II. A BURDEN OF LOVE
During World War II Zvi Michalowski, a Lithuanian Jew, was captured by the Nazi invaders and condemned to die, along with all the Jews from his village. Typically, the Nazi executioners lined up all the Jews in front of a ditch outside Zvi’s small town and then they were shot.
Zvi, though, had fallen into the pit a fraction of a second before the volley of shots which killed those standing with him, including his father. Later, Zvi crawled from the pit and escaped.
Nearby were several Christian homes–homes that Zvi knew were religious homes that might help him. Naked and covered with blood he knocked on the first door. The door opened. A peasant stood in front of him. “Please help me,” Zvi pleaded. The woman lifted the lamp closer to his face and responded, “Go back to the grave where you belong, Jew!”
And she slammed the door.
Zvi knocked on several doors and received a similar response.
Finally, Zvi, desperate for shelter and help, came to one final door and knocked. When the door opened, Zvi, lifting his arms to his side, cried, “I am your Lord, Jesus Christ. I came down from the cross. Look at me–the blood, the pain, the suffering of the innocent. Let me in.”
I am the Lord Jesus Christ who came down from the cross!
The poor woman did and Zvi survived the War.
The theologian writer Fred Buehner writes in his book Now and Then, “When you find something in a human face that calls out to you, not just for help but in some sense for yourself, how far do you go in answering that call, how far can you go, seeing that you have your own life to get on with . . .” You go as far as necessary. You go as far as you can. You go as far as Christ went. . .
Home schoolers, how much do you love America? Are you willing to die for them? Are you willing to put your children in a place of risk for this nation?
Perhaps we are called to this place for such a time as this . . .
Listen: the safest place for our children to be is in the center of God’s will. Do you believe that?
III. JESUS CHRIST TO THIS NATION
We are called to be Jesus Christ to this city and nation.
Jesus risked his life to face down death by hunger, by greed, and by tyranny. He stood eye-to-eye with raw evil and categorically refused to buy into any sort of hatred or oppression. In the face of the neighbors whom he loved He risked everything to tell the truth. He risked everything to transform situations of death into situations of life. He risked everything for people who never thanked Him–lepers, poor women, blind beggars, thieving tax collectors . . . and you and me. That is right. He put Himself at great risk for you and for me. Because He was there for such a time as this . . .
Four Pillars of the enemy: religiosity, competition, death, racism (fear). The enemy desires to capture this generation.We have to be willing to enter the wilderness, to be in a place of great risk and diminished resources.
But better to be in the wilderness than in Egypt!
Our hurting world is out there with outstretched arms. Like Esther, we are called to be agents of transformation, agents of life in the face of death. But guilt is not the reason we accept the call. Our reason is that God loves us, stands up for us daily against death, transforms our lives from emptiness and despair to hope and life. Now I know that this sounds chauvinistic, but the fact is home schooled children are doing better in every arena. So what? This is a call to us to be Jesus Christ to this nation.
The missionary Robert Speer describes God’s call to his life in this way: “I think love will hear calls where the loveless heart will not know that they are sounding.” We respond to others needs because we are first loved ourselves. What else can we do?
Home schoolers, in 2003, we have come again to that sacred moment when God meets us in Jesus Christ. We are loved into becoming agents of transformation. We now need to take Him to the world. He empowers us to withstand whatever obstacles we may face.