Lent IV - Skip Windsor

Num. 21:4-9; Eph. 2:1-10; John 3:14-21
Let us pray:
O God, whose mercies cannot be numbered, be with us now and give us the Spirit of Christ. Amen.
In Tracy Kidder’s best selling book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, about the life and work of Dr. Paul Farmer in Haiti, there is a quote by Dr. Farmer that frames this morning’s meditation:
“I have fought the long defeat and brought other people on to fight the long defeat and I am not going to stop because we keep losing. I don’t dislike victory… We want to be on the winning team, but not at the risk of turning our backs on the losers, no, it is not worth it. So you fight the long defeat.”
This morning, I would like to invite you to reflect with me on the meaning of the long defeat and how this idea relates to our Christian life and faith. As many of you know, who have read Mountains Beyond Mountains, Farmer is borrowing the phrase from JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings when the Lady Galadriel tells the hobbit Frodo Baggins about the long struggle against the evil forces of Sauron saying, “Together through the ages we have fought the long defeat.”
Explaining what he meant by these fatalistic words, Tolkien stated in a letter that he was a Christian and so he did not expect “history” to be anything but a long defeat – though it contains some samples or glimpses of final victory. For Tolkien and for Farmer and, as a matter of fact, for many Christians, the term “The Long Defeat” implies to those who use it that since the battle appears hopeless, any progress, or even a single life saved, can be viewed as a victory. The expression is used in some circles to denote the struggle against the ill effects of poverty and injustice and that is where I want to begin.
As most of you know, I returned last week from Haiti. I went with thirteen other parishioners and friends who brought their medical skills and education to many of the least, the last, the lost and the lonely. During the week, our International Mobile Medical Team saw upwards of 800 men, women and children.
While we were there, several women were seen who were very ill with pre-eclampsia, a child with whooping cough was diagnosed and referred, a man who was recovering from a gunshot wound to the head was learning physical therapy to move his arm again, and an elderly woman was given better sight because of the eyeglasses we brought. In Lazile, where our parish partnership is located, a child came to our clinic whose nearly severed finger was re-attached because of the skills of one of our young medical residents. Looking back, I could not help but think of these Haitian lives that were affected because our doctors were there.
Each time we go to Haiti from Christ Church, the truth of Farmer’s thoughts about ministry and mission among the poor as a long defeat seems more apt. The problems in Haiti are enormous. It is hard to know where to begin. I think most of us know a little bit about this country that is so close to the United States:
It is a nation of about 9.8 million people. It’s GNI (per capita per person) is $560 per person – or less than $2 dollars a day.
The wealth gap is enormous with 1% of the population owning 50% of the country’s resources.
Life expectancy for men is 59 and for women it is 63.
Out of 10,000 births, 620 women die compared to 11 in the United States.
Less than 25% of the water supply is drinkable. Less than half can read a word.
The list goes on…
So much of the United Nations Millennium Development Goal’s are focused on eradicating extreme poverty by 2015 in places such as Haiti, Africa, and other less developed countries. To review, these goals are:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce child mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability.
8. Develop a global partnership for development.

Looking at Haiti and how far they still have to go, it does seem like a long defeat with such lofty global goals seeming further and further out of reach. And, yet, while we were there seem to be these small glimmers of victory. We saw men and women with the Roman Catholic Twinning project helping to construct a school, manage a medical clinic and build a clean water well and irrigation system. We found out that the hospital where we stay in Leogane is going to re-open in April with 40 beds. We learned about the national immunization program through UNESCO to help fight measles. Some of us met an American Fulbright Scholar who teaches at Yale who will come to Haiti this summer to execute a strategic plan for effective hospital administration for the Leogane hospital. This list goes on as well. Different people from diverse places are all taking a piece of the problem in order to make a difference where they can and when they can in Haiti.
In our gospel lesson for this morning, we heard some of the most well known and beloved lines in scripture from John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that all who believe in Him will have everlasting life.” Martin Luther called these words as the “gospel in miniature” because it says it all about God’s purpose in the world through Jesus Christ.
I think I saw the numbers “316” once on the scoreboard at a Broncos football game in Denver. The area code for Kansas is 316. But, despite its popularity, what is not so well known is the context in which these words from John 3:16 are spoken.
They are spoken at night. They are words spoken by Jesus to Nicodemus. They are words of power to a powerful man too afraid to be seen by his peers. But, before Jesus says those well-known words, He talks about healing and refers to the ancient story of Moses and the disconsolate Israelites in the desert who have become disheartened and hopeless. Jesus reminds Nicodemus about how God told Moses to make a brass icon of a snake and place it on a pole so all the people could see it and become healed from the bites of venomous snakes.
Just as the snake was lifted up for healing, Jesus says, so must the Son of Man be lifted up for all not only to heal but also to save; and God will do this because God so loves the world. Later on, Nicodemus will come to understand this divine love and will risk his own life to ask for the body of Jesus so that it may be placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimithea.
Along with countless other people around the world who go to Haiti to help assist and heal, we carried aloft the healing arts of medicine; but, more importantly, we found among the people of Haiti an inspiring faith in the midst of so much poverty. Holding up the Cross of Christ, the Haitian people are giving hope back to us who live in the United States to re-commit ourselves to the work of ministry and mission. It is their hope that gives us hope. On this trip, I found my faith renewed by the extraordinary acts of generosity the Haitian people give to one another.
On our last day in Haiti, we went to an orphanage of 73 children. A Haitian woman and her Argentinean husband founded their orphanage eight years ago. They moved back to Haiti from Argentina in order to help make a difference in her hometown of Port au Prince. Little did they know how they were going to give back.
Several weeks after they arrived they brought home a baby who had been left in a trashcan. Three weeks later several babies were left on their doorstep. Since then, this remarkable couple has taken in numerous babies and children to feed, cloth, and shelter-seeking funds for food from where ever God will provide.
I am reminded of the story of St. Theresa of Avila who told some businessmen that she was going to build a convent with ten pennies. The men scoffed at her saying she couldn’t build anything with ten pennies. She replied with ten pennies and God’s help she could build anything.
It may be true that to counter poverty and illness in the world is a long defeat; but, if we can carry in solidarity with the people of the world -- where there is no America, there is no Haiti, there is no Africa, where there is no China or Iraq – a hope for healing and reconciliation among all people then, perhaps, the dream of the MDG’s can be met. It begins where we are. We start from where we are. It starts here. It is here at the foot of the cross. The cross is where the long defeat will end in victory – victory over poverty, victory over illness, victory over sin and victory over death.
Thanks Be to God.