Lent 1b.06
March 5, 2006
Lent is a lot more than giving up chocolate
or trying to
improve our personal habits.
That’s all fine if it somehow grows your soul.
But Lent is supposed to be bigger.
Listen to what the Lord says in Isaiah
about repentance:
“Is such
the fast that I choose,
to humble oneself . . . to bow
down his head like a rush,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes
under him?
Will you call
this a fast . . . acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this the
fast I choose,
. . . to undo the thongs of the
yoke,
to let the oppressed go free?
Is it not to
share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless into your
house.
and bring the naked, to cover him
. . . ?”
In the Litany of Penitence with which we began this season,
we prayed “Accept
our repentance Lord . . . for our blindness
to human need
and suffering. . . ?”
To repent of that blindness, we need to see
– to really look
at the story of the Obega family.
They live in a mud and thatched house
in Robona, a village
in the western mountains of Uganda.
They are typical subsistence farmers,
growing beans, bananas,
cassava and other vegetables.
But they cannot afford fertilizer,
so the crops sometimes
make and sometimes don’t.
When the crops are poor, the family goes hungry.
They become weakened and their ability to farm is less.
So the crops get worse and they get hungrier.
But there’s also good news.
Debra Obega, age 14, and her brother David, age 12,
are now able to attend
school in the afternoons
after working the fields
each morning.
At 14, Debra is now in the 5th grade.
At 12, David is in the 4th.
Debra and David are very lucky to be getting
some education and
they are lucky to be 12 and 14.
19% of children in sub-Saharan Africa die before they are
5.
But things are getting better.
In 1970, 25% of children died before they turned 5.
Debra and David have a 3-year-old sister, Juliette,
who has a chance
to make it past 5 too.
Through a charitable organization like ERD,
all three children
have been vaccinated against diseases
.
But her best friend, Prose, has been having a difficult
time.
Prose contracted malaria from a mosquito bite.
Every 8 seconds, a child dies from a preventable disease
such as malaria
or dengue fever.
The mosquito netting that would have prevented
Prose from contracting
malaria would have cost $3
– but that was $3 her mother didn’t have.
We had it.
Perhaps we spent it on a cup of designer coffee.
The malaria caused Prose to suffer from high fevers
which almost
killed her.
The medical cost of controlling her fevers was 25 cents.
The story of Prose has a happy ending.
Her malaria was eventually cured by an American organization
that supports
community development in poor nations.
The cost of saving her life was $25.
I don’t know which group saved Prose.
It could have been Episcopal Relief and Development.
It’s the sort of thing we do.
One child. One life. $25.
When we talk about Christian morality,
this is
what we mean.
When we talk about repentance,
we don’t
mean self-flagellation
and talking
gloomily about our unworthiness.
We mean: One Child. One Life. $25.
“Is not this the fast I choose,” says the Lord,
“
. . . to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring
the homeless into your house.
and bring
the naked, to cover him . . . ?”
The enormity of suffering is not a reason to despair or
give up.
We are making enormous progress.
The number of people living on less than $1 per day
was cut
in half between 1981 and 2001.
There are still 1.1 billion people living on less than $1
per day
–
but there is every reason to believe that number
can be
reduced to 0 by the year, 2015,
if we can
only find the grace in our hearts
to do it.
Literacy levels in developing countries have risen 6%
in the
past decade.
We can fund universal education for all children
for a fraction
of what the United States alone
spends on cosmetics
alone.
This is what Christian morality is about.
The Blessed Virgin Mary said,
My soul
magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices
in God my Savior . . .
he has
put down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of
low degree;
he has filled
the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has
sent empty away.”
John the Baptist said,
“He who
has two coats,
let him share with
him who has none;
and he who has
food, let him do likewise.”
Brothers and sisters, we have two coats.
We have food.
John the Baptist is talking to us.
Jesus said,
“The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me
because he has
anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me
to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery
of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty
those who are oppressed . . . .”
St. John said,
“He
who does not love abides in death . . . .
But if
anyone has the world’s goods (that would be us)
and sees his brother
in need,
yet closes
his heart against him,
how does God’s
love abide in him?
Little
children, let us not love in word or speech,
but in deed and in
truth.”
Lent is a time to repent,
to turn around,
to change our lives
in a way that will
change the lives
of the Obega children
in Uganda,
and children in Haiti,
and in the Sudan.
A Christian faith that is not passionately committed
to alleviating
the suffering of the poorest of the poor
is an imposter.
And those who claim to be filled with the Spirit
but do not bring
good news to the poor
are charlatans.
This is how we heal the world.
St. James is very clear when he says,
“If a brother
or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food,
and one of you
says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’
what does it
profit?”
James means if they need food and clothing,
we should give
them food and clothing.
If they need HIV medication, we should give them HIV medication.
If they need a $3 mosquito net, we should give them a mosquito
net.
This is how we heal the world,
and without healing
the world,
there is no healing of our
souls.
Amen.
