Turning the World Right-Side Up!

Sermon Preached September 25, 2016 at St. Francis Episcopal Church Fair Oaks 

Proper 21C – RCL Track 1

Note:  The sermon was recorded and posted by St. Francis here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm9D9x_Px8U

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Luke 16:19-31

Jesus said, "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, `Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' But Abraham said, `Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' He said, `Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house-- for I have five brothers-- that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' He said, `No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

Did the gospel reading bother you?  It bothers me.  One of the things that happens when I hear the parables is I can identify with one of the characters in the parable.  Or for some of them – like the shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to find the one – I identify with the absurdity of the situation and the call to do something different.  But this parable bothers me. What if I am the rich man?  I certainly live a good life.  I have a good job and go home to cook and eat good food.  I certainly am not Lazarus lying at the gate with ulcerated sores hoping for a crumb of food.  The possibility that I am the rich man makes me uncomfortable.

So what is going on in this parable.  The writer certainly paints a vivid picture of a very wealthy man – in rare purple clothing and eating sumptuous banquets who readily ignores the beggar at the gate.  The rich man does not even see Lazarus.  He goes by him and ignores him.  At least while he is alive. 

When the rich man dies he has the proper burial and poor Lazarus is just left in the streets – a dead body – until the angels sweep him in to the bosom of Abraham while the rich man goes to the flames of hades.  Hades is not a popular topic for most of the mainline preachers I know!  And with both of their deaths there is a reversal of fortunes. 

It is with this reversal of fortunes that probably makes as all squirm a bit.  Are we – as relatively wealthy people when compared to much of the words populations going to burn for eternity because of our wealth?  Are we squirming in our seats when we hear this and think about all of the times that we have passed a beggar on the street or at the off ramp?  If we are not uncomfortable perhaps we should be. 

How many times do we walk past someone who is down and out and not see them just like the rich man refused to see Lazarus?  It is all too easy for us to have hardened hearts just like the rich man.  To say that all of these homeless people are on the street because they want to be.  They enjoy being on drugs or alcohol and don’t want to work. They just need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.  I have actually heard people express that belief.  And it drives me crazy.

It is that kind of attitude that Jesus is condemning here.  The parable is not really about what will happen when we die it is about how we should live.  It is a parable about turning society on its head – or as Michael Curry says it is about turning society right side up because too much of our society is upside down.  This parable reminds us that God’s dream is a world where we are all safe in the bosom of Abraham.  Where we are all seen.  Where no one is invisible.

And sometimes we get it right - at least in a small way.

On Wednesday’s I preside at a midweek Eucharist and healing service at St. Paul’s in downtown Sacramento.  At those services about half of the 20 or so in the congregation are homeless – or barely housed in public housing.  And most of them do not want to be on the streets.  They are of all ages and the ones I have talked with – those who will talk with me – are there for varying reasons.  I have met veterans with PTSD who can’t live inside right now.  I have met people who have been kicked out of their homes who now self medicate to forget.  And there are certainly people with mental illness and reduced cognitive abilities. 

The amazing thing to me is they come week after week to the service and stay for a home cooked meal.  A meal that is served to them as guests – not a clients or as objects.  They are asked to sit at table and be waited on.  No soup line.  They feel seen and valued.  Oh – and they don’t have to attend the service to be fed.  Some wait in the back of the church in the narthex until the service is over but about three quarters of the people we feed come to the service and come up for communion and anointing with oil accompanied by prayers for healing.

This parable is not about life and death and what happens after we die.  It is  – in part – about seeing people and valuing people. 

The scary part is that even in death it doesn’t seem that the rich man really gets it.  He still treats Lazarus as a servant who should come and quench his thirst. 

The rich man does seem to understand that something in his behavior got him into his current predicament. At least a little bit – he want to warn his siblings that they could face some terrible afterlife if they don’t do something different.  The crazy thing is I am not sure that the rich man, even in death, understands what he did wrong.  The way he talks about Lazarus – not to him you notice.    The rich man only talks to Abraham because he still sees himself as superior to Lazarus. 

So what got the rich man into this predicament?  It was not so much that he was wealthy but that he did not even see the poor.  He used he wealth for himself because, as the saying goes, you can’t take it with you.  So in his life he used his wealth and position not to help people and improve the life of those society has discarded.  No his life was all about satisfying his desires to show off his wealth with conspicuous consumption.  But he does know that something needs to change in his siblings life so he asks Abraham to send Lazarus to them and warn them. 

But Abraham says that they have Moses and the Prophets so they should already know how to live a life that will be pleasing to God.  And that not even sending someone back from the grave will be enough for them to open their eyes. 

And we – who profess our faith in the one Jesus who walked among the people, was crucified, and risen need to open our eyes and somehow get across the seeming un-crossable chasm between how we function in our society today and the dream that God has that all will be loved and taken care of. 

Another preacher I follow, David Lose,  said “Luke knows that we simply cannot live into the abundant life God offers us here and now alone. Abundant life comes via community, when we see those around us as gifts of God and experience the blessing of sharing what we have with others. There’s a reason generous people are happier than stingy ones – God created us to be in relationship with those around us and we experience the fullness of the life God intends and offers only when we embrace the people God has set in our path.
This parable, …, isn’t about earning or relinquishing an eternal reward; it’s about the character and quality of our life right now. One might even argue that for Luke eternal life isn’t a distant reality at all but rather starts now, each time we embrace the abundant life God offers in and through those around us. So while it is certainly a warning not to overlook those around us in need, it is also an invitation to live into fuller, more meaningful, and more joyous life by sharing ourselves – our time, talents, and certainly our wealth – with those around us here and now. For as we do, we live into the life and kingdom God outlines in the law of Moses, clarifies in the prophets, and makes manifest and available to all in the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord.”[1]

This parable should make us uncomfortable.  Because it is, in many ways, an indictment of much of our society.  A society that sees the homeless as less than human.  A society where parents are still throwing their children out of their homes if they are gay.  A society that refuses to adequately take care of the mentally ill.  A society where great wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few who live behind great gates who can’t see the beggar at their doorstep.

If we are going to take on the mantle of crazy Jesus people – as our presiding bishop calls us – we need to open our eyes.  We need to make decisions both with our personal wealth and how we elect people to change our society.  We need to model the kind of radical acceptance and love that Jesus brought to earth. 

We are called not to live behind gates blind to the needs of others.  We are called to act differently.  We have promised through our baptismal covenants that we will respect the dignity of every human.  And if we are to honor and follow that promise we must see all people.  We must acknowledge them where they are at and treat them as children of God.  And we must work to turn an upside-down society right-side up. 

Amen

---

[1] http://www.davidlose.net/2016/09/pentecost-19-c-eternal-life-now/

Tax Collectors and Sinners!

Sermon for the Feast of St. Matthew

Note:  Today St. Matthew's celebrated its feast day with a bilingual service followed by a grand festival for the community!  We had games, rides, a barbecue and the Sheriff's Canine officer as well as Metro-Fire!  A grand time was had by all - especially the kids of every age!  The sermon was preached in both English and Spanish so it is necessarily short!

Proverbs 3:1-6

2 Timothy 3:14-17

Matthew 9:9-13

Psalm 119:33-40

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

Today we are celebrating our feast day – the Feast of St. Matthew.  The actual date of the feast on our church calendar is September 21 but it is a tradition to move a church’s feast day to the Sunday before if the feast is not on a Sunday in any given year. 

Today we will have a festival after the service where we welcome all in the community to play games and eat a feast with us.  We invite everyone – even if they don’t come to church regularly – or at all!  How very much like the Jesus in our story. 

Jesus sees Matthew sitting and collecting taxes from his fellow citizens.  Matthew was considered by the others in his society as a leach on society.  He was employed by the occupation army to collect taxes and most tax collectors collected more than was due.  They made extra money for themselves so that they could live a very good life.  They were despised as traders and crooks.

Jesus sees Matthew collecting money and instead of despising him he calls Matthew to follow.  And Matthew gets up, leaves his booth and follows Jesus.  And then we hear that Matthew invited Jesus to dine in his home – along with Jesus’ other disciples and a bunch of tax collectors and sinners. 

Of course the super righteous – who are sure that they have it right with God – are upset that Jesus is eating with these people.  Jesus – hearing the grumbling and complaints said “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”  Which Dear Abby years ago famously summarized as “The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.” 

Which is not to say that we don’t have some true saints that inhabit the church at large!  We do.  And they are usually considered crazy by mainstream society.  Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu come to mind – they insisted that the way to move South Africa forward after the horrors of apartheid was not revenge but forgiveness and reconciliation.  So instead of setting up criminal trials The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up. The Commission provided a way to heal a country that had suffered tremendous human rights abuses.  And I am pretty sure that if you asked most people when it started they would have predicted failure – instead there is forgiveness and peace in that country. 

Unfortunately too many in this country see reconciliation as for the weak.  Revenge and locking people away seems to be what we hear in our own society.

Which brings me to the really important part of this reading when Jesus says “‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”  And we are called – as followers of Jesus to desire mercy too.  We are called to welcome all into this thing we call church – and perhaps just as importantly we are called to bring this thing called church out to the community. 

We are not called to round people up because of their race, nationality, sexual identity, or immigration status and to build walls to isolate us righteous folk from the sinners.  We are called to invite them to dinner.  We are called to show mercy.  We are called to tick off the self proclaimed righteous in our society – just as Jesus did during his earthly ministry.

And that is what we are doing today.  We are throwing a festival in honor of the tax collector – St. Matthew.  And we are not throwing a private party – no we are inviting our entire community to come and eat.  We are inviting our community to come and play games.  No strings attached.  No expectations that they will pay us back. No expectations that they will be righteous.

I am thrilled to minister among a group of people who take their patron Saint to heart and invite all to the feast.  A feast that is hosted not by us but by Jesus Christ our Savior who came to show mercy and invite the outsiders to the party!

Joy in Heaven

Sermon for September 11, 2016

Proper 19C – RCL Track 1

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28


Psalm 14
1 

Timothy 1:12-17


Luke 15:1-10

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

"Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

The Gospel of Luke that we just heard can be referred to the “lost chapter”!  It contains three parables – two of which we read today – that all seem to focus on the lost.  We have the lost sheep, the lost coin – and the parable we don’t read this Sunday – the lost son, usually referred to as story of the prodigal son.  But perhaps we lose something if we focus on what is lost.  Perhaps we need to focus on the actions here.  The actions of seeking, finding and rejoicing!

The story starts out with the good, righteous people – the scribes and the Pharisees grumbling that Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners.  When clearly if Jesus himself is righteous and holy he should be keeping himself ritually clean and eating with the likes of the Pharisees.  

Another preacher I follow – David Lose said “It’s not that there’s anything inherently wrong with being righteous. Working hard, doing your best, showing up for church on time, these are all good things. But ultimately they only scratch the surface of who we are and what we need and hope for.”

And this isn’t Jesus sharing a croissant and coffee and the local coffee joint – or sharing an adult beverage at the local watering hole and chatting about theological niceties.  

The fellowship the Pharisees are grumbling about is the table fellowship that you do with your fellow righteous people.  The kind of fellowship where you gather your friends – those who look and think like you for deep and abiding fellowship.  Jesus is signaling that the tax collectors and those who are seen as sinners are friends.  They are just as important as any other person in this story

Think about it.  Who do most people invite over for a long meal at their homes.   How do we select our guest lists?  I can bet most if not all of the people we know invite their friends.  People who look, talk, and believe just like them to their dinner parties.  We don’t go down to the local shelter and invite in those who might not be sober and who  have addictions and to our dinner parties.  We don’t go to the jails and invite the inmates to our parties.  But this is precisely what Jesus is doing.  

No wonder the Pharisees are grumbling.  Although I have to say the good people of St. Matthews probably get this idea of radical invitation better than many a congregation!  This congregation hungers to reach out into this community and provide meals, social time and show the abundance of God’s love more than many places in our society.  

In response to the grumbling Jesus tells a couple of stories.  And he starts each one the same way.  “Which of you..” Which of you having lost a sheep leave the 99 and search for the one?  Which of you having lost a coin will search the house until you find it????  Well searching for a coin that represents 10% of our money would cause most of us to tear our houses apart to find it.  But when it is found would we throw a party that cost more than the found money?  

Come on Jesus – the answer is none of us would do these crazy things!  We would not leave 99 sheep unprotected in the wilderness and go off searching for one wayward sheep.  We might go searching but only after we secured the 99 in a pen or asked our neighboring shepherd to come over and keep watch over our flocks.

We might search for misplaced money and rejoice when we find it.  And then put it in the safe place with the other money so we know where it is!  We would not call in all of the neighbors and throw a party.  A party that could easily cost more that the lost coin.  

But his is how God functions.  This is God’s economy.  God will search for the one who is lost.  And when the lost is found there will be great joy in heaven.  The focus of these stories is not on the lost.  It is on the joy of being found.  It is about God’s relentless pursuit of us and the rejoicing in heaven when we are found.  The stories are not about the lost but who is searching.  The action is not focused on the lost sheep or the lost coin.  The action is on the one searching.  The action is on being found.  And the result is incredible Joy.  The result is one that most of the time we cannot even imagine.

David Lose says, “when we focus on lostness, for lack of a better word, we miss the joyful character of these stories and of God. But we also might miss that in both stories, there’s far less attention on what’s been lost than on the one who is searching. I mean, these stories aren’t about a lost sheep or coin, not really. They’re about a shepherd who risks everything to go look, and about a woman who sweeps all night long to find. These stories are about a God who will always go looking for God’s lost children.”

And the surrogates for God doing the searching in these stories are normal people.  They are not extraordinary people.  They are a shepherd – near the lowest in social circles and a poor woman.  God is calling ordinary people – people who don’t seem to have much in their society to search for the lost and bring them to God with rejoicing.  God is calling each of us – no matter how insignificant we think we are – to search for the lost and to be filled with joy when the lost is found.  God is calling each of us to act as radically as the shepherd or the women and to search among the many until we find the one  - and then to throw a party.  

The reality here is that we can all be both the searcher and the lost.  We can all have moments when in the midst of many we feel lost.  We all have moments when we have doubts and troubles and perhaps even doubt the existence of God.  And it is in those moments that the rest of us are called to be here.  To help with the sense of loss.  To help bring again and again that love of God into each of our lives.

Today is the 15th anniversary of the destruction of the twin towers in New York, the attack on the Pentagon and the amazingly brave people who thwarted the terrorist in the fourth plain that crashed into a field instead of striking whatever target the terrorists had planned.  Today, for many of us, changed the world we knew in profound ways.  Before the attacks many of us saw pictures of terror around the world on the news and thought that was something that only happened in other places.  

And on this anniversary we can focus on the loss.  The lost sense of domestic peace.  The loss of lives and the loss of a way of life for many of us.  Traveling will never be the same.  We will likely never be able to just walk up to the terminal and get on a plane with as much liquid as we want in our carry-on baggage.  

But we can also focus on the amazing stories of the hero’s of that day.

There are many stories of people who – having escaped the burning towers went in again and again to bring people out – only to die themselves.  There are stories of first responders who bravely ran towards the danger and sacrificed everything.  For every story of intentional harm there are many more of people who went after the lost.  So there is also joy this day.  Joy that ordinary people responded with no regard to their own safety.  There is joy in the opening up of churches and other spaces to shelter people after the attacks.  

Today we can remember those who died on 9/11 – and we should.  We can also look to see the shepherds who searched and brought people to safety on that day.  We can give thanks that God called us not to respond with hate and fear after the attacks but to radically go out and support all people.

Today’s gospel calls us not to focus on the lost but to focus on Gods radically searching and the countercultural rejoicing in being found.  To look and see that each and every one of us is called – no matter who we are – to seek, to find, and to rejoice!  

Making Choices

Sermon for September 4, 2016

Jeremiah 18:1-11
Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33

Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."

Our gospel reading today is not an easy one.  I have to admit I took a serious look at the other lessons to see if I could get out of preaching on Luke today.   I like the text from Jeremiah and it was very tempting to craft an entire sermon around the potters wheel with, what for me, are wonderful images of how people and whole nations are formed, deformed, and reformed.  And that we have choices that influence what our pot will look like in the end.

But that quickly got me to the reading from Luke.  The reading from Luke is about identity.  It is about the choices we make that influence how we are perceived and how we love our God.  But I will tell you this reading from Luke is not one that I would want to put on a sign outside our doors with the hope that it would pull in people.  It is a little piece of Luke that needs to be explored and wrestled with not used as a slogan.

Thankfully you will be happy to know that Jesus really is not asking you to hate your family.  Jesus never asks us to hate one another.  It is – as happens from time to time – an issue in translating into english.  It is hyperbole that is meant to get our attention but it really is more about who do you love more rather than who do you hate.  The transliteration of the bible by Eugene Peterson – The Message – translated it “Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters – yes, even one’s own self! – can’t be my disciple.” Still not an easy passage but it gets us closer to the point.

The point is who are we.  What are our identities?  Ones identity was very much wrapped up into family -  particularly in the first century when Jesus walked around Israel.  The family unit is how you survived.  It is how you were known.  Family was a key element of your identity.  Perhaps for some of us it still is.  Certainly when we attend large familial gatherings you will here people say things like “Oh- that is Rik – son of Ron and Ruth.”  But in this post-modern world I wonder how true this notion of family being the key to ones identity still rings true.

But certainly what is still true is that our choices certainly define who we are.  And Jesus is asking the crowd that is following him around to make a hard choice – And to be clear the crowd is following him because he is doing amazing healings and saying amazing things – they are not necessarily because they are ready to do the really hard work that ushering in God’s reign of love will take.  SO Jesus is telling them they need to make a choice.

They need to make an informed choice because when the world as one knows it is turned upside down people get angry.  People like to be in charge –as we certainly hear right now in this crazy presidential election season.  But a prudent person Jesus says – will sit down and figure out the cost.  What does it cost to follow Jesus?  What does is cost to help usher in God’s loving reign.

Jesus tells us it is going to be expensive.  It can cost us everything.  There is a cost and it needs to be weighed.   It's  hard for us to understand the need to make one choice these days.  We all have multiples identities, multiple networks.  Many of us have jobs that take sacrifices, or families that take sacrifices.  Most of us would say that we don’t have to pick just one thing.  We can do it all.  We can have the prestigious job, do sports, go to the gym, belong to the men or woman’s chorus.  We can arrange our schedules around soccer, golf, or bike riding – to name just a few.  We don’t get this choose one thing that Jesus is asking us to do in this reading.

And we can decide when to go to church.  Unlike back in the 1950’s church attendance is no longer the expected thing.  Probably Sunday morning soccer with the kids is more of the expected thing.  And if we look around we can see that.  You all made the choice on this holiday weekend to come here.  You could be rafting down the American River or attending Gold Rush Days in Old Sacramento – or perhaps close by attending the Sacramento Anime festival next door.  But you are here.

Church is no longer seen as a necessary step towards getting into the right club.  For most of us and for most of society Church is no longer the expected norm.  And maybe that is ok.  We really don’t need a bunch of country club members who come to be seen.  We need people who will count the cost.  Who will make sacrifices to help usher in God’s loving reign.

We don’t need people to attend church.  We instead need people to follow Jesus.  We need people to let go of the American Ideal of the rugged individual.  We don’t need any more “me” people who don’t see the poverty and hunger at their very doorsteps.  We need people who can see the hungry and the hurting and offer them something. 

We need people who are willing to turn society right-side-up again.  We need to build a society that embraces the other.  Where the great command to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, to visit the sick and those in prison is at least as important as the Sunday soccer game or the Sunday brunch group.  And that takes sacrifice and will cost us. 

Jesus is asking us to recognize that following Christ is expensive.  We need to make our choices based on following him.  Not on which is the best soccer club or the best place to eat lunch. 

Oh…and I can tell you the best place to eat lunch in this town.  It is right here on Wednesdays.  It starts with the gathered saints for a noon Eucharist where all are welcomed and continues with a wonderful meal served in the parish hall.

You will be sure to meet Christ if you come to lunch here on Wednesdays – that I can promise you.  I can also promise you that the Christ you meet will not look like the Christ portrayed in the stained glass windows.  No the Christ you will meet will be hungry.  Hungry for food and hungry to have someone to sit down with in community.  You will get a glimpse of the hunger and the hurt that is in the shadows of our world.  A hunger that we are called to feed.  A hurt we are called to mend.

And you can really find those who hunger and thirst any day of the week on just about any street corner.  I see it all the time.  I see homeless youth walking past my house with their bedrolls at 5:30 in the morning.  Surprised that I greet them with a “good morning”.  I see it when I walk to church from my office on Wednesdays.  There is a hunger that needs to be fed.  And we are called to do the feeding.

The reason to come to church is not to be saved.  That has already happened. Getting into heaven is not about doing good works and coming here.   That is not what the Gospel reading is talking about.  That is not what Jesus is saying. 

The Gospel reading is about discipleship.  It is about following Jesus and helping to bring in the reign of God’s love.  And if we are really going to follow Jesus that we need to be prepared to make some sacrifices.  We need to be prepared to make feeding the other a priority rather than a nice charity.  We need to work in the systems that keep people oppressed – both actively  and when we decide who we will elect to represent and lead us. 

Being a disciple is not easy.  But the rewards are great.  When we see the light shine in someone’s eyes when they are served a home cooked meal by members of the Altar Guild and their helpers we get a glimpse of God.  When we listen to the hardships and offer a place of refuge to the homeless we will hear and see God. 

And I will repeat that you don’t have to do any of this go earn salvation.  Salvation has already been offered freely by God and is there for us.  What you will get is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.  What you will get is the Joy of helping turn society right-side up where people are loved and cared for.  The cost may be great but the reward is great as well.  That reward is – in short – seeing God’s reign come to fruition in our own time.

Amen.