I have always had difficulty with the idea of salvation. The word itself comes from a Latin root meaning “to be made whole.” From before seminary to the present day, I wonder, “How are we saved?”, “What must we do to be saved?”, “What happens when we are saved?”, and “Does this kind of salvation really matter?” If you want to dive into some of these questions, then join me for Sunday adult forum starting on the 18th when we read the book Going to Hell, Getting Saved, and What Jesus Actually Said About It.”

Here in the buckle of the Bible belt, we know there are huge churches placing great emphasis on the concept of salvation. One person told me years ago that in order to be saved, I had to stand in front of the congregation on a Sunday and tell them that Jesus was my personal Lord and Savior. When I heard that, I began to look on that formula for salvation: kind of like eating a Twinkie – overly sweet on the outside, gooey on the inside, and not very satisfying in the long run.

September is “Hunger Action Month.” Recently Nathan Adair, an MBA student at a university in London, decided to experience for himself what 1 billion people around the globe do every day. They live on food costing one dollar a day or less. Mr. Adair decided to eat for an entire month on what could be purchased for $30. In the middle of his experiment he noted, “When you are really hungry, one raisin is like eating an ice cream sundae. Twenty-five-cent canned vegetable soup tastes like it came from a five-star restaurant.”

In the other direction from here, San Francisco chef Karl Wilder was challenged by the manager of a local food bank to “Take the food stamp challenge”, and live on food provided only by the amount of money food stamp recipients receive, or $4.32 a day in California. This diet is luxurious in comparison to the dollar a day food ration a billion people receive around the globe. As a professional chef, Wilder carefully managed his food stamp budget diet so that he ate healthy, nutritional meals. He ended up taking the challenge for nearly two months.

At 5’ 4” with a 29” waist, Wilder lost seven pounds during the two month challenge in spite of managing his calorie and nutritional intake carefully. Can you imagine what people who do not have graduate training in nutrition do on $4.32 a day? What they do is to purchase inexpensive non-nutritious junk food that is high in calories and sodium. The three hundred pound ten year olds you see walking around town are living on food stamp budgets or even less.

Now we can talk about politics and government programs all day long, but we are in a Christian church and we need to shift the conversation to “What does our faith have to do with hunger locally and internationally?” and “What are we called to do about it here and now?”

In his letter to the Romans, Paul says, “Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor.” So the basic question boils down to this: right here in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where many of us have more than enough to eat, is it right to allow others to starve or not have enough to eat? Love does no wrong to a neighbor. If we say that it is right to allow other residents of this town to starve or live in what is called “food insecure” conditions, then we do not love our neighbor. The Grace Episcopal Tee shirts we wore last week proclaimed to the community that we “love our neighbors as ourselves.” Can we walk the talk?

As long as we are not working towards a solution at least to local hunger, are we really loving our neighbor as ourselves? As a first step we need to look outside the bubbles we live in.

Reflecting on his dollar a day diet, the London MBA student said, “I hope people choose to look outside their bubbles and realize that this very moment, kids are digging through trash looking for food, that children are being sold into slavery and prostitution this very minute, that widows are being spit on in the street because they are seen as worthless.” He continued, “I want them to realize that the Western way of life is luxurious compared to most. I have been very blessed in this life, and I want to give back as much as possible. We can’t take anything with us.”

You may be thinking this is a sermon about food, hunger, and feeding people, but it is not. This is a sermon about the love that flows from our baptismal promise. In that promise we agreed to “respect the freedom and dignity of every human being.” In effect we promise to love others as we love ourselves. As Paul says, we “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.”

Jesus posed our response to his gospel in black and white terms. “He that is not against us is for us.” Either we are moving towards a solution on hunger or we are not. Either we are living the Good News of Jesus Christ by loving our neighbor OR we are just taking up space.

Yes, Grace Episcopal Church has two very good meals programs and we should continue and expand those programs. But take a trip with me to and dream much bigger than where we are today. Dream about feeding not hundreds, but thousands in this county. Dream about empowering others with skills, knowledge, and hope. The first two steps on this journey are the things we need to carry us through to the end: compassion and gratitude. These are the underpinnings of real Christian love.

Suppose for a minute that we could leverage our own Grace Church financial contributions by obtaining grants. All we need is a grant writer. We could develop a community garden across the street. We could develop much more permanent cooking and food distribution facilities. We could partner with other churches and local resources to build programs that not only feed people but help them understand good nutrition and change lives as a result.

Suppose for a minute that we could engage a wider segment of the community in helping us. In a sense we would be living out the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 – every week. Isn’t this what the Gospel compels us to do? Isn’t this loving our neighbor as ourselves?

Suppose we leaned back on our proud 29 year history of a GED education program and we decided that teaching people is also feeding them, and that education is essential to get this community out of its current doldrums.

It may take us two years, three years, or even five years to set all this up. Some of us who start such an ambitious dream may not get to see it to completion, but is that a reason not to start? In the near future we may find the opportunities for facilities we never dreamed of. We may find that once a few engaged and compassionate people start, that people from all over will want to come help. We may find that our youth will finally make the connection that this strange faith of ours that we talk about in worship on Sunday actually translates directly into helping others. We may find contributions beyond our wildest dreams.

This is the United States of America in the 21st century. We should not be seeing 300 pound malnourished ten year olds. We should not be seeing people getting their food from restaurant dumpsters. We should not have children born to malnourished mothers in Muskogee.

But we do.

All the resources we need to address these issues are either in this church or connected to it socially. All we need is a couple of compassionate people who want their faith to make a difference. All we need is to look outside our bubble and start with gratitude, saying, “I have been very blessed in this life. I want to give back as much as possible.”

After all, wherever you are going next, you can’t take it with you.