Help Us!

“Help us.” Those who answered the call to help our country by serving in the armed forces to the point of death are remembered and celebrated this Memorial Day weekend. The words, “Help us,” were no doubt also said by those killed last week in Uvalde, Texas.

The words, “Help us,” are powerful. When you hear these words in connection with Memorial Day, Uvalde, Texas, Buffalo, New York, the Ukraine, and so many other tragedies the words have the power to bring you to tears. These words express a person’s realization that they are powerless in a situation. They recognize someone else must become part of the situation or there will be terrible consequences. These words also have power because they alert others to respond to a dire situation. These words can bring safety when heard by someone who has the power to rescue, deliver, protect, counsel and save, but often, the one crying for help does not know who might hear their call and is not in their right mind to call for a specific helper. The best-case scenario for someone calling out, “Help us,” is that someone with the right power, abilities, training and willingness will respond.

In our Old Testament reading from Acts 16, God allowed Paul to have a vision of someone asking for help. Paul was traveling with other missionaries from town to town, when 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When Paul woke up, he knew that he had to go to help the people in Macedonia, the country to the North of Greece. Paul did not know the specific situations of the people in Macedonia who needed his help, but that did not stop him. Paul knew that the kind of help the people of Macedonia needed was universal; they needed help with sin.

Sin is what causes all people to cry out, “Help us.” Most people do not realize that sin is what makes them cry out for help. Jesus made it clear that sin causes all of us to cry out for help in Mark 7, where Jesus said,

“21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

This list of evil comes from all our sinful hearts. These cause people to cry out for help, but even our crying out for help is not clear. When someone a toddler is screaming incoherent words, they are crying for help. When a teenager says that they hate their parents and turn to reckless or perverse behaviors, they are crying for help. When people yell at the news, post divisive comments on social media, obsess over work or some form of entertainment or fill in the blank, they are crying for help. Even when a person commits a terrible act of violence or when people say that prayers to God are pointless because the world is a mess and it appears to them that God is doing nothing to help, they are crying for help. Sin causes us to cry out for help because it has severely, universally and personally hurt us. So, we as individuals and as humanity need someone outside ourselves to help us.

God is the one outside of us who came to help us. In our Gospel reading from John 17, Jesus prayed on the night before he was crucified,

20 “My prayer is not for them [the disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”

Jesus himself prayed for his disciples. Jesus himself prayed for all believers. Jesus himself prayed for you. It is sad that so many have denounced prayer as being useful when so many are crying out for help. Jesus’ prayer was for you to be saved from the world. Jesus continued to pray, 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” Jesus prayed that you would be with him in heaven. He knew the way for you to be with him in heaven was to save you from your sins. Jesus was not helpless when he was arrested and crucified. Instead, he showed the highest level of power, restraint. Picture all of Jesus’ power like the water held back in a dam. When Jesus was arrested, falsely accused, beaten and crucified, at any moment he could have completely unleashed his power changing his circumstances by removing people from existence, by changing their minds or by teleporting back to heaven, but he showed restraint and allowed himself to die for your sins to save you. When the world was crying out for help not knowing their real problem was sin or the only one who could save them, Jesus came to save the world. Paul knew this was what the people in Macedonia needed as we read in our Old Testament reading from Acts 16, 10 “After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” Jesus’ forgiveness is the gospel and the gospel helps us.

Before we are reminded that the gospel helps us in every situation, it is a good reminder that God has also provided specific helpers for specific situations. For example, there are people like doctors who help when you are sick, parents to help children grow up, teachers to educate, pastors to share Jesus, police to keep us safe, etc. For all these we thank God and would not tell a person to avoid doctors, parents, teachers, pastors, police, etc. as if they should only wait for God to miraculously appear to them to set a broken bone, pack their school lunch or arrest a criminal. Now, back to the gospel helping us.

The gospel helps us in every situation. When Paul arrived in Macedonia, we hear about some of the people he helped. First, we read in Acts 16,

14 “One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home.”

A single woman living in a different city than she was born in named Lydia and her household learned about Jesus and were baptized. Paul helped her and her household see God’s love for them even if their family situation was unique. Then, we read about a demon possessed girl who,

17 … followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

A young woman physically and spiritually enslaved and exploited was healed by the name of Jesus. Paul showed the power of God and this outcast, ignored girl was forever changed. Then we read, 19 “When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.” Paul and Silas were thrown into prison for helping this girl, but God sent an earthquake in the middle of the night to shake open their prison doors and cause their chains to fall off. No prisoners left though, which astonished the jailor who,

29 … called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.

Paul and Silas did not fight back or use their rights to avoid prison. Instead, they went to prison for the gospel, and spent their time 25 … praying and singing hymns to God. The preached the gospel to their fellow prisoners and even with their jailor. And God saved a desperate, lost man and his family through the gospel and baptism. Each of these situations was unique, but Paul helped all of them with the gospel.

The gospel helped you. Jesus saved you from your unique sins by dying on the cross, he has washed you clean from your sins through baptism, he has given you the gift of faith by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the word and he has prepared a place for you to live with him in glory in heaven forever. When you are crying for help, remember to give thanks to God for those who respond to help you. When you are crying for help, remember also to give thanks for the gospel and all God has done for you. And if you are crying for help, let me be like Paul and share the gospel with you. And if you know someone who is crying for help, help them. In our New Testament reading from Romans 15, Paul wrote,

14 I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another.

You can help others. You can help others by sharing the gospel, the good news of Jesus’ forgiveness. Like Paul, I am convinced that you are equipped and that your church is continuing to help equip you. You are being equipped with the Word of God and by the power Holy Spirit in worship, Bible Study, personal Bible study and devotions, reading Meditations, reading Forward in Christ, online devotional materials, the bulletin from today with all the readings, hymns, prayers and Bible Study plans, your own personal pastor and our Personal Member Ministry program that takes you into Scripture to learn your spiritual gifts and connect you to ministry in your home, work, school, community and our congregation.

“Help us.” Those words are powerful as we give thanks for those who helped protect our country with their lives this Memorial Day weekend. Those words are powerful as our hearts break for all who have suffered loss in Uvalde, Buffalo, the Ukraine and many other tragedies. God hears your crying for help and he has helped you with your Savior Jesus. Forgiveness, love, eternal life and heaven are yours. And you have purpose and can help others with this same message of Jesus. “Help us.” God has, God is and God will through Jesus. Amen.