This sermon was preached at the Churches Together in Oakham Hope Into Action service on Sunday 30th July 2023 at 6pm.
Reading: Romans 8:26-end
Good evening, it’s great to be with you all here for this special Hope Into Action service. My name is Shakeel, and I am part of the church here in Langham, the parish where our Hope Into Action houses are based.
Our reading from Romans is so perfect for tonight. Part of what Hope into Action reminds us about is that no one can be separated from the love of God. Even those most marginalised in society on the edge cannot be forgotten by Jesus.
It’s good to have you here with us for this service. At this time of the year when the schools have broken up for the holidays, I know that a lot of people are away. It’s a good time of year for going away but it’s good to see so many of you with us. Some of you might have already been on your holiday and others are waiting for it to come. I know everyone enjoys a good holiday. Who here enjoys a holiday? Holidays are good. But I’ll tell you, what I hate about holidays is the paperwork for travelling, particularly abroad. You need your passport, boarding passes and visas etc. and it all feels like a lot.
Cecily and I are going on holiday to India in the autumn, so we have been sorting out our visas, and let’s just say it has been a lot of stress. A couple of weeks ago I set off from the house at 5.30am to drive down to the Indian visa office in Hounslow, in London. Through my Indian parents, I have obtained a lifetime visa, something called an overseas citizen of India card. Now that I have a lifetime visa, I can organise one for Cecily as my wife. However, after driving 3 hours to get to London to sort out Cecily’s lifetime visa, I was told by the visa office that I could not apply for my wife’s lifetime visa without her with me, which was not what they said when we sorted out my lifetime visa. So, Cecily drove down to London from Rutland separately that same day, only for us to be told in the afternoon that they weren’t satisfied with some of the paperwork, the same paperwork that they saw in the morning. Why didn’t they tell us that in the morning and save Cecily the six hour round trip? What a devasting day for both of us to drive to London separately without any reward except some instructions on what to do for our next application for my Cecily.
So we set off home in the peak Friday evening London traffic and the heavy rain. We stopped at a petrol station where we came across a man sitting outside in the rain. The man’s name was Paddy. His girlfriend had broken up with him and he found himself homeless. He had been applying for universal credit but the process took several weeks, so he was left on the streets in the meantime. Paddy told me that whilst on the streets, he had caught Pneumonia, then spent two weeks in hospital recovering, only to go back out onto the same streets afterwards. It made us see that for all the stress and difficulty we had that day, it was nothing compared to Paddy sitting in the drenching rain. We lost a day and some petrol money; Paddy had lost everything through no choice of his own.
It really makes you stop and think. Doesn’t it? So often we can criticise and look down on people who are homeless, blaming their poor fortune on them. But so often life just deals you a bad hand that you didn’t choose. Paddy didn’t choose to go out on the streets; life chose it for him.
That’s the reality for many people who are homeless. Through no fault of their own, just a bad turn of luck, they end up homeless and on the streets, and they find themselves stuck in a system waiting for universal credit that just can’t come quick enough, all the while getting sick on the streets waiting for help to come. They could be anyone. Someone you know at work, a friend, or it could even be you.
You could understand if these people felt that the world had rejected them; that the world had abandoned them; that nobody loved them or cared for them. How often have we made a homeless person feel like that, or not actively done it, have we done anything to change that experience for someone who is homeless? It all sounds a bit dire and depressing. But thankfully there is good news. The good news that we read in God’s word tonight is that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
‘For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’[1]
You could have no money, no friends or family, no social status, scrappy clothes and in need of a haircut. Yet still, God does not stop loving you. You could have a bad past – involved in crime or you’ve spent time in prison. Still, God does not stop loving you. You could think you’re the smallest, most insignificant person in human history. Still, God does not stop loving you. Life could take everything from you and throw you out on the streets but still, nothing could take away God’s love for you.
It doesn’t matter what the world thinks of you, it doesn’t matter what your neighbour thinks of you, it doesn’t matter what you think of yourself. Nothing can stop God from loving you.
God loves us, he calls us to be his children. Earlier on in Romans chapter 8, Paul talks about how God adopts us as his children. We are brought into his family. We are never left alone out in the rain, but God our Father brings us into his house, into his great big family and loves us as his children.
How amazing is that? God loves us and calls us to him. Nothing is ever going to change God’s love for us and how he is calling us to him and chasing after us to bring us into his family, to be his children. And this is especially true of those who are homeless. The people who are marginalised and forgotten about by society, God says, ‘I see you; I’ve not forgotten you. I love you and I am bringing you home to be my child.’[2]
Not only is that incredible, but ‘in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.’ In God’s love, we are more than conquerors. Sounds nice, I guess, but I don’t really know what it means to be a conqueror, let alone more than one. So often we read these words and we forgot the audience of this letter. These words come from Paul’s letter to the Romans, the greatest conquerors that the world had ever known.
Paul was saying that the small person loved by God was so much greater than Caesar himself because God’s love is the greatest, most powerful thing in the whole of eternity. In God’s love, the ignored and forgotten homeless person is worth more than the greatest military might and power of Caesar could ever be. That’s how much God loves the homeless. That’s how much God’s love changes who we are. We could feel like we mean nothing to society, and nothing to the world, but mean everything to God.
So if people mean everything to God. If all people, including the homeless, mean everything to God, then shouldn’t we live as though the homeless people in our community were just as important to us? Shouldn’t we love the homeless person down the street as much as God loves them. God, in his love, has adopted all of us as his children, and so in Christ, the homeless person down the road is a brother and sister to us. They are part of our family of God, and so we should love and care for them as part of our family. Who are we to condemn the people loved and called by God?
This is why the Hope into Action project exists. The whole premise behind Hope into Action is to love like God loves. To love our brothers and sisters, who have through hard times ended up homeless, like God loves them. Hope into Action aims to bring love and hope to our brothers and sisters who have lost it.
We serve our communities as we remember how people are loved by God and loving people in response. What can we do? It’s all very good saying love people, what does that look like? Sometimes we try to overcomplicate it but it doesn’t need to be.
Here are three things we can take away to put this into action. Pray in faith. Give in hope. Love because God loves.
1.Pray in faith
Pray in faith. Pray because God hears our prayer and responds to it. Pray for Hope into Action and that God through it people will encounter the love of God. Pray that those who are homeless will come to know the love of God for them and that God will provide for them and give them what they need. A home, food, a job. Whatever it is. We believe that God listens to our prayer and is moving in our world, so lets pray in faith that God would be working in the lives of the homeless in our community.
2. Give in hope.
Give in hope. Give in hope to make things better. We give because God first gave us his Son out of love for us, to give us new life and to give us hope for a new start in him. Giving doesn’t just have to mean giving money, although projects like Hope into Action do need money to run but give in every way you can. Give in money, yes, but give in time, give in love, give in conversation and small actions. These are gifts of yourself, and as we give, we are giving in the same spirit in which God gave of himself when he sent Jesus to the cross. Give that it may bring hope to the hopeless and offer them a new life and hope of a new start in life.
3. Love because God love.
Love because God loves. God loves all people and God loves the homeless and the marginalised. And nothing can separate us from the love of God. This is the fundamental truth and good news at the heart of creation. That God loves us, and nothing can separate us from that love. This is the love which God lavishes upon us as he invites us into his family. When we love, we are taking part in the family of God. Love is at the heart of who we are in God, and it is what being a human is all about. To be loved by God, and to love others as God loves them. That’s why Jesus calls this the greatest commandment.
Love is more than just a feeling; it is a heart posture. It is a heart that longs to speak words, do actions, and share resources that bless others. To be loved is to experience something of God. So when we ask how do we love our neighbour, how do we love the homeless, we ask ourselves how can we bring God to people. That is love. This is how we make sure that the most vulnerable, the most marginalised and the most forgotten in society know the love of God that cannot be taken away from them.
Pray in faith, give in hope, love because God loves. That is how we will bring Hope into Action.
Amen.
[1] Romans 8:38-39 {NRSV].
[2] Romans 8:37 [NRSV].
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