Orphan Sunday 2018

41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” ()

This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Introduction-

Today is Orphan Sunday, and maybe you’ve never heard of such a Sunday before. I hadn’t until a few years ago. This is not just something our church is doing. This is not just something our denomination is doing. This is not just something evangelical churches are doing. This is an initiative that is spreading through the capital C Church, the universal Church, all believers everywhere globally!

Orphan Sunday seems to have gotten its start in a church service in Zambia, Africa. An American happened to be visiting a Zambian church service and was struck by the pastor’s passionate call to care for orphans in the local community, which had been ravaged by AIDS and poverty. Members of the church faced deep need themselves. But as the service ended, one after another stepped forward with money, food and other goods-some even taking off their own shoes and placing them in the offering for orphans.

The American visitor was so impacted that he began to help Zambian leaders coordinate Orphan Sunday efforts across Zambia. These efforts spread to the U.S. in 2003, and many churches and organizations have hosted an “Orphan Sunday” over the years. But for the first time in 2009, the Christian Alliance for Orphans united organizations and churches across the globe in a shared vision for Orphan Sunday. We would rise together for orphans — not merely to benefit one group or mission, but to see God’s people worldwide rise as His first answer for children who lack the protection and care of family.

The term “orphan” is somewhat misleading. We use that term because it is the biblical term, but we are really talking about all children who lack the protection and care of family. Some due to the death of parents, leaving them truly orphaned. Some due to impoverished economies where parents and extended family cannot afford to raise their children, so the children go to orphanages or other places of care or sometimes are left to fend for themselves. Many in our own country due to parent mental illnesses or incarceration or violence or drug abuse that prevents them from caring for their children, so the children end up in foster care. All children who have lost the protection and care of family are included in the church’s focus on this day through sermons and small groups, concerts and prayer gatherings, shared meals and youth activities—each stirring believers with God’s call to care for the orphan, and what ordinary people can do in response.

The Heart of God

But for all of our talk about how this day got its start, the true start to this day and to caring for orphans is in the heart of God. Woven throughout the fabric of the Old Testament we see God as “defend[ing] the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and lov[ing] the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing” (). The Psalmist says, ”5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. 6 God sets the lonely in families” (). God’s creatures who are weak and unable to defend themselves are a matter of special priority in God’s heart, and he embraces them, defends them, and uses his people to protect them. So here we have all-powerful, sovereign God caring about the weakest and the most vulnerable, and not just caring about them, but stepping into the fatherly role to support and protect and defend. A friend of mine who is a leader in the Orphan care initiative in Texas said, “It is entirely counterintuitive for someone with immeasurable power and unlimited resources at His disposal to not only consider the marginalized but also to claim them as family. This is one of the many facets of God’s immutable character that moves us to worship Him” (Kendrick).

And this passion of God’s heart for the tangible, physically orphaned and vulnerable then becomes a spiritual reality for us in the New Testament when WE as spiritual orphans were pursued and defended and adopted into God’s very own family.

We all have our own unique stories of sin’s destructive effects on our lives--our sin, other people’s sin. We were rebellious and ravished and victimized by sin in a hundred different ways, and when sin had done its work, it kicked us to the curb and abandoned as vulnerable, defenseless, lifeless orphans.

(NIV) says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.” The Message translation of v. 3 says, “It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us.” Would anybody stick their neck out and care for that? Would anybody scoop up that and bring it into their family? We know the answer is “yes, the One whose heart’s passion is to care for orphans.”

The very next verse in (MSG) says, “...[I]mmense in mercy and with an incredible love, he [the one who had every right to lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us] embraced us.” And he didn’t stop there. (NLT) says, “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” God ran to me, a vulnerable, defenseless, lifeless orphan, and he said, “I’ve been waiting for you and hoping you would come. You look like you need a family. Come, be a part of mine.” And when God extended that invitation to us, it seemed so easy, so impossible, yet something told us deep in our spirits that this was true. Whatever it was that had abandoned us in this terrible state was forgiven, and we stepped into a completely new family, with a brand new identity as children of this Father God.

That is the gospel. That is the good news. Adoption is the gospel message. It is what happens when Jesus is embraced as the LORD who is the Father to the fatherless. We were all orphans, and we have all been adopted into the family of God.

This is why we care for orphans--why we must care for orphans-- because in caring for orphans, we are physically acting out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is incarnational ministry, the Gospel in flesh. We are pouring out our lives for the sake of others, just as Christ poured out his life for us.

James goes so far as to say that ”27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (). Why is orphan care an indicator of true Christianity? Because when we truly recognize our own orphan-hood and truly embrace God’s adoption of us as sons and daughters, we are compelled to care for others in this same way. It is the greatest commandment. It is the love for God releasing the love of God in our lives. It is loving because he first loved us. It is acting out in physical reality what we have received spiritually.

The Orphan Crisis

And the need is incredible. In fact, the need has been dubbed “The Orphan Crisis.” Listen to these staggering statistics. There are 150 MILLION documented orphans in the world, and many countries would not submit their numbers to contribute to this statistic. 150 MILLION. That is nearly half the population of the entire United States. Can you imagine? Half of our country being children who lack the care and protection of family?

It’s easy to think that these vulnerable children are in underdeveloped countries in Africa and other areas of the world, and many of them are, and certainly orphan care is needed across the globe, including international adoption. But the crisis is in our own backyard in the form of the foster care system where over 400,000 children lack the protection and care of family in our homeland, in our communities. And in the majority of cases, not only do these children lack the protection and care of family, but the family that should be protecting and caring for them is many times abusing them, and for some of these children, from the time they are in the womb, their brains are being wired to function in a world that is dangerous for them, where they are neglected and abused by the people who are supposed to be caring and providing for them. Nearly 7% (27,000) of all of the US children in foster care are in the state of Texas, and 6,500 of those are waiting for adoptive homes. Of the 27,000 foster children in the state, over 1,400 of these are in Dallas county, and 560 children are waiting to be adopted in Dallas and Ellis counties.

And the future looks dim for so many of these local orphans. One of the most horrifying statistics to me is that 60% of children who are sex trafficked in our country have a history in the child welfare system. 60%! Why?! Because no one is defending them. No one is protecting them. No one is stepping in and saying, “You matter to me. You matter to God. You are valuable. God wants to redeem all that you’ve experienced and use it for your good and his glory. You have a future ahead of you.” 26,000 kids age out of the foster care system every year in our country without having been adopted. That means they turn 18 and basically get turned out of the system to fend for themselves without a family or a support system, and you can imagine what kinds of lives they live and the targets they have on their backs.

Does anyone feel overwhelmed by this? I do! Maybe you are saying, “I just had no idea that the problem was this huge, this pervasive. I’m having trouble even wrapping my mind around the enormity of these numbers.” Well, let me just throw out one more statistic.

While we have 400,000 kids in foster care in the United States, with so many waiting for a permanent adoptive home and family, we also have something like 350,000 churches in our country. 350,000 churches who follow a God who adopted them when they were orphans and pours his love into them so that they can pour that love into others in the same way. 350,000 churches who follow a God who is the Father to the fatherless, the Defender of widows and orphans, who sets the lonely in families. 350,000 churches who follow a God who restores what is broken by becoming broken himself. It’s not hard to do a quick mental estimation and see that God’s people have got to step up. God’s people have got to engage the layers and layers of sin and brokenness that have led to the orphan crisis to begin with.

Call to Action

So I’m calling us to action here. Well, God’s calling us to action here. The way of Jesus is calling us to action here. We can’t receive the adoption to sonship from our heavenly Father and close our ears and our eyes to the great need in our world for the same kind of care that the Father has shown us. We can’t bury our heads in the sand anymore. I know there are many legitimate challenges that we face that would try to keep us from engaging in Orphan care.

Lack of information (Who is in need and what are the needs? How can we meet them?)

Physical realities might keep us from being able to foster or adopt (health, age, physical space, etc.).

The problem is too overwhelming. I am one person. What could I possibly do?

All of these things are real, legitimate obstacles that we may face. The need is incredibly overwhelming, and I have presented you with some staggering numbers this morning. But listen to me. No one can do everything. No church can do everything. But everyone can do something. Everyone can do something! What is your something? 400,000 kids needing care and homes and families and Jesus. Who is the one child, the one family, the one organization that you can impact? If all God’s people stood up and said, “I’m going to do my one thing! I am going to invest in one child. I’m going to support one family.” If all the people in those 350,000 churches in our country did their something, their one thing, I don’t think it’s off base to say that the orphan crisis could be eradicated in our country. Families could receive healing and restoration. Children could live without fear and could discover their true Father God who has created them to look like him and to fulfill a purpose for his kingdom. The Kingdom of God would be manifested everywhere we turned our heads.

I started out this morning by reading the story of the widow, an especially vulnerable person in the time and culture where her story takes place, who brought her offering into the temple. Jesus had been sitting there watching all of these wealthy people come and pour out large quantities of money into the temple treasury. He watched people throw in cash that could make a big dent in ministry needs, and, no doubt, he watched their own pride and the awe of the people around them that they would give so extravagantly.

And then he watched the widow meagerly approach the collection box. He watched the crowd look down their noses at her and make unkind remarks about her as she was only able to put in two coins, pennies, what seemed like nothing. But Jesus saw very clearly what they did not realize--that she had given “all she had to live on.” She placed her entire livelihood into that box. Her gift cost her so much. And while the gift itself may have been so insignificant compared to others, Jesus valued her gift more than all of the others. He knew the significance and the value of laying down one’s whole life as she in essence had.

No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. What is your something? What does it look like for you to put your whole life in the offering plate for God to use? What could that look like for orphans? For families in crisis? For families on the front lines bringing orphans into their homes and bringing families in crisis into their lives? For organizations that are directly serving this population? What kind of Kingdom realities might come into view if all of God’s people gave as extravagantly as that widow for the sake of orphans? I get goose bumps just thinking about it.

I have been thinking and reading and praying so much about this day, and I have been asking the Lord, how can we mobilize your people to engage the orphan crisis? And the first thing that the Lord told me is that he wants you to hear it from him. He wants to be the one to instill passion and creative ideas and conviction and motivation into each of us. So the first item in my call to action for you today is 8 weeks of prayer, listening, and learning regarding your something in the orphan care crisis. We are about to enter into the holiday season where family is a huge focus. You will likely been spending a good amount of time with all sorts of family, and I am challenging you to ask the Lord what he would have you do to care for those who lack the protection and care of family. Involve everyone in your house in this. Pray and talk and ask questions together. Read some articles or books about this issue. Look up some frontline organizations to see what kinds of things they are doing and how you may be able to support them. Seek me out or another foster parent you may know to pick our brains or have a conversation about questions you may have or things that might be in your head. Ask God to give you creative ideas about resources you may have that could be a great help to orphans or families serving them.

Handout

I have made a handout for you as a starting point to get you thinking about ways you could potentially serve. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it’s a start to help you to see some of the things that are needed and ways you may be able to plug in.

[Go through handout]

Keep this in a visible place in your home so you don’t forget to pray. Put it on your refrigerator or kitchen table or bathroom mirror as a reminder of the call God has for us as his adopted sons and daughters.

Throughout the 8-weeks, you will receive a steady drip of orphan-care-related things that will help to keep the issue in the forefront of your mind and also give you ways to connect orphan care to your lives and your families.

And when the 8 weeks is up on January 6, we are going to come together as a church during the Sunday School hour to have a follow-up discussion that I’m calling “Coffee with Katie.” This will be a time for us to share with each other some of the things that the Lord has been saying during our 8 week prayer challenge and any questions or concerns we have. This will also be a time where we can brainstorm together about what kinds of things we might be able to do as a church and start to determine what the next right step may be for us both individually and corporately.

And let me tell you that I am excited about how the Lord is going to move and mobilize us, his people. We as a staff are excited as we have been seeing the movement of the hand of God in ways that lead us to confidence in the fact that God is orchestrating things here. He is moving here. He has placed us here for such a time as this. There is no limit to what God can do when his people surrender their lives to him.