AIDS was first given a name sometime around 1981. 25 years later 40 million people around the world are infected, 25 million have died. Africa is probably the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic but Asia and particularly India are closing the gap. Today 15 million children are orphaned in Africa by AIDS with no safety net. Today an orphaned 13-year old boy in a small village in Africa is trying to raise his two younger brothers. No parents, no grandparents survive. Today grandmothers and grandfathers face the disintegration of their families. 

Today the United Methodist pastor in Africa with a 200 member church knows that about 30% of his adult congregation is HIV positive or perhaps has full blown AIDS. He will have 3 or 4 or maybe 5 funerals each week. There is no Medicare, no Medicaid, no Welfare and no “Pastor’s Fund.” Don Messer retired president of one of our Methodist Seminaries and now the Director of the Center for the Church & Global AIDS says that, “These are numbers with out tears.” Today: AIDS may be the greatest humanitarian crisis ever! 

We can not be indifferent. We can not ignore, we can not pretend the problem doesn’t exist. We are called to feel it and to care. 

In one of the stories in scripture Jesus met a leper. Lepers were reviled and marginalized in his day. A leper was thought to have contracted his disease from some kind of sin he had committed. Leper’s lived in isolation.     

Jesus not only speaks to him, but touches him as well. He touches him with out fear, without any sense of disgust. He touches him with compassion. In so doing, Jesus breaks every social, cultural and religious code of His day. Jesus not only touches the man’s pain but also his disease and his body and his soul. 

Jesus calls us to care.  He calls us to make a difference. Jesus calls us to be the church in our day he calls us to be pro-active. The AIDS crisis may be the greatest opportunity we have had in a long time to serve the hurting of our world. So I ask this morning what does this mean for the Christian community? 

DISCOUNT THE STIGMA AND SHAME 

First of all we can discount the stigma and the shame. There are so many tragic stories of isolation and pain over the years: 

·           A clean cut high school student contracts AIDS through a blood transfusion. It is tough luck. He is not welcome back in school any longer.

·           A 20 year old mother of 3 watches as her husband and her youngest daughter die of AIDS. When other people discovered the nature of their illness she lost her job and she lost her friends. She was isolated.

·           A professor doing population research in a cemetery in Africa found a group of people sleeping around tombstones. When he asked why? One of them said, “Because we are infected with AIDS. We have been told we are already dead.  So we should go sleep in a graveyard.” They were cast out of homes because they had AIDS virus. 

Mindless AIDS profiling is absolutely unbecoming to the church.  

Senator Barack Obama spoke at an AIDS conference last December. This is a conference hosted by Saddleback pastor Rick Warren and his wife Kay. In his speech to the people he said this:  

Let me say this and let me say this loud and clear: I don’t think we can deny that there is a moral and spiritual component to the prevention of AIDS. In too many places…the relationship between men and women, between sexuality and spirituality, has broken down and needs to be repaired….But I don’t accept the notion that those who make mistakes in their lives should be given an effective death sentence.[a] 

A group of mostly conservative Christians gave Senator Obama a standing ovation. He has also written a book called The Audacity of Hope.

On this issue of AIDS, both he and Rick Warren are retailers of hope.

A long-term AIDS survivor said this:

I attribute my continued survival to one very powerful additive: HOPE.  Hope has kept me alive, long after a physician judged that I had a 65% chance of being dead within 3 years. Hope sustains my spirit.  And living, I have discovered, is as much a spiritual experience as a biological one.[b] 

We as a church, we as believers offer hope, love, forgiveness, and grace. This is the kind of spiritual support that no government or business can offer. AIDS victims find in Christian community understanding and compassion. We are a people of “Open Minds, Open Hearts, and Open Doors.” The United Methodist theme means even more these days. Our potential for good here is unlimited. We do not offer stigma and shame rather we offer hope. 

AIDS IS A JUSTICE ISSUE 

Secondly, we need to realize that acting on AIDS is a justice issue. It is not always easy to discern justice issues in our world. They can be confusing, highly politicized and controversial. So we tend to shy away from them. 

One of the things the AIDS pandemic reminds us of is the tremendous gap between wealth and poverty in our world.  The wealth/poverty issue is exacerbated by HIV/AIDS. Yet the opportunity is tremendous. We are not asked to feel guilty for being part of the developed world. Rather we are asked to move to touch and heal some of the developing and underdeveloped settings. Acting on AIDS is acting against poverty and injustice. The AIDS pandemic puts these important Biblical mandates clearly before us. 

COMPASSION AND CARE 

Thirdly, the AIDS crisis offers us the chance to exercise the gift of compassion and care with considerable energy. Today you are invited to allocate resources in this direction. We offer several options: 

·           You can give a gift to UMCOR’s Global AIDS Fund. Most of you already know the excellent track record of UMCOR and the way in which their funds are used wisely and carefully.
 

·           You are invited to consider helping with the orphanages and orphans at the Nydaire UM Mission in Africa, Zimbabwe. The African bishop in Zimbabwe is understandable a bit skeptical about our help. There have been too many flashes in the pan. Too many short term band-aid kinds of response.  Are we serious? Are we there for the long haul? He wants to know.
 

·           You can help with a second group of children in Western Kenya. This is a program for orphans called Rainbow Christian Ministries.  

The emphasis this year is on children. Part of our assistance is in the area of medical care. We have discovered that the retroviral drugs (those which combat AIDS) work best in children and youth.  At least two drug makers have created a dosage of this drug for children.  

The right dosage is a very delicate and sensitive matter.  The Bill Clinton Foundation has helped lower costs. It means we will be able to save hundreds of thousands of children now and millions in years ahead. 

Children in some areas are getting the prescription drugs they need. The tide is turning where the prescriptions are available. There was a wonderful story in TIME magazine a few weeks ago about a boy named Bokang - age 8. He arrived at the medical clinic near death. He weighed less than 20 lbs. Six months later he is in good recovery. His smile has returned. It is all because of generously provided retroviral drugs. 

The singer Bono writes: 

I think the Judeo-Christian culture is at stake. If the church doesn’t respond to the AIDS crisis in Africa, the church will be made irrelevant.  It would be like the way you heard stories of people watching the Jews get put on trains during the Holocaust.  We will be that generation who watched our African brothers and sisters get put on the trains.  “Love thy neighbor” is not a piece of advice—it is a command.

If children and youth can be cared for today, the world will be safer tomorrow. 

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE 

Finally, you must believe that you can make a difference. Last year around this time I preached a sermon on AIDS called “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is you eat the elephant one bite at a time. Someone has recently written about the “power of one.” One believer, one vial of medicine, one orphan, one young mother and things begin to change. By 2003 the cost of retroviral drugs had dropped from $12,000 a year per person to less than $300 per year.  Today it is even cheaper. 

Mostly, we can help young widows and orphans. They are the largest group left behind. The Bible is replete with admonitions to “help widows and orphans.” The Hebrews and early Christians knew that they were the most vulnerable group in society. It is still true today. 

Someone has said that, “The American Church is the wealthiest nation of Christians ever placed upon the planet.” There are 350,000 local congregations in the United States. What would happen if 10% of those congregations made AIDS one of their high priority missions? 

We can make a huge difference in this pandemic. If the church will show up to be the church the situation can change. Someone has reminded us that this is a marathon and not a sprint. The call of Jesus is clear. The will and the resources to respond are in our hands.