A big thanks to Beth Ehrsam for sharing a story this morning about how mission has been transformative in her life; and a big thanks is due to our Mission and Social Concerns Committee and its dedicated members who have prepared a Mission Fair for us today, highlighting the work of five of our Knox mission partners and the work they do to fight poverty.
There’s a wonderful thing our Mission Committee does that you may have noticed before and I want to mention specifically: they work hard to see that there are entry points to our church’s mission and outreach work that will work for people at all stages of commitment and involvement so that its easy to get started helping others, and also so that its possible to really go deep.
So, on Sunday mornings there are regular pop-up mission opportunities where you can pack food boxes for the hungry, and there are Saturday morning mission tailgates where you can purchase and drop off emergency supplies—these are easy ways for people of all ages to lend a hand.
And then there are more significant commitments: We have members who make a regular commitment to take meals for distribution at Third Presbyterian, or who come to church when we house homeless families and play with the children and spend the night as a host; these are not only more significant commitments of time, but they put volunteers in direct relationship with people who are hungry or experiencing homelessness; that experience of knowing and showing friendship to a person in need is an important part of following Christ.
And there those who have been moved by those experiences to make even deeper and lasting commitments to individuals they have met; so there are Knox members who or who have not only travelled to our country’s southern border to learn about the crisis facing refugees, but who continue to work with families who have come here; other Knox members mentor children and youth in East Westwood, becoming a regular part of their lives, getting to know their families. This is truly transformative work in that it can help move people out of the trap of generational poverty. It also tends to transform the lives of the volunteers. As Beth shared with us this morning, they come to know the real challenges of living in poverty; how immensely hard it is and how courageous and resilient some of our poorest neighbors are forced to be; and our volunteers come to see someone quite different from themselves as a child of God.
I’ll tell you something else: these volunteer experiences don’t always go well. Some of our volunteers get to know a person living in poverty and are disappointed. They get really angry when they discover that they own a big tv or that their kids have $100 tennis shoes even though they’re having trouble paying the bills. They discover that a mentee has ignored a mentor’s guidance about prioritizing homework or not running with the wrong crowd. Some volunteers go to the Third Church Rec Center and discover that undernourished kids don’t always show up ready to work and to to sit down and focus; these things can make the volunteering feel like a waste of energy, so they quit. But often people find a way to stick with it, and why? Because one of the blessings of doing this work through one’s church is that it happens in community—we do it together—so when a volunteer gets frustrated or discouraged, a friend can remind them that, yes, sometimes it seems our efforts don’t make a difference; but they can also tell you stories about times when they’ve seen a big win—and how much that matters, so we have to be patient and stick with it.
Moreover, they help us to see that, money aside, there’s a lot that all human beings and all children have in common: there are plenty of wealthier folks who make their own bad decisions about money; there are teenagers in Hyde Park that fall in the wrong crowd and get in trouble; there are parents in affluent communities who are a bad example to their kids. It’s just that when you’re well-off, these mistakes may land you in detention or give you a wake-up call, but in poor communities, mistakes much more often lead to jail time, and a bad economic move can cause you to get evicted. These differences just underscore all the more how important mentoring and friendship can be. It takes immense work and patience to nurture any child into an adult life of stability and responsibility. People who volunteer with the poor come to understand how blessed they have been in life to have had so much help and guidance when so many others in our world do not.
That’s a pretty long introduction to a biblical idea I want to share this morning. It’s a simple idea and yet one that has a long history of bad interpretation. In Mark 14—and also in the other Gospels—Jesus makes this often quoted comment: “You will always have the poor with you…” Over time, this text has been taken to mean something like: “There will always be poor people, so don’t worry about it.” I suppose this bad interpretation may be because of the context in which it appears. Jesus is in seated in a house with his disciples when an unnamed woman enters and pours a costly jar of ointment over his head. When some of the onlookers complain that the act is wasteful, Jesus responds, “You will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.” So I guess some people think that Jesus is saying, “don’t worry about the poor, worshipping me is more important.”
The problems with this line of interpretation is simple: it’s totally inconsistent with everything else Jesus says about the poor. Jesus tells a rich young ruler seeking happiness to sell all he has and give it to the poor. He says in the Beatitudes, blessed are the poor (Matthew’s Gospel says “poor in spirit” but Luke just says “poor.” Jesus says its easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven. Jesus cautions those who build bigger barns to contain their accumulated wealth and instead advises them to give it away. Money is one of the most frequent themes in all of Jesus’ teaching; Jesus gives almost constant attention to the plight of the poor. It just doesn’t line up with anything else he has to say for him to tell the disciples—”there will always be poor people, don’t worry about it.”
What is consistent with everything else Jesus says is a different interpretation, not “you will always have the poor so don’t worry about it,” but instead, “you will always have the poor…so you must pay attention; you must be attentive, and be generous.” We live in a world that is broken in so many respects, so yes, “you will always have the poor with you…and you must pay attention. That’s consistent with the teachings of Jesus.
It is interesting to me that, when people read this story, it seems like a lot of folks want is an either-or interpretation: either one can be “spiritual”, and be generous toward Jesus; or they can be generous to the poor; but you can’t do both. My hunch is that instead, like most things in life, we’re called to hold these two things in tension and try to be faithful to both of them.
One commentator on this scripture writes of the the beautiful basilica dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi—one of the most beautiful sites in Christian architecture—and how angry some folks become when they visit there and remember that Francis gave up all that he had to spend his life serving the poor. Is the basilica not hypocritical? But what if others see the basilica, are moved by its beauty, and are drawn into Francis’ life story for the first time? What if beautiful worship of God and humble service to the poor go together, and in surprising ways, need each other. Some folks find their way into a beautiful church out of a deep sense of longing for spiritual connection, and through prayer, music, art, study, they find something of what they are looking for…and if they go deep enough, they will eventually find that loving God is really about loving one another too, and they eventually become attentive to others and generous with what they have in a way they never saw coming. For others it is different. Some folks have a quick concern for others and a heart for justice. Maybe a friend invites them to be part of a service project and in a church like Knox they find a home among people who want to give of themselves to help others… And then over time the work becomes hard; one can’t fix all the problems, all the struggles, all the injustice, all the disappointment. Serving others can be exhausting, and so many Christians who are justice minded eventually find that the only way to sustain themselves is through a steady diet of prayer, and the act of opening oneself to allow God to take care of us and keep us strong.
I suppose where I land is that both must be true: that Christians can be drawn into a sense of the beauty and splendor of the world God has given us, and worship God in thanksgiving for those things; and in the same breath, we must also remember the justice and equity called for in Jesus ministry to the poor, and make sure that the good things of the earth are available to all, and not just to a privileged few.
This morning, we all have a chance to go a little deeper and learn something more about service to the poor—in a way that can bring greater joy and purpose and fulfillment into your life. See, I know that so many of you in this congregation, and especially members of our mission committee, and the mission fair guests they have invited to be with us today…these are people who do the daily work of following Christ through working with people who experience poverty—and they have found great joy in life through that work. We should all pay attention. For in this world where more and more is said all the time about depression, and loneliness, and the elusive quest for happiness…one of the most time tested ways to escape one’s own troubles is to spend time helping someone else. That’s what these folks do.
I thought about ending today by telling you one really powerful story about mission, but I changed my mind. There are too many good stories in this room to choose just one, so instead I want to invite you to talk to each other.
I want to invite you today, before you leave, to visit our mission fair, not in search of statistics, but instead, simply with a curious question. Before you leave today, find someone at our mission fair, and ask them to tell you a story about the work they do, why they do it, and what it has meant for them. Hear their story, and promise to pray for them and those whom they serve. That is our act of worship today, for as Jesus said, we will always have the poor with us, so we must pay attention. Amen.