May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The theme of my sermon today is hunger. You may think that this is an odd choice on this day, Harvest Festival, when we give thanks to God for his provision for us and make offerings to serve the less well off in our society. The hymns that we sing today resound with this gratitude to God, as they do year after year, but I believe it is important now to wrestle with the problem of hunger that is felt acutely by many in today’s world to try and find a way forward to assuage this hunger.
At present, in this country, the stark reality of this food insecurity can be found in a leading article in a September edition of the Church Times. The article states that, according to last year’s report of the food charity Trussell Trust,
14.1 million people experienced food insecurity owing to lack of money and this figure is rising. Lack of money because for a range of reasons our social security system not working. Reasons given included the two-child limit on universal credit, shift work, agency work and zero hours contracts. I would add to this the wars being waged in the world that threaten global prosperity and our own decline in prosperity has reduced the amount of aid our government is willing to give to other countries which has left so many people in a desperate state.
The key words, to my mind, here are ‘lack of money’. Jesus called upon us not to worry about money, but I do not believe he wanted humanity to be under-nourished or starved. Mealtimes are significant throughout the Bible, culminating in the Last Supper. What he looked for was for us to share what we have with the needy. In today’s Gospel reading we learn that the rich man, who feasted sumptuously every day, completely ignored the poor man Lazarus who died because the rich man did not offer him any food. Ultimately Lazarus is taken up to heaven by Abraham and the angels and the rich man is tormented in Hades, but we do need to be mindful of the message of this Gospel text which is to help each other out. An interesting parallel to this text is given by Tom Wright in his book ‘Simply Christian’ where he writes of the Generals sending men to die in the First War while they lived in luxury behind the lines or back home.
So, whilst successive Governments wrestle with getting our social security system back on track for the benefit of the needy can we help in this effort to combat hunger by giving more? There are certain factors that may inhibit an increase in giving. One such was offered in an article in the Church Times by our former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who wrote that the welfare state was not built on one person succeeding but on us all advancing together. As society has fragmented somewhat since the inception of the welfare state we may have lost sight of that collective approach. This leaves a lack of awareness of the needs of one group in society for another and a consequent increase in the gap between the rich and the poor. The poor are left, as Lazarus was, grovelling outside the gates of the rich. Fragmentation of society also can mean a lack of empathy and loving purpose. To bring about unity of purpose, quoting again from Tom Wright, he reminds us that ‘we are all made for each other and the created order and above all with the Creator’. He writes that we can remind ourselves that the resurrection of Jesus is a reaffirmation of the goodness of creation. All this, I would say, can keep hope alive in today’s very troubled world.
In today’s Gospel reading we are warned of consequences if we do not respond to the call of the needy. The rich man cannot be released from Hades, nor can a warning be given to his brothers to avoid his behaviour and its terrible consequences because they have not listened to Moses and the prophets. So we need to listen to the cry for help from others and respond as best we can.
Whilst Government strives to create a fairer world by bridging the gap between the rich and the poor, we can as Christians throw our boxing gloves into the ring by seeking to affirm and uphold the requirement God puts upon us to care for one another and not turn our backs on suffering but to work to reduce it by listening and offering aid in any way we can.
In the hymn written by Albert Bayly entitled ‘Praise and thanksgiving’ he asks that God give us wisdom to share with one another. If we do this then, as the final verse has it:
‘Then will thy blessing
reach every people;
freely confessing thy gracious hand.
Where thy will reigneth
no-one will hunger;
Thy love sustaineth;
fruitful the land’.
AMEN