretentious smileand just pretend to care, some folks sleep through it, and others don't even come because they go to the lake! Would you want to jump up and say, "MY SON DIED! DON'T YOU CARE?" Is that what God wants to say? "MY SON DIED. DON'T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I CARE?I had to forsake Him on the cross!I had to ‘walk away’ from Him while He was crying for help!People, Don’t You Know How Much I Care?”

Let’s pray:“Father in heaven, seeing it from your eyes breaks our hearts. Maybe now we can begin to comprehend the great Love you have for us.”

Friends, do you remember Mr. “No Need” from our skit earlier? The guy who thought he had everything he needed in life?The master of his destiny?The king of his domain?The guy whose purpose was money and whose meaning was position?Is there ever a time you can relate to him?Have you ever thought in your life that maybe you don’t need God?You have no need for God and his rules and his holiness and his church and his children?If you ever have felt that way, I am guessing that there is probably a real emptiness deep down inside.

That’s because you do have a need for God!He created you to need Him. He put you into this world. The world He put you into was perfect at one time.And He wants it kept that way.But in order to be a part of his perfect eternal world, you and I need to be perfect.We need to be pure.If not, we will die.And like the people in the story, we have been infected with an awful disease.One that kills.It doesn’t kill the body.It kills the soul.The disease is called sin.

There is only one antidote for that disease.It comes from the pure blood of the only One who ever remained pure.Jesus Christ.And both He and his Father were willing to sacrifice his life, his blood, to make you and me pure.To heal us from this disease.To ensure us of real life with Him.Forgiveness.Salvation.Eternal peace.Don’t think we need God?We have no idea how much we do!We need Him to live!He cares about us more than we can imagine!He walked away from his Son, forsaking Him, because of our failures!To gave us life!Eternal life!

Well, maybe you know you need God, but wonder if He needs you!Do you remember Mr. “No Good” from our skit?The guy who thought he wasn’t good enough for God?Who thought God could never love him or forgive him for what he had done?Have you ever felt like Mr. No Good before?That there are some things in your life that God would never be able to look past?That you just aren’t good enough for Him?

Well, look how precious you are to God!Look what He did for you!He walked away from his Son.He deserted Him on the cross.He punished his own Son for your sins!It was worth it to Him to give up the pure, perfect, precious blood of his Son so that you might live!He was willing to make that sacrifice for us, no matter what we have done!Of course we haven’t been good!We haven’t been perfect.We didn’t deserve this at all!But despite that, God loved us anyway!!Think you are “no good”?To God, you are worth the lifeblood of his Son!

You and I couldn’t do anything to save ourselves, but Jesus could!We can’t, but He can.That’s the greatest thing about Jesus.He does what we can’t.I can’t, but He can.We are going to be seeing how that is true of Jesus in the coming weeks’ messages leading up to Easter.I Can’t, but He Can!That is so true, because unlike the bittersweet ending to our little story, there is a much different ending to Jesus’ story!Another thing we couldn’t do that Jesus did.He came back to life!He rose again.That is God’s way of completely assuring us:“Don’t You Know How Much I Care?”

Friends, you can invest your faith in the fact that God loves you and cares about you more than anything else.Let that truth change your lives.Let that give you the excitement, joy, strength, and courage to live in such a way that says to the people around you: “Don’t You Know How Much WE Care?”Because once they learn how much YOU care, they will be a whole lot more interested in how much your God cares.Amen.

 

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