Christ Episcopal Church
September 29, 2013
21 Proper C
This past Tuesday, I had the joy of delivering packages of socks and underwear to elementary schools around Springfield. Our Christmas in July offering yielded 6 full bags of socks and 6 full bags of packages of underwear this year, so we had enough for delivery to 6 local elementary schools. Over 60% of the children in each of those 6 elementary schools live in poverty, and we know from the people who work in those schools that there is no money in some of those families for even basic necessities. There is just nothing quite like walking into the office of an elementary school with two sacks stuffed with socks and underwear and handing them to an unsuspecting school secretary. We have been doing this long enough at Christ Church that there are not actually a lot of unsuspecting school secretaries out there. Most of the time, they are very grateful for the delivery but no longer surprised. One time I walked into an office and was greeted with the words "Oh, I wish you had come 20 minutes ago!" I’ll spare you the details, but needless to say our gifts were needed. Sometimes a relatively new employee will say "Now I know where those come from" when I hand the bags across the counter. This year I got no surprised looks, but lots of gratitude. The reaction I will always remember is the reaction of the community connector, or social worker, at one of the school the very first year we delivered socks and underwear. She was near tears when she said "No one realizes how much our children need these things."
This morning, in the passage from Jeremiah, we hear Jeremiah make what appears on the surface to be a run of the mill real estate agreement. The details of the agreement are a bit foreign to us-Jeremiah has the right of redemption by purchase to the land being sold by his cousin Hanamel. The right of redemption is something like first right of refusal, although in the case of right of redemption the land stays in the family. We are given every little detail of the transaction, so between those details and the fact that God told Jeremiah this transaction would take place, we are led to believe that this real estate agreement is in Jeremiah’s best interest. The only problem is that this is a very bad piece of real estate and Jeremiah is actually in prison. Jeremiah has told the people of Judah, his own people, that God is using the Babylonians, the enemy, to punish the people of Judah for their sins. Those sins were things like worshiping foreign gods, and ignoring the poor in their midst. In times of war, telling the government that God is using the enemy to punish the current leadership and the people will land a person in jail. The real estate is a bad investment because the Babylonians will soon invade Judah and completely destroy Jerusalem. Jeremiah’s property will be destroyed, abandoned, and worthless. But God tells Jeremiah to put the deeds to the land in an earthenware jar where they will last a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land." Despite all evidence to the contrary, and in the midst of impending disaster, God calls Jeremiah and the people to hope in a future that is better than their current situation or than the immediate future.
In the gospel reading, Jesus tells the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus spent his days lying at the gate of the rich man’s house, covered with sores, hungry and humiliated. The rich man spent his days dressed in purple and fine linen and feasting sumptuously. When they both die, the roles are reversed and Lazarus has the far better life in Hades than does the rich man, who wants Lazarus to wait on him. When the rich man can get no relief for his misery, he asks Abraham to send Lazarus to his father’s house to warn his five brothers of their fate. But Abraham says no. "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." The rich man’s sin was that he ignored Lazarus lying at his gate, if he ever really saw him to begin with. Moses and the prophets have a good bit to say about how the poor are to be treated. The book of Deuteronomy makes numerous provisions for the poor, and the Psalms are full of references to the way God will lift up the poor and crush the oppressor. Lazarus may have been invisible to the rich man, but Lazarus was not invisible to God.
What do Jeremiah’s real estate transaction, and Lazarus and the rich man have to do with delivering socks and underwear to elementary schools in Springfield? In the story of Lazarus and the rich man, and through out the gospels, Jesus calls us to see those whom the world ignores or simply does not see. Jesus calls us to open our eyes to see the need around us. Sometimes that need is obvious, like a man lying at the gate, covered with flies and having his wounds licked by wild dogs seeking blood. Other times it is less obvious and far easier to ignore. Jeremiah’s real estate transaction reminds us that God sees hope where we see disaster. Just as God saw hope in Jeremiah’s purchase of land that would soon be destroyed, God calls us to see hope where the world sees failure and would give up. We deliver socks and underwear to children who don’t have the things we take for granted as a sign to them and to us that they are not forgotten and we will not give up on them. We deliver socks and underwear, and cook meals, and sack groceries, and provide housing, and tutor children because God calls us to see hope where the world only sees need, and to see need where the world sees nothing. But what are we missing? Who do we not see because we are afraid to look? Today we hear God call us to open our eyes and look carefully at the world around us. God challenges us to open our eyes so that we can see those that God sees but the world does not, and to invest in God’s hope for a future where no one goes unnoticed. Who are we not seeing?
Amen.
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