"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
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