Standing Up Against Poverty, Isaiah 58:1-10, Mark 6:30-44
Isaiah 58:1-10 Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.
“Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to God?
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of God shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and God will answer; you shall cry for help, and God will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
Mark 6:30-44. The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.
Now many saw them going and recognized them and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” But he answered them, You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?” And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass.
So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
Preacher Fred Craddock tells the story of being invited to speak at a conference at Clemson University. He was to speak with a couple of others. Before the lectures began, a young woman began the program with a devotional. Fred didn’t know her. She was a young woman, mid-twenties, She had pale-blonde, straight hair; she was thin, wore no makeup and had a very soft voice. When she got up to give the devotion, she had a big yellow legal pad. Everyone saw it and thought, “We are going to be here for the night!”
Her voice was very soft, but Fred was sure she was speaking in another language. And then she spoke in another language, then in another language, and then in yet another langue. I don’t know how many languages, nobody kept count. But what she was doing was saying one thing in all the major languages of the world. When she got to German, Fred thought he knew what she said. She said this one thing sixty or seventy times in sixty or seventy languages. It was one sentence, and the last time she spoke it, she poke it in English. She said, “Mommy, I’m hungry.”
Fred though about what she said all the way home that night. The first billboard he saw on the highway said this; “All you can eat for $6.99.” But in his head it was “Mommy, I’m hungry.” (Cherry Log Sermons )
It is the cry heard round the world. By United Nations estimate more than 1.2 billion people are living in extreme poverty, living on less than $1.00 a day. It is much more than a simple issue of food, it is an issue of the rights of women, education, debt relief, agricultural development, AIDS prevention and treatment.
In our first lesson this morning, the people of Israel are wondering why God seems to be silent. “We’re calling, God, but you don’t seem to be hearing us? We’re keeping the Temple in good order God, but your not listening. The sacrifice of animals is at an all time high God, but our country is in disorder. We keep praying for peace and safety and food but you’re not speaking.” God’s response, spoken through the prophet Isaiah, is not the answer they were bargaining for. What does God say? “Announce to my people their rebellion. Day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of God.”
--“Oh…”
“You want to know where I’ve gone?,” God says. ‘If you can’t hear me, it is because you have strayed far form my voice. You’re doing the ignoring, not me. If you want to hear from me, then loose the bonds of injustice, undo the yoke, let the oppressed go free. Then you’ll hear from me. Then your country will be in order.” The people thought God was mostly concerned with their worship. But instead of being in the sanctuary, God was to be found out on the streets. God’s primarily concern was their treatment of other people. As Barbara Brown Taylor says, “If God is silent, it may be because we are not speaking God’s language” (Gospel Medicine, pg 71,).
In our Gospel lesson, Jesus and the disciples are suddenly faced with a hungry crowd. The disciples approach Jesus: “Now Jesus it’s getting late. And we don’t’ have much to eat here. And we certainly don’t have enough to share. And this crowd isn’t our responsibility. We didn’t invite them. What are we supposed to do Jesus?
--And Jesus’ response is, “you give them something to eat.”
“We only have five loaves and two fish.”
--“Well feed them.”
“How?”
Jesus tells them to gather up all the scattered piece they have around, and he blesses them, breaks them, gives them, and the crowd is fed, with more to spare. Some people take this miracle at face value, food that magically multiplies as bread is torn off a loaf. Others look at this story as a little crowd management. Maybe everyone had little food hidden in their pockets. They knew it wasn’t going to go very far so they kept it for themselves, and when Jesus came up with the crazy idea of feeding them all, they each pulled theirs scraps and shared what little they had. And in the end it was more than enough. If that isn’t a miracle then I don’t know what is. Moving people to believe that there is enough, that perceived scarcity is actually abundance. Moving people to give up their individual needs to meet the wider needs of others. That IS a miracle. God has provided plenty, the distribution process is the problem, we are the distribution process.
But what struck me in pawing over these stories this week was the juxtaposition of two ways of addressing the issue at hand. Isaiah gives a call to justice. Jesus calls the crowd to give to their neighbor and meet immediate needs. A call to justice and a call to acts of mercy. There has always been some tension between the two because there are some important differences between justice and mercy. .Justice is about systemic fairness and people getting what they deserve. Mercy, or charity, has to do with generosity and compassion. And we’ve all heard a number of times, we can give people food, or we can give them the tools they need to farm. We can give a handout or solve the structural problem that creates the need.
Some argue that our works of charity actually impede the work of justice. There may be some truth to that. As David Hilfiker, a Dr. of poverty medicine questions, “Do our handouts end up relieving the pressure that might otherwise force us to move forward for more fundamental societal changes. In her book Sweet Charity, sociologist Janet Poppendieck writes that charity acts as “a sort of ‘moral safety valve’; it reduces the discomfort evoked by visible destitution in our midst by creating the illusion of effective action and offering us myriad ways of participating in it. It creates a culture of charity that normalizes destitution and legitimates personal generosity as a response to [injustice].” (Inward/Outward blog)
But on the other hand, we would be completely negligent if we didn’t feed and shelter and clothe those in need now, and we would be missing a significant portion of Jesus’ teachings. Jesus’ teachings and example remind us that all issues have a human face. His biggest social plan was in forming a new community where things were held in common, creating settings where the poor and wealthy rubbed shoulders regularly around the table. Sometimes we don’t see the importance of that face to face intimacy. I think that Jesus knew that when we look eye to eye with those in need, and build relationships with them, something within us is changed. Our hearts are opened, we become aware of our common humanity. It’s hard to spend any significant time with someone who is struggling and not be moved to actually do something about it. Spending time with those who need support causes us to ask life-altering questions: Am I taking God seriously? What difference does God make for a world with such need? Am I willing to risk some of my pride, my security, my comfort in order to be loving service to the world? Being with the suffering poor, alleviating the immediate need, is not optional. Jesus himself said that whatever we do, or fail to do, for the hungry or sick or imprisoned or destitute, we do, or fail to do, for him.
The Bible is both political and personal. We have to be involved in the risky direct engagement in helping our neighbor with the clearheaded awareness of systemic issues.
This week, people across the world are being called to “Stand Up Against Poverty.” It flows out of the United Nations Millennial goals, decided upon in 2005 with the goal of eradicating extreme poverty by the year 2015. The goals focus on a number of arenas that feed into extreme poverty. They are ambitious goals, but goals well within our reach. Experts agree that for the first time in history we have the information, knowledge, technology, and resources to bring the worst of global poverty virtually to an end. What we don't have is the moral and political will to do so. It is going to take us to create that political will. We are going to have to make sure that the international commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015 is not forgotten. And it is going to take far more from us than standing on the sidewalk. That is just the beginning. Isaiah warns that worship can lull us into thinking we are doing God’s business, so can making gestures of simply raising issues- tipping our hat to different concerns. What is really required is rolling up our sleeves and doing the long, arduous, sustained work of affecting policy.
As US citizens, and the world’s largest consumers, we have particular responsibility. To those who have much, more is required. The good news is that, at least according to polls, the people of the US do have the will to a large extent. A study by university of Maryland showed that 893% agree that the US should be taking more significant steps towards alleviating world poverty. 71% even said they would be willing to pay an increase in taxes to do so. However, the poll also showed that most Americans think that 20% of our budget goes to foreign aid. The actual is less than 1%. Of the money that we do send in USAID, over 20% goes to Israel and Egypt, neither of them poor countries.
The US ranks last among developed countries in the percentage of budget given to foreign aid. Tiny Denmark gives 10 times as much of its national income. Many people don’t realize that the money we send to places of extreme poverty like Africa has trickled off. During the cold war the US pumped aid money into Africa as a way to stave off communism. That threat is gone, and with it, the money.
The end of extreme suffering will also have the fringe benefit of increasing security. We can’t have a viable, peaceable, safe world when deep poverty lives alongside huge wealth.
If God doesn’t seem to be listening and things seem in disarray, Isaiah challenges us to examine whether we are involved in the wrong kind of religious busyness. If God doesn’t’ seem to be listening and things seem in disarray, we have to remember how Jesus took, blessed, broke and gave bread, believing that it is enough. He also demonstrated that there is no such thing as your bread or my bread, there is only our bread.
I remember an elderly welsh man, who had spent most of his life doing relief work for the UN, speak to a bunch of ministers upstate. He knew a lot about food and starvation. He spoke about the hunger he had seen and he recalled how the disciples suggested sending the people away, but Jesus said, “No.” The disciples responded, “We have only five loaves and two fish here.” The older man looked round at everyone gathered and said with love and sadness, “That, if you will permit me to say, my dear American friends, in not your problem.” And he sat down.