Four years ago I received a phone call from a colleague at St. Michaels. She was about to move to Virginia and wondered if we might take on the care of a single mom and her daughter. My friend said that she had helped this mom over the last few years, had many phone conversations and even visited her at her home; she was indeed a woman of legitimate needs. I, of course, said yes.
This woman is Dorothy and her daughter Shanika. We have, over these years, provided her with groceries, meals at Christmas and Thanksgiving, rent money on occasion, and help with her utilities. Dorothy is on disability for a back injury. Her husband was murdered some years ago. All of their extended family lives in Gary, Indiana or Mississippi.
When Shanika turned 16 her food stamps were cut by 50%, because she was now old enough to get a job. She has no car, is limited to public transportation, and limited in where she could look for a job. No one would hire her. I know how difficult it was for my sixteen year old daughter to find a job, and she had all the benefits of transportation. The only place that would hire my daughter at 16 was Steak and Shake. Most company policy require employees to be 17 or 18 so they can work late hours.
Last September, when Shanika turned 18, the government cut her food stamps completely, even though she was a senior in high school, and still unable to get a job. The older Shanika has gotten the more difficult it has become to feed and clothe her.
Despite our help, I get constant phone calls from Dorothy. Her needs are endless. And they are real needs. Some of these calls are out of sheer desperation; they haven’t eaten in two days. She’ll call me six, seven, eight times in a day.
And sometimes I have no means with which to help her. We over extended our peapod fund, buying her about a thousand dollars more in groceries than we had the funds to pay for. Still, we do what we can to help.
Shanika graduates in June. Dorothy hopes to move closer to family after the graduation.
This first Sunday of Lent we have been asked by the Presiding Bishop to consider the ONE Campaign and its focus on the Millennium Development Goals. The One Campaign is an effort by Americans to rally Americans with the goal of eradicating AIDS and global poverty. The ONE Campaign is a way for Americans to connect with and work toward The Millennium Goals. These goals were created by the United Nations and then adopted by various church organizations, including the Episcopal Church in our 2006 General Convention. The eight goals call upon people world wide, and especially us as people of faith, to do what we can to eliminate global poverty, hunger, and injustices to children and women. The important aspect is to remember that these injustices are not limited to foreign countries, but are found right here in own backyard.
A recent article on the front page of the Daily Herald pointed out just how many people in the northern and western suburbs are in need of food and assistance. Local food pantries are flooded with people seeking help to feed their families. Dorothy and Shanika are not anomalies; they are part of a growing need in our area.
Our gospel this morning points us to look at the temptations in life that pull us away from God and God’s desire for us:
The first temptation suggests that people can be appeased if their physical needs are met. Give them food and that’s enough. Jesus was hungry and the devil reminds him that all he needs to do is turn the stones into bread and he can have all the food he wants. This is what’s known as a “good temptation,” because it speaks a truth about God. God cares for us and for our needs, God will provide. The desert is a place where food does not grow, but Jesus has access to the amazing power of God, Jesus has come to fed God’s people.
But Jesus knows that this simple response is not the answer. Simply satisfying a physical need of hunger leaves people starving because it completely ignores the emotional, spiritual and moral dimensions of human need. It’s about relationships of truly caring which transform us. God comes into our hearts to transform us, to make us better people, to teach us about compassion. It is not enough that we just give Dorothy and Shanika food. I have tried to know her as a human being, to listen to her when she is desperate, to pray for her. It feels like so little to offer. Jesus calls us to be in relationship with one another. Years ago Dorothy wanted to come to church here. I tried to get someone to pick her up, but no one would…so, we have done what we could. We have fed her.
The second temptation, inviting Jesus to have control over all the kingdoms, is really about dividing power, dividing people one from another. It’s about focusing on outside issues as the source of the problem and failing to begin with looking at your self, your church, your community. One sure way to avoid working on the real problem is find ways to fight about other things. We all do this, we all find ways to be angry about everything but the one thing that really makes us mad. When we can focus on the real issue, the one that resides inside of us as individuals, then we can begin to work through the problem. In this second temptation Jesus refuses to do a powerplay on God. Jesus is a team player who focuses on how he can best do what God desires. Jesus focuses on his ministry of love and compassion.
The third temptation, throwing himself off the pinnacle and expecting the angels to bear him up, suggests that it is more important to have credentials and stature than it is to be a good human being. It suggests that we judge people by their wealth and not their substance. But the reality is we are called to be a people who care for all human beings equally. They dust of Ash Wednesday reminds us that every human being is ultimately made of the same substance. We are all just dust, it is where we have come from and where we will return. All the things we do in this life are just ornamentation, decoration, except for the acts of caring and compassion – Jesus did not care for making himself look important, he did care deeply for all people.
Jesus sees through all of these temptations as an effort to betray his true identity as the one who bears God’s love in the world, as the one who brings forth, in human form, the compassion of the God who created us.
Today, as we spend time thinking about and praying about the injustices of the world let’s ponder the ways we too can open our hearts to fullness of God’s love. To the ways we can become fully who God calls us to be. To the ways we can help eradicate poverty in some small way in our community. To the ways we can love others without judgment. To the ways we can walk in the footsteps of Christ, bring God’s love to the broken places of our world.
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