Homelessness Sunday
27th January 2008

Helen Faulds – Project Director, Christian Care for the Homeless

To listen to Helen’s message, select your preferred option below. Watch the video first…

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Short film (Bread on the Street) God so loved the World

Is any suffering, like Jesus suffering? Don’t you see Jesus?

Read Matthew 25:34-36
v37 “Lord, when did we see you…?”
v40 “In as much as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren you did it to Me.”

v44 “Lord when did we see you…?” Same question
Same answer v45 “In as much as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.

In Matthew 26 Jesus is on his way to die. (v2) A cruel torture and death awaits – only 2 days away. How would you spend tomorrow if you knew it was your last day?

Read Matthew 26:6-13

Characters in the Story

• The disciples
• Chief priests, scribes and elders of the people (assembled at Caiaphas palace)
• The people in Jerusalem (not during the feast, lest there be an uproar!!! v5)
• Simon the leper (in Bethany)
• A woman with an alabaster flask of costly oil
• Jesus

Comparing what the woman (and disciples) did regarding the previous lesson.
v8-9 The disciples had taken note…the least (the poor) were to be treated as though they were Jesus Himself (v8-9)….but Jesus was still amongst them and ‘a woman’ had figured it out, she could do it to Him there and then, it was all she had left to give that was of value to Him, anointing oil for burial. She became Jesus hero (v13 this will be told as a memorial TO HER (not to Him)!

“Bread on the Street”/ Two sides of one coin
(Toss coin, heads or tails, which one is the coin?)

One table. One Image of the Saviour.
Ephesians 4:4-6 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.

Who is Jesus on the Street? (Bring in bread)
Matthew 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said “Take eat, this is My body”.

1 Cor 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free – and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

1 Cor 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. (Inasmuch as you do it to the least….you do it to Me)

The Body of Christ is Jesus on the Street – Bread of Life – Holding Out Life on the Street – To the ‘Least of These’
John 6:35 “I am the bread of life, He who comes to Me shall never hunger and he who believes in Me shall never thirst”
John 6:51 “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever and the bread that I shall give is My flesh which I shall give for the life of the world”
John 6:54 “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day, for my flesh is food indeed and My blood is drink indeed”

“The least of these” (Matt 25:36) can only “eat and drink” Jesus by contact with His Body. “The Church is the relevance of Christ to ‘the least of these’” One body, many members (1 Corinthians 12:12,20). God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased (v18) It works!! People experience Jesus when the body works as one. ‘Doing your own thing’, while satisfying your own soul, isn’t part of the body (headless chickens) frustration, weakness, threat of attack.

Double Sided Coin
Who then are “The Least of These”? What is the other side of the coin?
Jesus answers Himself: Matthew 25:11 For you have the poor with you always…..
“A woman” (Matt 26:6-13) had gotten to Jesus first before He died but Jesus seems to be saying, ‘just three days from now you will have the greatest opportunity of your lives, for you will find the poor everywhere and always. Hearts of compassion, funds, effort, skills and dreams could all be ploughed into “the poor”’ – ALWAYS – every minute of every day of their lives…..no shortage of need. (Inasmuch as you do it to the least of these you do it to me)

If Jesus says “Inasmuch as you did it to the least of these you did it to Me” what we do to those who experience homelessness and poverty, we do to Jesus. Have you seen a needy person sitting in the street? (I have) Have you passed them by? (I have) You (and I) didn’t see Jesus there then!!!

When did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to You? V44

What then can we do when we see Jesus hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, in prison? What is Jesus response to the following? If it’s His response it needs to be ours.

• Between 1997 and 2006 homelessness in Dumfries and Galloway went up by a massive 47%.
• In 2006 1607 (of 145,000 population) applications were made to the homeless dept. 51% of those were accepted as homeless under the guidelines (who knows about the rest)
• BBC News 24, March 2006, reported Councillors in Dumfries claiming that homelessness in Dumfries was set to rise by 20% in the following two years.
  That’s now! The system is feeling the strain.
• Last year Scottish Government Inspection stated that Dumfries‘Homeless Dept has “been successful in preventing homelessness by developing a range of services to prevent and alleviate homelessness” ‘

Why then

• Will people be sleeping on the street tonight
• Will people be getting evicted tomorrow
• Will small children be traumatised by moving from house to house to house this week
• Will some people in temporary accommodation be scared for their lives and mental wellbeing

Why is

• affordable housing non-existent
• debt increasing, with resulting rent arrears and repossession of mortgaged homes
• family breakdown increasing with one family needing to live in two homes

Could it be that we don’t see Jesus?
“Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these you did it to Me” Matt 25:40

Someone recently sort of quoted Mother Theresa at me “You can’t help everyone but you can be the one to help just one person”. Mother Theresa (who has raised up a whole army of people all over the world to do like work) actually proved what I think myself – TOGETHER we can help an awful lot of people.

We can be fresh and tasty “Bread on the Street”.