Hi everyone, this sermon is based on (Matthew 9. 9-13, 18-26) and (Luke 8)
The Sermon Nikolayevich Tolstoy once related a personal experience that occurred when he was walking down a city street. A dishevelled homeless man came up to him and asked him for money. Tolstoy searched all his pockets but could find no money.
He stopped, took the man's hands in his, looked him in the eyes, and said warmly, "I'm sorry, my friend. I have nothing to give you." The man's face softened into a smile, and he replied, "You've given me more than I asked for. You called me friend.
Now, I'm sure Tolstoy had never seen the man before and would probably never see him again.
But in that instant, he had acknowledged the man's presence, his existence, but more importantly, his humanity. He had made him felt valued. It was a relational moment and I imagine we've all had very similar encounters, although perhaps not with the same outcome.
In big cities like London, where there are so many homeless people on the streets, being asked for money is a frequent occurrence. Wherever we go, we are continually reminded that many of our fellow human beings have for so many reasons fallen into destitution and extreme poverty.
Yes, I befriended a few people on the street in the past when working who I saw regularly and they all have their stories which are sometimes deeply harrowing.
They are often demotivated, often depressed, frequently suffering from alcoholism and all kinds of mental health issues. Usually brought about by their circumstances.
They find themselves reduced to eking out an existence on the streets. They become the largely unseen marginalised members of society, shunned and ignored by the world at large.
Now Jesus of course was the friend of the outcast.
And in the passage that I just read from Luke's gospel chapter 8, we get a clear picture of his radical attitude to the marginalised. We hear of the woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for 12 years, rendering her ritually unclean. So she was socially ostracised.
But instead of rebuking her for becoming unclean, Jesus calls her daughter. He values her. He defies the deep seated prejudices of the time and restores her community standing, her dignity and spiritual identity.
It's a powerful reminder of Jesus mission to seek out the outcast and give them a place in the family of God. And this of course was at the core of his message. This is radical inclusivity.
As someone put it, this was the democratisation of healing and the breaking down of oppressive social, patriarchal, and religious boundaries that existed at the time. And throughout the gospels, we see Jesus actively going out of his way to welcome the marginalised.
In doing so, he frequently crossed rigid ethnic, gender, and social boundaries which shocked those around him.
And by eating with tax collectors, touching the sick, and engaging in deep theological conversation with social outcasts like the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus modelled radical compassion.
He redefined community by treating society's outcasts as family. Rather than defining people by their pasts or the labels that society bestows upon them, Jesus recognised their inherent spiritual worth.
Now in our time we are fortunate that there are many organisations both Christian and secular and even run by other faith traditions that do sterling work to support homeless men and women on our streets.
Volunteers give generously of their time to provide food and staff kitchens and night shelters. Well, maybe it's a measure of my own guilt. But I feel that as individuals something is still required of us.
Yes, we give a little cash to people here and there to the homeless, those who are destitute, even though we have no idea if that will be spent responsibly. We can be encouraged to donate online to homeless charities so we do not encourage enabling of addictions by giving money to people who claim to be homeless on the street. That is our choice to make where we choose to donate money.
It isn't always easy dealing with people in circumstances far removed from our own comfortable lives. Yes, some people can be challenging, even frightening. Their behaviour may be odd, aggressive, unsettling, and often unpredictable.
Yes, at heart we want to reach out to them to understand their fears and concerns, but by and large we don't know how. We sometimes feel that we don't have the inner resources to help us to help them.
So I understand why many of us are reluctant to get too close to their broken world. We know that it's not easy to love the unlovable or to fully embrace the outcast in our midst.
But Jesus gives us a clear lead on this by the compassionate way he identified with the poor and the weak. He taught that how one treats the least of our society is a direct reflection of their devotion to God.
So an important takeaway from the story of the haemorrhaging woman in the gospel reading is that as in all our relationships the key to meaningful interaction surely lies in empathy, respect and understanding.
So when we encounter the homeless and the destitute individuals, by acknowledging their humanity and not being judgemental, we can in some small measure contribute to a more compassionate, more loving and inclusive society.
Yes, a few warm words can go a long way in making someone feel seen and valued in a world where they often feel invisible. It's not just about what we say, but how we say it.
So the lesson from Jesus teaching, I think, is this. Welcoming the marginalised starts by simply acknowledging their dignity and humanity when the rest of the world looks away.
