AMOS  6:1, 4-7
LUKE  16:19-31

Gordon E. Ellis
September 26, 2004

PUTTING   UP   SHADES

            When Diane and I were in Ecuador on our Mission Trip last month, there were 2 groups of people who were constantly WITH us: the POLICE and the PRESS.  When we first exited the Guayaquil Airport, I noticed that we were completely surrounded by police in RIOT gear: helmets, M-16’s, the works.  Everyone ELSE in our group was busy hugging their HOST families, whom they’d stayed with before, but I was watching all the COPS, and wondering: What’s this all ABOUT anyway?  Pretty soon, UP drove a police TRUCK and they began throwing our LUGGAGE into it.  THEN, all us North Americans were HERDED onto a police BUS.  And OFF we went, with RIOT police in pick-up trucks in front and behind.  We drove STRAIGHT to the BARRIO, to the GHETTO, where we were staying in the homes of POOR people.  Now, in and around Guayaquil, there are about 20 barrios where the POOR live, including 4 LARGE ones.  And OURS, Guasmo, is the LARGEST, with 400,000 people.  And WHILE we were in Guasmo, the police CONSTANTLY patrolled the streets where North Americans were staying, NOT because it was SO dangerous, BUT because our HOSTS felt SO RESPONSIBLE for us.  But consequently, we ALWAYS felt SAFE there.

            Now, the OTHER group that I noticed IMMEDIATELY, as I came out of the terminal, was the PRESS.  There were cameras EVERYWHERE!  And they TOO were with us CONSTANTLY, it seemed.  In fact, we were on NATIONWIDE television SO many times that people KNEW us wherever we went, even when we traveled 12 to 15 hours from Guayaquil.  THEY even came and broadcast THEIR version of the Today’s Show or Good Morning, America from our WORK site.  But, that’s ANOTHER sermon for another DAY, because it’s a GREAT story.  Anyway, we got USED to all the press, even though it was a SURPRISE to us initially.

When we first arrived in Guasmo, the family Diane and I stayed with WELCOMED us.  Diane had stayed with them 2 years ago, and apparently, they had fixed up the BEDROOM for us.  SO, they were very EXCITED to show Diane what they’d DONE.  It turns OUT that, in addition to putting up a SIGN to welcome us, they had purchased a used DRESSER with a MIRROR and a new MATTRESS.  And this was NO small FEAT for them.  I later found out that our Ecuadorian father, Tomas, had SAVED for 3 years just to buy a BICYCLE.  So, remodeling the BEDROOM was a big deal for them.

            Anyway, when Diane SAW this newly-decorated BEDROOM, she THREW up her arms, fell BACK across the bed shouting, Bonita!  Bonita! (Beautiful!  Beautiful!).  WHEN she looked up, however, there was a TV camera filming over Marta (our mother’s) SHOULDER.  And the next MORNING, Diane was on NATIONAL television falling onto the bed shouting, Bonita!  Bonita!  And EVERYWHERE we WENT after that, people would put up their arms and say, Bonita!  Bonita!  Yes, EVERY day, there were TONS of press people around us.  In fact, before we LEFT Ecuador, we were given a double DVD of ALL the TV news shows that we were on, including The Today Show.  And that double DVD is literally HOURS long….

            Well, getting ALL that PRESS was actually a GOOD thing.  WHY?  Well, it has to do with our Scripture Lesson today from LUKE’S gospel.  It’s a VERY TROUBLING lesson, isn’t it?  You see: the RICH man in that story gets himself into TROUBLE because he never really SEES poor Lazarus.  He walks BY Lazarus all the time, but its AS IF Lazarus is INVISIBLE.  And that’s ALSO why AMOS is such a prophet of DOOM to his PEOPLE.  His people are living HIGH, and NOT seeing or helping the POOR.  Well, as I THOUGHT about these scripture lessons, it STRUCK me that WE do the SAME thing.  In fact, MANY cities in our OWN country will occasionally SWEEP their streets CLEAN of homeless people, or pass strict ORDINANCES against panhandling in certain locations.  WHY?  It’s so that we won’t SEE the poor.  After all: they make us UNCOMFORTABLE.  BUT, the rich man in the PARABLE wasn’t even that BLATANT.  HE just walked BY Lazarus, as if Lazarus were invisible.  Isn’t it STRANGE how there are INVISIBLE people?  I think that, for MOST people in OUR country, the Indians, Native Americans, are INVISIBLE people.  And that’s SAD.

BUT, for a person of FAITH, there can be NO invisible people, because ALL people are children of GOD, and GOD calls us to SEE each and every one.  And the RICH man in the story would have had a very DIFFERENT ending had he taken the time to SEE the plight of poor Lazarus, INSTEAD of looking AWAY.  And it would have been DIFFERENT because WHENEVER we SEE the poor -- and I mean really SEE them -- we cannot HELP but to feel COMPELLED to ACT.  And WHEN we ACT, WE become God’s ANSWERS to the PRAYERS of the poor.

            Our friend, Tony Campolo, who preached here and led us in a Spiritual Renewal Day several years ago, was in HAITI.  And he went out to dinner at an upper middle class restaurant.  Well, just before his MEAL was to be served, he noticed 2 starving children with their faces pressed against the WINDOW next to his table.  Their stomachs were distended, and their skin and hair were reddish, instead of black, from malnutrition.  And they were BEGGING from him.  Well, AS his meal was being delivered, the WAITER noticed the children outside and APOLOGIZED to Tony.  THEN, he pulled down the SHADE, so that Tony wouldn’t have to LOOK at the kids anymore.  The PROBLEM was that Tony had already SEEN the children, and he couldn’t EAT his food, knowing that they were just INCHES away and SO hungry.  SO, he took his meal to GO, and SHARED it with the kids outside.  My daughter, Lyndsey, used to do the SAME thing in MEXICO.  She KNEW that kids were SELLING things outside, and usually kids she KNEW from Vamos.  SO, she’d eat LESS of her meal than she really WANTED to.  And THEN, she’d collect her OWN leftovers, as well as the leftovers of those WITH her, and take them out to the KIDS.  Yes, once we SEE the poor, we have a NEED to act.

            SO, it’s no WONDER that WE, who are the HAVES in this world, DON’T want to SEE the poor, because we DON’T want to have to ACT.  It MIGHT mean changing our LIFESTYLE.  SO, we try to pull the SHADES and make people INVISIBLE.  OR at the VERY least, we try not to LOOK at them.  Well, in Guayaquil, they have the SAME problem.  The RICH, and even the MIDDLE class, just DON’T SEE the MILLIONS of people who live in the barrios around their city.  It’s like they’re INVISIBLE.  And THAT’S why all the PRESS that we received was SO important, FAR more important than the WORK we did there.  You see: the RICH and the middle class in Ecuador still RESPECT and look UP to the United States.  They try to EMULATE us.  They even use U.S. currency.  SO, to have 44 U.S. citizens VISIT their country is just WONDERFUL!  But THEN, to have us end up in GUASMO, living and working with the POOR, really UPSETS them.  They just don’t GET it!  In fact, I was QUESTIONED about it by a RICH woman.  After our 9 days of working in Guasmo, we played TOURIST for a couple of days in a RESORT town called BANOS, where there are HOT springs, wonderful hiking trails and BEAUTIFUL waterfalls.  And of course, while we were there, everybody KNEW us from television.  And ONE day, this RICH woman came up to me and said: WHY would go to GUASMO of ALL places?  And in MY mind, ALL I could hear was the question asked about JESUS in the Bible: Can anything GOOD come from NAZARETH?  SO, I proceeded to tell her, in very BROKEN Spanish, that WE went to GUASMO to meet Jesus and to LEARN about Jesus.  I told her that Jesus was a POOR man, just like the people of Guasmo, and that He spent His TIME with POOR people, and that IF He came TODAY, I feel quite certain that He would be with the POOR, NOT with the RICH.  Well, SHE got the MESSAGE, big-time.

SO, THAT’S why all that PRESS was so important.  Maybe, just maybe, it will help OPEN some EYES among Ecuador’s RICH people, and GET them to ACT on BEHALF of their POOR.  You know: the HAVES of this world always want to PULL down the SHADES on the have-nots, so that we DON’T have to SEE them.  HOWEVER, we NEED to realize that they are ALWAYS there, just on the other SIDE of the window, so to speak.  And as Christians, OUR job is put UP shades, instead of pulling them DOWN.  After all: THAT’S what JESUS did!  And likewise, Jesus calls US to LOOK at the poor and really SEE them as well; and THEN, to ACT on their behalf.  And that’s ONE reason why we offer so MANY mission trips in OUR church, and show slideshows FOLLOWING those Mission Trips, and encourage ALL who are physically able to ATTEND at least ONE Mission Trip.  It’s because it HELPS to OPEN our eyes.  It HELPS us develop what I call 20 x 20 x 20 vision!

You know how they say that it’s BEST to have 20 x 20 vision?  Well, that’s NOT true!  There’s something even BETTER, and it’s called 20 x 20 x 20 vision.  And the third 20 is INSIGHT into the plight of the HAVE-NOTS in this world, SO THAT we can develop COMPASSION.  And the WORD, compassion, simply means to SUFFER WITH someone.  Can I begin to TAKE ON some, even a LITTLE bit, of THEIR pain?  Can I begin to connect THEIR pain with my OWN, so that I find some healing too as I help THEM?  And can I feel THEIR pain SO deeply that I cry out to God: WHY does this kind of suffering have to EXIST in a world FULL of such PLENTY and BEAUTY?  Well friends, we CANNOT develop THAT kind of compassion unless the SHADES are UP, so to speak, UNLESS we can really SEE the poor!  And please REALIZE that the poor MAY be across the globe somewhere, but they’re ALSO right here AMONG us: in that LONELY neighbor next door, or in that GRIEVING widow up the street, or in that guy at church with a life-threatening illness, or in that family experiencing a DIVORCE, and in that KID that CAN’T seem to learn how to READ.  Yes, the POOR are EVERYWHERE!  And OUR JOB is to SEE them.  It’s so much EASIER, isn’t it, just to KEEP the shades pulled down and to LIVE our comfortable little LIVES?  In fact, in OUR society, we have to work EXTREMELY hard to put the shades UP, because we just DON’T want to SEE the poor and HAVE to ACT.  But, AS you can see from the prophet, AMOS: it’s extremely IMPORTANT that we DO put the shades UP.  And as CHRISTIANS, THAT is our JOB!  WE are called to COMFORT the AFFLICTED and AFFLICT the COMFORTABLE, because THAT’S what JESUS did!  SO, whether it’s through Mission Trips, or going up to work at Habitat for Humanity with us, or some OTHER way, WE need to keep putting up SHADES!  WE need to be SEEING the poor, and really SEEING them!  WE need to keep developing our 20 x 20 x 20 vision!  And WE need to ACT on behalf of the poor in ANY and EVERY way that we CAN.  And if you think that’s HARD to DO, you’re RIGHT.  It’s EXTREMELY hard to DO, especially in a SELF-SERVING society like OURS.  BUT, listen to prophets, and to JESUS, and consider the CONSEQUENCES of NOT doing it, because the CONSEQUENCES are downright FRIGHTENING.  Think about it, my friends, and PRAY about it.  Amen.