Easter IV: Living God’s Embrace: Who can measure? – David Brubacher – May 3/09

If I could do it over again I would accept the seconds. It was a hot summer afternoon and we were just completing a window repair job. In an expression of gratitude our client bought us ice-cream. I rarely declined seconds for ice-cream.

             In the mid 1970’s, Richard Mininger and I founded Menno Home Repairs as a Mennonite Central Committee program in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. We did minor home repairs in a community with a high population of seniors who lacked the resources to maintain the homes they owned. Most of our clients came as referrals from a network of social workers.

            That is how we came to be working for Dora and Vincent. Dora owned the house and lived on the first floor. Vincent was the tenant and lived on the second floor. They were both in their eighties.  It was a typical three story row house with lots of windows on one side. The window frames were in poor shape and many of the window panes were broken.  Some of the holes had cardboard covers. Some did not. We fixed the windows.

            At one point Vincent mused about why the house was in such disrepair, “We just had it fixed up 25 years ago.” I am sure it was all of that. Not only were the widows broken, what paint was left had peeled and the wall paper was hanging. There was no running water in the house because the pipe bringing water into the house had rusted off at the ground level in the basement. To get water they opened the tap and scooped water from the pool that was created.

            With no running water little cleaning was done in the house. All the dishes were piled on the kitchen table. They were covered with a film of grime. The floor around the table was covered with about a half inch of built up dirt. There was no refrigeration.

            Vincent bought us a half gallon block of ice-cream and served us a very generous portion in the dishes from the kitchen table. I could not entertain seconds.

I tell this story to begin a sermon on poverty as part of our series on Living God’s Embrace: Who can measure? As a preaching team we discerned whether Doug Johnson Hatlem or I should preach this sermon. I welcomed the opportunity to preach a sermon for which I hardly feel qualified. My lack of qualification is reflected in the story I told. The story is about a situation of poverty. It also reflects the many and varied aspects of poverty. What is not clear is whether the story is about Vincent’s poverty or my poverty.

            For more than thirty years I have remembered this story with an element of regret. Was hygiene really the reason I declined seconds? In an act of gracious generosity Vincent turned the tables on me.  I went from being the provider of a service to the recipient of a gift that I had difficulty receiving. Today I believe Vincent was more gracious and generous in offering his gift than I was in offering mine. I needed what he had to offer me but I could not receive it. Who was the one in greatest need?

Poverty! How do we measure poverty? In our humanity we are all persons of need and lack the resources to be whole on our own. Some of us lack material resources. Some of us lack emotional and spiritual resources. Some of us lack wisdom. On our own few of us would be whole as created by God. Yes, I had skills Vincent needed, but I also needed Vincent’s gift of generosity.

            My title, From Wandering to Journeying, is taken from a chapter in the book, The Twenty Piece Shuffle, written by Greg Paul, a colleague of Doug Johnson Hatlem at Sanctuary. Paul tells the story of Max, a street person who had been involved in all manner of street life. In his wandering Max stumbled upon Sanctuary where he encountered a people committed to journeying together as God’s children. Max encountered God.

            Worship at Sanctuary includes people of privilege. Once Max prayed with graphic street language to express both his faith in Jesus and the depth of his pain. In the freedom Max felt to offer his prayer, a woman learned that Sanctuary was a safe please to wrestle with her questions of faith. Greg Paul notes that Max had become the “priest” those gathered needed. As the subtitle of the book suggests, the poor and the rich need each other. 

As I ponder the scripture texts read so well this morning, I see the reason for needing each other amplified. Psalm 23, the best known scripture text, gives the primary framework. Great confidence is expressed in God while also portraying the realities of life. The human experience is diverse: there are troubles expressed as “walking through the darkest valley,” sickness and conflict. There are also green pastures, still waters, and abundant signs of God’s healing mercy and grace.

            God is portrayed as a skilled and compassionate shepherd who cares. Commentators suggest the image of God is extended beyond shepherd for sheep to a model of host for human guests. In the various cultures of the ancient near east it was common to think of god’s and kings as shepherds charged with the task of caring for the people.

            If we think of that charge as a responsibility of leadership, what are the implications for the church today?  In a time when the voice of the church has a declining impact on society we need to reconsider how we seek to exercise leadership. We are in an opportune time to reclaim caring for the marginalized as central to a model of leadership within our social context.

            But how do we give leadership on the matter of poverty from our places of power and privilege? Various forms of addiction are often associated with poverty. We quickly move to thinking of the addictions and substance abuse seen on the streets. However, addictions to power, success and material items are no less a source of poverty. It was a certain image of power and success that kept me from receiving seconds. Our addictions to power and success also means there are not enough material resources for all to appreciate equally. In a global systemic way, our upper middle class addictions, and our attempts to mask them, are not unrelated to the addictions we see on the streets.

The Jesus we meet in John 10 models another way. Israel had long understood that the “good shepherd” or “shepherd king” spoken of in scripture referred to the coming Messiah. Jesus is portrayed as the good shepherd following the image of God in Psalm 23.

            The portion of John 10 we heard this morning is only one segment of the Jesus as “good shepherd” passage. Here the contrast between a shepherd and a hired hand is drawn. The good shepherd is characterized with a self-giving love that lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand runs at the slightest sign of danger. In Johannine literature this was often given as an admonition to pastor-shepherds of the day to keep their flock safe from false teaching and other wise protect them from the evils of the day.

            Again I wonder about the implications for the ministry of the church in today’s society. The point of the passage is not only about what God does for us in Jesus, but pushes at what we are willing to do for others. Jesus becomes the prototype for leadership in both the church and the marketplace. Even in the power dynamics of the corporate world of the last decade there has been a growing awareness of leadership as encouragement.

            During my time at MCEC there was a constituent that took issue with a particular matter. It so happened that matter was under a review lead by my assistant. The constituent did not agree with the timeline and suggested as “CEO” I should tell my assistant to do it immediately. I informed the individual that I exercised my role by empowering those who worked with me and unfortunately he had run into that empowerment.

            I wonder if there is not a similar dynamic in how the church relates to matters of material poverty. We become the hired hands who do not care for the sheep when we demand things go in our favour with total disregard for the impact on others. Providing empowerment through supportive programs and personal relationships is the way of self-giving love. Lazarus Rising, Sanctuary, Mennonite Central Committee, and Ten Thousand Villages are a few such programs.

            Through such programs relationships can be developed. Some years ago in a meeting with the executive leaders of Mennonite World Conference it was stated that what the church of the south needs from the north is not money, but business partnerships and assistance in leadership development. Relationships rather than resources alone are a key factor in responding to all manner of poverty.

            What I did not tell about Vincent and Dora’s house is that there was more than enough glass in the attic to fix every window in the house. We could have fixed every window on the block. They did not lack the material resources to fix the windows. They lacked connection to skills that could do the task at a rate they could afford. We kept in touch with Vincent and Dora and to see the pride in their refurbished house was a mutual gift.

I John 3:16-24 explores some of these dynamics even further. The themes that emerge from this text can be seen either as hopeful reassurance or as a cautious warning against compliance.

             The first, and in my reading of the text, the primary theme to emerge is that we cannot love God and ignore those in need. Reference is made to the one “who laid down his life for us,” namely Jesus, with the encouragement to do the same in relation to those in need. In the western world much of Christianity is seen to be about proper belief and right confession. The writer of I John pushes us to get beyond “word or speech” to a demonstration of our love for God in actions that benefit those in need.

            According to the text this is not only a ploy to address social needs but is at the core of any Christian assurance for which we may hope. The author suggests, “You claim to be a person of truth. Show me by your actions of love toward those in need and I will know that you come from the truth.”

            The text concludes by noting that at its core, the Christian life consists of two basic things, faith and love: faith in Jesus as the Son of God and love for one another as in Jesus’ new commandment.

The rich and the poor really do need each other. Rabbi Harold Kushner in a meditation on Psalm 23 suggests that the best way to begin to feel better about our self is to go out of our way to do something good for another person three times a week. In sharing the gifts we have across lines of poverty we can all grow toward the people God is creating us to be. When we come to that place we will discover that we have truly arrived at the “home” for which we long. There we can stop our endless wandering and begin to journey with purpose, God’s purpose.

            While the rich and the poor need each other, they do not readily meet. We live in isolation from each other. A growing edge in the mission of the church is the creation of channels where people from all manners of poverty can meet and share their gifts. Financial support of the good work we do collectively is important, but only giving our dollars keeps us isolated from others. In order for us to be blessed by the gifts those who are poor in a manner different than we are, we need vehicles to be in relationship with them.

            If you are interested to see how TUMC works at creating such channels, join us today for another Soup and Sophia lunch. During the listening part of our visioning exercise last year, people frequently described TUMC at its best when as a congregation we were involved in a local mission project: SCOC, refugee resettlement, rebuilding this facility, and Ten Thousand Villages Sale, were mentioned. People also wondered about new projects God might be calling us to consider. Lazarus Rising was named. At the lunch we will hear about a vision to expand the ministry of Lazarus Rising. Many opportunities for rich and poor to be blessed by each other could be created. There continue to be opportunities for refugee resettlement. We at TUMC do not all have the same gifts. For that reason I believe we need a variety of channels by which to both give and receive.

 I believe the Christian church is at a cross road. Will we continue to wander in the wilderness of looking after our own interests? Or will we journey with Jesus in giving of ourselves? Our oppressive busyness will be one of the greatest hurdles to overcome. Perhaps even here we can move from wandering to journeying with those who have needs different from our own so that together we will find the “home” for which all people long. AMEN.