THE POWER OF TWO!
(Preached on Sunday, September 4, 2005)
Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. -Matthew 18:18
Announcing itself with shrieking, 145-mile-per-hour winds, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast just outside New Orleans on Monday, submerging entire neighborhoods up to their roofs, swamping Mississippi’s beachfront and blowing out windows in hospitals, hotels and high-rise office buildings.
All week since, our nation and our world have been overwhelmed by the graphic pictures and stories of terrible human suffering.
One of the realities we are witnessing is the way the poorest of us bear the terrible brunt of such tragedies.
While Katrina did not discriminate in her destruction, the reality is most people with the means got out of her way and the majority of those who stayed, did so for the most part because they did not have the ability to do otherwise.
New Orleans especially, but in actuality, most of the Gulf Coast, is a region of tremendous poverty.
Some of the parishes in New Orleans had 50-60% of their population living below the poverty level.
Economic hardship is not a rare event.
Around the country, millions of people are unemployed and millions more work part time when they need and prefer full-time work.
One-quarter of all jobs pay a wage so low that a full-time worker cannot keep a family of four above poverty.
Some 43-million people, predominantly low-wage workers and their families, lack health insurance.
And the situation worsens daily.
In yesterday’s Miami Herald it was reported that the nation’s unemployment rate dipped to a four year low of 4.9 percent in August.
At the same time, Ana Menendez mentioned in her column that the U.S. Census Bureau announced this week that 800,000 more workers are without health insurance and an additional 1.1 million Americans have fallen below the poverty line.
Increasingly people are working, but not for a living-wage.
The U.S. Federal Poverty Threshold is $16,090 for a family of three. An individual who works 40 hours a week at the federal minimum wage of $5.15 earns $10,712. It would take two incomes at that rate in a family of three of be slightly above the Poverty Threshold.
In Florida, where we just increased the minimum wage through a Constitutional Amendment to $6.15 that worker fares slightly better, earning $12,972 annually.
Still below the Poverty Threshold.
On top of this, very few minimum wage jobs provide any benefits, such as health insurance.
What is the role of the church in the midst of unemployment and underemployment?
When jobs pay too little?
When housing, childcare, and health care are too expensive?
Certainly the church is called by God to act with kindness, to care for those in need.
Congregations respond faithfully by feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, and helping workers who lose their jobs.
But God’s people are also called to do justice.
The Biblical vision of justice requires us to move beyond charity.
We are called to create economic conditions and institutions that will begin to put an end to the hardships God’s people face.
Over and over again the Bible makes clear that God cares about how we treat one another.
The story of the Hebrew people began with the understanding that it was God who worked to deliver them from oppression and exploitation as slaves in Egypt.
Jesus and his disciples were low-wager workers!
In the gospel lesson today, Jesus gave his disciples a lesson in human relationships and how to work for reconciliation and justice.
Jesus teaches that when a member of the body has sinned against them, they should approach that person one on one to point out the injustice.
If the problem is not resolved, then a small group should approach the person.
If still the person is unmoved, the entire faith community should approach that person to admonish the injustice and encourage the person to repent and rebuild the relationship.
Jesus’ message to the disciples speaks clearly to us today.
When we witness injustice, we should approach the offender with hope for reconciliation.
However, sometimes one voice is not enough; perhaps the power differential between the people is too wide to be easily overcome.
Or perhaps the injustice is more structural than person in nature.
Reconciliation and repentance often require community and communal commitment.
One person cannot stand up to injustice alone, but the gathered voices of a community create a strong bond that is difficult to break.
Plus, the work we do no earth will be also in heaven.
If we allow injustice to prevail, we hinder the work of God in creating a world that God desires for all people.
Yet when we strive for what is right and just, we participate with God in building just such a world.
Jesus told his disciples, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Jesus does not leave us to battle injustice alone.
His spirit is among us to guide and protect us.
What a challenge, but also, what an amazing promise.
Jesus was not just speaking about gathering in worship.
Certainly whenever we come together with other believers in prayer and praise and study of God’s word, he is there.
But he is also present whenever we come together to care for one another, when we sit at the bedside of someone in the hospital, when we visit someone in prison, when we join together to help feed, or clothe, or house storm victims.
And he is also there when we join together on behalf of low-wage workers who are being intimidated in their attempt to form a union, when we join together to lobby congress for a living minimum-wage, or to provide health benefits to more people, or to strengthen our safety net.
There are things we can do to help improve the plight of low-wage workers in our nation.
We have the power of two! The power that whenever two of us agree on something, God is there working through us.
These very guidelines Jesus gave his followers can also guide our work for justice.
These guidelines are what are guiding the work of the South Florida Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice as it advocates on behalf of the condominium workers employed by the Continental Group in South Florida.
You may have seen the story in yesterday’s Miami Herald.
These workers are trying to exercise their right to form a union to help them bargain to improve their working conditions and wages, and Continental, like so many employers, is working against that right.
These are low-wage workers: the valets, maintenance and cleaning workers, at over 500 condominiums through South Florida. This Committee is a coalition of many, many faith communities and clergy throughout South Florida who are standing in solidarity with these workers and trying to advocate on their behalf with Continental’s management for their right to decide whether they want to be represented by a union or not.
The purpose of these clergy is to effect reconciliation between these workers and their employer.
We can join in this effort, and in fact I have been on my behalf, and I hope, on your behalf.
We can also strive to secure the right to unionize for all workers in this nation by encouraging our Senators and Representative in Washington to support the Employee Free Choice Act. (See bulletin insert.)
Today, we remember and give thanks for those workers who plant and harvest crops from which we receive nourishment.
We give thanks for those workers who clean our laundry, our offices, and our hotel rooms.
We may not directly see their work, but without them, our lives would not be as fruitful.
We recognize those workers who are at work today and are unable to be with their worshiping community because even one day without work would mean too little food to feed their families.
We give thanks for those workers who assist our elders ain nursing homes and for medical assistants wh spend many hours in poor conditions that we might live healthier lives.
The list could go on and on describing the work of others and their contributions to our lives.
We also recognize that there are those who desire to work but are unable to work for a variety of reasons: disability, lack of opportunity, immigration status, lack of education, and access to public transportation.
We recognize the contributions that work and workers make in our lives.
Let us move beyond just recognizing their contributions in this worship this morning to joining with them to exercise the power of two.
Let us do what we can, as employers, as citizens, and as people of faith, followers of Jesus, to help them secure living wages, health insurance, and affordable housing.
As we do, not only can we improve their lives on a regular basis, but also, we may help more of them be able to get out of the path of the next storm and be better able to contribute to rebuilding their lives and their city.