21st Sunday after
Pentecost, Yr. B, October 21, 2012
Isaiah 53:4-12; Psalm
91:9-16; Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 11:35-45
Sermon preached at St.
Stephen’s Episcopal Church
In New York State, 21.2% of our children live
in poverty, 10.1% in extreme poverty.
We’re 24th among states in babies born with low birth weight,
and 10th among states in infant mortality. 38.4% of our children are
not fully immunized. 7.9% of the
children in our state have no health insurance despite the fact that we have
programs in place that should insure that no child goes uninsured.[1] The young often bear the brunt of the
inequalities in our system.
They are like sheep brought to the slaughter
as we have all turned to our own way.
They cannot speak out for themselves.
They have no power in our political system. Their only hope is that there will be adults
in their lives who will stand up for them.
They depend on adults to access services for them, and to advocate for
them. Will we do it?
When I was at Two Saints several years ago I
had a conversation with a young single mother.
She was finishing up a nursing degree when she discovered she was
pregnant. She didn’t want to give up the
baby. When that baby was born, she was
the apple of her mother’s eye. But to
support herself and the baby, the mother had to drop from full-time to
part-time study, and get a job.
Everything seemed to be working out okay until the state raised the
income level for the day care subsidy.
She was making just enough to no longer qualify. She was left with some hard choices. Quit her job so her income would fall enough
to make her qualify for the subsidy. Or
move her child to a less desirable child care option. Or quit school and try to find work
full-time, even though she would ultimately make less than she would if she
could complete her degree and then work.
The average cost of child care for a four year
old in NYS is $10,550 per year. The
national poverty level for a family of three is $19,090. In NYS you can’t make more than 200% of the
poverty level and qualify for child care subsidies.[2] If you make just over 200% of the poverty
level, it’s possible you could be paying out a quarter of your gross income, or
more, just to take care of your child while you go to work. Now we all know that life is full of choices,
and sometimes we don’t make the best ones.
Perhaps this young woman could have done a few things differently, but
ultimately, when things go bad who ends up suffering? Families and often most acutely,
children. Are we willing to sacrifice
our children?
When James and John asked
if they could sit at Jesus’ right hand, they were asking to be put in a place
of honor. That’s how the social system
worked in first century Palestine. You
gained honor yourself when you were closely aligned with the patron of a group,
when you became a prominent patron’s broker.
James and John made the mistake of assuming that Jesus was a
patron. But Jesus knew that God was the
patron. James and John wanted to be
Jesus’ right and left-hand men … the ones who would control access to Jesus and
his gifts. But Jesus is God’s right hand
man. Jesus pointed the way to God, and
delivered God’s proclamation to the world … the good news of the kingdom. So Jesus rightly tells his two ambitious
disciples that he has no authority to seat them next to him. That power belongs to God. Jesus knows his place. His job is to get the word out, spread the
good news, bring people to God so that God’s purposes can be accomplished on
earth. In one sense, Jesus was gathering
people who would come to God and commit themselves to God, and then go out into
the community every day and work for
God.
We are some of those
people. We have heard the word, and
responded through baptism by joining in this community. We gather here on Sunday, but we live every
day in the larger world. We go
shopping. We eat with our families. We read the newspaper and listen to the
radio. We listen to music and drive down
our neighborhood streets. We can’t help
but see what’s going on in the world, because we are living it. How is the world treating our children? How are we treating our children? Look around.
According to the
Children’s Agenda of Rochester things could be better. Since 2001 we’ve seen a 45% decrease in
children eligible for child care subsidies.
In their sample letter to our state officials they argue that “child
care sibsidies are the most effective way to keep New York’s parents working
and they are critical to ensuring tha New York’s education reform efforts
succeed. Woking families without
subsidies are at times forced to place children in substandard, possibly even
dangerous, care that threatens their school readiness and chances for academic
success.”[3]
We have the chance to
speak for these families and these children.
First and foremost, we can educate ourselves about the cuts that have
been made in our state budget over the last
decade that directly impact children.
We can sign sample letters (They’re in the back of the church.) advocating
for a return to previous levels of funding for childcare subsidies or you can
write your own. We can sign up to join a
network of on-line advocates with the Children’s Agenda, to speak out on issues
that affect children’s wellbeing. We can
speak for the thousands of children who are too young to make the kind of noise
that brings about societal change. Are we willing to speak up for
children? Are we willing to add our
insights, and our struggles, and our voice to some of these difficult discussions? Are we willing to drink from the same cup
that Jesus did?
I
don’t think Jesus shied away from an argument.
In fact, he had a wonderful way of turning arguments to his advantage,
and to the advantage of those he stood with … the poor, the outcast, the
shunned, the lost, the hurting … and children.
We are a priesthood of believers called to offer gifts and sacrifices to
help heal the brokenness of our world.
That is our calling. That is the
good news. How will we proclaim it?
Amen.
[1] Children’s Defense Fund, Children in New York: January 2012,
http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/state-data-repository/cits/2012/2012-new-york-children-in-the-states.pdf.
[2] New York State, State
Agencies, Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance,
www.otda.ny.gov/workingfamilies/ccs.asp.
[3] The Children’s Agenda, Return Child Care Subsidies for Working
Families!, http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/7314/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=11903.
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