Hearing the Cry for Help EXODUS 2:23-25
SERMON PREACHED ON OCTOBER 8, 2000 BY THE REV. ANDREW T. BARTON
Two examples from Living for a Change Toward a Culture of Peace by Doug Baker (Peacemaking Program)
Crista Berger a journalist from Brazil cries out:
"I live in a country in which the majority of the population does not have access to food, housing, transportation, employment, land, health, leisure, or pleasure… However, in this same country there is a television network considered one of the best in the world, which reaches 90 million out of the 130 million of Brazil’s inhabitants…It is a cruelty to promulgate a set of values based exclusively on buying power in a society in which not even 20 percent of the population can effectively achieve these values."
Zlata Filipovic, 12 years old, living in Sarajevo a few years ago cried out:
"I spend my days in the house and in the cellar…All I can see through the broken windows is the park in front of my house. Empty, deserted, no children, no joy. I hear the sound of shells, and everything around me smells of war."
The report, "Working—but Still Poor in New Jersey" cries out:
"More than 1 out of every 10 New Jersey residents is poor… While many people assume that the poorest of families are poor because they do not work…in reality most poor families have an able-bodied head of household that makes some effort to work. However, due to the low wages they earn, the part-time hours they work, and the precariousness of the types of jobs they hold, many working heads of households’ earnings are below the federal poverty level."
The people of Israel cry for help.
They groan under their slavery and cry for justice and liberty.
They are weary of living under the yoke of slavery—
working, working only to profit those in power,
trembling, trembling under the threat of violence.
And so they cry out, they find their voice and make themselves heard.
No longer willing to serve in silence, they cry for help.
The helpless cry for help. The hopeless look for hope.
But who listens?
A businessman worked downtown in a large city. Each day he rode the commuter train from his lovely suburban home to the inner city. Each day as the train went through impoverished areas of the city, the man saw the decaying tenements, dilapidated public housing, and dingy streets where the children played. Sometimes when the train would slow down, he could catch a glimpse of the bleak faces of those coming out of the run down apartments. The sights haunted him at work. He’d stare into space thinking of those people in such desperate living conditions. At home, sleep would allude him. He would close his eyes and see those depressing scenes from the train ride that day. Finally, he decided to do something about it… Now when he rides the commuter train, he pulls down the blinds so he doesn’t have to look at the depressing sight of poverty…
Has the church pulled the down the shade so that we no longer see human need?
Sure, we have a minority of members who have heard the cries for help and have responded—mission trips and local programs offer help. But the major part of our membership isn't listening—they’ve tuned out the cries. Maybe we’re just too busy to listen. Or maybe it’s too painful to see.
I sometimes tune out the voices of injustice because there are too many pleas for help. It's overwhelming, so I refuse to listen. Or have we become calloused and jaded that we ourselves have lost hope?
My guess is that you did not expect the story of the man in the train to end that way.
You likely thought I would say the man got involved in the fight against poverty.
We intuitively know that it is not enough to feel pity for the oppressed,
that truly to hear is to respond.
As Christians we know that God hears and responds to the cry of the oppressed,
And that we also must listen to their cries for help and offer them hope.
2. THE RESPONSE OF GOD AND GOD’S PEOPLE
God responds to the cry of the oppressed. Four revealing verbs are used to describe God's activity. Yahweh hears, remembers, sees, and knows
He hears, meaning God responds to their groaning and pleading.
A mother who hears her baby's cry doesn't wonder, "Gee what's that sound I hear?" She runs to pick up her child.
When Exodus says God hears it means God responds by attending to the people's need.
God remembers his covenant.
Not that he has forgotten and needs a reminder, but rather God accepts his obligation to his prior commitment.
When a husband gets a phone call from a frantic wife who exclaims that she has been in a car accident, he hurries to be with her and to help her. He's keeping his marriage covenant.
God remembers his covenant in that he is faithful and will keep his promise.
Next, Yahweh sees—he moves toward them with kindness or sympathy.
A teenager spots an old woman struggling with her groceries and offers a helping hand. That's what it means when it says, "Yahweh sees."
It’s not passive noticing, it’s an active seeing that appreciates their dilemma and acts to resolve it.
God knows or acknowledges his people.
This is not simply head knowledge, it is a shared experience.
When a guy at an AA meeting says, "My names is Joe and I'm an alcoholic," the group knows exactly what Joe has been going through.
So, God knows the sufferings of Israel. We can respond in individually and collectively. Exodus 1 tells how Pharaoh’s first attempt to eradicate the Israelites was thwarted by the midwives who delivered the Hebrew babies. Two individuals are honored for their defiance of the King. Exodus goes on to tell the dramatic story of how God rescues his people collectively with a mass exodus. We can respond individually. Ed sensed that she was upset about something. With his typical sensitivity, he asked her what was the matter. Through teary eyes, she told of her 6-year-old son’s ongoing rebellion, of her inability to change his behavior despite her repeated scolding and spanking. Now he was in the hospital due to an injury from one more escapade. She was at her wits end. "I’m losing my boy" she cried. She said, "I’ve got my son back, and we’re in love. Thank you."br>
When Ed Nicholls heard a cry for help he didn’t pull down the shade and ignore it. One small conversation and a life changes. Collective efforts work too. One cold December evening in 1998, several elders and trustees were exiting the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in midtown Manhattan after a budget meeting. They were startled to see two police officers telling the homeless people sleeping beside the church to leave the area. A police van stood ready to cart them away. But, the church members immediately challenged the officers’ activity and after a heated discussion, the police allowed the homeless to stay. The next evening, the church staff talked with some of the homeless on the steps. They listened to their cry for help. Eventually, an ad hoc committee called, "The Homeless on Our Steps" was formed to speak and listen to the homeless, learn what services were available to assist them, and to bring recommendations for how the church could help. Finally, they agreed on the following: To include the homeless in the spiritual life of the church through prayer and worship;br>
To assist Habitat for Humanity and other groups building permanent residences with both funding and hands-on labor; To increase the number of temporary shelter beds available in area churches; We can’t help but hear the cries for help— Now just as God hears and responds to the cry of the oppressed,
God hears, remembers, sees, and knows his people and their plight.
That’s what God does and as God’s people, that’s what we must do.
Just as God hears and responds to the cry of the oppressed,
so must we listen to the cries for help and offer hope.
Like God we must hear, remember, see, and know.
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Last week, I visited Ed Nicholls at the Sunrise Assisted Living.
Ed is 98 years old and legally blind. But Ed still listens.
With his humble permission, let me relate a recent incident…
An employee of the home came into Ed’s room to perform one of her duties.
After listening to her story and sensing her pain, Ed shared from his heart—Intuitively knowing that the boy was mostly looking for attention and desperately seeking her love, Ed encouraged her not to go to the hospital only once again to berate his behavior. He told her put her arms around him and say,
"I love you. I’m so glad you’re going to be okay."
Ed urged the woman to be sure she consistently communicated love.
So she did. A few days later, the woman came back to Ed’s room glowing.
Just as God hears and responds to the cry of the oppressed,
so Ed Nicholls listened to a cry for help and offered hope.
He heard, remembered, saw, and knew.
To encourage members to befriend and mentor a homeless person.
Just as God hears and responds to the cry of the oppressed,
so that church listened to a cry for help and offered hope.
They heard, remembered, saw, and knew.
from the underemployed in New Jersey, from the Gloucester County Prison,
from the abused children in our community, from the struggling single parent,
from the youth who live in dysfunctional homes,
from the mentally ill and the physically handicapped.
The cries have sounded.
so we must listen to the cry for help and offer hope.
We too must hear, remember, see, and know.
