Sunday November 16, 2008
The Cathedral Church of the Nativity
Sermon by The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
The Millennium Development Goals
Matthew 25:14-30

In 2000, leaders from the United States and 190 other nations came together to develop a plan to cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015. To guide this critical work and measure its success, eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were created. At the 74th General
Convention in 2003, the Episcopal Church formally endorsed the MDGs. In 2006, at the 75th Convention, the Church voted to make the MDGs a mission priority over the next three years. Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) use the MDGs as benchmarks to measure our progress in fighting extreme poverty and disease around the world.

Today, we will pray and focus ourselves on the MDG’s as we commit ourselves to living out the Baptismal Covenant by working to achieve the MDGs. We see ourselves and the Church as on a pilgrimage in the world, journeying with each other toward the justice of the Reign of God as manifest in the goals.


Today we celebrate the opportunity and challenge of living into our baptismal covenant! To celebrate the gifts, the “talents” if you will that God has given to us to offer the world, to accept the challenge of the promises we make in our baptismal covenant, to seek and to serve, to be faithful witnesses to Jesus Christ, and to respect the dignity of every human being.
Such I believe is the challenge Jesus puts forth in this difficult parable that on first read to 21st century eyes, seems like bad advice in a difficult financial market, but instead to an audience of early converts to a radical view to live for a new world order, is a sharp reminder to resist the temptation to hold fast, to play it safe, to be lulled into inactivity or to let inertia get the best of us. The challenge of course for any steward, first century or 21st century is to overcome our fear, our inertia, our anxiety, our comfort, our natural inclination to cling on to secure things, especially when things seem insecure. The challenge is to resist the temptation to hold fast to what has been given to our care, that is our gifts/ our “talents”, and instead challenge ourselves to use our gifts/talents, for the wild ride of living for others.
Each one of us in our baptism was given a wealth of love and an intimate experience of the presence of God. We renew that gift at each Eucharist, as we receive Jesus into our lives and join with the hosts of heaven in worship and thanksgiving.
On this day as we meet the opportunity and challenges of living into the MDG”s we begin with our baptism and our baptismal Covenant, and soon we renew them as we look to continue to greet the challenge of meeting the MDG’s.
Tertullian, an early Church Father reminds us that Christians are not born, they are made, that is as we turn our faith toward the challenges of our baptismal covenant we are more and more made into the image of Christ.
Turning with eyes of Faith then towards a pursuit of Millennium Development Goals we ask the pragmatic question, what are they, and how do we as Christians continue to pursue them?
What are the MDG’s?
You see above me the beautiful and brightly colored banners created by one of our own parishioners that are the “icons” to be our window into the eight goals established as a measuring stick to cut extreme global poverty in half by the year 2015. These goals invite us into prayer and action. They are:
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Achieve universal primary education
Promote gender equality and empower women
Reduce child mortality
Improve maternal health
Combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Ensure environmental sustainability
Develop a global partnership for development


How do we as a community of faith worshipping at this Cathedral pursue the MDG’s?
1. Participation in the New Hope Campaign- Our efforts as a Diocese to partner with our brothers and sisters in the Sudan to create educational structures, infrastructure, and economic development in the Diocese of Kajo Keji. This congregation has been faithful in prayer, financially supported, and physically visited with our brothers and sisters in the New Sudan. This I pray is just the beginning of a long and faithful partnership.
2. Waters flow from a well in Romogi, the growing cultural center in the Diocese of Kajo Keji. These waters were made possible by members and friends of this Cathedral called to serve Jesus Christ. The invitation was to drill one well, but an abundance of your generosity made it possible to drill two wells. Now, waters flow in the center of this village providing the waters of life for this community. These same waters carried across continents now mixes with our own baptismal waters as a symbol of our bond with our brothers and sisters in Kajo Keji.
3. There is a historic partnership with New Bethany Ministries that the Cathedral enjoys. We join in this critical ministry to the community around us that reaches out and offers opportunity by way of food, shelter, housing and employment training opportunities! Many of you prepare food, raise funds, contribute food items, and offer helping hands to neighbors in need.
4. It is no mistake that today we are inviting you to participate in the Living Gifts Fair. This unique opportunity to educate, inspires, and invites your participation in ministries that reach out locally, nationally, and globally. As these ministries do what they do, they clearly are in pursuit of Millennium Development Goals.

These examples I am humbled to say are but a few examples of both the needs of the world but also of the response of this Cathedral community. These are but some of the ways we corporately respond to the needs of others and by doing so pursue MDG’s.

In addition, you may wonder of other ways you as individuals may become involved in this noble and faithful pursuit. Ways in which you may bring your baptismal covenant to the intersection of the world’s needs.

Here are some organizations and resources to consider:
· Episcopal Relief and Development Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) works with Anglican and ecumenical partners in 40 countries worldwide. All ERD’s international programs address one or more of the eight Millennium Development Goals—helping vulnerable communities fight extreme poverty and disease.
» www.er-d.org/mdg
· » Anglican Women's Empowerment The Anglican Women’s Empowerment (AWE), as representatives of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) Observer’s Office to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Woman (UNCSW), intends to be an effective and empowered Anglican voice for women at the United Nations (UN) and in the Anglican Communion and further commitment to worldwide reconciliation, right relationships and shared work for peace and justice.
· » Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation A network of lay and ordained economists, business people, students, social organizers, theologians, attorneys, labor activists, and advocates who commit to giving 0.7% of our personal budgets - and working towards giving 0.7% of our parish, diocesan, Church, and national budgets - to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals overseas.
· » Gapminder Gapminder’s Trendalyzer software unveils the beauty of statistics by converting boring numbers into enjoyable interactive animations.
· » The MDG Inspiration Fund The MDG Inspiration Fund is a new partnership between Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), Jubilee Ministries, and the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church to raise $3 million to fight malaria and other preventable diseases.
· » ONE Campaign The ONE Campaign is an effort by Americans to rally Americans – one by one – to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. ONE is students and ministers, punk rockers and NASCAR moms, Americans of all beliefs and every walk of life, united to help make poverty history.
· » United Nations The United Nations initiated the Millennium Development Goals in 2000. This site provides updates on the work happening to meet the deadline of 2015.
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In the making of Christians we are called to the wild ride that is life! This wild ride is also full of life, and we are strengthened by our close walk with the God who made, redeemed and sustains us!

I offer this Celtic Prayer to remind us of who we are as followers of Jesus and to help us live fully into the challenges of tomorrow.

Lord, help me to live into your call
Take me from the tension that makes peace impossible
Take me from the fears that do not allow me to venture
Take from me the worries that blind my sight
Take from me the distress that hides my joy
Help me to know that I am with you
That I am in you
That I am in your love
That you and I are one.
Amen.