2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
This sermon references a project by Nikalie Monroe (@nikalie.monroe). Nikalie’s project is controversial, and there are important nuances that are sometimes missing from the conversation when it is happening separately in silos of “church people” and “unchurched people”. I find Anne Helen Petersen’s article for her newsletter Culture Study to be a good example of those nuances and how churches can learn from this project and what non-churchy people need to know about the inner workings of churches in light of this experiment. I hope that the biggest outcome of this project will be more faith communities taking stock of how they respond to requests for aid and training all staff and volunteers to respond appropriately and with compassion. I am sad and angry to know that the members and staff of some of the churches Nikalie has called are being harassed and abused. I am sure that was never an intended outcome, and I pray that the opportunity for change and repair is not wasted on punishment and shaming. At the end of the day, all people of goodwill want the same thing– no more starving babies, anywhere. We can only work that miracle together.
In the past few weeks, there has been a lot of conversation about who deserves to be fed. There has been a lot of talk about SNAP, about EBT, about food stamps, about WIC, about the social safety nets and the many holes in them through which so many fall. There has been a lot of concern, and a lot of anger, and a lot of confusion and misinformation. At the same time that public services have been cut, paused, halted, delayed, churches and nonprofits and mutual aid organizations have redoubled their efforts despite the majority being overwhelmed by the level of need. People have shown up for each other, and people have also made it very difficult to show up. The discourse online and the conversations I’ve heard in coffee shops have sometimes sounded very much like our reading from 2nd Thessalonians this morning. “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.” A lot of evil has been done thanks to that one verse, both now and in ages past.
A young woman in Kentucky woke up one morning a couple of weeks ago and decided to start calling churches in her community to see how they responded to urgent needs. In each of her videos she begins the same way. “I’m calling your church to test to see if they would feed a starving baby.” She tells the audience what church she is about to call, with a screenshot of their Google maps listing on the screen. When someone from the church answers, she tells them she is a mother of an infant and she has just run out of formula. In some of her videos, she plays a recording of a crying baby in the background. She asks if there is anything the church can do to help her feed her baby. The responses are… varied. Often, she is referred to area food banks, crisis support centers, and social services. Sometimes, she is asked to leave her name and number so that someone can get back to her. Sometimes, she is asked if she knows anyone at the church, or if she is a member. Many of these calls end in a no. Occasionally, someone begins the process of actually helping her directly, either offering to purchase the formula for her to pick up or offering to meet somewhere to help her buy it at the store. These churches go in the “yes” column. The woman then informs them that this has been a test, thanks them, and directs her audience to support those churches if they can. Any church that does not offer direct immediate assistance in the form of either money or formula goes in the “no” column. Her “no” column is at this point a very long list of churches, including some very wealthy ones. Her yes column is short, and includes mosques, a Buddhist temple, Catholic churches, and several Protestant churches. I am sorry to say that three large Episcopal churches are in the No column.
This woman’s experiment has caused an uproar and generated a huge amount of debate. Of course, there are many who disapprove of her method, which obviously involves lying to strangers and recording them without their consent. There are some who feel what she is doing is reminiscent of the boy who cried wolf, increasing the likelihood that someone in a real crisis will not be believed. There are some, myself included, who worry about the part time administrators and volunteers who are fielding these phone calls without the training or the experience to distinguish truth from fiction. I know I am not alone in being frustrated that she is categorizing referrals to other organizations as nos. Many churches, including ours, have recognized that trained professionals and specialized nonprofits can stretch our dollars much farther and meet many more needs than if we tried to provide every resource ourselves. Many communities have chosen to pool resources and support centralized hubs to reach the most people and ensure that licensed providers and trained volunteers are working with vulnerable populations that need special care. The most efficient way for churches to provide the most care is almost always to refer out and provide financial and other support to the organizations we are referring people to, and most churches are doing just that. The fact that she is choosing to disregard those efforts is frustrating.
And. And. The people seeing these videos, the people reacting in outrage at the nos and relief at the yeses, are people who have been given good reasons not to trust the church. They are seeing their own negative view of the church and Christians confirmed again and again with every parish administrator or pastor or office volunteer who hears a story of a starving baby and doesn’t immediately find a way to help. They have come to believe that the church is not a place where help can be found, and they have learned that from somewhere. They have come to believe the church is a place where money is hoarded and care is withheld, where judgments are quick and verses like “anyone unwilling to work should not eat” take precedent over “love your neighbor as yourself.” They believe this because this is what the church has shown them, what we Christians have done again and again through our actions and through our inaction. We church people spend a lot of time and energy saying no. Our moral imperative as followers of Jesus is to look for ways to say yes.
The second letter to the Thessalonians can be easily wielded as a reason to say no. No, because you are not living according to the tradition we value. No, because you are not exhibiting the Protestant work ethic or pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. No, because it would cost too much. No, because you aren’t employed or are underemployed. No, because you haven’t worked for it. But the idleness which the Thessalonians are being warned against would be better translated as “disruptiveness” or “disorderliness,” and those busybodies in their midst are not simply gossips, but people who are ignoring their own work in order to meddle in the lives of others. The author of this letter is warning against a tendency to worry more about the choices of others than about one’s own actions and responsibilities. I’m sure we can all think of someone we’ve known who fits this description: someone so consumed with the lives and choices of others that they neglect their own work and ministry. We could very easily fall into this same trap, enraged by the failures of other churches or other Christians while neglecting our own capacity to do the work of the Gospel.
When a person in need comes to us for help, we must do everything in our power to find a way to say yes. Sometimes, that yes will look like referring them to a food pantry or crisis services center, and making sure they have a way to get there. Sometimes, that yes will look like physically putting food in the Blessings Pantry or placing money in the collection plate. Sometimes, that yes will look like reaching into your own pocket or your own pantry. Sometimes, that yes will look like voting and calling elected officials to ensure that the holes in our social safety nets get mended and new more supportive structures get built. And yes, sometimes the people we say yes to will be unemployed, or unwell, or too tired or overwhelmed to figure out a solution on their own. Sometimes the people we say yes to will be people we don’t like, or don’t agree with, or who have made choices we hate. But we are called to be servants, not busybodies. We are called to feed and clothe and comfort and leave the questions about deserving to Jesus to sort out. In a world full of people more than willing to say no without losing a wink of sleep over it, brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right. There are enough no’s in the world already. Be a Christian who says yes.
Mother A Writes 