Sermon time!
Since we missed the "official" Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Sunday back in October, we switched it to this past Sunday. It also happened to be the Sunday when I was going to preach. So preach I did. And Peter got two phones calls from people who were annoyed by my sermon (they thought I was being political - I wasn't). Go me! I did my job!
AIDS has claimed over 20 million lives and another 39 million people worldwide are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS. More than 13,000 people worldwide are infected with HIV every day. Every 22 minutes someone somewhere around the world is killed or maimed by a landmine blast. Over the last 55 years, anti-personnel mines have caused more deaths and injuries than nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons combined. Every ten seconds, a child dies because of a disease linked to dirty water. Last year, 3.4 million people died from diseases associated with an inadequate water supply. 1.4 billion children in the world have no access to clean water near their homes.
I know that’s a lot of statistics to have flung at you at once, and it must be overwhelming to hear them coming at you so fast. But imagine actually living just one of those statistics. Imagine being the victim of a landmine, or being newly infected or affected by HIV/AIDS, or not having an adequate water source. Throughout the whole world, there are people living these scenarios, not just hearing them. So the question I ask is, What are we doing about it?
It’s not like we haven’t been told what we should be doing with what God has given us. That’s what today’s reading from Deuteronomy is all about - opening our hands and our hearts and meeting the needs of those who are struggling.
In an ideal world, there would be none in need. But this is a world that is far from ideal, and God knows that even better than you or I. God says, “There should be no one in need, but since there will be, those who have are entrusted with the responsibility to provide for those who don’t.” “There will never cease to be some in need on earth” - so what is God’s response? A commandment: “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor.”
It’s so easy to sit in our comfortable armchairs, to sleep in our comfy beds, to eat three complete meals a day, to have access to clean water, to own a car, to buy whatever other accessories we absolutely need to survive - another television, another DVD player, the latest Playstation…but what about those people who don’t even have the basics? It’s so easy to sit in our homes, cool in the summer and warm in the winter, and say, “I can’t possibly do anything for them because they are somewhere out there and I am sitting here miles away.” But being far away is no excuse. God doesn’t want our excuses; God wants our action.
We have been warned - don’t be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward those who need assistance. God has blessed us with so much, and what do we do with it? We hoard it, hide it away, keep it for ourselves, afraid that we might lose it, or perhaps, like the third slave in Jesus’ parable, we are too lazy to get up off our couches and actually do something with it.
The third slave takes what is given to him, and is left with a choice: play it safe, or risk what’s been given to him. Playing it safe is easy. It was safe for the third slave to put the talent in the ground, and wait for his master to return. It was safe to not run the risk of losing what he was given. It was safe to take what was given to him and become tight-fisted to protect it, hoarding it away from the world. By using what was given to him, he ran the risk of losing it, and nothing could be worse than that.
Or so he thought. By playing it safe, by taking the easy route, he actually lost everything he had. He lost everything by not risking something.
Reaching out to those in need is not always easy, and it’s definitely not always safe. But we are not called to take the easy route or to play it safe. We are not called to act on fear, or timidness, or our own laziness. As children of God, followers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are called to reach out to those in need, despite the cost, despite the danger, and even despite the fact that in reaching out to our needy neighbor, their life will not be the only one that is changed.
Last January, I went on a seminary-sponsored tour of Israel, Palestine, and Jordan. We spent two weeks traveling through that land, seeing the “holy” sites. What remains with me the most are our interactions with the Palestinian people.
One of our stops was Augusta Victoria Hospital, a place where Palestinians can come to receive the medical care they so desperately need. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. They have to take several buses to get there, stopping at different checkpoints, and are required to provide paperwork that allows them to pass through those checkpoints. They make the long trek, sometimes several times a week, knowing that even though they have the paperwork that is required, some days they might not be able to pass through those checkpoints.
How many of you have ever been on a bus, and had that bus boarded by armed guards, checking to see if you have the correct paperwork that allows you to go where you want? Even though we knew that we could have safe passage, it was still a nerve-wracking experience, and a sobering reminder of what the Palestinian people have to go through every day just to receive medical care to survive.
“Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.” That’s exactly what Augusta Victoria is doing in Palestine, offering medical care and hope to a people who could not otherwise receive it. And it is through the support of the Lutheran World Federation that Augusta Victoria Hospital is able to keep its doors open.
But they can’t do it without us. Without our willingness to step up and support the work of LWF, none of this will continue. Without the funds, the hands, and the hearts to carry out this work, it will not happen. Our hearts harden, our fists become tight, and we forget about those who need our assistance. We view those in need with hostility, and think, “It’s not my job to take care of them. That’s what the LWF is there for.” We forget - we are the LWF. We are part of the 66 million Lutherans who are making a difference. But more than that, we are the children of God who are proclaiming the Gospel of Christ throughout the world by our words and our deeds.
Every week, my congregation in Baltimore is dismissed by saying our mission statement together, “Our mission is to proclaim the message that God is love to our community in word and deed.” That’s not only the mission of Epiphany Lutheran Church in Baltimore, Maryland, but of every church in this world. We are all called to spread the message that God is love through our words and our deeds. We just don’t always do a good job of living out that call.
God calls us to be like the first two slaves - taking what we are given and using it, growing it. But most of us act more like the third slave - we become afraid of losing what we have been given, and that fear prevents us from acting. We are not called to hold on to what God has given us and wait for Jesus’ return, but that’s what we do. We hold on to what has been given to us, hardening our hearts, tightening our fists, ignoring the commandment we received from God to open our hands to our poor and needy neighbors.
We disobey God by squandering what God has given us. But God, who is gracious and loving even when we disobey God, forgives us. We are forgiven for our lack of caring for our neighbors, for our turning of our backs, for our closing of our hands and hardening of our hearts. But that doesn’t mean we are freed from caring for our needy neighbors. God forgives us, but that doesn’t mean God stops calling us into action. God continues to call us to reach out to those in need, to give liberally and ungrudgingly of what God has first given us. We are called to reach out not only with our checkbooks, but also with our loosened hands and open hearts.
In Zimbabwe, LWF supports AIDS orphans with food packs. In Angola, there are mine-clearing teams whose activities resulted in a Nobel Peace Prize for their work on the eradication of landmines. In Cambodia, LWF constructed wells and created water committees to provide clean water for the people there. Over and over, throughout the world, the LWF is reaching out and opening their hands and their hearts to the poor and needy neighbor.
That is what the LWF is doing. So again I ask - what are we doing to support them? Amen
AIDS has claimed over 20 million lives and another 39 million people worldwide are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS. More than 13,000 people worldwide are infected with HIV every day. Every 22 minutes someone somewhere around the world is killed or maimed by a landmine blast. Over the last 55 years, anti-personnel mines have caused more deaths and injuries than nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons combined. Every ten seconds, a child dies because of a disease linked to dirty water. Last year, 3.4 million people died from diseases associated with an inadequate water supply. 1.4 billion children in the world have no access to clean water near their homes.
I know that’s a lot of statistics to have flung at you at once, and it must be overwhelming to hear them coming at you so fast. But imagine actually living just one of those statistics. Imagine being the victim of a landmine, or being newly infected or affected by HIV/AIDS, or not having an adequate water source. Throughout the whole world, there are people living these scenarios, not just hearing them. So the question I ask is, What are we doing about it?
It’s not like we haven’t been told what we should be doing with what God has given us. That’s what today’s reading from Deuteronomy is all about - opening our hands and our hearts and meeting the needs of those who are struggling.
In an ideal world, there would be none in need. But this is a world that is far from ideal, and God knows that even better than you or I. God says, “There should be no one in need, but since there will be, those who have are entrusted with the responsibility to provide for those who don’t.” “There will never cease to be some in need on earth” - so what is God’s response? A commandment: “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor.”
It’s so easy to sit in our comfortable armchairs, to sleep in our comfy beds, to eat three complete meals a day, to have access to clean water, to own a car, to buy whatever other accessories we absolutely need to survive - another television, another DVD player, the latest Playstation…but what about those people who don’t even have the basics? It’s so easy to sit in our homes, cool in the summer and warm in the winter, and say, “I can’t possibly do anything for them because they are somewhere out there and I am sitting here miles away.” But being far away is no excuse. God doesn’t want our excuses; God wants our action.
We have been warned - don’t be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward those who need assistance. God has blessed us with so much, and what do we do with it? We hoard it, hide it away, keep it for ourselves, afraid that we might lose it, or perhaps, like the third slave in Jesus’ parable, we are too lazy to get up off our couches and actually do something with it.
The third slave takes what is given to him, and is left with a choice: play it safe, or risk what’s been given to him. Playing it safe is easy. It was safe for the third slave to put the talent in the ground, and wait for his master to return. It was safe to not run the risk of losing what he was given. It was safe to take what was given to him and become tight-fisted to protect it, hoarding it away from the world. By using what was given to him, he ran the risk of losing it, and nothing could be worse than that.
Or so he thought. By playing it safe, by taking the easy route, he actually lost everything he had. He lost everything by not risking something.
Reaching out to those in need is not always easy, and it’s definitely not always safe. But we are not called to take the easy route or to play it safe. We are not called to act on fear, or timidness, or our own laziness. As children of God, followers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are called to reach out to those in need, despite the cost, despite the danger, and even despite the fact that in reaching out to our needy neighbor, their life will not be the only one that is changed.
Last January, I went on a seminary-sponsored tour of Israel, Palestine, and Jordan. We spent two weeks traveling through that land, seeing the “holy” sites. What remains with me the most are our interactions with the Palestinian people.
One of our stops was Augusta Victoria Hospital, a place where Palestinians can come to receive the medical care they so desperately need. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. They have to take several buses to get there, stopping at different checkpoints, and are required to provide paperwork that allows them to pass through those checkpoints. They make the long trek, sometimes several times a week, knowing that even though they have the paperwork that is required, some days they might not be able to pass through those checkpoints.
How many of you have ever been on a bus, and had that bus boarded by armed guards, checking to see if you have the correct paperwork that allows you to go where you want? Even though we knew that we could have safe passage, it was still a nerve-wracking experience, and a sobering reminder of what the Palestinian people have to go through every day just to receive medical care to survive.
“Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.” That’s exactly what Augusta Victoria is doing in Palestine, offering medical care and hope to a people who could not otherwise receive it. And it is through the support of the Lutheran World Federation that Augusta Victoria Hospital is able to keep its doors open.
But they can’t do it without us. Without our willingness to step up and support the work of LWF, none of this will continue. Without the funds, the hands, and the hearts to carry out this work, it will not happen. Our hearts harden, our fists become tight, and we forget about those who need our assistance. We view those in need with hostility, and think, “It’s not my job to take care of them. That’s what the LWF is there for.” We forget - we are the LWF. We are part of the 66 million Lutherans who are making a difference. But more than that, we are the children of God who are proclaiming the Gospel of Christ throughout the world by our words and our deeds.
Every week, my congregation in Baltimore is dismissed by saying our mission statement together, “Our mission is to proclaim the message that God is love to our community in word and deed.” That’s not only the mission of Epiphany Lutheran Church in Baltimore, Maryland, but of every church in this world. We are all called to spread the message that God is love through our words and our deeds. We just don’t always do a good job of living out that call.
God calls us to be like the first two slaves - taking what we are given and using it, growing it. But most of us act more like the third slave - we become afraid of losing what we have been given, and that fear prevents us from acting. We are not called to hold on to what God has given us and wait for Jesus’ return, but that’s what we do. We hold on to what has been given to us, hardening our hearts, tightening our fists, ignoring the commandment we received from God to open our hands to our poor and needy neighbors.
We disobey God by squandering what God has given us. But God, who is gracious and loving even when we disobey God, forgives us. We are forgiven for our lack of caring for our neighbors, for our turning of our backs, for our closing of our hands and hardening of our hearts. But that doesn’t mean we are freed from caring for our needy neighbors. God forgives us, but that doesn’t mean God stops calling us into action. God continues to call us to reach out to those in need, to give liberally and ungrudgingly of what God has first given us. We are called to reach out not only with our checkbooks, but also with our loosened hands and open hearts.
In Zimbabwe, LWF supports AIDS orphans with food packs. In Angola, there are mine-clearing teams whose activities resulted in a Nobel Peace Prize for their work on the eradication of landmines. In Cambodia, LWF constructed wells and created water committees to provide clean water for the people there. Over and over, throughout the world, the LWF is reaching out and opening their hands and their hearts to the poor and needy neighbor.
That is what the LWF is doing. So again I ask - what are we doing to support them? Amen