As If People Mattered

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Short Summary
The discourse emphasizes the importance of valuing individuals and addressing the present needs of humanity, drawing inspiration from the hymn “In the Sweet By and By” and the teachings of Jesus. It critiques the current socio-economic structures that often prioritize profit over people, sharing stories that illustrate the consequences of neglecting human dignity and compassion. The speaker urges listeners to embody the agape love demonstrated by Jesus, advocating for proactive engagement in helping others and recognizing the inherent worth of every person, regardless of their circumstances or differences.

Long Summary
### Detailed Summary of the Discourse

Introduction to the Hymn: The discourse opens with a reference to the hymn “In the Sweet By and By,” prompting reflections on an ideal future society characterized by love, support, healing, and peace. The speaker envisions a world where everyone is cared for, free from physical and emotional wounds.

Call to Action: The speaker questions the audience about their motivation and responsibility to help others in the present, stressing the importance of caring for those in need now rather than waiting for the future Kingdom.

Reflection on Humanity’s Plight: The speaker recalls a colleague’s gift from the 1970s—a book titled “Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered” by E.F. Schumacher, which emphasizes the importance of people in economics. The speaker admits to not reading the book but is struck by its title and its implications about valuing individuals.

Schumacher’s Economic Principles:
– Schumacher advocated for an economic system that prioritizes local resources for local needs, emphasizing human-scale, decentralized, and appropriate technologies.
– He argued against excessive materialism and in favor of social and environmental responsibility, inspiring movements like Buy Locally and Fair Trade.

Biblical Foundations:
– The speaker cites John 3:16-17, highlighting God’s love for humanity and Jesus’ sacrificial death for everyone, including those with whom He had disagreements.
– Reference is made to Matthew 25:31-46, the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, which illustrates that acts of kindness towards others, particularly the needy, are akin to serving Christ.

The Meaning of Agape Love: The discourse stresses the need for agape love—selfless love that values all lives—emphasizing that this love should extend beyond our immediate circles to include all people, including strangers and adversaries.

Contemporary Examples of Indifference:
– The speaker shares stories highlighting how corporate interests often overshadow the value of human life, such as the downfall of Richmond Brothers Clothing and the tragic fate of Jewish refugees on the MS St. Louis during WWII.
– The speaker discusses corporate practices like “dead peasant insurance,” where companies profit from the death of employees, demonstrating a lack of regard for individual lives.

Tragic Events:
– The discourse touches on a recent school shooting, paralleling the despair with Christmas hymns that traditionally symbolize peace. The speaker shares a poem reflecting the grief and longing for change in light of ongoing violence.

Jesus’ Teachings on Neighborly Love:
– The speaker recounts the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), emphasizing that true neighborly love entails action and compassion towards those in need, regardless of societal divisions.

Stories of Generosity:
– The speaker recounts the remarkable hospitality shown by the people of Gander, Newfoundland, during 9/11, where the community came together to care for thousands of stranded passengers, exemplifying how people can matter to one another.
– Additional anecdotes illustrate individual acts of kindness, such as a nurse adopting a mother and her triplets and a restaurant owner continuing to pay employees after a fire.

Final Reflections:
– The speaker challenges the audience to reflect on whether they truly value the lives of others, advocating for a commitment to helping those in need now.
– The discourse concludes with references to James 4:4 and 1 John 2:15-16, clarifying that while Christians should not adopt the world’s values, they must engage with humanity to understand and uphold the dignity of every individual.

Call to Action: The speaker urges the audience to let their light shine through good deeds, as Jesus instructed, ultimately maintaining that love and compassion for all people are essential in living out one’s faith.

### Bible Verses Mentioned
John 3:16-17: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…”
Matthew 25:31-46: The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.
James 4:4: “Anyone who chooses to be a friend to the world becomes an enemy of God.”
1 John 2:15-16: “Do not love the world or anything in the world…”

Transcript

You know this hymn, in the Sweet by and by. Doesn’t that stir wonderful images in our minds of how wonderful and harmonious human society will be in the future? Sometimes when I go for a walk through our neighborhood after dark, I see the lights in the windows of the homes as I’m walking by, and I imagine that the Kingdom is here and everyone in each home is loved, supported, has enough to eat, and has been healed from their physical and emotional brokenness. All is at peace.

Do you look forward to helping that happen in the Kingdom? I’m sure we all do. But what about now? Do we feel motivated to help others in any way we can now? Do we have any responsibility to help those around us or strangers far away with the challenges they face in this life?

Does the present plight of humanity matter to us? You know, many years ago, when I started my working career in the 1970s, a colleague gave me a book that he had found to be very informative and inspiring, and it is from the title of the book that I have drawn the title of my remarks today. The title of the book was Small Is Beautiful Economics as if People Mattered. Well, I will tell you, I never read that book, but I have never forgotten that part of its title, as if People Mattered.

Now, I never read the book because I found the economics classes I was required to take in college very boring.

Now, having recently looked up summaries of the book and read about its author, E.F. shoemaker, I realized that I should have read the book because it presents a different picture of economics than I was exposed to in my college classes. But I gave the book away in a library book drive without ever having read it. Schumacher was a British statistician and economist, and in 1955 he. He traveled to Burma, today it’s Myanmar, as an economic consultant.

And while he was there, he developed a set of principles based upon the belief that individuals need good work for proper human development. He proclaimed that production from local resources for local needs is the most rational way of economic life, and he is best known for his proposals for human scale, decentralized and appropriate technologies. This is an economy with technology that is small scale, affordable by its users, labor intensive, energy efficient, environmentally sustainable and locally autonomous. The thesis of his book is that the economic growth must be responsibly balanced with the needs of communities and the environment.

It calls for the end of excessive materialism and consumption. It presents arguments for building our economies around the needs of communities, not corporations, and it has inspired such movements as Buy Locally and Fair Trade. Well, enough about EF Schumacher in his book. I don’t really want to talk about economics, but I do want to talk about the importance of people, of individuals, no matter who they are.

If there is one thing that I have learned as a disciple of Jesus, it is people mattered to Jesus just as they did to his Father. John 3, 16 and 17. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Jesus so loved the world that he willingly gave his life through death on the cross to save everyone.

Everyone, and when I consider that Jesus died on the cross to save even those who he strongly criticized, such as in Matthew 23, I get a message that those lives mattered to Jesus more than his disagreements with them. He loved them over and above the differences he had with them, over and above their rejection of him, over and above their plots to kill Him. He didn’t lay down his life for them just because His Father asked Him to. He did this because he loved them over and above every reason not to do so, at least from a human standpoint.

And I think people should matter to us just as much as they did to Jesus, and he gave us a parable to express that point. We know it as the Parable of the sheep and the Goats. I want to take time to read a portion of it, starting in Matthew 23, 30, 25, 31. When the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with Him.

He will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another. As a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 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. Then the righteous will answer him, lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or kneading clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to you the King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

The parable of the sheep and the goats is basically telling us that the standard for eternal life is valuing the lives of others to such a degree that we would feed them if they have no food, give them a drink if they are thirsty, give them a place to stay if they have nowhere else, clothe them if they need clothing, minister to them if they are sick, and visit them if they are in prison. That is a description of agape love, a love that values the lives of all others, not just by our words but by our deeds. Now I think we rightly understand the time element described in the opening verses to be When Christ comes to judge the nations, that is what it says. All the nations will be gathered before Him. But I asked myself the question, how many parables did Jesus give that were not intended for his disciples but intended for the people in the millennium?

And if Jesus is describing what agape love should look like for those who gain eternal life in the next age, should the agape love he is looking for in us, his disciples, in the gospel age, be any different? Be a lesser standard? I believe Jesus gave us this parable to help us understand how much people should matter to us. Not just our families and friends, but strangers, people of all cultures, people who have different values from from us, and yes, even those who might regard us as their enemy. All of these people should matter to us to such a degree that we would try to help them now as well as in the future.

But today we live in a world where people do not matter to the forces and the people that are controlling our social and economic and political structures. Let me share some examples. Anyone remember Richmond Brothers Clothing men’s clothing stores? It was started in Portsmouth, Ohio in 1879. By 1931 it had become the largest men’s clothing chain in the country.

Most of the clothing sold was made in the usa. The cloth was produced in two old mill towns in New England and its main production plant was in Cleveland, Ohio. It was very profitable and was a leader in employee relations. Executives greeted employees by name, birthdays were remembered and it was the first industrial organization in the country to grant paid two week and later three week vacations to all employees. But in 1969 FW Woolworth Company bought Richmond Brothers and through mismanagement it became unprofitable.

Woolworth tried to sell off this subsidiary, but no one would buy it. In 1992 Woolworth closed all 260 stores in the United States. Thousands of people nationwide lost their jobs. It crushed the economies of the two mill towns in New England, as that was the major employer in those towns. We learned this story from the assistant manager of the Madison, Wisconsin store who was a good friend of ours.

This is an economic story where people simply did not matter, only corporate profits. Now, I am not against capitalism, I’m not against corporations, but the problem with corporate capitalism today is that the workers simply do not matter to most corporate executives and boards of directors. As a disciple of Jesus, we cannot be in sympathy with any social economic operation where people do not matter. The well being of the people is the most important thing. Another story There was a Ocean liner, the Ms.

St. Louis. It was a diesel powered ocean liner built in Bremen, Germany for the Hamburg American Line. She was named after the city of St. Louis, Missouri and she regularly sailed the transatlantic route from Hamburg to Halifax, Nova Scotia and New York City.

In 1939, during the build up to World War II, the St. Louis carried more than 900 Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany intending to escape antisemitic persecution. The refugees had legal tourist visas to come to Cuba, but when the ship docked in Havana harbor, they were denied permission to disembark. After Cuba, the Captain Gustav Schroeder went to the United States and then to Canada, trying to find a nation that would take in the Jews, but both nations refused. He finally returned the ship to Europe where a few countries, United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands and France accepted some of the refugees and the rest went back to Hamburg.

Many were later caught in a Nazi roundup of Jews in the occupied countries, and some historians have estimated that approximately a quarter of those who were on the ship were killed in the death camps during the Holocaust. It is another sad story in which the lives of people did not matter.

Another story There is a practice in the corporate world, not as widespread as it once was, of companies taking out life insurance policies on thousands of low level employees with the death benefit payable to the company, not the family of the employee. Technically these are known as corporate owned life insurance policies, but as light has been shed on this practice, critics and the general public have referred to them as dead peasant insurance policies, and as long as the company continued to pay the annual premiums, the policy remained in force even after the person no longer worked for the company. Companies did this because it gave them tax benefits that helped to increase their bottom line profits. Corporations have used the death benefits to fund executive bonuses and employee pension funds.

Several high profile cases brought this practice to the public’s attention. One involving a Winn Dixie employee and another a Walmart employee. In one of those cases, the family only learned of the insurance policy. When the insurance company called them to get some information it needed to pay out the death benefit to the company that owned the policy. The family got none of the proceeds.

In another case, a company took out a policy for $340,000 on an employee who worked only briefly for the company. It was still in force when that man later died and his family got none of the 340,000 payout that went only to the company. Dead peasants sometimes worth more to their employer dead than alive. The family of the dead person didn’t matter, only corporate profits.

Another story. Two weeks ago I read a story about Phoenix Lumber Company in Phoenix City, Alabama. Since 2010, at least 28 workers at a plant that only employs 50 have been injured, losing fingers and hands when supervisors directed them to clear machine jams without locking out power to the machine first, a standard safety protocol for such situations, and three of those people died. In this period, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA, issued more than 180 citations to the company, with fines totaling $5.3 million for these safety violations.

You know, it is popular in the business community to complain about OSHA’s regulatory overreach, but its powers are actually very limited. It does not have the power to shut down a business like Phoenix Lumber Company. The maximum fine it can levy, even for a flagrant violation resulting in the negligent death of an employee is $165,000. That’s less than one half the daily fine under the Clean Water act for polluting our waters. As one former deputy director of OSHA stated, fines are higher for killing fish than for killing workers.

These tragic situations could have been avoided if the owners and supervisors had operated the mill. As if people, their workers mattered.

One more story on this past December 16th. There was a mass shooting at a school in Madison, Wisconsin. It was a mass shooting at Abundant Life Christian School. Maybe you saw that in the news. A 15 year old girl killed one teacher and one student and critically injured six other students.

And then she took her own life. My niece, Patty Hendricks is a school teacher in Janesville, Wisconsin, one hour to the south of Madison. This really hit close to her and she was shaken by this event at home that night. She considered the ironic contrast between such an event and the seasonal songs being sung in churches and played on the radio, and she wrote a poem and I’m going to share it with you you will undoubtedly recognize the Christmas hymn lyrics that she quotes in her composition.

Perhaps tomorrow I will be able to sing Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Perhaps tomorrow. How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given will again make sense to me but tonight, Tonight a voice is heard in Rama lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children because they are no more.

Tonight I hear the uncontrollable sobbing. Tonight I weep with Rachel. Tonight I’ve had enough of the images of a silent, sweet, peaceful sleeping baby. I want to hear Jesus coming, crying and screaming like a newborn waking up the world disrupting us, setting our teeth on edge, insistent, relentless, forcing us to change our routine, to abandon our hand wringing apathy, demanding to be fed, demanding that we love. Because today there is no peace today.

Today a gun has stolen another child from us. Another teacher did not go home to family Tonight another tortured young soul no longer has a chance to find healing. How dare we sing the little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head no crying he makes no Tonight in lament I can only sing There is no peace on earth for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth and in longing cry Come thou long expected Jesus born To set thy people free from our fears and sins Release us, and I know if Jesus comes like that, we will have work to do. It will take courage to come and behold him born the King of angels.

And if we truly are to come adore him and claim him as Christ the Lord, we won’t be able to do it by kneeling at a manger bed. We will need to act, and I also know Jesus did come like that. Jesus does come like that. God is not dead, nor does he sleep.

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail with peace on earth. Come Lord Jesus, oh how I beg you, come.

We have endured way too many of these tragic school shootings. Our leaders claim that these events are never the right time to discuss this issue. They act like there is nothing that can be done, and so they go on and on what might be done if our leaders had open and honest discussions about the lives lost and how much each of them mattered to their families and community. Instead of arguing about a statement in our Constitution, what if the people affected actually mattered to them?

Because right now the people, the students and the teachers, don’t matter enough to spur them to action, Jesus gave us another parable to emphasize that people, especially people in need, must matter to us, regardless of the differences that may lie between us and Them. We call it the parable of the Good Samaritan. You remember the context and story. An expert in the law asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him what thought law says in the law.

You responded by stating the two great commandments. Jesus said, do this and you will live. But the lawyer asked, well, who is my neighbor? And then Jesus gave the parable we all know so well. A man was walking on the road from Jerusalem down to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers who left him half dead.

A priest and then a Levite came upon him, but did nothing to help him and continued on their way. He did not matter to them. But then a Samaritan came upon him. This poor man mattered to the Samaritan. He took pity on the man and helped him, bandaging his wounds and taking him to an inn and caring for him.

And you know the rest of the story. Jesus asked the lawyer, which of the three men was a neighbor unto the man attacked by the robbers? The lawyer said, the one who showed mercy to the man. Jesus said, go and do likewise.

The lesson, brethren, is unmistakable. We may not come upon a person beaten and robbed by the side of a road, but there are many, many in this world who have been beaten down by sad circumstances of life, and I think we should not miss the opportunities to do as the Good Samaritan did. There are many inspiring stories in this world of people being Good Samaritans, demonstrating that people mattered to them, and I want to tell you a few stories from the events of 9 11, September 11, 2001.

The people of Gander, Newfoundland demonstrated people mattered to them in hundreds of ways. Now, those of us who lived through this event remember that when officials realized multiple targets were being hit, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all planes in U.S. airspace to land immediately at the nearest airport capable of accommodating the plane. The order also closed U.S. airspace to all inbound flights.

It was an unprecedented order. Nothing like this had ever been contemplated before in a bunker like building in remote Gander, Newfoundland, a city of 10,000 Canadians, is the air traffic control center that controls all flights going between Europe and North America. At the time of the attack on 9 11, the controllers were handling about 300 flights in that airspace. Every flight headed for a US destination had to be directed to land somewhere else. In the process of sorting this all out, 38 commercial jets were directed to land at Gander International Airport.

Wait a minute. There’s an international airport in Gander, Newfoundland, a remote city with 10,000 people and it’s capable of having 38 airliners land there. How could this be? And why would this major air traffic control center be located there? It’s an artifact of advancing aviation technology.

The airport was originally built as a military base shared by Canada, England and the United States, and it opened in 1938. It was the largest airfield in the world, and it played a critical role in World War II. After the war, the landing field focused on commercial aviation, because before the advent of jet engine technology, propeller driven airliners couldn’t carry enough fuel to fly directly from New York to London or Paris. So planes flew north to Gander, Newfoundland, where the distance across the Atlantic is much shorter, loaded up on fuel, and then took off for Europe.

Every flight going to Europe stopped in Gander to refuel for the trip across the Atlantic. Because of this need, the airport was humorously known as the world’s biggest gas station.

And that’s why the air traffic control center was established there. But on 91138 airliners landed there carrying 6,600 passengers and crew members. Initially, everyone thought that they would be there for perhaps a few hours before continuing on, anticipating a short delay. No one was allowed to get off the planes. However, passengers who were smokers and had mentally prepared themselves for a six hour flight without a cigarette now found themselves facing an indefinite number of additional hours without being able to light up.

A few flight crews broke the rules and allowed small groups of smokers to light up near the open door of the airplane. But most enforced the rules. On one Continental flight, two smokers developed the shakes so bad they had to be sedated. Well, the airport tower was alerted to this problem, and they relate it to the Red Cross. One of the people there had the idea to call the owner of a pharmacy in town.

Kevin O’Brien immediately grasped the problem. He grabbed several boxes and cleared out his entire supply of nicotine gum. Then he filled the backseat of his car with 25 cartons of nicotine patches and he raced to the airport, where the Canadian Mounties delivered the items to each of the planes requesting them, and why did O’Brien do this? Because the people on those planes mattered.

By mid afternoon on September 11, it became obvious that US airspace was going to be closed for the foreseeable future. When the official word came from the faa, town leaders in Gander and surrounding communities were already establishing shelters, preparing for as many as 12,000 people. They didn’t know how many were on the plains. All of the schools and churches were placed on alert. So were the organizations such as the Lions Club, Knights of Columbus, and the Royal Canadian Legion Hall.

Without waiting to be asked, the mayors of the smaller surrounding towns started calling in and offering their own facilities for the passengers. The Salvation army not only had churches in several of these towns, they also had a summer camp in the woods nearby that could hold hundreds of people. One of the biggest problems facing officials once passengers were allowed to come off the planes, was transporting them to the various shelters being set up. The logical answer was, what? School buses.

But on September 11, however, Gander was in the midst of a very nasty strike by the area school bus drivers.

As soon as the drivers learned what was happening, they laid down their picket signs, setting aside their interests, and volunteered en masse to work around the clock, carrying passengers wherever they needed to go. Why? Because there was an urgent need and these people mattered. The local radio station and public access television station started running announcements asking folks in town to donate food, spare bedding, old clothes, anything the passengers might need. At the town’s community center, a line of cars quickly formed, stretching from the front door for two miles as people brought sheets and blankets and pillows from their homes.

At times like these, why do people do these things? Because people, even total strangers, mattered. Passengers experienced people from the community coming to the shelters in the days that followed and offering to drive them anywhere they needed to go, such as to stores to buy clothes since all of the luggage was still on the planes. Other townspeople came and offered to take people to their homes to shower and relax, leaving the passengers there by themselves while the homeowners left to go help someone else with their needs, and this happened over and over and over.

Why would people do this?

Well, maybe, and maybe Sharon will appreciate this, maybe because they were Canadians and they have a reputation of being just a little bit nicer than other people’s, particularly towards strangers. But at a basic level, they did these things because the stranded airline passengers mattered to them. They were people in need, and they mattered to the people of Gander and the surrounding communities.

Sometimes when passengers went to stores to purchase items and pulled out their credit cards, the clerks would ask, you’re off the planes, right? When the passengers nodded, the clerks said, put away your cards. Just take the items. No payment was necessary. Every business in town joined in this effort, from the KFC and Subway food outlets to the telephone company, which set up banks of phones for free calls anywhere in the world, and tables with computers so people could communicate by email.

Well, after handling the initial nicotine crisis, Kevin O’Brien rallied the other pharmacists in town to face an even more daunting challenge. Many passengers had packed their prescriptions in their checked luggage, which was still on the planes. Many of those passengers were desperate to get their needed medications since they didn’t have their prescriptions with them. Kevin and the other pharmacists had to call the person’s hometown doctor or pharmacists to learn the exact medication and dosage and have a new prescription sent. During one stretch, O’Brien and his wife Rhonda worked 42 hours straight, making calls to a dozen different countries.

In the first 24 hours, Gander area pharmacists filled more than 1,000 prescriptions at no cost to the passengers. Why? Because the people mattered.

These and many more similar stories of the generosity and kindness of the people of Gander and surrounding communities are chronicled in a book entitled when the World came to town. 911 in Gander, Newfoundland. One lady who was amazed at this outpouring of generous, unconditional hospitality couldn’t help but think to herself that there wasn’t another place like Gander, Newfoundland on this earth. Well, there is, even if on a smaller scale. Years ago, Paul and Joyce Legno and Jan and I were traveling back to Omaha from a Fort Worth convention.

We ran into an ice storm and the roads got worse and worse, finally becoming too slippery to continue. So we turned around to go back to the last town we passed. Actually turning around was a challenge. Paul could not get the car moving to turn around, it was so slippery. So Jen and Joyce and I got out and we literally spun the car around.

100 degrees on the icy road. 180 degrees. As we got back to the town, we encountered a police patrol who pulled up next to us and asked us if we needed help. When they heard our situation, that we had come from a church convention in Texas, they told us a family in town had called them earlier and said if any motorists were stranded, bring them to their house. It was about 2am in the morning at this point.

The police led us there. The family took us in, got out of their beds, put fresh linens on the beds and told us to sleep and rest, and in the morning, they fed us breakfast. Why would they do this for complete strangers? Because to them, people mattered.

Are we that hospitable? Do people matter to us that much? The complete strangers in need matter to us that much. A couple of weeks ago on the news, there was a story featuring a story of a nurse named Katrina Mullen who worked in the neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital in Indiana. A pregnant 14 year old girl who had no family to care for her gave birth to triplets.

Caring for the three tiny babies for several months, Nurse Mullen got to know the 14 year old mother and developed a relationship with her, and as the time approached when the triplets would leave the hospital, Nurse Mullin knew they had no home to go to, so she invited the mother and the three babies to move in with her and her five children.

She was a single parent and eventually Nurse Mullen decided to legally adopt them all to provide a stable home for them. Nurse Mullen struggled to provide for herself and her own children. Why would she take on four more? Because people in need mattered to her.

Anybody been to a Culver’s restaurant? They’re not everywhere, but they started 20 miles from where Jen and I live. On November 16, 2013, a fire burned down the Culver’s Restaurant in Platteville, Wisconsin. The owner of that franchise decided to continue paying his 40 employees out of his own pocket during the six months it took to rebuild the restaurant. Why did he do this?

Well, Bruce Kroll says that continuing to pay his employees as his restaurant was being rebuilt was not only the right thing to do, but it was a smart business move because his employees mattered to him. All that Kroll asked of his employees was to volunteer their time to help the community, and among the things the employees did, they served Christmas dinner at an area church, volunteered at a camp, and held a fundraiser for the local fire department.

Do the people of this world matter to us? Do they matter to us now or only in the future? For me, I’m not sure it’s enough for me to say, lord, people really matter to me, and when the kingdom is established, I’m going to demonstrate that I think that sometimes we draw the wrong conclusion from such scriptures as James 4:4 don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend to the world becomes an enemy of God or First John 2:15 16 do not love the world or anything in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does, comes not from the Father, but from the world. We can sometimes think that these are counseling us to keep separate from the people of this world, but that was one of the mistakes of the Catholic Church system in establishing monastic orders. These scriptures are telling us to not be a friend to the ways and values of this present world. If we separate ourselves from the people of the world, we deprive ourselves of an understanding of how much each life matters to Jesus and his Heavenly Father.

I believe we need to live our lives in a way that demonstrates to God and Jesus that these lives matter to us as well, however different those lives are from our own, and in doing so, we will develop valuable skills and insights into the human experience that will help us do our work in the Kingdom. In a Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, you are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. If we are to be lights in this world, the world must see the good deeds we are doing, and they will best be seen if we are doing good to individuals who are in need. One way or another, they will see our love and our compassion and realize that they matter to us.

You know, none of us would mistake Jesus words or actions as condoning any form of sin. But he loved people over and above their sins. He was accurately accused by the self righteous Pharisees of being a friend of tax collectors and sinners and dining with them. Why? Because he loved them.

He loved getting to know them. He had not come to condemn them, but to save them. So when he was dying on the cross, I don’t believe it was an abstract sacrifice for abstract people hanging there. He could think about the many individuals he had come to know and he knew what he was purchasing for them. People as individuals, not some abstract humanity.

What can we do today to demonstrate that people really matter to us? Like some of the stories we listen to and to give our Lord evidence that we are truly committed to helping people, all kinds of people. When the highway that leads to holiness opens up and we have the opportunity to use the wisdom and skills that we have learned by helping people now in this life, may the Lord be praised.

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