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Sermon September 5, 2021
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, MSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 18, Track 2
http://lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost/BProp18_RCL.html
Audio:
If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? James 2:15-16
Please be seated
Thoughts and prayers. How many times do we see that and how many times do we say that? I don’t know about you, but I get plenty of requests for prayers on my Facebook feed and I am glad of it. Sometimes it is truly hard to know what more to do beyond that.
As you might know, early in my social work career, I worked as a counselor at the Rape Crisis Center in Harrisburg. One of the early things I was taught was that people who experienced that kind of personal trauma, felt like they had lost all control over their lives. So, even the simplest gestures could help them start to feel back in control. Instead of just handing someone a tissue, I was taught to ask if they would like one. Asking and allowing someone to make that simple of a choice was important.
I realize that has really affected me and I often ask people what they need or if they would like me to do something, rather than just assume what they want or need. And yet, when experiencing a trauma or deep grief, sometimes we truly don’t know what we need or what would be helpful. Sometimes we are grateful for that person who just comes in and takes over and makes sure we are cared for.
Plus, I think so many of us are horrible at accepting help and saying what we need. We want to do things by ourselves.
So, I am often in a quandary. For instance, should the church mobilize to do a meal train for another parishioner or would that just create too much havoc for the receiver?
In our reading from James today, the writer emphasizes that thoughts and prayers, while helpful, are just not enough.
Notice how the writer says, “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food….” Hmm, don’t our minds start to wander. Why doesn’t this person have clothing or food? Are they lazy? Is it some fault of their own? Will we just be enabling them to continue being irresponsible? Aren’t these the questions we ask?
Yet the writer doesn’t even go there. The writer says that if we see someone is naked, our faith in Jesus Christ compels us to provide clothing and food.
In other words, take care of the person’s basic needs first, without question. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, because it’s something that stays with me. There is a program to eradicate chronic homelessness. While it goes by many names, it is basically that if someone is chronically without a place to live, you provide housing, no questions asked. You also provide some ongoing services to that person based upon what else they might need.
The research shows that when people have a decent place to live, so many other challenges are resolved or lessened. People abusing drugs or alcohol, usually use less. Medical services, especially emergency medical services are used less frequently. From a purely money standpoint, it is cheaper to provide housing or keep someone in their home, than it is to provide ongoing services to people without consistent housing.
That’s why having the eviction moratoriums during this pandemic have been so important. That’s why the looming eviction crisis is so devastating, not to mention to ongoing lack of safe, affordable housing.
It’s why providing additional food assistance was so important during the pandemic and efforts to raise and strengthen food assistance are important. Yes, there is an upfront cost, that may seem high and time and time again, we learn how costly it is when people’s basic needs are not met.
The food pantry that Kerry Jezewski built and the Jezewskis are filling with food has been discovered. This past week, Andrea reported that she added food items twice already and when I looked in there on Saturday, there was not much left. Andrea says the canned pasta items and macaroni and cheese seem to be the most popular. I was thinking how great this is, because no questions are asked. No forms need to be filled out. Getting food from the pantry happens almost in secret.
We have seen a brother and sister who are hungry and we are not just praying for them, we are providing food for them. Our faith compelled us to act. Our faith compelled us to show mercy. As the writer says in verse 13, “…mercy triumphs over judgment.”
Our reading today concludes, “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” Thanks be to God that in this parish, our faith is vibrantly alive!
Amen
