Welcome to Christ Church, Middletown
the Episcopal parish in Middletown since 1702
90 Kings Highway
Middletown, NJ 07748
732-671-2524
the Episcopal parish in Middletown since 1702 90 Kings Highway Middletown, NJ 07748 732-671-2524 |
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“What are you doing, untying that colt?” The disciple replies, “The Master has need of it…” Indeed. The Master has need of it. Our Lord has need of it because he’s on his way to Jerusalem where he will reconcile the world—every man, woman, and child on the planet—to God. You see, he has need of that colt in order to get to Jerusalem and accomplish his reconciling mission. And, the colt serves him well. Jesus arrives to his destination and destiny on the back of a borrowed colt. There, outside the walls of Jerusalem and on the cross, Christ dies and we believe reconciles the world to God. Our reconciling Lord has need of that colt. Someone lends it to him. And, through his Son God saves us. God’s reconciling work continues does it not? It continues in the Church’s mission “to restore all people to unity with God and each other through Christ.” Does our Lord ask to borrow our colt for this work? Probably not, since most of us don’t have a colt to lend. He asks from us however, from what we do have to help him with his work. He told his apostles after his resurrection: As the Father has sent me (to reconcile all people to God), so I send you. Our faith tells us that we should expect Christ to ask us to lend him from what he has given us to aid his ongoing reconciling work. After all, we are the recipients of this great gift of reconciliation. Who better to ask for help than someone who knows they have been restored to unity with God, and hope to be restored to unity with our fellow humans of this earth. Who if not you and me? Here’s a question that haunts me however: how can we humans be restored to unity with each other if there is such a wide disparity between us in terms of what we have to live on? Here are some numbers: The world’s population is approximately 6.5 billion of us created in the image of God. One in six of us on this planet live on less than $1 per day. Nearly one half of us live on less than $2 per day. One in seven of us are hungry. One in seven of us live in urban slums. One in six of us lack clean water to drink. Over one in three of us lack basic sanitation. And, sixty percent of the world’s wealth is controlled by 6% of us. How can unity be restored between us in this ever interdependent world when such involuntary and extreme poverty exists among us? Is not God’s work to reconcile us to himself and restore us to unity with each other sorely hindered when some of us have so much and so many of us have so very little? How is unity possible when I am hungry and you are full? Or, when your hope is frustrated by insecurity and fear, and mine encouraged by opportunity and success? Such disparity between us makes not for unity, but disunity. Christ singularly accomplished our reconciliation with God on the cross. He made reconciliation possible for us because we are forgiven our sins—that which alienates us from God and each other. Yet, he needs the cooperation of each of us to restore our unity with each other. This is part of our Christian faith: we are reconcilers for and with Christ. And St. James challenges us in his letter:
We would surely lend Jesus a colt to go to Jerusalem and accomplish his mission of reconciliation. Will we all the more lend him whatever he asks of us to continue his ongoing work to restore us to unity with our brothers and sisters in such desperate need? By a grace-filled act of unity on the part of the nations of the world in the millennium year 2000, every member of the United Nations, all 189 nations, pledged to pursue a set of eight development goals targeted to cut by one-half the most extreme poverty among us by the year 2015. In that Millennium Declaration signed in September 2000, the world’s leaders committed to act, saying “We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women, and children from abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty to which more than a billion of them are now subjected.” The Millennium Development Goals promise to:
So what do these lofty goals have to do with you and me, our daily lives, and with Christ Church that we would spend this Sunday morning learning about them? Like you, I feel helpless in the face of homelessness in Monmouth County, let alone world poverty. What can any one of us possibly do to solve world poverty? I mean really do? And one objection continually greets the subject of the Millennium Campaign: We should focus on equally important problems in our backyard. We say, “There is growing poverty in my country and in my neighborhood. No other country is planning to help us. So we should focus our attention locally—if everyone did that it would be fine.” Or, here’s another objection: It’s not my vocation. “I am passionate about other things. My time and resources are limited. God has not given me the gifts to do this work. Clearly other people do have such gifts and interests—let them do it.” For Christians these objections do not mask what we believe: As our Lord reminds us, for humans such things are impossible, but for God all things are possible. When Jesus went to Jerusalem to reconcile us to God, he did not ask for anything other than a colt to carry him into the city of his destiny. We are not asked to eradicate extreme poverty on our own, but we are called to put our trust in God and to lend our help wherever requested by our Lord. If our Lord’s mission was and still is to restore us to unity with God and each other, then can we reject lending ourselves in the way he calls us to continue his mission by addressing dehumanizing and hope-crushing poverty among so many of us? I think not. There can be no objections for a Christian to taking up his or her share of the work to restore us to unity with God and each other through Christ. How can these eight goals and pursuing them individually and collectively be outside our calling as Christians? It matters not whether our neighbor is far or near. He or she is still our neighbor and we are to lend ourselves to Christ’s reconciling and unifying work, especially through unburdening the poorest of the poor. There is too little time this morning to explore and answer all our concerns and objections about the Millennium Development Goals and our potential role in their accomplishment. We are neither so bold nor so alone in considering Christ’s plea that we lend our hearts, minds, and hands to continue his reconciling work in the world through the MDG’s. Our country was one of the 189 nations to sign the Millennium Declaration in 2000. As a nation we pledged to give 0.7% of our gross income to eradicating the worst poverty worldwide. Rest assured too that we gathered here today are not alone in letting the Millennium Development Goals challenge our Christian faith. Our own Episcopal Church endorsed the MDG’s at its General Convention this past June and pledged the recommended 0.7% to fund these goals. Our Diocese of New Jersey already has in its budget a 0.7% line item to pursue the Goals. Our Church’s Episcopal Relief and Development has established numerous programs in many places in the world which can be financially supported and address the MDG’s. And this very day, Christ the King Sunday 2006 is set aside to pray, fast, study, and commit to our own participation in this vital and life-giving opportunity for active participation in this ministry in pursuit of our Lord’s ongoing mission for the world: reconciliation. I am committed personally to explore, learn, and act over the next year, until Christ the King Sunday 2007 and be challenged and blessed by the Millennium Campaign wherever it takes me. For the past two years the Holy Spirit has asked that I lend our Lord, not my colt nor my Honda, but my heart and mind and hands to respond to those of us who suffer terribly from the cruelty of the most abject poverty. I want to invite you to join me in prayer, study, giving, and advocacy on behalf of the Millennium Development Goals. I ask you to email or phone or write me and give me your name. We will get together and divide up the learning and planning work. We will pray and give and include whoever wants to join us. Maybe we will become not just a collection of ONE Episcopalian, but ONE Congregation among many to pursue reconciliation in this opportunity God has given us to do our part to help restore everyone to unity with God and each other. In her inaugural sermon given on November 4th at the National Cathedral in Washington, our new Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Shori said:
I want to conclude by going back to the colt our Lord has need of—to ride on in his mission to restore unity for us all with God and each other. He has need of our colt—our heart, head, and hands to carry him onward. Remember, it’s only a “loaner.” He promises to return it when all are restored to unity with him and his Father. Until that day, Lord please keep and use all that I have to bring about your blessed reconciliation. Now that’s a parade I want to be part of! And imagine, Jesus riding on our colt, one we freely lent him. Faithfully, Dean+ |
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Christ Church is accessible to persons with disabilities. updated November 18, 2008 |
