July 11, 2004; Proper 10, Year C

[Webmaster's note: The sermon this week was presented by both Father Skip and our Outreach Chariman, Dr. Paul Lyon.]

Skip: Each year about this time we have Focus on the Fund, when we focus on the ministry of Episcopal Relief and Development, often referred to as ERD. Today Paul and I are promoting Episcopal Relief and Development in preparation for our annual collection next Sunday to support this worth cause.

Paul: Episcopal Relief and Development started as an outreach project of the Episcopal Church more than sixty years ago to provide people with basic human needs and other critical assistance. It used to be known as the Presiding Bishop’s Fund for World Relief, but its name was changed in 2000 to more accurately describe what the fund does. ERD continues to provide financial assistance to people in times of crisis. It also provides grants for development programs that attack the root causes of poverty and disease. “World” was dropped from the title of the fund because people often associated it with meaning that it only provided assistance to people in other countries and not to people in the United States.

Skip: Paul, that reminds me of how Episcopal Relief and Development responded to the flood in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a little over twenty years ago. They were one of the first agencies to provide funds for people who were left homeless during the flood. They provided thousands of dollars almost overnight to help set up an emergency shelter at Trinity Episcopal Church to provide beds and food for the hundreds of people whose homes were flooded.

Paul: That’s right Skip. ERD is often one of the first agencies to provide funds in the time of emergencies, whether it be floods, earthquakes, famine, or war. Within hours of a request for help an emergency grant of $25,000 is sent to provide assistance. More funds are provided after an evaluation of the needs. Like the flood in Fort Wayne, ERD uses parishes, dioceses, or other local organizations to manage the use of the funds in providing assistance to those in need.

If you remember, last year we had a special appeal to help the victims of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. While many other denominations also sent aid to those countries, ERD was one of the first to help the people, and continues to do so even today. There are no strings attached to receiving this aid. We as Christians, believe that it is part of our Christian duty to help anyone in their time of need.

Skip: It sure seems to me that the work of ERD is a living out of the parable of the Good Samaritan that we just heard in our Gospel reading today. The point of the parable is to illustrate that knowing the law and living it are two different things. Just because you’re a priest or devout Jew, translated into priest or devout Christian, doesn’t automatically mean that you’re living a righteous life. If we look for the loopholes in the law so that we can get out of following them, then we have lost the spirit in which they were given. In the case of the Jewish Law about loving your neighbor, addendums had been placed in it in order to exclude the undesirable or so called unclean people that the Jews had contact with. Therefore a Jew would not have to “love” certain people, like Samaritans and Gentiles, because they were defined by the law as unclean. Jesus on the other hand breaks open the law by focusing on the inclusiveness of its intent. The “good neighbor” does not think about what he has to do in order to be a righteous person or a good Christian, but rather responds with love and compassion to anyone they encounter who is in need.

Paul: And that is exactly how Episcopal Relief and Development responds to request. They do not judge people or nations to see if they are worthy of assistance, but rather look at how they can help people, no matter what race, nationality, religion, sex, or whether they are friend or foe. It really is a living out not only of this parable but of the whole life of Jesus as he reached out to all people.

Skip: Paul, you mentioned earlier that ERD provides, what I believe you said, development funds to attack the root causes of poverty and disease. Would you tell us a little more about these funds?

Paul: ERD works to help individuals and communities break out of poverty by providing them with seeds, training and livestock. Let me tell you a story of a woman named Gloria. Gloria lives in the village of Uma, in the northern Philippines. She is farmer, growing rice and selling it herself. She has had very little schooling; after all you don’t need to go to school to pound rice out of its brown husks with a heavy stone pestle. She pounds rice all day, every day. And because they need the money, her children help her, every day. She has a dream, as many of the villagers do, that her children will not have to live the same hard and poor life, but will someday have it better than she does.

Episcopal Relief and Development, in partnership with the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, bought Uma’s residents a motor driven rice mill. Now Gloria and her neighbors don’t have to pound rice out of the husks manually, as the mill can do it in a fraction of the time. Gloria’s children, and the rest of the children in the village are now going to school.

The people of Uma are proud of their rice mill. Everyone is making more money, and the women can learn to do other work besides pounding rice. Families can buy different kinds of food for a better diet. [1]

Other development projects that are funded by ERD are grants are medical clinics, support for home care for HIV/AIDS patients, and the training of rural health care workers to prevent diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. Just this month a new program for malaria was started in Africa. Malaria is the leading cause of death in children under the age of five. Ten million people in the Congo are infected with malaria, and one million people in the sub-Sahara area die each year of malaria. ERD is involved in educating communities, supplying effective drugs and distributing insecticide treated nets and teaching them how to use them. Nets are important because as you know mosquitoes are very active at night.

Skip: Thank you Paul. I know from the annual reports of Episcopal Relief and Development that they are able to provide millions of dollars each year to help people in times of natural and man-made disasters, and provide grants to break the cycles of poverty and disease. That money does not come out of thin air. It comes from contributions from people like us.

Paul: That’s right, and next week envelopes will be provided in the bulletins for you to make a contribution to support the work of ERD.

[1] This story was written by The Rev. Barbara Cawthoren Crafton for Episcopal Relief and Development and is posted on the ERD website under July 25, Proper 12 (2004).