LENT 2C 2010
HOLE IN OUR GOSPEL #2
SHOW VIDEO OF LITTLE GIRL IN YELLOW
DRESS FROM
Every time I see this video I get choked up. It is so very powerful. In this short scene of her setting up her bed for the night we can see her personality. It is orderly. It is strong. And yet, we see her so very vulnerable, a maybe 7 or 8 year old little girl, sleeping alone on the streets. As parents, we cannot imagine this being our own child.
It reminds us that behind all the statistics, when we talk about poverty, we are talking about real people, just like us. As Richard Stearns writes, as we go along in this journey, we always need to remember:
As we begin this sermon I want to again remind you of the two foundations upon which we are approaching this topic. The first is the foundation of grace. We do not try and earn God’s love and favor, for God already loves us. Grace gives us the courage and the desire to respond to God’s love, and it is this response which results in works. The second foundation is the “no judging rule”. We are striving to lay aside our judgments of the poor and needy, as well as our judgments of other brothers and sisters. Remember the quote from Fr. Nouwen:
Compassion
can never coexist with judgment because judgment creates the distance, the
distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other.
We cannot care about others if we judge them, especially if we decide that they are getting what they deserve. This takes a whole lot of work, and changing of attitudes, but it is a good goal to strive for. Let God be the judge of others. It frees us up a whole lot!
The first point I want to stress this morning.. a point which this book helped me to understand much more clearly and powerfully, is that of the growing gap between the richest people on earth and the poor. In our study guide we read this:
In 1820 the gap between the richest and poorest
countries was about four to one. In 1913 it was 11 to 1, and in 1950 it was 35
to 1. By 2002 the gap was 75 to 1.
The 10 wealthiest nations are 75 times richer than
the poorest nations.
I don’t know how accurate these statistics are, but from my limited experience in traveling to other countries, it is clear that our wealth is incredible compared to many people around the world.
Over the last twenty plus
years, due to the ease of travel and the
increase of communication, we in this country are becoming ever more aware of
this gap. A hundred years ago, not only
was the gap not as large as it is today, but most of us wouldn’t have known about what was happening
in Africa or
But now we know, and this creates a new challenge for we who call ourselves Christians. We cannot say that we did not know.
I have been thinking lately about how our culture can blind us to God’s truth. I wonder what I would have done and thought if I had been brought up in the 1830’s or 40’s in the South, in a good Episcopal family, living on a farm which owned slaves. Would I have been able to see the injustice in what the whole culture accepted as normal? We might think it is easy to see now that slavery was terrible, but clearly people at that time did not see it?
In a similar way, I think that our use of our wealth might be just as unjust and evil as slavery was in times past – in light of God’s justice and truth. Somehow, over the years, we have fallen into a way of life that assumes that we need more and more, and thus we work more and more, to have more and more, often ignoring the needs of others around us. We have more and more, and yet we still desire more. And as I say these things, I want to make sure that you understand that I am including myself in all that I say. I am sharing with you what I feel God is saying to me, and thus maybe to many of us.
The last two Sundays we have read the ten commandments. The last commandment says: Thou shalt not covet. The commandment, in Exodus chapter 20 says this:
17You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet
your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything
that belongs to your neighbor. Exodus 20:17
As I think about my own experience in our society, it seems to me that our whole economic system is based on the desire to have what we don’t have. If you are like me, very seldom does this 10th commandment enter my mind when I think about spending money on things I don’t have. Why am I getting this thing? Over and over again in the Bible, besides this very clear commandment, we are warned to fight against our greed.
This is about as powerful a warning as one can get.
15And he (Jesus
) said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for
one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
16Then he told
them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17And he thought to himself, ‘What should I
do, for I have no place to store my crops?’
18Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build
larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have
ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very
night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared,
whose will they be?’ 21So it is with
those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” Luke
12:15-21
This parable ends: So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” The whole purpose of this Lenten study is to help us move farther along in becoming rich towards God, and becoming less concerned about having more in this life!
Notice in this parable, that Jesus does not say that this man earned his wealth through hard work. Jesus says “The land of a rich man produced abundantly..” One of the myths that we often have is that somehow, someway, we DESERVE what we have. We often hear people say that they worked hard for their success. And they probably did. But did they work any harder than the Mexican laborer in the fields, year after year, working 8 to 10 hours in the hot sun, picking or cutting fruit? Did they work harder than the women in another country walking miles for water, cooking food, washing clothes, and caring for their children?
As our reading clearly pointed out, poverty is “fundamentally the result of a lack of options.” (pg. 118). The book talks about a web of poverty.. a very good image. Lack of food, lack of water, or clean water, lack of health care, and thus exposure to disease and infections, lack of education, lack of a stable government and thus a stable society that one can trust, and finally, in many places, wars that prevent any type of normal life to exist.
Where would we be if we grew up always hungry, with little water, no health care, no dental care, no education and in a country where there was no social stability? Or even in our own country, where would we be if our mother was a crack addict, and we did not know our father, and we lived in a housing project surrounded by gangs and drugs, and our schools were second rate?
Would we be where we are today? I can say honestly, that I would not.
There is a saying by Jesus that applies to many of us in this room.
From everyone to whom much has been given, much
will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more
will be demanded. Luke 12:48
What I hope this Lenten journey
does for us is make us aware of our material wealth… and our education and
skills, and then challenge us to struggle with what we
do with it. In our lesson from 2 Corinthians the Apostle Paul talked about a
“fair balance” between those who have those who have need. When I visit
It is clear to me that I am one of those to whom much has been given, and how I live and what I do bothers me… yes.. I feel guilty. But you know what, I cherish this guilt, because it is a clean guilt which continues to challenge me more and more to care and be generous. When I step back and ponder my Christian life, in a real sense, this pushing by the Spirit of God has always been there. Whether it has to do with what I do with things, or how I treat people, or my moral values, the Spirit of God, like a loving mother, is always there, not only to comfort and love me, but to prod and push me. Any parent knows that, when they force their kids to do homework, or they prevent them from watching TV all day long, or they force them to go to church, or to take music lessons, and much more, the goal is not to torture their child and make their lives miserable. The goal is to make them more successful and healthy human beings.
This is how I interpret the challenges that come my way through the Bible. Our heavenly parent is trying to open our eyes to what is true. Guilt is not always bad. If I steal or kill or lie and then feel guilty.. that is a good thing. If, as we go through this journey, and we begin to see that maybe we should concentrate less on ourselves and care a little more about others, and we feel guilty.. this is not bad. If we begin to realize that we are amazingly wealthy.. and we are really very selfish, and we really give away very little of what we have, and our goal in life has been to get all we can and live a comfortable and happy life.. and we then begin to feel a little guilty… this might be a good guilt, for it can motivate us to change and maybe do more for others.
My whole Christian life I have struggled to find a formula for giving that will make me relax and feel like I have done enough.. But you know what, no matter what I do, I always feel my heavenly parent guiding and challenging me to do more. Why is this? Simply because I have so far to grow and there is so much to be done. Even during the time when I lived with almost no material goods for years, the Lord was working on other parts of my life. Now that I have material goods, the Lord has more to work on in my life.
So in closing this message, if you feel challenged, and maybe even a little guilty, see this as a good thing. This is the whole point of this journey. I believe the Spirit of God is striving to open, not only our eyes at Faith Episcopal Church, but the eyes of all of the church in the Western world, to see the world around us, and then to challenge us to respond. There are no easy answers. There are no programs that will solve the worlds problems. This is a life long process of responding to God’s call to care for the others in the world around us. And for us, it won’t end until the day we take our last breathe.