Rev Fran: Bread for the World

Showing posts with label Bread for the World. Show all posts

Sunday, October 14, 2018

"God's Hands and Feet in the World." A Sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church.

"God's Hands and Feet in the World"

Mark 10:35-45

The twelve disciples had been going around with Jesus for some time. He’d been teaching them about the way of self-giving love. But they don’t seem to get it. Mark tells us that James and John “come forward” to Jesus, pushing ahead of the other disciples.

“Teacher,” they say, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

Jesus says to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” And they say, “When you come into your glory, grant one of us the privilege of sitting at your right hand…and one at your left.”

Now, some people dismiss the Zebedee brothers. They see them in this conversation, at least, as pushy, ambitious seekers of a place of honor and power.

But I think it’s obvious that James and John had great faith in Jesus. They believed in him, and their personal hopes were completely woven into his destiny. They loved Jesus. But what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples about being a suffering servant is hard! It’s hard to understand-- and harder to live.

One of the reasons that the Christian message has been twisted and distorted and misunderstood—is that it’s so paradoxical. The Christian paradox is that our Lord and Savior came as a suffering servant to save us… and to show us the WAY.

Jesus defines greatness very differently from the ways we’re used to thinking about it. When we follow Jesus, as his disciples, we need to struggle with the paradox that—in God’s kingdom—we gain by losing. We become great by serving. And we get to be first by being last. In the kingdom of God, things look very different than they do in the world.

“Whoever wishes to be great among you must be a servant.” This teaching is so critical to understanding Jesus’ ministry…and such a key to being a disciple—that the gospels record it no less than eight times.

What does it mean for us to follow a servant savior?

Among other things, it means setting aside self in order to take up the cause of others. It means serving our neighbors. It means living out our faith in terms of kindness, openness, empathy, and compassion. Never perfectly, never fully—for we’re not capable of perfect servanthood.

As part of Christ’s body, when we’re at our best, we are a servant church. When we’re not at our best, we’re an organization filled with people each trying to get their own needs met… trying to get something out of church… and trying to get the church to be the church we want it to be.

When we’re being the servant church, we’re feeding the hungry, calling on the sick…visiting the home bound. We’re serving those in the community who are needy and hurting, through friendship and practical kinds of help. When we’re being the servant church, we share in Christ’s ministry in the world by generously supporting the mission of the church with our tithes and offerings.

Today has been designated as Bread for the World Sunday. This Tuesday is World Food Day.

This is a time when we who have plenty to eat are reminded that many people don’t… and many of those who are hungry or food insecure are children. On Bread for the World Sunday, we are challenged to consider some facts about hunger. More than 41 million Americans, including 13 million children, lived in households that struggled to put food on the table in 2016. More than 40 million Americans lived below the poverty line in 2016; 1 in 3 were children. [1]  Many of these children have parents who have jobs and work hard, but their wages aren’t high enough to cover the high costs of rent, transportation, and utilities and daily meals.[2] About two-thirds of SNAP recipients are children, elderly, or disabled.[3]

Our federal government’s feeding programs serve as a lifeline for vulnerable children and families. Because children are hit especially hard by the effects of hunger and malnutrition, nutrition programs aimed at children are particularly important.
A healthy start in life — even before a child is born — pays off for years-- not only for individual children and families, but for communities and our nation as a whole.

Locally, and in the short term, we are helping to alleviate hunger as we contribute to Blessings in a Backpack…when we give to the Presbyterian Hunger Program through our Cents-Ability Offerings… when we support Church World Service…when we support the mission of the Open Door…or Zaman…or Gleaners.

            But we also need to work on the systemic causes of hunger.   Only one out of every 20 grocery bags that feed people who are hungry come from church food pantries and other private charities. Federal nutrition programs, from school meals to SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), provide the rest.   Our government’s child nutrition programs serve millions of children each year. It’s one of the ways we work together as a society to care for those in need.
            In the toolkit for Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters, I read about Stephanie Rice, the mother of four boys ages 3 to 10 in Ohio.   Stephanie and her husband have always had to plan carefully as they raised their family on modest wages.
            Early in their marriage, James worked at Babies R U and made $7.25 an hour. Stephanie earned $9 an hour as a cashier at Wal-Mart. The Rice’s were raising James’ daughter from a previous marriage and had a baby on the way. There just wasn’t enough money to put food on the table. They applied for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to fill in the gaps.
            “If that had not been there, I wouldn’t have been able to pay the bills,” Stephanie said. It was a situation where every penny had to be accounted for. Even the slightest interruption in food stamps would have completely upset the balance.”
            SNAP is just one of many anti-poverty programs funded by the federal government. Other programs include the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, Children (WIC), and school meals.
            These food assistance and child nutrition programs are a lifeline to millions of Americans every year. How the federal government decides to spend taxpayer money has real-life consequences.
            It’s common for families receiving food assistance to have one or more adults earning a paycheck. Most benefits go to the working poor.
            Stephanie and James are doing better than during their hardest times, like the winters when they couldn’t pay the gas bill and their gas was shut off. Or the time their car was stolen and it took them a year to recover from the loss.
            These days, James and Stephanie’s family doesn’t need as much food assistance, but Stephanie is worried about potential cuts to food assistance to others in need. She’s majoring in social and political science, and has a goal of one day running a nonprofit for homeless people, giving back to those in need--just as she received help when she needed it the most.
            In the meantime, on her to-do list is calling her members of Congress. She says she has her senators and representative “on speed dial,” so she can tell them what it’s like to have a hungry family and receive temporary help to put food on the table.[4]

Bread for the World is a faith-based education and advocacy organization that I’ve belonged to for some years. The reason I support Bread for the World is because, over the years, they have had a remarkable record of helping win passage of bipartisan legislation that addresses hunger. As a result of this advocacy, children in the United States receive vital nutrition. Emergency food reaches refugees from famine and conflict in Africa and elsewhere. Agricultural development is enabling hungry people in various parts of the world to grow enough food to feed their families.

In the Hebrew scripture passage we heard today, we heard God speaking through the prophet Isaiah, “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless… [5]

The scriptures teach us that God loves justice and requires us to do justice and love kindness.[6] Our individual actions and societal structures should enable all to share in God’s provision. Deuteronomy commands, “do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor.”[7]

In Exodus 16:13-19, God instructs the Israelites not to take more many each day than they need. In Leviticus 23:22, the Israelites reserved a corner of their fields for those who needed food. Jesus spoke of the importance of justice as an element of faithfulness: “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God. It is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others.”[8]

The community in Acts 2 “had all things in common. They would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” In Matthew 25, Jesus taught that the nations would be judged according to how they treated “the least of these”-- those who are marginalized and in need.

When we support Bread for the World through our donations, when we call or write our elected representatives to advocate for those who struggle to feed their families, we are living out our calling to do justice.

As Teresa of Avila famously put it, "Christ has no body now on earth but yours… no hands but yours… no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which God’s compassion will look upon the world. Yours are the feet with which God will go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which God will bless others now."

We are called to serve—to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world.

When we respond to Christ’s call and work together, we can help to change the conditions and the policies that allow hunger to persist.

We are called to share our bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into our house… to care for basic needs of those who are marginalized.

Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God promises us that we will not have to do this alone. When we call, the LORD will answer. When we cry for help, God will say, “Here I am.”[9]

And that, my friends, is good news!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

October 14, 2018

[1] Income and Poverty in the United State: 2016, U.S. Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2017/demo/P60-259.pdf  

[2] Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. http://www.cbpp.org/research/ policy-basicsintroduction-to-the-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap  

[3] USDA, Women, Infant, and Children Program Participation and Costs. http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/ les/pd/wisummary.pdf 

[4] bread.org/ol

[5] Isaiah 10:1-2.

[6] Isaiah 61:8; Psalm 99:4; Psalm 33:5; Micah 6:8; Amos 5:22-24.

[7] Deuteronomy 15:7-11.

[8] Luke 11:42.

[9] Isaiah 58

Sunday, October 15, 2017

"Dressing Up for the Banquet". A sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church on Matthew 22:1-14 for Bread for the World Sunday

"Dressing Up for the Banquet"

Matthew 22:1-14; Isaiah 58:1-12

“This is the good news of Jesus Christ!”

Is it? Is that what you heard in the gospel lesson? Good news?

This is a difficult parable to hear…and difficult to understand and interpret. We spent some time studying this parable at Evangelism Committee meeting a few days ago, knowing it was the lectionary passage for Sunday. After we heard it, someone looked at me and said, “Good luck!”

Some of the commentaries I consulted this week describe this passage as a “bizarre little story”[1] and “one strange parable.” Some scholars suggest that Matthew may have combined several parables into one, which may explain why the story seems disjointed.

The wedding party in the story begins as custom in that culture dictates. A first invitation notice had gone out-- a kind of “Save the date!” that has become common again in our time. Then, when the banquet is ready, the host’s servants go out to summon the guests to come. That’s when things start to fall apart.

First, the invited guests seem to treat the invitation as a joke and refuse to come. Some of the invitees even assault and kill the king’s servants. What happens in these verses is troubling. And so, I wondered: Does this sound like Jesus talking in these verses? I don’t think so.

So, it makes sense to me that many biblical scholars think that the original parable that Jesus told can be seen by deleting verses 6-7 and that Matthew or his source added the extra verses--the ones about how the invitees seized the king’s slaves and killed them and how the enraged king destroyed the murderers and burned their city--to turn Jesus’ parable into an allegory of Christian history.

Tom Long suggests that the implausible details-- like people killing other people and a military action that destroys the city over a rejected party invitation-- highlight the fact that Matthew intends this story to be read as an allegory, and that his first readers would have known how to decode the details.[2]

At the close of the first part of the story, we have a symbolic picture of Matthew’s church. His readers could have recognized themselves in the story, gathered at the banquet as last-minute replacements, both “good and bad” people.

The story gets puzzling again when a wedding guest shows up dressed inappropriately for a wedding celebration at the palace. The king reacts harshly. “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?”

If you think about it-- if the guest wasn’t expecting to attend a fancy party when he left in the morning to work in the field or tend his shop-- he wouldn’t have packed a wedding robe. But, again, this isn’t an ordinary story, but an allegory, and the wedding robe stands for something else.

John Calvin, in his commentary on this text, suggests that two passages from the apostle Paul help to explain the meaning. In Romans 13:14 we read that we must “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and in Galatians 3:27 that because we are baptized into Christ, we are clothed with Christ.”

The wedding garment is a symbol for putting on the baptismal garment of Christ… being attired in the new self, created in God’s own likeness… clothing oneself with the compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience of one who belongs to the kingdom of God.[3]

So, what’s going on in this strange parable? More importantly: what was Matthew’s-- and Jesus’-- main point?

I think it’s mainly about responding to an invitation. More importantly, it’s about how we respond. The parable reminds us that being a part of the Christian community should make a discernible difference in who we are and how we live.

We know Jesus’ invitation into the reign of God. All are invited. But that invitation requires us to do something. It requires us to put Jesus’ words into action. You need to come to the feast and wear the right garment-- clothed with Christ-- to show that you’ve accepted the invitation.[4]

What does that look like?

We find one answer three chapters later, in the 25^th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. There Jesus tells us how we will be judged. It depends on how we treat the “least” of his brothers and sisters. Do we feed the hungry? Clothe the naked? Welcome the stranger? As we do it unto the “least” of these, we do it unto Jesus.

Bread for the World Sunday is an opportunity to join others in praying for those who struggle with hunger and food insecurity-- and to re-dedicate ourselves to efforts that help end hunger. Our prayerful work to end hunger is a response to the Gospel’s invitation to take part in the banquet of God’s mercy and abundance that is ours through Jesus Christ.

Our prayers are especially urgent at this time. South Sudan is suffering from a devastating famine, and famine threatens Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen. Drought is spreading throughout other parts of Africa. Humanitarian assistance and long-term solutions to hunger are more important than ever.

            Bread for the World reminds us that nearly 16 million children in the United States, in one of the richest countries in the world — that’s almost one in five — live in households that struggle to put food on the table. Many of these children have parents who have jobs and work hard, but whose wages aren’t high enough to cover the high costs of rent, transportation, and utilities — and daily meals.
            So, our federal government’s feeding programs serve as a lifeline for vulnerable children and families. Because children are hit especially hard by the effects of hunger and malnutrition, nutrition programs aimed at children are particularly important. A healthy start in life — even before a child is born — pays off for years, in terms of intellectual development --not only for individual children and families, but for communities and our nation as a whole.
            Only one out of every 20 grocery bags that feed people who are hungry come from church food pantries and other private charities.   Federal nutrition programs, from school meals to SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), provide the rest.   Our government’s child nutrition programs serve millions of children each year.

Locally, and in the short term, we are helping to alleviate hunger when we give to the Presbyterian Hunger Program through our Two Cents a Meal or Cents-ability offering… when we support Church World Service…when we support the mission of the Open Door or Focus Hope or volunteer at Gleaners or support Blessings in a Backpack.

But we also need to work on the systemic causes of hunger. For a lot of us, hunger and poverty seem overwhelming. We don’t have to do it alone.

Bread for the World is a faith-based education and advocacy organization that I’ve belonged to for some years. The reason I personally support Bread for the World is because they have a remarkable record of helping to win passage of bipartisan legislation that addresses hunger. As a result of this advocacy, children in the United States receive vital nutrition. Emergency food reaches refugees from famine and conflict in Africa and elsewhere. Agricultural development is enabling hungry people in various parts of the world to grow enough food to feed their families.

If you want to help Bread for the World with this important, persistent advocacy work, you are invited to give them a donation. Or you could commit yourself to sending letters to your elected representatives in Congress. I’ll post a link on the church Facebook page and send one in an email to help you do this advocacy work, if you feel led to do so.

It took me between five and ten minutes to personalize the form letter at the website, which was then automatically sent to my congressional representatives. It’s a small thing, but it’s important. It’s a way to act prayerfully and faithfully.

When we put on Christ, we are called to serve—to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world. When we respond to Christ’s call and work together, we can help to change the conditions and the policies that allow hunger to persist.

We are called to share our bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into our house… to care for basic needs of those who are marginalized.

Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God promises us that we will not have to do this alone. When we call, the LORD will answer. When we cry for help, God will say, “Here I am.”[5] If we remove the yoke, the speaking of evil, if we offer our food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, Then our light shall rise in the darkness.

This is a blessed promise and vision:

The LORD will guide you continually,

and satisfy your needs in parched places…

you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt…

you shall be called the repairer of the breach.

the restorer of streets to live in.

So be it! Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

October 15, 2017

[1] Lance Pape, at Working Preacher. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2204

[2] Thomas G. Long, Matthew. (Westminster John Knox Press, 1997), p. 246.

[3] Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10-12;

[4] James Martin, SJ, “Will You Accept Jesus’ Invitation?” A reflection on Matthew 22:1-14, in Bread for the World Sunday 2017. http://www.bread.org/sites/default/files/bread-for-the-world-sunday-2017-guide.pdf

[5] Isaiah 58

Sunday, October 16, 2016

"The Power of Persistence." A sermon on Luke 8:1-8 and Isaiah 58, on Bread for the World Sunday. (With some reflections on the campaign season)

"The Power of Persistence"

Luke 18:1-8; Isaiah 58

Our faith tells us that God is merciful, loving, and powerful. But the injustice and suffering we see all around us challenge that conviction.

As Matthew Skinner suggests, “The system is rigged. It always has been.”[1] And so, as Skinner points out, people of faith have been complainers.

“Justice never prevails,” the prophet Habakkuk complained to God. Job lamented why God remained silent and apparently indifferent while he suffered: “I call aloud, but there is no justice.” [Habakkuk 1:4]

Describing the abuses perpetrated by those who wield power, the prophet Micah said, “Their hands are skilled to do evil; the official and the judge ask for a bribe, and the powerful dictate what they desire. Thus they pervert justice.” [Micah 7:3]

People of faith complain—not because we’re whiney or grumpy. When we complain about injustice, we’re insisting on a different world. We remember that God created the world and called it good…and intends goodness. We ache to see God’s intentions for human flourishing become realities. So we keep doing what we can to help our hopes become a reality.

In the gospel lesson we just heard, Jesus tells a parable about a widow who refuses to put up with an unjust system. Luke says the parable is about the disciples’ need to pray always and not to lose heart.

“In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’”

For a while this unjust judge refused, but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”

This widow uses the resources she has: her voice and her persistence. In time, her continuing advocacy for justice eventually gets results.

Jesus said, “Will not God grant justice to God’s chosen ones who pray day and night?”

In her society, the widow in the parable would have been marginalized and powerless, but she did what she could: she prayed always, persistently. Rather than wishing passively for things to be better, she advocates actively for justice, in her commitment to do what she can to work for a better world.

Jesus tells about the persistent actions of this widow to show us what Christians are called to do. Our Christian faith invites us to channel our frustrations with the brokenness of our society into prayer, and then into prayerful action. Our faith calls us into advocacy that demands a response from God and from our society. As people of faith, as individuals and communities, we are called to advocate for justice from those who have the power to grant it. This advocacy uses whatever tools are available. Whatever it takes to get the system to change, even if sometimes it’s only a little.

Right now we’re in the midst of the ugliest political campaign I can remember. I know many of us are very troubled by the lack of civility and how the mud-slinging has distracted us from the kind of serious discussion of important issues of vital importance to our nation. It’s hard not to feel hopeless at times about the polarization in our nation.

Elections are pivotal moments, with outcomes that will last into the future, and there’s a lot of anxiety around this. All the drama and debate and rhetoric could distract us from our basic calling as followers of Jesus.

In the midst of all this, we need to remember that there is no perfect candidate. No one person can solve all the problems. So it’s good news that we aren’t electing a Messiah—because we already have our Messiah: Jesus Christ, whom alone we worship and follow.

All of the candidates have shown us who they are and what their strengths and weaknesses are. So we need to pray for discernment, that we may use our votes to support the candidate who is best equipped to lead our nation through this time of great change and challenge.

No matter who wins the election on November 8, we know that we are beloved children of God. We know that God is good, all the time. We know that God continues to call us to embody God’s love in the world, and to work for justice and peace, to be repairers of the breach, the restorers of our communities and our nation. We are called to work to promote the well-being of our neighbors and especially those who are denied justice. This is true now, and it will be true on November 9 and the days that follow.

Now and every day we are called to be a servant church. When we are most faithfully being the servant church, we’re feeding the hungry, calling on the sick and visiting the home-bound. We’re serving those in the community who are needy and hurting, through friendship and practical kinds of help. We’re standing with those who are marginalized, and with victims of violence and assault. When we’re being the servant church, we share in Christ’s ministry in the world by generously supporting the mission of the church with our tithes and offerings.

And—something I’ve been thinking a lot about the past few weeks—we’re being a servant church when we work to build bridges of understanding, when we work to bring about reconciliation. I hope we’ll be praying about this in the days leading up to the election and following. This congregation has committed itself to peacemaking. So how can we build bridges that cross partisan divisions and work toward healing?

Now and every day, we are called to care for those in need. Today has been designated as Bread for the World Sunday. Yesterday was World Food Day.

We who have plenty to eat are reminded that many people don’t, and that many of those who are hungry or food insecure are children.

            Bread for the World reminds us that nearly 16 million children in the United States, in one of the richest countries in the world — that’s almost one in five — live in households that struggle to put food on the table. Many of these children have parents who have jobs and work hard, but whose wages aren’t high enough to cover the high costs of rent, transportation, and utilities — and daily meals.
            So our federal government’s feeding programs serve as a lifeline for vulnerable children and families. Because children are hit especially hard by the effects of hunger and malnutrition, nutrition programs aimed at children are particularly important.
            A healthy start in life — even before a child is born — pays off for years, in terms of intellectual development --not only for individual children and families, but for communities and our nation as a whole.
            Only one out of every 20 grocery bags that feed people who are hungry come from church food pantries and other private charities.   Federal nutrition programs, from school meals to SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), provide the rest.   Our government’s child nutrition programs serve millions of children each year.

Locally, and in the short term, we are helping to alleviate hunger when we give to the Presbyterian Hunger Program through our Two Cents a Meal offering… when we support Church World Service…when we support the mission of the Open Door or Focus Hope or volunteer at Gleaners.

But we also need to work on the systemic causes of hunger. For a lot of us, hunger and poverty seem overwhelming. But we don’t have to do it alone.

Bread for the World is a faith-based education and advocacy organization that I’ve belonged to for some years. The reason I personally support Bread for the World is because they have a remarkable record of helping win passage of bipartisan legislation that addresses hunger. As a result of this advocacy, children in the United States receive vital nutrition. Emergency food reaches refugees from famine and conflict in Africa. Agricultural development is enabling hungry people in various parts of the world to grow enough food to feed their families.

If you want to help Bread for the World with this important, persistent advocacy work, you are invited to give them a donation. Or you could commit yourself to sending letters to your elected representatives in Congress. I’ll post a link on the church Facebook page and send one in an email to help you do this advocacy work if you feel led to do so.

We are called to serve—to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world.

When we respond to Christ’s call and work together, we can help to change the conditions and the policies that allow hunger to persist.

We are called to share our bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into our house… to care for basic needs of those who are marginalized.

Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God promises us that we will not have to do this alone. When we call, the LORD will answer. When we cry for help, God will say, “Here I am.”[2]

If we remove the yoke, the speaking of evil, if we offer our food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,

Then our light shall rise in the darkness.

This is a blessed promise and vision:

The LORD will guide you continually,

and satisfy your needs in parched places…

you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt…

you shall be called the repairer of the breach..

the restorer of streets to live in.

So be it! Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

October 16, 2016

Here's a link to Bread for the World. You are invited to contribute to their Offering of Letters to advocate with Congressional representatives to end hunger, with an emphasis on women and young children.

https://secure3.convio.net/bread/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=310&_ga=1.61618218.703944482.1475094274

[1] http://www.onscripture.com/no-justice-no-peace

[2] Isaiah 58

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

"God's Hands and Feet In the World". A sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church on October 20, 2015, for our observance of Bread for the World Sunday

"God's Hands and Feet in the World"

Mark 10:35-45

“Teacher,” they say, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

Jesus says to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” And they say, “When you come into your GLORY, grant one of us the privilege of sitting at your right hand…and one at your left.”

Now, some people dismiss the Zebedee brothers. They see them in this conversation, at least, as pushy, ambitious seekers of a place of honor and power.

What does it mean for us to follow a servant savior?

When we’re being the servant church, we’re feeding the hungry, calling on the sick…visiting the homebound. We’re serving those in the community who are needy and hurting, through friendship and practical kinds of help. When we’re being the servant church, we share in Christ’s ministry in the world by generously supporting the mission of the church with our tithes and offerings.

Today has been designated as Bread for the World Sunday. Friday was World Food Day.

We who have plenty to eat are reminded that many people don’t… and many of those who are hungry or food insecure are children.

            Bread for the World reminds us that nearly 16 million children in the United States — one in five — live in households that struggle to put food on the table. Many of these children have parents who have job and work hard, but their wages aren’t high enough to cover the high costs of rent, transportation, and utilities — and daily meals.[1]
            So our federal government’s feeding programs serve as a lifeline for vulnerable children and families. Because children are hit especially hard by the effects of hunger and malnutrition, nutrition programs aimed at children are particularly important.
            A healthy start in life — even before a child is born — pays off for years, not only for individual children and families, but for communities and our nation as a whole.
            Only one out of every 20 grocery bags that feed people who are hungry come from church food pantries and other private charities.   Federal nutrition programs, from school meals to SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), provide the rest.   Our government’s child nutrition programs serve millions of children each year.

But we also need to work on the systemic causes of hunger. For a lot of us, hunger and poverty seem overwhelming. But we don’t have to do it alone.

Bread for the World is a faith-based education and advocacy organization that I’ve belonged to for some years. The reason I support Bread for the World is because they have a remarkable  record of helping win  passage of bipartisan  legislation that addresses hunger. As a result  of this advocacy,  children in the United  States receive vital  nutrition. Emergency food reaches refugees from famine and conflict in Africa. Agricultural development is enabling hungry people in various parts of the world to grow enough food to feed their families.

We are called to serve—to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world.

When we respond to Christ’s call and work together, we can help to change the conditions and the policies that allow hunger to persist.

We are called to share our bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into our house… to care for basic needs of those who are marginalized.

Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God promises us that we will not have to do this alone. When we call, the LORD will answer. When we cry for help, God will say, “Here I am.”[2]

If we remove the yoke, the speaking of evil, if we offer our food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,

Then our light shall rise in the darkness.

This is a blessed promise and vision:

The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places…

you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt… you shall be called the repairer of the breach..

the restorer of streets to live in.

So be it! Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
October 20, 2015

[1] http://www.bread.org/

[2] Isaiah 58