The Christ of the Homeless by Fritz Eichenberg

“For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” (II Corinthians 8:9)

This is one of my favorite concepts in theology. Kenosis – the concept that Christ, who was God and shared all the attributes of the Godhead, emptied himself of all being God entails to become one with humanity. Paul alludes to this idea again in the hymn found in Philippians 2:5-1:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

6 who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

7 but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

8 he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death—

even death on a cross.

9 Therefore God also highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

10 so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

In the Second Letter to the Corinthians Paul tells us that this self-emptying of Christ, his becoming poor, was so that we might become rich. Athanasius, the fourth century bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, and one of the great teachers of the church is quoted as saying, “The Son of God became man, that we might become god.” This idea, called theosis, does not mean we become “gods” in the same way that the Trinity is God, but that we becomes “partakers of the divine nature” as II Peter 1:4 states it. Through Christ’s emptying of all the prerogatives of Divinity he lifts up humanity, restoring it to its rightful place that was lost with the disobedience in the Garden of Eden.

Paul is using this self-sacrificing, self-emptying act of Christ to call upon the Corinthians to engage in a similar act of self-emptying and self-sacrifice. Paul is attempting to raise money to aid the community in Jerusalem. The region of Palestine had experienced a severe famine that crippled the economy and led to severe struggles for the believers in Jerusalem and its surrounding areas. Paul is calling on the communities he visits to provide economic relief for those struggling and in need. To the Corinthian community, he offers the example of the churches of Macedonia as a challenge. Despite their own struggles, the churches of Macedonia “gave according to their means, and even beyond their means” (II Cor. 8:3). Now Paul is asking the same of the Corinthian community, a community that excels in everything (II Cor. 7).

Although Paul upholds the model of Christ, who emptied himself of everything, becoming poor for their sake, he does not expect the Corinthians to give everything. In this he seems to moderate Jesus’ command to the rich young man to “sell all you have and give the money to the poor” (Mark 10:21). Instead he calls for giving in eagerness according to one’s means. Paul’s advice calls the Corinthians to examine their abundance, particularly in comparison to the poverty of others ,and give out of one’s abundance, for “it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance.” Paul is calling for a fair distribution of resources so that none may have too much nor too little.

Wealth distribution is a touchy topic in American society. A couple of years ago we had the Occupy movement challenging the 1% who held the majority of the wealth and giving voice to the discontent of the 99% who felt marginalized. Nothing has changed since then. 1% of the US population controls 43% of the US wealth. The next 4% control an additional 29% of the wealth. That leaves 28% of the US wealth to be shared with the bottom 95%.¹

Let’s look a bit closer to home – Knox county. The median household income between 2009-2013 was $24,038. 34.7% of the population in Knox county live below the poverty level.² Knox county is the 12^th poorest county in the US when ranked by household median income.

Most of us in this church are fairly comfortable financially. Paul would say we have an abundance, even if we are not part of the 1%. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians should challenge us to look at those struggling in our community and give from our present abundance. The Christian faith has a tradition of the tithe – the giving of 10% of one’s income as first fruits. I would challenge us all to examine our practices of giving in light of Christ’s self-emptying and self-sacrifice of all that he was so that we might be made rich in him by being partakers of his divinity. Can we not empty ourselves of even 10% for those who are less fortunate than ourselves? I will admit – I struggle with this. The last I calculated my giving it was around 3%. I have been working on increasing my generosity. Each year I try to increase my giving by 10% of the previous year with the goal of eventually reaching that 10% tithe which is defined by the Episcopal Church as the “minimum standard of giving.”

I would also like to challenge the vestry to look at our communal budget in light of Christ’s self-sacrifice. What portion of the parish budget serves the needs of the poor, the hungry, and the homeless? We do send $25.00 a month from St. John’s to support a homeless shelter, and money collected in the “poor box” does go to Episcopal Relief and Development. What percentage of our budget is spent on our internal needs such as facilities upkeep, utilities, priest salary (when we have one)? I don’t want to discount these expenses, as they are important for our continued existence as a community, but do our budgets, personal and communal, reflect more an inward focus on our personal needs, or a self-emptying for the needs of others?

I will conclude with a selection from a homily on the Gospel of Luke by one of my favorite theologians, St. Basil the Great, a fourth century bishop of Caesarea:

What keeps you from giving now? Isn’t the poor person there? Aren’t your own warehouses full? Isn’t the reward promised? The command is clear: the hungry person is dying now, the naked person is freezing now, the person in debt is beaten now – and you want to wait until tomorrow? “I’m not doing any harm,” you say. “I just want to keep what I own, that’s all.” You own! You are like someone who sits down in a theater and keeps everyone else away, saying that what is there for everyone’s use is your own. If everyone took only what they needed and gave the rest to those in need, there would be no such thing as rich and poor. After all, didn’t you come into life naked, and won’t you return naked to the earth?

The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry person; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the person who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the person with no shoes; the money which you put in the bank belongs to the poor. You do wrong to everyone you could help, but fail to help.

Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee. Rembrandt. 1633. Oil on canvas. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA, USA.

Several times this past week I have caught myself using the phrase “tempest in a teacup.” Many of us have heard or used this phrase to describe some small event that someone, even ourselves, has blown out of proportion. I am not sure whether it was just a coincidence to catch myself using this phrase, whether I was more alert to it due to meditation on this week’s gospel passage, or whether this week’s passage inspired it, but I do think this passage from Mark describes a very similar situation to a “tempest in a teacup.”

Jesus and the disciples are traveling by boat across the Sea of Galilee. We do need a bit of a geography lesson as very few of us have been to the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is not a major body of water, although the use of the word “sea” sometimes implies that it is. It is an inland body of water and something one might more likely call a lake rather than a sea. In fact, with an area of 64 square miles, it is just a little more than half the size of Lake Cumberland that measures at 102 square miles. On the western shores of the Galilee were the Jewish settlements from which the boat has departed, and it is headed toward the eastern shores, toward Gentile settlements. This becomes very important in the next portion of the gospel when we encounter the story of the healing of the Gerasene demoniac from whom the unclean spirits are cast into a nearby large herd of swine, animals that would have been very welcome in the predominately Jewish western shore of Galilee. So, Jesus and his disciples are passing from the Jewish side toward the Gentile side. This and the next chapter recount at least two crossings between these two sides of the sea and Jesus spends time on each side preaching, teaching and healing.

As the boat is making its way an unusual storm arises. Our English translations do not do this storm justice. The word used for the storm is λαῖλαψ (lailaps), a word that can be translated as “hurricane.” Quite literally the beginning of verse 37 can be translated as, “And there began a great hurricane of wind.” A great hurricane of wind… On an inland lake smaller than Lake Cumberland… I lived for thirteens years in Cleveland, Ohio, near the shores of Lake Erie, a lake considerably larger than the Sea of Galilee and Lake Cumberland (9,940 squares miles, in case you were wondering), and while I had heard reports of strong storms and the appearance of water spouts similar to tornadoes on the lake, I never heard of a hurricane. We begin to see our tempest in the teacup appearing.

The disciples are suitably overwhelmed by the unusual nature of this storm. The waves are cresting over the side of the boat and filling it with water, and I am sure as experienced fishermen they were doing everything in their power to keep the boat on course and bail the water as fast as they could. All this time Jesus is in the stern asleep. So the disciples wake him and accuse him of not caring, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

In response, Jesus rises and sternly commands the winds and the seas to be still, and they obey. However, he takes a surprising step and challenges the disciples. He asks them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Jesus seems to minimize the fear the disciples were experiencing, assuming that survival of this storm was always within their power and something they should have expected.

It is quite possible the community to which Mark told this story could relate to the overwhelming sense of doom the disciples face in this story. The church at the time of the composition of the Gospel of Mark was going through a change from a predominately Jewish-Christian community, possibly symbolized by the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee, to one that is becoming predominately a Gentile-Christian community, symbolized by the gentile side of the sea. This period of change was probably causing conflict and confusion in the community. They were experiencing storms of contention and they may have felt that God was ignoring their plight as they attempted to keep their floundering community afloat against seemingly overwhelming odds. Mark’s community is crying out to Jesus to save them, and Mark wants to assure his community that Jesus can bring peace to the storms, but Mark also wants to challenge the community. They must have faith, for through faith they can deal with the storm that is confronting them.

We at St. John’s are experiencing our own challenges during a time of transition. We just said goodbye to a talented priest who has guided, supported and challenged us for two years. We know our financial situation will not allow us to call a full-time priest to serve our community, and we wonder about the likelihood of finding someone who could serve part-time for our church. We may at times feel that the waves are crashing in upon us and the boat is going to capsize. However, we must remember that Christ is with us and he may be giving us the opportunity to step out in faith and confront this storm – a storm that may seem far more overwhelming than it actually is. Throughout its history St. John’s has not only survived, but it has thrived for many years without regular, full-time clergy, and we will continue to do so for many more years to come. Like those disciples in the boat we are far better equipped than we recognize for we have a healthy congregation and the support of the diocesan staff and of our Bishop. The transition from a primarily clergy-centered church to a church where we each claim our baptismal call as ministers of the church in cooperation with the clergy will be a difficult transition, but we will survive it and become stronger in the process.

In addition to speaking to our corporate life as the community of St. John’s, this passage should also speak to us personally. There are times in our lives where the storms may seem overwhelming and that we will not be able to overcome them. We may feel that God is asleep in the stern and allowing us to perish. We need to be challenged to face these storms with faith, knowing that though the storm may seem to be a hurricane on the inland lakes of our lives, with God’s help we can confront the storm and overcome it rather than allow it to overcome us.

And sometimes we need to look with honesty at the hurricanes on our inland lakes, evaluating them calmly through the eyes of faith. Sometimes they just might be tempests in our teacups.