Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week 2021
As in years past, and in accordance with our ongoing shared homelessness initiative, the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance (MDHA) and Faith Forward Dallas at Thanksgiving Square (FFD@TGS) are participating in Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. During this week-long event, which this year will be November 13-21, 2021, our organizations are encouraging FFD@TGS members, as well as other clergy, to preach about the importance of ending homelessness.
Once again, we are providing one sample sermon, updated for this year, directly below, as well as links to other postings, which clergy can use for their preaching purposes. Please share this blog post with your spiritual leaders and encourage them to preach about homelessness that week.
This year, we also include a specific call to action for how people can get involved in helping an unprecedented effort to house more than 2,700 individuals and families.
Sample Sermon – House America – a Spiritual Message
An Ancient Ritual
One of my favorite books of the Hebrew Bible is Deuteronomy, and Chapter 21 is, in my view, one of the most intriguing chapters in that entire book. It recounts a fascinating and detailed ritual (JPS 1985 translation):
If, in the land that the LORD your God is assigning you to possess, someone slain is found lying in the open… your elders and magistrates shall go out and measure the distances from the corpse to the nearby towns.
The elders of the town nearest to the corpse shall then take a heifer which has never been worked… down to an everflowing wadi, which is not tilled or sown. There… they shall break the heifer’s neck, [and] wash their hands over the heifer…
And they shall make this declaration: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. Absolve, O LORD, Your people Israel whom You redeemed, and do not let guilt for the blood of the innocent remain among Your people Israel.”
… Thus you will remove from your midst guilt for the blood of the innocent, for you will be doing what is right in the sight of the LORD.
The Meaning of the Ritual – Systems Failure Demands Accountability
The Ancient Rabbis in the Babylonian Talmud Sotah 44-46 have a field day (pun not intended) with this, and minutely dissect every aspect of it. I found two comments of theirs particularly instructive.
First, they say that the measuring is to be carried out by the Great Sanhedrin. These jurists of the high court, must travel from Jerusalem to that field, to carry out this task. Imagine in our day, the justices of the United States Supreme Court, traveling from Washington, D.C. to stand in a field and measure from the corpse to the towns around it, and you get the picture.
Why must this rather quotidian task be carried out by these national leaders? One reason might be to attract the attention of the nation. Obviously, this same task could be easily performed by anyone, but if done by a local official, no one would hear about it.
Second, the Rabbis wonder, why must the town elders declare that they didn’t murder the person. Would anyone think the town leaders had?! The Rabbis explain that the declaration really means, that they didn’t cause the person’s death through inaction, by not providing for their needs.
Wow. Do you realize what the Rabbis are telling us? They are (implicitly) telling us that this town’s leaders must have set up well functioning systems of social welfare. And only if they have set up well functioning systems of social welfare, can they honestly declare that they are innocent, if a mishap occurs.
Out of Crisis – Working Together to Change the System
In fact, this entire exercise is meant to help this town examine its systems and make the necessary changes to prevent such a terrible outcome in the future. As Charles Duhigg reminds us in The Power of Habit, systems change rarely occurs without a precipitating crisis event. However, even then, there must be a deliberate focus of all stakeholders on meaningful change.
Viewed through the prism of systems thinking, this ritual is meant to, first, focus the attention of leadership and other town stakeholders on what went wrong, i.e. what inputs caused this output, and second, help them figure out what alternative inputs the system needs in order to generate the desired output, i.e. everyone in the town enjoying safety and well-being.
This is how I, personally, interpret the last verse: Thus you will remove from your midst guilt for the blood of the innocent, for you will be doing what is right in the sight of the LORD.
It is interesting to note, though, that the verse switches back from the third person (the town) to the second person (the nation). What is meant by that?
The fact is that quite often systems break down, even though everyone is trying to do what is right. Different actors, different jurisdictions, each try to do their part, however due to each of them having different responsibilities and roles, people fall between the cracks, usually the most vulnerable people, at that.
Scripture highlights this problem, by involving the town and the nation, local leaders and national leaders, and implies not only that they each have a part to play, but also that they must work in concert. Everybody must work together.
Fixing the Systems Failure That is Homelessness – We Need Your Help
There really is no reason that homelessness should exist in a world class city in the richest country in the world. Certainly, no one set out to create it. Homelessness in our community and across our country is a function of a systems breakdown.
Fortunately, these past few months local and national leaders have come together, in an unprecedented fashion, to solve this problem. Locally, the Dallas Real Time Rapid Rehousing Initiative will rehouse over 2,700 people experiencing homelessness. The cities of Dallas, Grand Prairie, Mesquite, Plano, Dallas County, DHA Housing Solutions for North Texas, the Homeless Collaborative of Dallas and Collin Counties, and the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance are pooling their resources and working together to accomplish this audacious goal.
This is part of a national initiative, of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, House America: An All-Hands-On-Deck Effort to Address the Nation’s Homelessness.
What can you do to help? It is imperative that each of those 2,700 people have the essential items needed to make a house a home. We all get to come home at the end of our days. Our neighbors experiencing homelessness deserve to come home too. Through the We Come Home campaign, the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance is asking our community to organize, volunteer, and pledge to donate move in kits.
Pledge to be part of the We Come Home campaign today! Fill out a quick and easy online pledge form and an MDHA team member will contact you with more information and next steps.
Links to Other Articles and Postings Clergy Can Use for Preaching Purposes
Spending time with unhoused people challenged everything I knew about Sukkot
Ending Homelessness While Standing on One Foot
The Messiah at the Gates of Rome
To Bigotry No Sanction – A Personal and Communal Journey
Counting the Homeless Reminds Us That Each Person is Made in the Image of God
Invocation at the Dallas Furniture Bank’s CHAIRity Friendraiser – Furnishing Hope for 15 Years
Broken – Invocation at the Dallas County Commissioners Court
Invocation at the Dallas Furniture Bank’s 12th CHAIRity Friendraiser
Invocation at the Dallas Furniture Bank’s 11th CHAIRity Friendraiser
