In the beloved story by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince falls from his home planet to earth, where he is a stranger in a strange place. In his wandering, he encounters a fox. The prince tries to pet the animal, but the fox warns him to be careful. “I’m not tame,” he says.
Something Jesus might say as well. “I’m not tame. I won’t play nice for the sake of your comfort. I may even shock you and disorient you for the sake of the truth.” He won’t bite like the fox, but his words sometimes have a bite.
This is our third consecutive week in Luke’s chapter 12, and perhaps you are ready to move on. There is a growing dis-ease to the tone of it, a growing sense of urgency Jesus brings to his words. They serve to bring our attention to the same urgency, the same dis-ease, that exists in our world right now – all around us.
He says he came to bring not peace, but division, which will create tension among people. These words might make you do a double take. Isn’t it true, back in Luke’s Chapter 2 the angels sang out, “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those he favors.” But we have to acknowledge, anyone who is going to bring the kingdom of God crashing into this world is undoubtedly going to create some tension along the way.
And that is just what Jesus is doing – creating tension. He is urgent. He is disruptive. He challenges many of the things we hold dear. And so we can be sure – without a doubt – he will get some pushback.
The word of God always gets pushback. And Jesus anticipated that.
He said, Read the signs, people. You know how to do that. Open your eyes; read the signs and you’ll see.
This is true for us as well. Jesus invites us to open our eyes. Read the signs.
Read the signs Jesus, himself, provides – his words and his actions recorded in the gospel. We know what they say. We know from the gospel that Jesus lived his life close to the margins. Born far away from home, his parents displaced for the interests of the emperor. And when the emperor became insanely violent, Jesus became a refugee, carried by his parents into Egypt for safety.
As an adult he was itinerant, walking from one place to another, depending on others, often strangers, for food and shelter.
He said once, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” He was homeless. Read the signs.
Now read the signs in our world. Notice the suffering, the need. The many people who live in fear for what might happen to them.
Read the signs. And when we do, what do we see? Do we see any tension? Any pushback?
We see plenty of that, don’t we? This week in our nation’s capital we have seen the federal government used to push back the ones who are homeless. Wednesday night signs were posted around a homeless encampment announcing that everything was to be removed immediately. Some of the people living there, with help from many volunteers, began to pack up their few possessions in shopping carts or whatever they had, and then go in search of another place to live. Our government said they would provide places for them to live, but no one seemed to have any answers about what alternatives the government was offering.
Thursday morning, 12 hours after the signs went up, they began to forcefully remove those who were still there. Crews came in with heavy equipment to tear down all remaining tents and personal belongings and dispose of them. One person who was watching all this was a 67-year-old man named David, who had been living at the encampment for several months. He told a news reporter that it made him think of a Bible verse, something Jesus once said: “Whatsoever you do to the least of these, you do to me.”
It wasn’t clear what would happen to this man. Vague promises of shelters or treatment. Clear threats of jail. In any case, we know from our own experience here in Salisbury the challenges of meeting the needs. There are not enough shelter beds for all who need them. There is not enough effective addiction treatment available for all who need it. There are not enough affordable housing units available for all who need them. I’ve been told that in our county there is a three-year waiting list for subsidized housing.
We know from our experience here at this church that the need is always present. There are volunteers who prepare and serve meals out of our kitchen on Tuesdays and Thursdays for HOPE clients, and also prepare sandwiches to be served on Wednesdays when HOPE is open for limited services. I go to the kitchen some afternoons to check in with them, see how they’re doing. They are always doing. They are energetic, kind, creative with their resources, and busy. No one who volunteers to help in the kitchen will find there is not enough for them to do.
The need is significant and it is steady – it can become overwhelming. And we wish it weren’t so. We might wish, as our president did, that we did not have to see these signs – signs of homelessness, signs of suffering and need. I get that. I have walked on city sidewalks where I had to watch every step so I wouldn’t trip over a homeless person. I have been where the encampments are under the overpass, right in the middle of town, so full of people that they are verging on spilling into the roadway. And I wished they weren’t there.
But herding them up and pushing them out of sight doesn’t solve the problem. It only serves to pretend that the problem doesn’t exist.
We are pretty good at not seeing things we don’t want to see. But Jesus is telling us to read the signs. See what we don’t want to see.
He laments. “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!” A baptism of fire. The suffering he will undergo in his body. The humiliation of his spirit. The end of his life.
Perhaps his followers couldn’t see that cross at the end of Jesus’ road – not yet. But could they see the signs that were clear around them?
Can we?
The better question is, are we willing to read the signs? Will we reject the lies, or accept them because they seem to make our lives easier? Will we try to live into the kingdom Jesus speaks of, bringing it closer to this world, or will we just be a part of the problem because we don’t know how to interpret the present time?
Because we fail to read the signs.
It is not a happy subject. This is not a particularly happy moment in Jesus’ life. But the reason we can look at these hard things is because we have hope.
Even in his darkest moments, Jesus gives his followers signs of hope. It was only a moment ago he said to his followers, “It is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom of heaven.” In the midst of the tension and division, the suffering and the cruelty, we are called to keep our eyes open and read the signs – including both signs of warning and signs of hope.
Look for the signs of hope, like the news that the Hands and Hearts cold weather shelter received the funding they need to open this winter.
or the beautiful vegetable garden growing at Anne Street Village, a transitional housing community here in Salisbury, providing delicious and nutritious food for the residents.
or every time I see a new face volunteering with HOPE, in the kitchen or in their offices. My heart is lifted in joy when I see that a member of this congregation has heard the call and said yes.
When we open our eyes and read the signs, we will see the unmistakable need, and we will also see the ones rising up to respond. We will ask ourselves how we can also help, and then we will see opportunities opening up before us.
And while we hold on to the hope that there will come a day when there is the political and cultural will to make a change, and there is enough affordable housing for the need, in the meantime we are invited to continue the work we have begun, faithfully, encouraging one another on the way. Feeding, caring, and seeking to make our community – our nation – better.
Open your eyes. Read the signs. But do not lose hope. Do not be afraid. For this is the way to the kingdom.
No comments:
Post a Comment