This morning I want to offer a few comments on one of our longest standing ministries – Social Justice and Outreach.  For many of us, this work embodies the very essence of St. Martin’s Church.  It is integral to our identity and our shared values. 

The Social Justice and Outreach Committeeis the formal structure through which we enact our shared commitment to serve those in most need.  I want to note, however, that virtually everyone I know in this parish is engaged in some form of outreach.  Much of this outreach is “off stage,” and not part of the Committee.  This work is done outside of anyone’s eyes and ears except those of our Lord.  We are all blessed by your work.  Thank you.

Today, the work of the SJO Committee, which is supported by the Vestry and our parishioners, remains a vital and steady presence in our community and beyond.  Our pledges make a good deal of this possible.

I want to highlight just three areas of the committee’s work. 

1.  Most of you know that every year – through your stewardship and generosity – the SJO helps facilitate, with Vestry approval, a number of Matthew 25 grants or gifts to organizations whose day-to-day work is to feed, house, support and otherwise provide life necessities to individuals and families most in need.  For example, DCMH, STEAC, Suicide Prevention, Paul’s Place, Dixon Family Services, and others.  I am aware of no parish – Episcopal or otherwise – that so generously commits 5% of their core budget for this purpose.  You – through your stewardship make this possible. Thank you.

• Second, I want to mention another annual commitment facilitated by SJO and supported by you.  This is our Thanksgiving Project. Every year the committee asks you to contribute funds to purchase upwards of one hundred $100 gift cards from Safeway.  These cards go to local families to enable holiday meals, whatever their tradition.  The funds also support a number of $25 cards that go to students in need…and there are many who are alone and away from home.  As of today, we have contributed more than $2,000 to this very important project.

• As many of you know, St. Martin’s parish has for several years been a leading force behind the the Families Together Project.  This work has helped the transition and integration of two Guatemalan families into our community.   Today, Molly Hillis and Lynn Zender, in their work with SJO have engaged a large interfaith group from Davis and  Woodland to form a sponsor circle to support the growing numbers of Ukranian and Afgani refugee families moving into our area.  This group is in the early stages of deciding how to provide life’s necessities to people who have been thrust into a new society and culture with nowhere to turn.

I feel extraordinarily blessed by the shared commitment of this parish to live out the tenets of Matthew 25 and God’s call to love one another.  With stewardship season upon us, we have yet another opportunity to make good on our values and what’s important to us.

What this work means to me has changed over the years. 

In the beginning, I was focused largely on “what can we do for our brothers and sisters.”  I knew St. Martin’s was a relatively wealthy, talented, generous parish and felt we should reach out and contribute to those in need. That is our call.  And on some level, I still hold this to be true.  But the underlying concept guiding my thinking at the time seems in retrospect to be very one-directional.  Us giving to others.

Today, I see outreach as largely two-directional.  As Christians we are in relationship with all living things on this earth and beyond.  Our social justice work reminds us that we are one with our brothers and sisters – for as God is within us, so too is God in them.  Surely many of those we serve are visibly broken and in need of healing.  But so are we.  Everyone of us.

In the relationships we establish through our outreach work, we open ourselves to God’s love and light, which gradually heals us and helps make us whole.  For those we serve, also serve us.  This  two-directional concept of outreach brings greater meaning to me.

Paraphrasing Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest and spiritual writer, I close with this:  “The point of a Christian life is not to distinguish oneself from those who are marginalized or those considered ‘other.” It is to stand in radical solidarity with everyone and everything.”

Thank you for your generosity in this stewardship season and for your years of support for our outreach work.