"Here are symbols to remind us of our lifelong need of grace; here are table, font, and pulpit; here the cross has central place. Here in honesty of preaching, here in silence as in speech, here in newness and renewal, God the Spirit comes to each" (ELW #526).
Honestly this was the verse of our opening hymn on Sunday that gave me the courage to try and bring Amos' scathing words of economic injustice to my sermon. Though my sermon was by no means intended to be political, its purpose was to invite the church to speak its collective voice in protesting the proposed federal budget cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The proposal being made in the House of Representatives would cut $40 billion over the next ten years. No big deal right? What's $40 billion among friends?
According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office $40 billion looks like this: 4 million low income families will be removed from the SNAP program in 2014 followed by another 3 million families per year for the next ten years. These cuts will most adversely affect low-income families with children where the parent(s) work for a living but are unable to provide enough food to feed their families. What has SNAP really done for low income families anyway? Well, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, food stamps kept 4 million families out of poverty last year.
As a follower of Christ, the one who specifically instructs us to protect the poorest and the most vulnerable, how can I not be morally outraged at those in positions of legislative power who have masterminded such a devastating assault on the weakest among us?
Historically SNAP has enjoyed bi-partisan support and been recognized as the most effective tool against hunger, but now a majority of congressional representatives are determined to cut these critical nutrition programs.
Kind of makes Amos' words from this past Sunday come to life. Preaching to a prosperous people who have forgotten their covenant with God to protect the most vulnerable among them, Amos unleashes harsh words of warning on God's behalf. "Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land...The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds".
Not easy words to preach. Not even easy words to speak outside of the pulpit. But how can I as a follower of Jesus, who sings every Sunday about a "feast of victory for our Lord" sit by and idly watch as millions of families, who are already "food insecure", are cast further into the desert of famine?
Perhaps evangelical preacher and president of Sojourners, Jim Wallis says it best:
"They are going after the poor and hungry people because they think it is politically safe to do so. So let's call that what it is: moral hypocrisy. Our job, as people of faith, is to protect the poor and to make it politically unsafe for politicians to go after them - to pick on the poor".
Now that's the honesty of preaching the church needs to hear. For us to do otherwise is to turn our backs on the very ones Jesus and the prophets before him called us to protect. Moreover, to do otherwise, places the church in the dark tomb of irrelevancy: A place in which the church has historically been satisfied to dwell. Like Lazarus emerging from his dead-end tomb of death at Jesus' beckoning, let us listen for Jesus' call as we too emerge from our own dark, dead tombs standing up for the poor, bearing God's creative and redeeming Word to all the world. How can we as people of faith do any less?
Click on the ELCA Advocacy link of Incarnate Word's website to find out specific ways in which we the church can raise our voices of justice, mercy and love.
Peace in Christ,
Pastor Doug
