Helping Hands

Helping Hands – Yeo Swee Lan

On Sunday, we had the tremendous privilege of hearing a sermon preached by Sister Yeo Swee Lan, especially renown for her leadership in Scripture Union for several years and currently involved actively in social work helping children with learning disabilities.

Titling her sermon “Helping Hands”, she started out by looking to the most powerful example of all – our Lord Jesus. His pair of hands nailed to the cross in love is perfectly symbolic of this principle.

Throughout His ministry, the Lord reached out time and again to various people, young and old, male and female, rich and poor, tax collectors and outcasts, the Lord helped them all at their points of need – spiritual, psychological, social and physical. His whole life was about meeting the needs of others and finally, culminating in His torturous death, the Lord met the ultimate need for salvation of all mankind.

In Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus gave the ultimate commandments:- Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. This is the first and greatest commandment! The second is equally important! Love your neighbor as yourself! We cannot love God without loving others. The entire is law is summed up in this simple requirement – we are required to love God and to love others.

Our neighbor, as perfectly illustrated in the story of the good Samaritan, is anyone at all who needs help and comes across our path.

Who are those who need Helping Hands? Matthew 25:31-46

(i)                  Those who are hungry – not only the physically hungry, but also those who hunger for friendship, dignity and love

(ii)                Those who are thirsty – not only the physically thirsty, but also those who are needy and weary

(iii)               Those who are strangers – the aliens and foreigners in our land

(iv)              Those who are naked – not only those without clothes, but also the socially scorned and exposed – the prostitutes, homosexuals and drug addicts

(v)                Those who are sick – not only the physically ill, but also the emotionally and mentally ill

(vi)              Those who are in prison – not only those physically in prison but those held captive by addictions

The challenge is for us to consider

Ø      Will I see?

Ø      Will I listen?

Ø      Will I empathize?

Ø      Will I ACT –Advocate(speak up for them),Care, Transform(take the time to help)

In closing, sister Swee Lan led us back to the familiar passage of Mark 2:1-12 which tells the tale of four faithful men who took great pains and lengths to bring their paralyzed friend to the Lord that he might be healed.

Caring for others can be very troublesome, especially in this day, when we hardly open our homes to friends, what more strangers. May the Lord grant us the compassion and love to take an active role in becoming more Christ-like, and truly be “Helping Hands” to others.

God bless,

Jason