“Wrestling with Scarcity and Abundance”
August 3, 2014
Rev. Katelyn B. Macrae
Richmond Congregational Church
Prayer: Dear God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of
all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our creator, redeemer and
sustainer. Amen.
We all have stories and struggles that we carry with us as we
go throughout life. Sometimes it is writers, artists, and other creative
visionaries who are able to speak best to the human experiences that we all
share.
M.F.K. Fischer was a well known 20th century food writer. Her books were part food log part travel memoir. She said, "People ask me: 'Why do you write about food, and
eating, and drinking? Why don't you write about the struggle for power and
security, and about love, the way the others do?'...The easiest answer is to
say that, like most other humans, I am hungry."
Food is such a basic human need, right there on the top of
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, along with shelter and water.
In the spring of 2009, I visited
El Salvador as part of a cultural immersion and learning experience with a
group of students from my seminary. Our group came from many different
denominational backgrounds, but our host was the Anglican Episcopal Diocese of
El Salvador. We stayed in the church’s dorm in San Salvador, and each day would
travel out to a different location. We visited schools, churches, health
clinics and mission sites. We were there to learn about El Salvador’s history,
especially about Bishop Oscar Romero, the El Salvadoran Civil War, and the
church’s current work. One day, we went to a mountain top community that was
building a water pump to get water from the river below up to their farming.
Before the water pump, the
villagers had to walk up and down a steep hill to fetch water for all of their
daily living needs as well as for their animals and crops. As you might
imagine, this process of going down, getting water and then carrying it back
up, was tedious and challenging.
The church had been working with
this community for a number of years. Before the water pump project, they
helped the community build a bridge.
The community was up on the top
of the mountain, and during the rainy season, the road would flood and became
impassable for a car.
Like the location in our Gospel
story from Matthew, this place was not only hard to get to, there was also very
little there to feed people.
During El Salvador’s Civil War an
entire generation’s worth of farming knowledge was lost. People working in the
fields were easy targets for aerial bombing. People stopped farming, and many
picked up weapons. They were trying to survive.
After the war ended, people such
as the ones who lived in these mountain communities, tried resume their lives.
But they had lost the knowledge of the previous generations’ farming
techniques. Seeds were not saved from year to year. Much of the fertile soil was depleted.
People who tried to grow crops
were starting from scratch. They had to learn how to farm and borrow money for seeds
and fertilizer. Given this, new farmers could barely turn a profit.
The church in El Salvador had a
vision that if they could teach people organic farming practices such as saving
seeds, using natural fertilizer, and growing crops better suited for their soil,
it would help people to better provide for their communities, and hopefully,
eventually, climb out of poverty. As people transitioned from learning how to
use guns to learning how to garden it was a literal turning of swords into
plowshares.
The church committed itself to
this vision that that another way was possible for the people of El Salvador.
Yet, economic and political
realities in El Salvador, and other Central American countries, persist. Even
with all the good work of NGOS and religious organizations, economic security
and stability is far off for many people. Gangs run rampant. There are not the
same opportunities for people to get education, there aren’t that many “middle
class jobs” and many families now rely on relatives working abroad in the
United States to send remittances home. Almost everyone knows or is related to
someone who has gone to “El Norte.”
People risk their lives to cross
the border – to the American dream of freedom and prosperity. But what they
often meet is anything but that. If they do make it here, many take below
minimum wage jobs, endure unsafe working conditions and yet pay taxes and are a
vital part of our economy.
We can no longer ignore the
estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants who are residing in the United
States. Our current immigration policies need drastic reform. It is time for
people of faith to step up and be the visionaries that say “another way is
possible.”
On Thursday, a group of UCC leaders joined with other religious
and social justice advocates in front of the White House to call on President
Obama to stop the mass deportations of children, and reform our immigration policies.
In addition to this action, the delegation also visited legislators, and
encouraged them to take action before their August recess..
Da Vita McCallister, the Conference Minister for Children and
Youth in the CT Conference, posted on facebook to explain why she was going -
“I have tried to imagine how desperate I would have to be to
tell my 16 year old son, ‘take your nephew (almost 3 years old) and these two
sandwiches. Walk to California and give the first person you see this note. It
has the name of a friend of mine and she will take care of the two of you."
And yet, there are mothers who feel they have no other choice but
to do this.
As food writer M.F. K. Fisher wrote - “Like most other humans, I
am hungry….”
I imagine that the crowds gathered around Jesus in that deserted
place were hungry too. They were not only physically hungry but hungry for the
comfort of being in a safe place.
In the verses immediately before our story from Matthew’s Gospel
begins, Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist was beheaded by Herod and his head was served
up on a platter. No doubt, the people following Jesus had heard about this.
They were also grieving the loss of John the Baptist, and not sure what Herod
might do next.
Our story begins– “Now when Jesus heard this” – this being the beheading
of John - he took a boat to a deserted place by himself to grieve. The people
followed on foot. Even though Jesus was trying to be alone, Matthew says that
Jesus “had compassion” for them – he healed and cured the sick all day.
But as it got to be close to nightfall the disciples were
concerned. They came to Jesus and asked, “Should we send
them into the village so that they can buy something to eat?” Remember, they were
in a deserted place. And so they scratched their heads and dug around through
their pockets and in their bags.
Jesus said to them, “They need
not go away; you give them something to eat.”
“We’ve got nothing here but five
loaves and two fish,”
Jesus, also keenly aware of the
thousands of people out there said, “Bring them here to me.” Jesus sees the
meager offerings that the disciples have to feed the people, and he blesses
them any way. In his actions, Jesus casts this vision that this food can and
will be enough. Instead of focusing on scarcity, he sees the opportunity for abundance.
It’s similar to how the church in
El Salvador saw an opportunity to teach people to farm – and therefore to move
out of scarcity towards abundance.
In a few minutes we will
celebrate Communion.
There is a great Latin American
Bread Prayer that goes – Give bread to
those that are hungry, and a hunger for justice to those who have bread.
As we break bread, let this be
our prayer. Because when we pray, we’re not only asking for God to do
something, but we’re also transformed through the process of prayer.
Lynn Bunyak, the VT Conference
minister wrote this about prayer this week –
“By
praying we open ourselves to God's work within us, making us more compassionate
and able hear God's call more clearly. Prayer is a subversive act that not only
changes the world, but changes us and our relationship to the world filled with
people whom God loves with an everlasting love.”
Friends, as we go about our week, may we take time to pray, and as
we pray may we be open to how God might be calling us to be the artists, visionaries, writers, and people of
faith who can further the narrative of God’s abundant generosity for all of
God’s children.
May it be so.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment