Trinity 6
July 3rd 2005
What is home?
That question is the theme for
Robert Frost in his poem
Death of a Hired Man writes about
an old hobo called Silas
who has come back
to the farm where he once used to work.
He has not been a very good worker
and he has come back,
shown up at the farm door
looking to be taken in.
The farmer is unhappy
and complains that Silas should
go to his brother who is a bank president.
After all, he’s the one who has
the money so why doesn’t he help?
Why does he have to show up
on his doorstep for help?
His wife tells her husband
Silas has come home to die.
He mutters to his wife
“Home is the place where
when you have to go there
they have to take you in.”.
His wife thinks about it
and then says “I should have
called it, something you somehow
don’t have to deserve.”
Often during the week I ask
God to guide me in preparing my message
and what I should speak on.
Sometimes I don’t get an answer
but sometimes I think the Spirit
gives me a nudge in the right direction.
The nudge I got this week
seemed to be on the question
how important is a home?
It’s something been a focal point for us
over the past month here at the church.
.
A few weeks ago Chris and Pearl Stoker
spoke to us about how
they are involved with
building homes for those
who lost their homes to the Tsunami.
Last week Frank Thoressin
talked about Threshold Housing
how the two Victoria homes
try to help young people off the streets.
On Thursday I met with a woman
who had been to Zimbabwe to visit
her foster child. She was appalled at the fact
that her foster daughter lived in
a community where one family shared
one tiny little room and scavenged
for food in the garbage dump.
She showed me the photographs.
Her foster child’s dad proudly showed her
her business which was a shack
covered with black plastic garbage bags.
This lady also witnessed firsthand
the terrible actions by President Mugabe
who has evicted over 300,000 people[1]
from their homes and bulldozed them.
She saw soldiers with enormous
machine guns turfing people out of
the little bit of home that they had.
That same morning I got a letter from
Habitat for Humanity which
builds homes for the poor
and that afternoon we got the keys
to our first home.
I said “OK Lord, I got the message!”
I don’t know why the message
didn’t occur to me sooner.
After all, over the past
few weeks we have heard
the story of how Abraham and Sarah
left their home to go to the land of Canaan.
They leave trusting in the promise
made to them by God that
they will be blessed in having
a new home which will be filled
with their family and descendants.
Later on in the scripture we have
the central story of the Old Testament
as Moses leads the ragtag slaves
from Egypt to the Promised Land
the journey of forty years
the journey from nothing to prosperity.
As the scripture unfolds we have
the story of God making promises
to his people that as long as
they remain faithful to him
they will live on the land they are given.
In Jeremiah the covenant is broken
and the people are deported taken
away into exile into Babylon where
they wait for 70 years before they
are able to return home again –
that story is in Ezra and Nehemiah if
you want to read it.
The prophet Micah[2] speaks of the day of peace
But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make [them] afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken [it].
Clearly, the idea of home is important to God.
It is so important that God
wanted to make his home among us
and how he gave up his glory
to become an ordinary person
and to dwell among us – to identify
with us in the most complete way possible:
“of his own free will he gave up all he had,
and took the nature of a servant.
He became like a human being
and appeared in human likeness.”[3]
Jesus promises that his disciples
that if they open their hearts
he will come and dwell within them”.[4]
We are told by the prophet
John in the Revelation that
all of humanity that comes to God
will be under his good government
in the end as all people will dwell
in the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly City
which is that goal of every Christian.
It is not a platitude when we say
at a funeral that someone has “gone home.”
And this very morning
we are encouraged to think about home by the words
of our own national anthem O Canada
when we sang “Our Home and Native Land.”
We are inspired by these words
to remember that God has given us
this land as a good and prosperous land.
We are brought to mind as we sing
the many who gave of their energy
and their time to build this land
and we are also mindful,
especially when we sing this song
on Remembrance Day of those
who died to keep freedom for our home.
But I wish to suggest that perhaps
this year we allow ourselves to not
just think about our country Canada
but also to think a little further beyond
our national borders to think about
the home that we all share,
and travel to the global village
and have a look around at the
homes on the other side of the tracks.
Indeed, it is a wonderful thing
that this year right in our own back yard
in Barrie Ontario we are hosting
the Live Aid Concert a benefit for
Africa with a special emphasis on
ending global poverty.
This year a remarkable grass roots
organization has come together in
an unprecedented way to put
pressure on wealthy governments
to do more than lip service to help the poor
and the G 8 summit and other
high level meetings .
I want to encourage each person here
to seriously pray and think hard about
what little bit you can do
to help this come into a reality.
For the first time ever, there is an
opportunity to make a serious difference
in helping the homeless and the poor.
I encourage you to get behind it.
A letter to your Prime Minister
and the Minister of Finance is free.
The Post Office knows where
Parliament Hill is and they will
get it there for you.
Encourage them to commit to
helping those in need
It’s on your PWRDF Handout
and just needs your signature..
A child is there for you to adopt
through a phone call.
Support Habitat for Humanity.
Even just once:
I was tempted to discard the flyer
until I saw some simple figures.
$10.00 would buy a box of nails.
$20 a bath fan,
$35.00 a bundle of shingles for a roof.
It reminded me that I could do something
even if it was a box or two of nails.
I want to suggest that it is
not just something nice to do
or even something we are commanded to do
but something need to do
because it is the right thing to do.
In Judaism the lowest form of love
or form of charity was to give
because you had to give.
That was the lowest level
the bar was set at.
The highest form of love
was because you wanted to
and doing so in such a way
that the recipient would never know
who gave it to them
and the giver would receive no
compensation – not even a tax receipt.
You see the poor are precious
to the Lord’s heart.
They are to him his brothers and sisters.
They are our brothers and sisters too.
We live in a very mixed up world.
Ridiculous amounts of money
is spent and misspent
with alarming regularity.
I recently heard now of a
refrigerator that has a tv
so you won’t have to miss
the show going for a snack.
We cannot bother budgeting for
helping the poor yet we will pay
professional athletes obscene amounts
of money to play games for our entertainment.
Christians should be known for
how we treat the poor
and for reaching out in love.
Indeed it has been said
that the character of a person is seen
in how they treat those
who have the least power and status.
Hear the words of Jesus
“I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me into your homes; naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘When Lord did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we ever see you a stranger and welcome you in our homes, or naked and clothe you? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?’ The king will reply, ‘I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these followers of mine, you did it for me!’”[5]
It is my prayer that we are
included among those who are
the righteous and that our deeds
of righteousness are done
with a good heart and not one
that is grudging and stingy.
That when the poor come
to our door – looking for a home
when Silas knocks on our door
we are not among those who sigh and say
why is it our responsibility?
Can’t someone else do it?
Do we with bad grace say
“Home is the place where
when you have to go there
they have to take you in.”.
May we say, home is “something you somehow
don’t have to deserve.”
[1] http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/07/01/un.zimbabwe.reut/index.html |
