Proper 23
19th Sunday after Pentecost
Ordinary Time 28
Year C
October 10, 2004
SHELTER THE HOMELESS
·
In our series, “Blessed Are the Merciful,” we
have: Defined mercy as lovingkindness, compassion, or
forbearance shown to one who offends. Remember that when you are
offended. We also learned about two works of mercy—corporal and
spiritual.
·
The works of mercy we are called to be Jesus
Christ are love in action as we come to the aide of our neighbor in
his bodily and spiritual necessities.
·
So far in our series, we have learned what it means to
feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and
visit the imprisoned. TODAY WE WILL LOOK AT WHY
MERCY CALLS US TO SHELTER THE HOMELESS.
·
The call to shelter the homeless is another symbol of
man’s alienation from God. God created man to
dwell in the house of the Lord forever, but the Prodigal sons and
daughters of God—each of us—have run away from home in rebellion.
·
St. Luke records in His Gospel Ch. 9 a record of three
men who told Jesus they were willing to follow him, and how Jesus
cautions those who want to join themselves in His ministry.
·
The call to be priests, deacons, Bishops, religious or
monastic has a cost—giving up the delights of the world and learning
to live with only the basics, putting duty to God before any other
duty, and that we must leave everything including our love for
family behind and not look back once we begin to follow.
·
Jesus Christ’s life in this world was not that of a
King, nor of a prince living in a palace in the midst of riches and
plenty. Listen to what Jesus says about his
dwelling place among the men of earth:
Luke 9
58Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air
have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
·
Jesus, the Lord of all, the King of Heaven and Earth
whose throne resides in the royal palace of heaven, that mansion of
the Lord where we all have a room, in the heavenly Jerusalem where
streets are made of gold became one of us in the incarnation.
THE PICTURE OF JESUS’ BIRTH AND LIFE SHOWS US THE TRUE
CONDITION OF MAN—POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS, SUFFERING, SICK,
IMPRISONED IN SIN.
·
IN Jesus Christ, God became man and was born in a
stable to a family that we would call “working poor,” and at the
peak of his ministry he was a homeless man with nowhere to lay his
head.
·
HIS HUMAN LIFE IS THE SACRAMENT—HIS BODY HAD NOWHERE
TO DWELL—THAT IS PRODIGAL MAN NOT DWELLING IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD,
BUT RATHER IN THE RAGING WILDERNESS OF LIFE OUTSIDE OF
EDEN
.
·
Why does Jesus calls us to show mercy to the homeless?
Because he was homeless! Homelessness is
a picture of man in sin, the Prodigal in the pigpen, and God has
made his dwelling among men and bids all lost sinners to come home
to a place where they will always have a place to lay down their
head and rest, where they will never thirst or go hungry, where they
will never be ashamed and always be free!
Matt. 25:
37"Then the righteous
will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or
thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When
did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes
and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison
and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever
you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for
me.'
·
Our Lord bids us to invite those who are strangers
with no place to stay into our lives because this is what he did in
his life, death, and resurrection for all men who will accept his
invitation to come into the house of God and enter in the joy of our
Lord. Let us learn about the homeless strangers
we see and do not see, those living on our streets, and around the
world.
I. LORD
OPEN OUR EYES TO SEE THE HOMELESS
·
Many people, including myself, have asked me why I
left Christ Covenant CEC in 2000 and went to live in
Sarasota ,
Florida
. The answer for those of you who know us in God
had us work in a mission to the homeless for two years.
·
Those years at Throne of Grace exposed me to humanity
in ways I am only now understanding and sharing with you in this
series on mercy. Having served the homeless as a
priest, cooked for and fed the homeless, helped the homeless, and
wept with the homeless, I have been forever changed.
·
Two of the most meaningful things I have ever done is
sit with one homeless man named Rodney in Sarasota Memorial after he
and his wife had been beaten and robbed in a homeless camp one
night, and then happened to go up to visit a homeless man named
Daniel at Bayfront Medical Center at the moment the medical staff
thought he was going to die. They thought I was
there to give last rites—instead I saw an angel of death sitting on
his bed, walked to the other side of the bed and anointed him with
oil, and he lived.
·
Since then, I have wrestled with why I am back here in
American suburbia away from the problems of the street.
I believe it is because in the years to come, government
cutbacks are restoring to the Church the opportunity for the works
of Christ’s mercy to one again be that love of God seen in the lives
of the sick and needy.
1. According to The
National Coalition for the Homeless
www.nationalhomeless.org
:
·
Refugees in war torn
nations comprise the largest number of homeless people in the world.
On any given day, 2-3 million people are without home or
country, many in our time on the continent of
Africa
.
·
In
America
, two trends are largely responsible
for the rise in homelessness over the past 20-25 years: a growing
shortage of affordable rental housing and a simultaneous increase in
poverty.
·
Persons living in
poverty are most at risk of becoming homeless, and demographic
groups who are more likely to experience poverty are also more
likely to experience homelessness.
·
On a national level,
approximately 39% of the homeless population are children.
·
An Urban Institute
study found that 51% of the homeless population were between the
ages of 31 and 50 ; other studies have found percentages of homeless
persons aged 55 to 60 ranging from 2.5% to 19.4%.
·
Battered women who live
in poverty are often forced to choose between abusive relationships
and homelessness. In a study of 777 homeless parents (the majority
of whom were mothers) in ten U.S. cities, 22% said they had left
their last place of residence because of domestic violence.
·
Approximately 23% of
the single adult homeless population suffers from some form of
severe and persistent mental illness.
·
A minimum-wage worker
would have to work 89 hours each week to afford a two-bedroom
apartment at 30% of his or her income, which is the federal
definition of affordable housing (National Low Income Housing
Coalition 2001). Thus, inadequate income leaves many people
homeless.
·
The U.S. Conference of
Mayors' 2003 survey of 25 American cities found that 17% of the
urban homeless population were employed.
·
In its 2003 survey of
25 American cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that
families comprised 40% of the homeless population, a definite
increase from previous years
·
The homeless population
in 2003 was 49% African-American, 35% Caucasian, 13% Hispanic, 2%
Native American, and 1% Asian (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2003).
·
According to Help USA,
San Francisco
has the largest homeless population
by percentage with 1.5% of their residents homeless, while
Los Angeles
has the most homeless people at
41,500 and
New York City
second with 38,000.
·
Lastly, new definitions
of homeless are being offered to us today:
Homelessness
- an inadequate experience of connectedness with family and or
community (Mapstone).
Houselessness
- an inadequate experience of shelter, ranging from a complete lack
of shelter at one end of the continuum to severely inadequate
housing conditions at the other.
2.
WHAT DOES JESUS WANT US TO DO AS CHRISTIANS TO SHOW
MERCY TO THE HOMELESS AND HOUSELESS?
·
Well, as I see it we have one choice—shelter homeless!
This is one of our most basic needs.
·
Internationally, aid organizations, social service
agencies, and the Church are working together to help political
refugees abroad and those who come to
America
risking all for a hope and future.
·
Many relief ministries and organizations are also
serving refugees in areas of disaster such as what has been left in
the aftermath of the devastating hurricane season in the
Haiti
,
Grenada
, and
Florida
.
·
On the every day level, the Salvation Army, Christian
rescue missions, and government shelters work daily to shelter the
homeless. They need our prayers and financial
support desperately, and I know that firsthand.
·
Then, we praise God for ministries like Habitat for
Humanity--the most well know Christian ministries of mercy to the
homeless and houseless of our era—founded by Millard and Linda
Fuller.
What a story!
Millard Fuller earned a law degree from Auburn Univesity in
1959 and married Linda Caldwell. Rather than
practice law, Millard with fellow law student Morris Dees founded a
company “Fuller and Dees” that led them to great prosperity, but a
failing marriage for Millard Fuller. After
separating in 1964, the Fuller’s founded healing for their marriage
as they gave their lives to Jesus Christ and decided to give up
their business and live simply. They sold their
share in the business, sold all of their possessions, and gave all
their money to various Christian causes. Looking
for a new mission in life, they lived for one month at a Christian
commune led by a Bible scholar named Clarence Jordan who planted in
them the idea of showing God’s mercy to the poor with adequate
housing. After leaving the commune, the Fuller’s
raised money for church schools and activities, and became
missionaries. Several years later they returned
to the Koinonia commune and together with Clarence Jordan developed
a partnership enterprise to build housing for needy people, and thus
was born the idea of Habitat for Humanity.
Beginning in
Africa
in 1973 with a $3000 grant, they
built small cement block houses for the poorest of the poor.
In three years they built 114 houses in
Zaire
. IN 1976, they
returned to the
USA
and Habitat was founded on the
principle of communities raising money to build houses for their
community. IN 1984, Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter
volunteered to help build a Habitat house and that exposure
catapulted sheltering the homeless and houseless into national
visibility. As of 2002, Habitat for Humanity had
built more than 100,000 homes in more than 1400 US cities and 56
countries. They now build one house every hour
of the day somewhere in the world.
CONCLUSION
1.
God abhors homelessness. As far as
the Father of Jesus Christ is concerned, as long as anyone is
homeless we are obliged to do something.
2.
The work of mercy to shelter the homeless is not a
vague call, neither is it a mere platitude to get people to give a
few dollars and relieve their guilt. If our
faith is authentic, we MUST make whatever personal and financial
sacrifices God wills for us as we encounter the problem of
homelessness.
3.
Until no one in the world lacks for walls and a roof
around them and the basic necessiti4es of plumbing, heat, and
electricity, we must work and pray.
4.
Lastly, homelessness is a spiritual issue as well.
To have a home is not only a physical issue of life in this
world, it is a spiritual issue of life in the world to come.
To live in the house of the Lord forever is to live with God
as his child in the safety, security, and provision of God our
Father, Jesus our elder brother, and the comforting presence of the
Spirit of God.
5.
God has chosen to make his home among us mortal men.
He does not just live in a distant far away land, but heaven
is now in our midst as God lives among us. Many
around us living in opulent physical homes are living as homeless
souls outside the presence of God’s love in their lives.
6.
May we work and pray to see that all people in this
world come home to God, and may God grant us the joy of building a
house for the spiritually homeless of this community and see it
filled! Maranatha, maranatha.
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