Sermon For One World Week

Sermon for One World Week : Hungry for One World

Amos 8 : 4    Hear this you who trample on the needy ...

Some of you will have heard on the radio or seen on the TV this week that it was World Food Day -   on Friday. Indeed there was an article in the Independent taking up the shocking news from the UN that over 1 billion people in the world are now officially hungry. The article was entitled: Why is so much of the world still hungry, and what can we do about it?

One World Week enables us as churches and with people of other faiths to explore how we can make a difference and how we might contribute to the alleviation of the hunger we see in the world. Its theme this year is Hungry for One World. What do people hunger for? Not just the food and drink for bodily sustenance, but for laughter, joy, contentment, for justice, acceptance and respect in  a world of difference and diversity where the weak and the vulnerable are often pushed to the bottom of the pile in the allocation of scarce resources in our finite world.

And it wasn’t much different in the world of Amos the prophet. The context of that reading we heard is possibly a celebration of the Jewish Festival of the Booths or Tabernacles – if you like their Harvest Festival  - like the one we’ve had here recently. They come with a sense of thankfulness for their prosperity and wellbeing. The image of the bowl of fruit which is ripe conjures up the season of ‘mellow fruitfulness’. But ripe for what asks Amos? Ripe for judgement for a people who do not always listen to the voice of God.

For many harvest is not a time of rejoicing but of despair and sadness as crops fail, animals die, the people starve. It was so then, it is still so today in many parts of the world that we will hear about later.

There’a casualness about these verses in Amos. Where’s the sin? All is right or so it seems. The nation is in good heart and prosperous. Surely world economies then and now dictate that the successful are rewarded by full barns or large bonuses? Surely it’s a bit hard and rather impracticable to insist that we give the surpluses away to our main competitors of those who don’t lift a finger to help themselves? Amos reminds us of the demands of a holy and righteous God. That we care for the poor and the weak. That is surely the whole purpose of this covenantal relationship he has with his people. After all they were once strangers and outcasts in a foreign land. For people who love gain and wealth and forget or wilfully ignore the commands to love God and love their neighbour, then there will be judgement says the prophet Amos. Their attitudes are selfish. They are self-centred and self-satisfied.

The poor in such a system as Amos addressed in his day come to be regarded not as people, human beings deserving respect, but as a commodity, to be traded for the least amount and maximum gain. Urban merchants have got the upper hand in Israel and taken advantage of peasant farmers working on the land. Amos puts them right. How dare they sell rubbish at great profit! How dare they exploit the poor on the Sabbath!

And then we hear in the gospel reading of James and John staking their claims for places in the sun, next to Jesus in glory. And that gets right up the noses of their fellow disciples. James and John want to turn this messianic journey of Jesus to Jerusalem into a tickertape parade to power and glory. And they want pride of place up there on the victory bus. Maybe they’ve heard Jesus’ talk of suffering and death. Perhaps they think that’s just the price to be paid by some for getting to the top. But the cross isn’t for Jesus or Mark just a way of achieving victory through kingly power on the way to a happy ending and the triumph of the Jews over the Romans. It reverses the whole way of looking at power and glory and turns authority on its head. God’s way of putting the world to rights challenges and subverts all the human systems which reinforce human greed and exclude people from sharing resources.

James and John sound to me like those nations of the places at the world tables of discussion and decision-making at G8/9 or  G20 summits who look too often to their own interests with a nod in the direction of other lesser, poorer nations with a few crumbs cast from the rich man’s table.  A Millennium Development Goal here, a policy for HIV/Aids in Africa there. Failed targets and monies unspent years down the line from governments that we elect on promises undelivered. So what can we do in the face of such difficulties? Well, we can hear the stories of the poor and respond to their needs by our own respectful listening and praying and giving through the many agencies working alongside the hungry in the world today.

So just listen to two such stories from Sub-Saharan Africa, ravaged by drought, now affecting the northern part of Kenya also.

Stories from Eritrea and Ethiopia.

What then should be our response this One World Week? Well the message of the readings this morning are clear. Don’t trample on the poor. Follow the way of the cross which is Jesus’ way of servanthood and costly discipleship. There won’t be much in it for us if we were looking for a quick return or generous bonus in the short term. Perhaps practically it will mean committing ourselves to finding out more about the economic systems in which we are locked and trying to make them work for the benefit of all. Maybe if we haven’t already done so and taken advantage of Gift Aid while the government still permits it we should make a contribution to the retiring collection after this service to help the work of the Disasters Emergency Committee and its response to the huge needs of those whose lives have been devastated by tsunamis, typhoons and earthquakes in the Far East and Pacific recently. Maybe you want to visit the Fair Trade stall and make some purchases which directly benefit partners in the Third World or join campaigns for Just Trade. And following the hymn we shall now sing (Jesu, Jesu, Fill us with your love), reminding us of our servanthood to all people the world over, we shall pray for the many that in our One World today are hungry.

I end with a mediation written by Sophie Staines,  based on that Amos reading from the One World Week resources, as our prayer of dedication to this task.

Our choice could tip the balance in favour of the poor and lighten the load of those weighed down

 

We could level inequality and distribute warehouse mountains; share out the wealth that was never ours to hoard ; turn the tables on those who play the markets

We could stockpile generosity and speculate in hope

Sell up our shares in selfishness and settle for dividends of solidarity. 

 

For added value build portfolios of justice or an ISA in the growth of the Kingdom of God ; buy shares in trust and act in faith; risk our securities to find a richer life.

 

May the percentage of our interest in people rise,

And may we be the prophets of hope.