How Life Works: Wisdom Living from Proverbs
04/01/2001 - Cultivate Compassion
Last Sunday night was the 73rd Annual Academy Awards Ceremony. And the stars were out in Hollywood with all their glamour and glitz wondering who would win the Oscar for best picture and best actor and best actress. And is it turned out it was the most evenhanded ceremony in years. Almost every nominated film went home with at least one Oscar for something.
And every year around Oscar time it seems like at least one article appears somewhere about actor Paul Newman. Paul Newman is recognized as one Hollywood's greatest actors. Over the years he's starred in films like Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting. And in 1987, won his own Oscar for best actor in the movie The Color of Money.
But the articles written about Newman these days are not so much about his acting. They're written about his giving. For you see in 1982, Paul Newman founded a food company called Newman's Own. He started it with just one product, salad dressing. One Christmas, almost as a joke, he decided that if his salad dressing recipe was good enough for his friends, then it was good enough for the public.
So he started a company. And from the very beginning the distinctive of his company was that every dollar of profit, after taxes, would be donated to charity. Marketing experts told him that he was crazy, that he would lose a million dollars in the first year. Instead, the company literally became an overnight success. In fact, in that first year he didn't lose a million dollars, he donated a million dollars to charity.
Newman said, "If we had followed the experts' advice, we'd probably still be bottling the dressing in our basement, wondering if this was a worthwhile business venture. Instead, we followed our instincts, and 19 years later, company sales are stronger than ever."
The company has since branched out into pasta sauce and steak sauce and salsa and popcorn and now lemonade. And at last count over $100 million dollars has been donated to over 2,000 charities worldwide. Money has been sent to flood victims and hurricane victims, to refugees in Kosovo, and those suffering in Rwanda.
The donation that put the company over the $100 million milestone was a $50,000 gift to an organization called The Flying Doctors that provides specialized surgical care to children and their families in the most remote regions of Africa. The latest gift was a $50,000 gift to earthquake victims in El Salvador.
Throughout his history of giving, Newman has concentrated on groups that don't have a strong voice in society-the elderly, the disabled and children. And in an interview not long ago he was asked why he did it. You know what he said? He said, "I do it because I love it!"
And when I read all that this week I couldn't help but think of Proverbs 19:17, Those who are kind to the poor lend to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done. It's no surprise to me that Newman's Own has done so well. The God of the universe is on their board of directors. Every time they give to the poor they are lending to the Lord and God always makes good on his loans. He pays them back with interest, $100 million dollars worth since 1982.
Today we continue our series called How Life Works and we want to talk about cultivating compassion for the poor. Over thirty verses in the book of Proverbs talk about the poor. It's a topic we just can't ignore. And how we treat the needy will have a lot to do with whether our lives work well, because God has a special place in his heart for the poor and honors those who honor them.
It's seems like in every neighborhood or on every playground or in every classroom there's always somebody who gets picked on. Some kid that gets teased and ostracized because he or she is too small, or too fat, or not athletic, or not the same color or whatever. Kids don't need a whole lot of reasons to be cruel.
When I was in elementary school it was a boy named David. Looking back on it now, David had a learning disability. But we didn't know anything about learning disabilities back then, nor did we care. We just knew he was different and we teased him and picked on him. And I can remember going to the principal's office one day with a bunch of other kids for picking on David. And it scared the daylights out of me! The principal came to his defense and in effect said, "You mess with David and you mess with me." And that was the last time I picked on David. I didn't want to mess with the principal of Cedar Road Elementary School. No way!
Well that's exactly what God says when it comes to a group of people who for lots of reasons find themselves picked on. They struggle financially, educationally, vocationally, physically, emotionally, spiritually as well. A group of people that the book of Proverbs collectively calls the poor. And when it comes to the poor God says, "You mess with the poor and you mess with me."
Turn to Proverbs 22:22-23, Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the Lord will take up their case and will plunder those who plunder them.
I don't know all that that means, but I'm not sure I want to find out either. God is the advocate, God is the protector, God is the defense attorney for the poor. He's on their side and opposed to anyone who exploits them. Remember that the next time you're tempted to pick on somebody, or make fun of somebody, or look down on somebody who's struggling.
Proverbs 14:31 says, Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. God takes it personally when somebody beats up on the poor. God serves notice in this verse and in lots of others in the Bible that those who mistreat the poor are going to have to do business with him.
But just like there are strong warnings for those who exploit the poor, so there are strong promises for those who show mercy to them. Proverbs 14:21 says, To despise the poor is to sin, but blessed are those who are kind to the needy.
Look at Proverbs 22:9, The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor. God's blessing, God's favor is poured out on those who are kind to the poor. And he pours it out in all kinds of ways.
Again Proverbs 19:17 says, Those who are kind to the poor lend to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.
Whenever we're kind to the poor with our resources and our energy and our time, it's like making a loan to God, putting him in our debt. And he says, "I'll pay that loan back, I promise, with interest!" When we help those in need we're teaming up with God, we are his hands, we are his feet, we are the way he touches the needy in this world.
God says, "Mess with the poor and you mess with me. Bless the poor and you'll be blessed by me ... with interest." Do you want your life to work well? Do you want to see God rain down blessing on you? Treat the poor with mercy. Do you want to jam the gears of your life? Do you want to get God working against you? Ignore the poor. Be critical and callused and judgmental of those in need.
Perhaps the most powerful example of compassion in our lifetime has been the work of Mother Teresa who passed away a few years ago. During her lifetime she served the needs of thousands of sick and dying on the smelly streets of Calcutta, India. She started the Missionaries of Charity which now ministers on five continents, earned a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts, and gained the love and respect of millions around the world. She honored the poor and God honored her.
She saw the poor as the embodiment of Christ and took seriously the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:34-36, Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me.
She was an amazing lady. But if you're like me you're probably thinking right about now, "I'm no Mother Teresa. I'm not going devote my whole life to serving the poor. I'm no Paul Newman either. I don't know the first thing about salad dressing or starting a business that's going to give millions of dollars to charity. But I want to do something. I want to be sensitive to those in need. I don't want God against me."
So how can we cultivate a heart of compassion towards the poor? What does that look like in our little middle class suburban world? Let me suggest three ways to cultivate compassion. How to Cultivate Compassion.
First, open your eyes. Turn to Proverbs 28:27, Those who give to the poor lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses.
If closing our eyes means ignoring the needs of the poor, then opening our eyes means noticing their needs. Opening our eyes is the first step to cultivating compassion. People who've developed a compassionate heart can usually remember the first time they opened their eyes and saw a level of need that they never knew existed before.
I've got a long way to go in this area. Growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, I've lived most of my life in a bubble, isolated from real human need. And studying these passages this week was very convicting for me and made me uncomfortable, because this is an area that I need to grow in, big time. Some of you are so much further down the road than I am and have a lot more compassion than I do. But I want to grow, I really do.
I can remember those moments when my eyes were opened, even just a little bit, to real human need. When I was growing up, I can remember visiting a rescue mission in a rundown section of north Philadelphia and seeing whole blocks of gutted, burned out and grafittied houses and it dawned on me that people live in neighborhoods like that. I'd never seen that before.
When I was in high school our church youth group spent a week in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky doing some relief work and I can remember seeing one room shacks for houses with junked cars in the front yard and out houses in the back yard and kids running around barefoot. And it dawned on me that people live like that in this country. I'd never seen that before.
When I was in seminary I spent a summer with missionaries in South America. And part of the time I lived with a tribe of Indians way back in the bush who ran around half-naked, speared fish, and cooked over open fires. I thought I had stepped back into the Stone Age. And it dawned on me that people still live like that in our world today. I'd never seen that before. And when I came back to the States I wanted to clean out my closets and send all my clothes down to South America because I felt like a spoiled, rich, ugly American.
After I graduated from seminary I backpacked through Greece and Turkey to follow the footsteps of Paul and when I was in Istanbul I saw mountains of trash stacked higher than a house with filthy dogs and dirty kids climbing all over them scavenging for food. And it dawned on me that people live like that in major cities of the world today. I'd never seen that before.
The first step to growing a heart of compassion is to see need. It always starts with our eyes and what we see. How are your eyes? What do you see? Do you only see your neighborhood and your school and your office and the grocery store and the mall? Or do you see beyond that?
One reason I wanted our daughter to go to Mexico this year is to see needs. I wanted her to see the crowded work camps and the conditions of the migrant workers who spend 12 hours a day in the fields six days a week picking tomatoes and then come back to cook over an open fire and then sleep with six or eight others on the floor of a one room hut. She'd never seen that before.
The first step to developing of heart of compassion is to open our eyes to needs. Are you intentionally putting yourself in situations where you see human need? It's so easy to keep our eyes shut and ignore it.
The second way to cultivate compassion is to extend your hands. Opening our eyes is one way, but extending our hands in service will do even more.
Turn to Proverbs 31. In Proverbs 31, the last chapter of this book, we have a description of a wife of noble character. You single guys who are looking for a good wife, let me encourage to read this chapter and get a better idea what you're looking for. Then forget about it! You'll never find a woman like her! She's amazing! She gets up early, stays up late, cooks great meals for her family, runs a real estate business on the side, grows her own food, makes her own clothes, she has a husband whose crazy about her, and kids who adore her. She's the woman women love to hate, because she seems to have it altogether. In fact, she's so perfect that some commentators don't think she's really a woman at all, but a personification of everything that wisdom is. But whatever she is, I want us to see what's found in verse 20, She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.
Wise people, men and women alike, open their arms to the poor and extend their hands to the needy. Are you extending your hands to the needy? We will never eliminate poverty from the earth. Jesus said so, the poor you will always have with you (Mark 14:7). But we can do something. And often the little that we can do, can do a whole lot for those in need.
Some of us support children or whole families through organizations like World Vision or World Relief or Venture International. Right now our family sends a gift each month to support a family in Egypt. We've been doing it for years. And I'm always amazed at how far that gift goes in a third world country. It's not much for us, but it's huge for them. In fact, in a thank you letter I received just this week, the director of the mission wrote, "Just because you can't do everything, don't fail to do something!"
Most of us can do something. Some of you can do something through your company with a matching gifts program. From time to time we try to make you aware of things you can do through the church. We talk often about our community care fund that goes to help those in need, right here at Valley View. We also have a Food Bank that we've transitioned into food coupons that we give to those in need.
Recently we sent a gift to India to help the earthquake victims, we've done similar things for victims in Turkey and Kosovo. When those opportunities come, take advantage of them. Those who are kind to the poor lend to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done. That's money well invested, without the volatility of the stock market!
The shoeboxes we sent this Christmas through Samaritan's Purse are a wonderful way to help our children extend their hands to the needy. It gets them involved in using their resources to help kids who are disadvantaged. When we see that video and look at the faces of those kids opening the shoeboxes our hearts get bigger. Tears come to our eyes. Serving thanksgiving dinners at the Salvation Army, packaging care bears for orphans in Russia, helping flood victims in North Carolina, giving out gospel tapes in Culiacan, Mexico, those are other ways our church has been extending its hands to the needy. But oh there is so much more we long to do.
Opening our eyes. Extending our hands. And third, connecting our hearts. The third way to cultivate compassion is to connect your hearts to the poor. Establishing a relationship with those in need leads to permanent, long-term compassion building.
Right now on the Development Team we're talking and praying about a ministry that as a church we can really put our arms around, a partnership that we can develop and invest in over the long term. Perhaps it's the outreach to Indians in Mexico, maybe it's something closer to home, maybe it's something close and something far away. We don't know what it is yet, but we know God will lead us. More than just opening our eyes, more than just extending our hands, we want to connect our hearts to those in need. And that's something we can all be praying about as a church.
Building a relationship with the poor is a God thing. Because that's what God did with us when he saw us in our spiritual poverty. 2 Corinthians 8:9 says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Christ left the palace in heaven to live in the gutter of this world. He did it not only to offer us salvation, but to offer us a relationship, a friendship with himself. The rich became poor so that the poor could become rich. He saw our need. He literally extended his hands on the cross in order to connect our hearts with his. And when you really understand God's compassion for you, when it really grips your heart, your heart starts to beat fast with that same kind of compassion. And it's not a drag to be concerned for the poor. You don't do it because you feel leaned on. You do it, because it brings you joy!
And my prayer is that I would become a more compassionate person and that we would become a more compassionate church, that's a conduit for God's blessing. Can we be that? I think we can. We can't do everything, but we can all do something that makes a difference in this world.