Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’
The Episcopal Church gives the option today of taking a page from our Anglo-Catholic side. We are commemorating St. Vincent de Paul "The Apostle of Charity".
Psalm 37: 27-33 (BCP page635) reads:
The righteous are always generous in their lending,
and their children shall be a blessing.
Turn from evil, and do good,
and dwell in the land for ever.
For the LORD loves justice;
God does not forsake God's faithful one's.
They shall be kept safe forever,
but the offspring of the wicked shall be destroyed.
The righteous shall possess the land
and dwell in it for ever.
The mouth of the righteous utters wisdome,
and their tongue speaks what is right.
The law of their God is in their heart,
and their footsteps shall not falter.
St. Vincent de Paul and those who have established Societies in his name serve the poor and needy in many local areas. Right in Minneapolis a wonderful woman by the name of Janice Anderson at the Basilica of St. Mary oversees a ministry that provides free lunches to people who are suffering from economic hardship, as well as a shoe ministry on Saturdays. The St. Vincent de Paul ministry that Janice Anderson oversees helps struggling individuals to get a fuel voucher once a year and/or a bus card so that they can have transportaiton to and from their jobs.
I am one of those individuals who has experienced difficulties during the economic downturn of the past two years. When I was coming back out after no longer attending meetings for Courage (the ex-gay ministry in the United States and abroad), I found myself in need of a place to go for economic assistance. This was before I found St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral as my new spiritual home, and it was before I met my partner Jason. Janice Anderson received me with such a warmth and sense of compassion. She remembered me from another time and when I shared with her my situation she said something to me that I will never forget. "Isn't it interesting what can happen when we surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit, rather than try to stifle what the Holy Spirit is trying to do?" In that, she was referring to my experience with Courage as opposed to the feelings of freedom I was experiencing after I left and found myself with a greater sense of peace and acceptance over the fact that I am gay.
St. Vincent de Paul is a reminder to all of us to see the Holy Spirit working in all situations, even the those that seem like they are hopeless and painful. Sometimes the most difficult thing is to turn to someone and ask for help. When we call for help there are many who will let us down and say they cannot help. But if we will keep turning and asking, and looking for those who can lead us to someone who has the resources it is amazing what can happen. St. Vincent de Paul reminds us to keep on looking, asking, knocking and eventually finding. As Jesus in our Gospel did not turn anyone away, so he will not turn any of us away when we are in pain or feeling a sense of loss.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and queer (LGBTQ) people know what it is like to be turned away from churches, jobs, individuals and whole communities, even our families. We know the sense of searching for someone to love us just as we are, without throwing our sexual and gender diversity in our faces as something evil or wrong. When it comes from someone in society it hurts very deeply. When it comes from someone in a church community it can feel as if our souls are ripped out of our chest. This is the experience that many LGBTQ Catholics in Minnesota are now feeling with the DVD against marriage equality circulating around the State urging them to vote against candidates who support marriage between people of the same-sex. As someone who spent 15 years of my life in the Catholic church, even though I am now Episcopalian, I still hold on to my love of things that are Catholic. Yet the pain and the rejection that many LGBTQ people experience because of this DVD and the words behind them, create wounds that church hierarchy are responsible for. This does not represent the Gospel of Jesus Christ, nor does it represent the openness of what the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is suppose to be about.
Jesus Christ came for all those left out by society and the Church. We read yesterday the story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16: 1-13. The rich man who had everything to give, yet left Lazarus outside found himself on the other side of Lazarus in another time and place. What will the leaders of the Church who have enjoyed servants at their beck and call, enjoyed in many cases lavishly decorated homes, car allowances and trips to foreign countries find with those whom the Church has neglected for so long? What will be the experience of heterosexuals who have benefited from those who are not? How will those who are not Caucasian look to those who are? How will men look, when women suddenly find themselves in positions of enjoying more than men ever did? The reality is at any point in time the person who is down on our luck could be any one of us. When we need that help, the people we ignored just might be the one's who help us most. When that happens, will we be prepared for such a humiliation? Will we be open to the Holy Spirit's grace of conversion?
The challenge of St. Vincent de Paul is not just a challenge for the Church, it is also a call to all people of good will. We are given the opportunity to serve the underprivileged of our time. We are blessed with knowing many people around us who need a word of encouragement or help to find their way up from ground one. That is why this election year is so important. That is why every vote cast for a Tea Party Candidate or even a Republican is such a dangerous decision. In the end those who are suffering so much from the economy now, will be even worse with extreme right wing individuals making decisions for corporations at the expense of the underprivileged. In these hard economic times, many of us are among those who are underprivileged.
Today, let all of us pray for one another to the Holy Spirit that she will help us all to know and respond to how we can help those left out by society and the Church to draw closer to God. May we all ask God to help us love one another better today than we did yesterday and tomorrow better than we did today.
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 21, Book of Common Prayer, page 234).
Loving God, we thank you for your servant Vincent de Paul, who gave himself to training clergy to work among the poor and provided many institutions to aid the sick, orphans and prisoners. May we, like him, encounter Christ in the needy, the outcast and the friendless, that we may come at length into your kingdom where you reign, one God, holy and undivided Trinity, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Vincent de Paul, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 607).
O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Collect for Peace, Book of Common Prayer, page 99).
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