These are the darkest days of the year. And on this winter solstice week, homeless memorial vigils take place across the country. These vigils have been happening since 1990 and I have been a part of these kind of services for 15 years…and I am tired of it.
My name is Joelle Henneman, my pronouns are she/her, and I am a pastor at the United Methodist Church for All People.
I am tired of burying my friends –many of whom have been my age and younger.
Now, on one hand, I always feel humbled and honored to celebrate a life. Tonight we get the opportunity to remember people who others have forgotten, to say the names of people who have been seen as less than human, to honor these saints.
I am grateful for opportunities like this.
I have performed more funerals and memorial services than I want to count and every time I take the opportunity as a unique gift.
I am grateful for the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless and Trinity Episcopal Church for this opportunity.
And, I am tired of it.
Year after year we continue to read their names.
In the first six months of this year we lost 15 people from our community on the South Side of Columbus.
People who died too young and too soon as a result of living in poverty and experiencing homelessness.
This is a tragedy.
This is a sin.
We live in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world.
In fact, in our country, for every person who experiences homelessness there are 30 vacant houses.
We can see it throughout Columbus. People living on the streets next to boarded up houses.
The only reason people die on our streets is that we, as a culture, simply don’t care.
We have accepted homelessness as an unfortunate reality, but I have had the opportunity to live around the world and in many countries, much poorer than ours, homelessness does not exist.
I remember hearing an NPR podcast years ago that told the story of an immigrant from Iraq discovering homelessness in America. This person had just moved from Baghdad to New York City, saw a person sleeping on a park bench in Central Park, and called 911.
The 911 operator asked if the person was bleeding or had trouble breathing or was in danger.
No, the person from Baghdad replied. Nothing like that. They are sleeping on a park bench.
The 911 operator had to explain what homelessness is to an immigrant from Baghdad. He said, this would never happen in the country he came from. That the community would take care of someone who didn’t have a place to lay their head.
We don’t live in a communal culture, we live in an individual culture.
We are more worried about number one than we are about one another.
Dr King tried to teach us that we live in an interconnected web of mutuality, but we still haven’t lived in to that reality.
We don’t see how the well-being of an undocumented person, a Palestinian, or a homeless person are connected to our well-being.
And what a sad existence that is for us.
Jesus once asked, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Many of the people in my life who have fed my soul, and made me who I am, are people who slept on holy ground and are no longer with us.
My office and home are decorated with the art of my friend Lauren Jim.
I learned the meaning of extravagant love from Julie Pellitier.
I received great wisdom from Kevin Smith.
I have never seen perseverance like I have from Ivan Vance.
We can look at people experiencing homelessness and think we should do something to save them and that is not a bad motivation. We should.
But our selfishness and discomfort does not hurt them as much as it hurts us.
From my experience, it is the people who have nothing to rely on who have the deepest faith.
It is people who have the least who are most generous.
It is people who live on grace that sing the loudest songs of praise.
We are not hurting “them” by building our empires of sand, we are hurting ourselves when we cut ourselves off from the very people who Jesus called blessed.
If you have not welcomed a person who doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from to your table… if they haven’t shown you where they rest their head… you are the one who is missing out.
In Matthew 25 Jesus tells the story known as “The Judgment of the Nations”. In this people are separated based on how they cared for one another. Not based on what they believe or who they prayed to, but in who they cared for.
The king looks to the people on the right and says:
Come… inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.
The people respond and say, when did we feed or clothe or visit you?
Jesus responds: just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.
When we care for one another, when we care for those who are most vulnerable, we don’t save them, we save ourselves.
As Father Greg Boyle says, “we don’t go to the margins to transform someone else, we go that we might be transformed.”
And so, tonight, as we remember and honor these saints… as we re-dedicate ourselves to the work of ending homelessness… I invite you to find salvation.
I invite you to cross to the other side of the street like the Good Samaritan. Make a friend with someone who doesn’t have a key in their pocket. Hear their story and share yours. Use your privilege to end homelessness and in doing so, we will all be saved.
Amen.
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