Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Duluth 
Kim Crawford: Walking the Talk
November 27, 2005
I was taking a quick afternoon break after a particular trying morning at work. A quick walk to Caribou Coffee and a hot vanilla latte seemed like the perfect distraction. I walked through the skyway minding my own business and thoughts. As I came around the corner, I noticed a woman on the floor, leaning up against the wall – asleep I thought. But her backpack was flopped over, away from her, leading me to believe she hadn’t just decided to sit down for a break. I slowed down……but kept moving. Thoughts ran through my head, “what should I do?” “should I go up to her, see if she’s ok?” As I continued to question what to do – I kept walking and walked right past her. “Someone will do something,” I justified to myself. – pause - After purchasing my latte, I returned the same way, hoping to see a crowd gathered around the women. NO ONE had stopped to help. Everyone, including myself, was walking around her. A few women were standing – about 15 feet away from her, discussing whether or not they should do something….my thoughts again, “Someone help her.” “Someone do something.” But, as these thoughts raced – I again, walked right on by. As I sat down at my desk – holding my still hot latte – feelings of disgust and shame overcame me – pause – I was that someone, and I did nothing.
(Matthew 25: 32-45)
All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on the right and the goats on the left. To those on his right, Jesus says:
Come, you are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.
Those whom Jesus called “righteous” then asked:
Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?
And Jesus’ response, which has echoed down through the ages: Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
To those on the left, Jesus said:
Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill or in prison, and you did not care for me.
They in turn asked:
Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?
And Jesus’ equally famous response: Amen, I say to you, what you did NOT do for one of these least ones, you did NOT do for me.
All of us would like the world to be a better place. We may not agree on just how bad it is or exactly what remedies are appropriate, but we know many people get a raw deal, that its not always their fault, and that things should be different.
Many individuals try to make things different. Albert Schweitzer – left a brilliant career in Europe as a philosopher to become a doctor in Africa; Mother Teresa joined a religious order and worked among the sick and dying of Calcutta. Such lives demonstrate individual responses to the needs of the sick, the hungry, the naked – acts of compassion on which we put a high premium.
But lets face it - we are not all Albert Schweitzer or Mother Teresa. Perhaps we’d like to be, but we’re not. The vast numbers of us – entwined in our own daily struggles – often respond to the broad sweep of the world’s problems and the vast numbers of the oppressed by asking, “What can I do?” The question reflects an underlying feeling of powerlessness before so much suffering, an easy trap for people of good will. We can, however, begin small, starting with person-to-person contact with an individual or family in need – (a women in a skyway, perhaps?)
Reaching out to one who is despised and discounted by society is a radically transforming act. It can change the world; more importantly, it can change us in the process. And it doesn’t have to stop there – in the very institutions and businesses or professions in which most of us work there are practices and policies that create justice or injustice, foster compassion or selfishness in our world. We can easily start there, where most of our time and energies are spent. There we have the most effective knowledge for change and often the power to be creative, no matter what our position on the org. chart. The same is true of our own neighborhood clubs, community organizations, markets, and even our own church. We all have access to a variety of opportunities for service and advocacy. Imagination is our only constraint.
As individuals, we can do much to assist our brothers and sisters, but as individuals of the most powerful nation in the world – I would suggest that we must also take a hard look at what we, as a community, a nation, are doing collectively or not doing to attend to the massive social ills of our global community…. “All the nations will be gathered ….” this vision is not only about individual accountability but also about corporate accountability. If we are to take this vision, this directive seriously, we must consider the prevalent systemic economic violence of this world. It is also our collective actions that are on trial here.
Does our community feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty?
Do we see it as the task of our community to provide resources for the health of the “very least” of our sisters and bothers? Typical example: The budget of the Women, Infants, and Children Program, which provides milk, orange juice, and vitamins for young children of poor working mothers, has been slashed almost out of existence - at the same time hundreds of millions of dollars are budgeted for military arms. Sophisticated weapons programs? Raise the budget. Rudimentary feeding programs? Slash the budget. The awful truth is that nuclear weapons kill even when they are not used, since the money that goes for them could otherwise go to alleviating poverty and hunger.
This vision, moreover does not define the poor and hungry nationalistically: the “very least” of our sisters and brothers include not only those here in Duluth or Superior but also those in Mexico City and Calcutta. While it is not the task of our nation to feed all nations, it is the task of our nation to work to create structures that provide enough food for all. Today – Transnational Corporations comb the globe in search of the cheapest labor and the weakest regulations. Thus, workers in different countries are pitted against each other in a “race to the bottom,” while governments compete to offer the most generous packages of tax benefits and regulatory ease for investors. In this situation, the deck is stacked against higher wages, better working conditions, higher health standards, and a healthy ecosystem in favor of corporate profit.
Is this feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty?
Does our community welcome strangers?
For the majority of Americans who have never left this country, the experience of pulling up roots, bidding farewell to friends and family—maybe forever—and placing oneself in the midst of an unknown culture is entirely foreign. It is helpful to remember the heroism inherent in the leap of faith these immigrants take; like Sarah and Abraham, they head off across the wilderness for an unknown country, in some cases with a repressive government or military breathing down their necks.
Of great concern, however, is how our attitudes toward immigrants have worsened. This is reflected in both the harsh enforcement of the immigration laws and in the denial of SSI and food stamps to legal immigrants mandated by the Welfare Reform Act. For years, we have looked the other way as Mexicans and Central Americans moved north to harvest our food and clean our offices. Several sectors of the economy—especially agriculture—are absolutely dependent on this pool of inexpensive labor. Yet, fifty-nine percent of surveyed Americans believe that Latin American immigrants have not benefited this country at all, and in fact have mostly created problems. Instead of looking at the impacts and consequences of economic restructuring, blame is simply placed on those who are foreign born – those who are willing to do “those” jobs no one wants. They have become the enemy.
While saying good-bye, Sophia, an elderly woman I recently met in Mexico, spoke eloquently and tenderly, with tears in her eyes said, “We are all children of the same God. We have opened our homes to you, and welcomed you. But it time for you to leave – and when you get home, I ask that you please tell your leaders how we have welcomed you. You must tell them – you must. For while we have welcomed you into our homes – your country is killing us as we cross the border.”
Is this welcoming the strangers?
Does our community clothe the naked?
To clothe the naked means more than setting up depots in which the cast-off clothing of the rich can be doled out to the poor; it means to see to it that all people, even and especially “the least” have the minimal necessities of life – clothing, shelter, and especially jobs – to enable all to live with dignity to buy their own food, clothes, shelter, and health care.
Yet since the 1980’s our national policy has been to cut back on support programs for the poor, asserting that individuals, volunteer groups, or churches should engage in charitable handouts and that “the nation” as a whole does not have that responsibility.
Last week, the House of Representatives approved a version of the 2006 Reconciliation Budget that provides some $70 billion in tax cuts to high-income households. In contrast, it also cuts some $35 billion from programs that struggle to serve the most needy among us – Medicaid, Food Stamps, Student loans. The House measure would cut some 220,000 people off food stamps, allow states to impose new costs on Medicaid beneficiaries, squeeze student lenders, cut aid to state child-support enforcement programs and trim farm supports.
Is this clothing the naked?
We must be converted – if we are to be peacemakers, those who do justice. This conversion is a matter of head, heart, and hands. Our conversion must also be from an individualistic American emphasis on what is mine to a radical vision of social life which does not distinguish my well-being from that of others near and far or my relation to God from these same others near and far.
Living this conversion to solidarity is a matter of faith, courage, and commitment. It is a virtue, a gift, and a transforming vision of the world that is personal and structural, affective and active.
You know – we are not perfect, we will all falter at some point – at many points in our lives. But to do for the least is really not that hard – it can be as simple as asking someone “are you ok?” or for a community to ask “is this in the best interest of all,” to consider people rather than profit. The opportunities are there, and they will present themselves over and over. I, for one, will never again walk by a person without asking “are you ok?” We as individuals and a community will stumble, yet there is hope, and it is the belief in this hope that helps us regain our footing – to get up and keep trying to do for the least of our sisters and brothers. It is in this struggle, in this hope, that plunges us into the midst of the human community with our hands outstretched to the persons around us and our eyes wide open to the ways this world must be made over, re-created by our actions into the likeness of the reign of God. To do less, is to fail to understand the challenge, the directive we’ve been given.
Barbara Ward, a British economist at a World Council of Churches conference:
“Christians alone straddle the whole spectrum of rich nations, and therefore Christians are a lobby or can be a lobby of incomprehensible importance….And if we don’t do it, and we come ultimately before God, and God says, “Did you feed them, and did you give them drink, did you clothe them, did you shelter them?” and we say, “Sorry Lord, but we did give 0.3% of our gross national product.” I don’t think that will be enough.
To DO for the very “least,” to be compassionate, we must act, we MUST.
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj9707&article=970741d
http://www.chn.org/pdf/q&abudgetpoints.pdf