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Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766
August
29, 2004
Sermon: “Actualizing Jesus’ Call”
Scripture: Hebrews 13:1-8,15-16
Reverend Larry Gerber
PP1. Help for the homeless has always been needed. But now it has gone high-tech.
The homeless of Paris, France, just like homeless people everywhere, live in
constant fear of robbery. They carry what they own. In Paris, thanks to the
Emmaus organization, the homeless now have access to a protected site where
they can store their vital documents — cyberspace.
This is not to be confused with what we call “The Walk to Emmaus”
organization, here in America. The Walk to Emmaus is a weekend experience for
persons to have a closer walk with there Lord, an experience based on the two
persons who met Jesus on the Emmaus Road, after His resurrection.
The Emmaus organization in Paris, has created an Internet center at a shelter
in the central part of the city, where homeless men and women, helped by volunteers,
create e-mail accounts and personal Web sites.
PP2. Emmaus is a homeless organization founded by L’Abbe Pierre. After
World War II, this hero of the French Underground was so distraught by homelessness
that he opened his home and housed a dozen men. In 1954, he began raising the
national conscience about homelessness, and an organization was born.
Emmaus currently has 4,000 formerly homeless people, called companions, living
in self-supporting communities across France and the world. In the United States
his model is found at H.O.M.E. (Homemakers Organized for More Employment) in
Orland, Maine. In this model the homeless and the working poor live in community
and work. It’s the poor helping themselves.
L’Abbe Pierre, who comes from a wealthy family, took his Christian faith
as a call to action to work on behalf of the poor, forsaking his wealth. He
took seriously the words of the epistle of James: “So you see, it isn’t
enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds
is no faith at all — it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, ‘Some
people have faith; others have good deeds.’ I say, ‘I can’t see
your faith if you don’t have good deeds, but I will show you my faith through
my good deeds’” (James 2:17——18 NLT).
God calls us to show our faith. The entire Bible shows a preference toward helping
the stranger, the alien, the outsider, the poor, the widow, the orphan, the
hungry, the thirsty, the cold. We can help. Innovative programs, like Emmaus
or “Ready, Willing and Able” (RWA) in New York City,or U.M.O.M., and
Wesley Center in Phoenix, are helping the homeless with more than just necessities.
Christians are changing lives.
RWA changed Robert Wright’s life. Once upon a time, he was a star high-school
fullback in Newark, New Jersey, who won an athletic scholarship to the University
of Wyoming. On the gridiron and at the dinner table he was a leader, a kid who
was going somewhere. On the streets, however, he was just another follower –
hanging on the corner, getting into trouble, and trying every drug in the neighborhood.
By age 15, Robert was mainlining heroin and hiding his addiction from his family
and coach.
At the University of Wyoming, heroin wasn’t easy to get, so his addiction
abated, but on the flight back to Newark International Airport, flying to his
Jets tryout, Robert made a bad choice – to get high. On the drive to his
home, he scored a bag of “H” and totally blew his chance with the
Jets. For 20 shame-filled years Robert was a “functional addict” while
working for the state’s lottery, until through addiction he lost his job,
his girl, his apartment, and his car — landing him on the streets, helpless,
penniless, homeless and hopeless.
Robert was recommended to RWA, a successful nonprofit program supported by the
Doe Fund, Inc. This is an organization that thinks helping the homeless is more
than just giving a handout. While handouts are needed for survival, RWA’s
premise is that work works. RWA believes in the power of a paid job. It’s
a holistic program where the homeless can and do become self-sufficient, independent
and productive society members. RWA worked for Robert, who is working again.
It’s worked for 62 percent of its graduates, who go on to permanent jobs.
Christian founder George McDonald, a successful executive, couldn’t ignore
the plight of the suffering on the streets of New York. He did something. He
believes other people’s miseries are your miseries.
PP3. That’s almost straight out of Hebrews: “Suffer with them as though
you were there yourself. Share the sorrow of those being mistreated, as though
you feel their pain in your own bodies” (13:3 NLT).
Most of us share a Christian concern and compassion about homelessness. We wonder
— how do we help? What can we do? How do we show our Christian love in
action?
Maybe we don’t personally know any homeless people, and truthfully we might
be a bit frightened of it all. A good place to start is by checking out “The
Homeless Guy.” It’s a blog at http://thehomelessguy.net/. He gives
one homeless man’s daily view of his street life.
Almost every town has homeless people. Maybe they’re sleeping on a cousin’s
couch. Or, maybe it’s the working single mom with four kids camping in
the basement of her best friend’s home in the winter, and in a tent out
back in the summer.
PP.4 Funny thing about volunteering in a homeless shelter, or helping in a food
pantry, or serving in a soup kitchen neighbor to neighbor — God has arranged
it so that the volunteers go away richer than when they came in the door. Not
richer in money, but richer in spirit, faith and understanding. In God’s
economy, we have to give it away to gain it.
One church minister was serving dinner at a shelter one evening while speaking
with a “guest.” The guest was a full-time construction worker who
couldn’t save enough money for an apartment because it cost the security
deposit, plus first and last month’s rent, upfront. Most of his money he
gave to his ex-wife for their daughter.
Their conversation took place in the one- room shelter for 45 men filled with
rows of army cots, a blanket and a pillow on each. There were tables with benches,
and a cheery group of church volunteers serving dinner. The construction worker
asked this minister, “So, what are you doing tonight after serving?”
The minister replied, “I’m tired. I’m going home to bed.”
The construction worker hesitated, then asked quietly, “You have a bed?”
There’s nothing like doing God’s work to gain a proper, heavenly perspective.
Writing a check to help is important work. But, serving with our own two hands
is enlightening, enlivening and church building.
PP5. There are valid reasons why volunteering at a food pantry or shelter won’t
work — jobs, children, old age, commitments. We can still touch lives,
with, for instance — a food drive for hungry children. Ask any elementary
school teacher and she’ll tell you that a certain number of kids come in
daily not having had breakfast. Since nearly one in five children goes hungry
part of each month, we might consider volunteering in our local food pantry,
or supporting it with a food drive, or starting a pantry ourselves.
Sun Lakes United Methodist Church collects over $12,000 worth of food and clothing
for the homeless each year, plus hundreds of hours ofworking at UMOM on Monday
mornings and feeding the homeless on Thursdays, teaching a sewing class at Wesley
Community Center, and volunteering to teach reading on the Gila Indian reservation,
and more.)
A food drive is as simple as leaving the UMOM wagon by our church door and asking
for donations of nonperishables. Homeless folks and the working poor need necessities,
too — toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, conditioner, aspirin, Band-Aids,
topical antibiotics and deodorant.
PP6. These are words we need to remember: “Do not forget to entertain strangers,
for by so doing without knowing it some people have entertained angels unawares”
(13:2). Children, as well as adults, are touched each day at UMOM and Wesley,
by our outreach. They have no idea who put the food in front of them, or who
gave a warm blanket, but they have been touched through persons like yourself,
an angel unaware.
PP7. As we look at one of the many emergency centers set up after Hurricane
Charley, we hear the words of Jesus himself: “I was hungry and you gave
me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger
and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you
took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me” (Matthew 25:35——36).
PP8. Our efforts don’t have to be grand. In fact, they can be quite small.
Our efforts don’t have to be high-tech, only highly loving. Let us pray...........................
Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766