The Seventh Sunday of Easter      May 20, 2007

          Many of us had the experience growing up of a younger child tagging along – maybe a sister or brother, cousin or neighbor.  We can remember how a younger child, wanting to be with us big kids, could be very annoying with constant questions or comments.  Or maybe you were that younger one!   

          Paul and Silas had an experience that began that way.  A slave girl was following them as they walked through Philippi, shouting, shouting, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaimed to you a way of salvation.”  The girl was speaking the truth.  She was doing a good thing.  But she was doing it day after day after day.  Paul became annoyed and ordered the spirit in her to come out.   

          With that problems began – problems for Paul and Silas, whose story is told in the Bible; and bigger problems for the girl, whose story is not told, about whom we never hear again. 

          By healing girl, Paul committed an offense against her owners.  The girl earned her owners a lot of money by her fortune telling.  By healing her, Paul made her useless to those owners.  So those owners had Paul and Silas arrested on a trumped up a legal charge – “These men are advocating customs that are not lawful for us Romans.”   The real offense was not legal, though.  It was economic.  It was all about money. 

          Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in jail.  Then, they were miraculously released from prison and even led the jailer and his family to become followers of Christ through the events that followed. 

          But what about the girl?  What happened to her?  If her owners rejected her because she was no longer useful to them, which was a likely scenario, where did she go?  She was a slave, after all.  She had no resources.  As a female, she had limited options.  She could find a male family member to take responsibility for her, or she could become a prostitute.  Paul committed an offense against owners of the girl.  And in his frustration with her, committed offense against her as well.  He cured her for his own sake, not for hers.  Then he took no responsibility for her as she began her changed life.

          What about the girl?  And what about the throw-aways of our society?  What about those who are used for economic gain, then cast out on the streets when they are no longer productive?  What about the mentally ill who annoy us as they cry out in the streets, or those who cower in dark corners and are rarely seen at all?

          Over 40 years ago, great numbers of psychiatric institutions in the United States were closed and the mentally ill were sent into communities or onto the streets.  There were many reasons for the closings – concerns for the civil rights of patients, improvements in treatments and medications that meant that fewer people needed to be institutionalized.  Perhaps most of all, thought, the closings were about money – about cost-containment and profit maximization.  It always seems to come down to money.

          The promised alternative to institutions was community-based, outpatient mental health services.  But that promise was not kept, and thousands of mentally ill persons are homeless today.   Thirty five to forty percent of the homeless in our nation are mentally ill.  “Advances in the treatment of mental illness have allowed the restoration of health and productivity to almost all who access good care,” writes Fred Osher of Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore. “Unfortunately, the vast majority of people with mental illness experiencing homelessness do not have access to that care,” he says. 

          Increasingly among those homeless today are veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  According to an article in The Washington Post on March 7 of this year, “From 2004 to 2006, the Department of Veterans Affairs provided shelter to 300 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan tours. That figure ‘is not even close to accurate,’ said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, ‘because it doesn't include the "others sleeping in buses, their cars or on the streets.’

          “As in the Vietnam War era, there are signs that the recent conflicts are taking a traumatic psychological toll on some service members. Many veterans' advocates said that despite unprecedented attempts by the military and Veterans Affairs to care for veterans, increasing numbers of the new generation of warriors are ending up homeless.”

          We can scarcely imagine how hard homelessness is.  Living in shelters or on the streets is difficult even for a person whose brain is working normally. For those with schizophrenia or manic-depressive illness, it is often a living hell.

          For example, the majority of homeless individuals with untreated psychiatric illnesses regularly forage through garbage cans and dumpsters for their food.

          Mentally ill homeless people are significantly more likely to be robbed, beaten, raped, or otherwise victimized than other homeless people. 

          Mentally ill homeless have a three times higher risk of death in a given year than the general population. Freezing to death during a cold winter is all too common for homeless people, especially those with schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness.

          This is our problem.  Homelessness is our problem.  The homeless and mentally ill are our brothers and sisters.  Those like the girl in our bible reading are our responsibility. Paul set the girl free from one kind of slavery but, because he took no responsibility for her and didn’t ask the Christian community to take responsibility for her, he condemned her to another kind of slavery.  And he didn’t even know it. 

          We as a society do those kinds of things over and over again.  The political choices we make affect others. The economic choices we make disproportionately affect the poor and homeless and mentally ill.  And usually we don’t even know it.

          We at St. Christopher’s are striving to stay aware and to respond.  For the past two winters we participated in the hypothermia prevention program, feeding, housing and supporting homeless men and women in our own facilities for one week each year.  Our commitment to this program continues.  We know it is not the solution, but it is something we can do with love and compassion.  Sometimes as we spent the evening or the night with our homeless neighbors, they annoyed us.  Sometimes they annoyed us a lot.  We can understand why Paul acted to stop the girl from following and shouting at him.  We know a bit of how difficult it is to take responsibility for others, for people with great needs.   

          In Christ’s name, can bring all the political and economic clout we can muster to addressing this problem.  In Fairfax County, some 2,000 people are homeless on any given night.  The average age of those people is 14.  In the U.S. overall, the average age of the homeless is 9.  Our county has a plan to end homelessness in 10 years.  Just under 9 years are left.  If the plan is to be accomplished, it will require our support as voters.  The center point of the plan is developing adequate housing, particularly SROs (Single Room Occupancy facilities with studio apartments on upper floors and health and social services on the first floor).  The biggest obstacles to developing low income housing are political will, the difficulty in releasing tax dollars, and NIMBY – Not In My Back Yard. 

          We can turn that around and say, “Yes, in my backyard.  Yes, here!”  For this homeless girl is my sister.  This mentally ill man is my brother.  They are my family and I take some measure of responsibility for them.  In Christ’s most holy name we can strive to be what the girl said Paul and Silas were; slaves of the Most High God who proclaim a way of salvation right here in our own community – a way of salvation for those who are homeless and mentally ill, a way that gives them hope and life.       Amen.

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Acts 16:16-34

With Paul and Silas, we came to Philippi in Macedonia, a Roman colony, and, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, "These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation." She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And it came out that very hour.

But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, "These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe." The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

or

1 Samuel 12:19-24

After Saul had been made King, the people greatly feared the Lord, and all the people said to Samuel, "Pray to the LORD your God for your servants, so that we may not die; for we have added to all our sins the evil of demanding a king for ourselves." And Samuel said to the people, "Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart; and do not turn aside after useless things that cannot profit or save, for they are useless. For the LORD will not cast away his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself. Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you; and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the LORD, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you.
 

Psalm 47 Page 650, BCP

Omnes gentes, plaudite

1

Clap your hands, all you peoples; *
shout to God with a cry of joy.

2

For the LORD Most High is to be feared; *
he is the great King over all the earth.

3

He subdues the peoples under us, *
and the nations under our feet.

4

He chooses our inheritance for us, *
the pride of Jacob whom he loves.

5

God has gone up with a shout, *
the LORD with the sound of the ram's-horn.

6

Sing praises to God, sing praises; *
sing praises to our King, sing praises.

7

For God is King of all the earth; *
sing praises with all your skill.

8

God reigns over the nations; *
God sits upon his holy throne.

9

The nobles of the peoples have gathered together *
with the people of the God of Abraham.

10

The rulers of the earth belong to God, *
and he is highly exalted.

Revelation 22:12-14,16-17,20

At the end of the visions I, John, heard these words:

"See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone's work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.

"It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."

The Spirit and the bride say, "Come."

And let everyone who hears say, "Come."

And let everyone who is thirsty come.

Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

The one who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon."

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

John 17:20-26

Jesus prayed for his disciples, and then he said. "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

"Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."