November 17th, 2024
On Wednesday afternoon when I was in the pastor’s office preparing this morning’s bulletins, I was comforted by the sounds coming up from the base of the stairs, where Kathleen Larou and Louise Halfpenny were busily distributing food to a long line of cars. Now and again the crash door might clank, or Kathleen’s voice might rise over the stir:
“Toss in some more Mac and Cheese!”
Louise might holler back.
Comin’ up!
Or maybe…
We just ran out.
Every Wednesday that I am in the office at UCJ, I am tempted to quit whatever it is that I am doing, and go downstairs, roll up my sleeves and pitch in. On a few occasions I have done this – not as much as I’d like – but enough times to know a bit about what is going on.
Kathleen has the whole system down.
Usually there is an hour or two of prep that needs to happen before she tells the first car to pull up.
Shelves that are empty need to be restocked.
If there are any cans that have passed their expiration date, or have big dents in them – they need to be pulled – they can’t go out.
Sometimes – as with the larger cans, or the bigger bags of grain, this restocking process can require some heavy lifting. In this case, the horizontal hand truck is put to use, or the old metal shopping cart that rattles and complains all the way down the hallway from the storage rooms.
If one kind of canned bean is in abundance, and a certain canned soup is low, then some quick shifting takes place to make room on the shelves.
Long before anyone shows up to help, Kathleen has made enough of an inventory of what she has on hand, to make a photocopied list, which will go out on clipboards to all the waiting cars. This way, when each car gets to the head of the line, all they have to do is hand over the clipboard, and us worker bees know what to gather for them
It works like a charm.
Oh, and another thing… There is a place on the clipboard list where the client can indicate how many people are in their family – and how many of them are children. This number helps us determine how many boxes of Mac and Cheese to give them – how many loaves of bread, and how many dozen eggs, and how many pounds of hamburger.
This information also shows Kathleen how many families she has fed that week, and how many children.
And since Kathleen is not shy, she talks to everyone, and gets to know what they like.
The result is that, when it comes to food, Kathleen has an encyclopedic knowledge of the likes and dislikes of a significant part of the population of the Monadnock region.
A car will pull up, and Kathleen will say something like:
“Oh, here comes So-and-so from up near thus-and-such. He’s a real hoot! He loves to grill so give him the hamburger and throw in some extra pork sausage… and his daughter, huh! That kid has a real sweet tooth, so give them a pack of the cupcakes with the rainbow sprinkles on them…”
It’s really pretty amazing…
**
INGATHERING 1
If you are sitting in this first third of the circle, would you please bring your ingathering offering to the altar now?
Sung:
Are you going to Scarborough Fair
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine
**
There is a saying that has traditionally been attributed to Saint Francis… Well, the attribution is now contested, but I don’t really care who said it – whoever it was, I’m glad it was said, because it was a good thing to say…
The saying goes like this:
‘Preach the gospel at all times. And if necessary, use words.’
‘Preach the gospel at all times. And if necessary, use words.’
I love this.
This saying tells us that if you want to preach the gospel – which is really just another way of saying if you want to “be a Christian” – you don’t need to go around telling people what to do or what to believe – it is more important that you act according to what you learn in the gospel.
It’s not about talking the talk. It’s about walking the walk.
This is kind of like that other saying that is familiar to us – the one that goes: “Actions speak louder than words.”
But there is a difference.
You see, “actions speak louder than words” is a morally ambiguous observation. That is to say, your actions – the ones that speak louder than words – well, they could be good actions, but they could just as easily be bad actions.
But when we say ‘Preach the gospel at all times. And if necessary, use words’ we are not making a morally ambiguous observation – we are actively staking a moral claim. We claim, as Christians, that when we act according to what we learn in the gospel our actions are morally good.
And we are fortunate to have, not only the gospels, but a vast scriptural tradition to draw from. And while my livelihood as a minister depends upon the fact that it is often a wonderful thing to learn from the scriptures using words to interpret its meaning in our lives – Saint Francis suggests that it is not always necessary to rely on our intellect to find the truth which is at the core of our faith.
That is one way…
But there are other ways.
And, in particular, the other way, that is arguably the more effective and impactful way to give the Christian message to those around us, is to live according to it.
Jesus himself, when he gathered his disciples around him for the last time, gave a similar teaching.
Just as I have loved you… [He says in the 13th chapter of John…] you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’
The ability to speak intelligently and convincingly about the gospel is a nice thing to be able to do… but it is not the essential quality that makes us recognizable as disciples of Christ. Jesus tells us, quite clearly, that the essential quality that makes us recognizable as his disciples, is not an idea, but an action – our capacity to love one another.
**
INGATHERING 2
If you are sitting in this second third of the circle, would you please bring your ingathering offering to the altar now?
Sung:
Biscuits in the oven gonna watch ’em rise
Biscuits in the oven gonna watch ’em rise
Biscuits in the oven gonna watch ’em rise
Right before my very eyes
When they get ready gonna jump and shout
When they get ready gonna jump and shout
When they get ready gonna jump and shout
Rolls my eyes and bug them out, hey, hey
**
The passage from the book of James that Deb read for us, is a nice complement to the words of Saint Francis. His words also emphasize the importance of action:
James asks us a series of rhetorical questions:
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?
Well… actually, James, a lot of Christian thinkers, over the centuries have claimed that faith alone can save us. When God offers us grace, God saves us… whether or not we deserve it. This idea – the idea that we can hope to be united with the divine even if we have sinned – this idea is comforting for those of us… (all of us!) who have not been perfect all our lives.
Still, James has little patience for this. He goes on to ask more questions:
If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?
James tells us that it is not enough to wish one another well. If we want to “preach the gospel” as Saint Francis says, it is not enough to say “go in peace” we must act. If we want to follow Christ, we are called upon to do what we can that is in our power to help provide peace to those who do not have it.
When the strangers come to Abraham, as he rests in the shade of the Oaks of Mamre, Abraham does not say “Go in peace.” Abraham might be forgiven if he sent them on their way – it was the heat of the day, and he was resting.
But no.
Abraham springs into action:
‘My lord, [Abraham says] if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.’
Preach the Gospel! Preach it Abraham!
**
INGATHERING 3
If you are sitting in this third third of the circle, would you please bring your ingathering offering to the altar now?
Sung:
Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham,
rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham,
rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham,
oh, rock a soul.
So high you can’t get over it,
so low you can’t get under it,
so wide, you can’t get round of it,
oh, rock a soul.
**
By the time I was done with my work, up in the office, all the activity in the food pantry had also settled down.
The lights were off in the hallway when I came down the stairs, but when I went out the crash door, I saw Kathleen and Louise out in the middle of the parking lot.
Kathleen was wielding a broom and Louise had a dustpan and the two of them were sweeping something up.
“What’s this?” I asked
“Someone broke a bottle out here” Louise said, with a knowing laugh.
Kathleen took the dustpan and started sweeping up some wayward glass. “We served 143 families tonight,” she said.
“Wow,” I said “Isn’t that…”
“Yes,” she said… “It’s a record.”
In a way, we are fortunate.
Though we are called upon to act, it is not very difficult to figure out what we have to do.
People have to eat.
If they don’t eat, they are hungry.
If they can’t eat, we know what to do.
We act.
In this way, we play our part, being God’s hands and feet in the world.
With this act, we make a moral claim.
We gather in a kind of goodness, and share it with our neighbors.
Sung:
Oh, the Lord is good to me.
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need:
The sun, the rain and the appleseed;
Oh, the Lord is good to me.
Amen.
Amen