By Luann Albanese
There are times when my mind wanders away from my passions and spiritual journey and I ask God to pull me back and show me where He wants me to be and to use me for His purpose. There are so many needs and suffering in the world around me and within the lives of people that I love most in the world. Most times, I ask myself, where do I begin and what if I fail trying? It is during these times I realize how important support and encouragement means in our lives. I have learned and I am stilling learning to trust that God is the only source of my strength. When God’s support and encouragement comes to me, it comes in the feeling that I can do anything I put my mind to. I feel stronger when I focus on God walking and working right along with me.
Since I am human, there are times, even knowing that God is walking and working with me in which I find myself in need of support and encouragement from people who are closest to me on earth. Although friends and loved ones, church family, etc. are a good source of support and encouragement, they are all human, and are not always capable of recognizing the needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ. I think this is because sometimes people just get caught up in the politics of the church and the differences of opinions of those whom they do not agree. I think everyone, including me is guilty of this at one time or another. For me, the closer I feel to God, the less all of that means to me. I understand that People become distracted with these things instead of focusing on what we are really put on this earth for and that is to love and care for one another, support and encourage one another in all that we do. This is what I pray for. I have sought it out and have found it in one way or another, but there are those times when I have felt alone and let down in. Then of course, I allow the feelings of discouragement to set in and then the world gets to me. It is the enemy then, who feeds on it and comes after me full force trying to break down my shield and steal my joy. But thanks to God’s Saving Grace, it isn’t long before the Holy Spirit intervenes and saves me from myself once again reminding me that I can rest my mind and my heart as God loves me and is always with me. Yes, one way or another, through a kind word from a friend, something I may hear in a sermon, at bible study, a hymn, or a dream somehow the Holy Spirit shakes me up and gets me back on track.
I want to serve God where He wants me to serve and where I am needed. That is my goal and my priority in life which is why I spend the majority of my time within and beyond the church and with those who are in need of my support and encouragement and even simply spending time working closely with his creation in gardens. I am still learning that the only way for me to achieve this goal is to continually pray for God to be with me in all I do in His name, to protect me from being led astray. It took me a very long time to understand who I am in God’s heart. I know He loves me and I trust Him to keep my spirit safe.
Thank you God, for sending me your Holy Spirit to guide me and put me back on track when I fall off. Help me to be strong in my faith and to rely on you for strength when my journey becomes challenging.
I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
Showing posts with label Serving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Serving. Show all posts
Friday, August 27, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Responding to Need in Haiti
We serve Christ by serving those in need. I encourage anyone looking to make a financial donation to support relief efforts in Haiti Haiti
Presiding Bishop Hanson of the ELCA has written an open letter to the members of this church summarizing this church’s response to the disaster, and encouraging all of us to give generously to those in need and to encourage others to do so as well.
To make a donation online, visit http://www.elca.org/haitiearthquake. This site also provides information for mailing checks and money orders.
Peace,
-Thursday, January 14, 2010
Good Ideas Have Legs
By John Page
“Good ideas have legs” says JIM DWYER of the NY Times in his article Where Unsold Clothes Meet People in Need. The article provides an example of how a single person can make an enormous difference in the lives of thousands of needy people. He briefly describes how in 1985, Suzanne Davis asked the president of Phillips-Van Heusen if his company had any excess (unsold) inventory that could be used by homeless men. That got the ball rolling, and the following year, she organized the New York Clothing Bank, where unworn garments, which might otherwise have been destroyed, are recovered and given to the needy.
“Good ideas have legs” says JIM DWYER of the NY Times in his article Where Unsold Clothes Meet People in Need. The article provides an example of how a single person can make an enormous difference in the lives of thousands of needy people. He briefly describes how in 1985, Suzanne Davis asked the president of Phillips-Van Heusen if his company had any excess (unsold) inventory that could be used by homeless men. That got the ball rolling, and the following year, she organized the New York Clothing Bank, where unworn garments, which might otherwise have been destroyed, are recovered and given to the needy.
While many clothing manufacturers or retailers have gotten on board with this, or similar, efforts, many still destroy unsold inventory. As Dwyer says, “the reasons are complex.” There’s a fear of competing with one’s own garbage. There’s concern that the millions of marketing dollars spent on creating brand images may be wasted if the “wrong” kinds of people are seen wearing brand-name garments. No doubt there’s also a good measure of indifference and ignorance as well. When Dwyer reported that a graduate student at City University recently discovered that a branch of clothing retailer H&M was slashing and trashing unsold garments, it triggered an avalanche of responses, including emails from people who knew of retailers all across the U.S.
Stories like this illustrate for me the tension between Christian discipleship and the way of the world. On the one hand, I understand perfectly well how a healthy economy works, how the expectation of reward or profit encourages creativity and risk, and how creativity and risk can lead to advances in knowledge and quality of life. I understand why people want to minimize risks – risks like competing with one’s own garbage or undermining brand image. And I understand that some people just can’t be bothered to think too hard about it.
On the other hand, I understand that Jesus of Nazareth expects self-sacrificing love from his disciples. Our neighbors in need – the least among us – are to be of paramount ethical concern for us. Our neighbors in need are Jesus in need. (Matthew 25:31-46) Professing “Jesus is Lord” is completely disingenuous if we treat our Lord with contempt or indifference. Christian disciples must live in and navigate through this world, never forgetting to whom we owe our lives and everything else we possess. Our neighbors in need are to be the beneficiaries of our debt.
Christian disciples typically want to be both faithful and pragmatic, which can lead to tension. We are to be wise and clever in the ways of this world, but we must not be disciples of the ways of the world. We must render to Caesar what properly belongs to Caesar, but never forget that all things, including Caesar, belong to God. We are to be mindful of the “powers and principalities” that appear to govern the world – economics, physical sciences, human nature – but we must never permit them to become our lords. Whatever authority God has given to individuals or to the natural mechanisms of creation, God has not relinquished God’s own authority. Our Lord stands over and against all other pretenders.
Good ideas are not always pragmatic, but Christian discipleship requires that we sometimes act more faithfully than pragmatically; that we sometimes give up some benefit or advantage for the sake of others, especially for those in need. This is not so much the way of the world, but the Way of Jesus.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Where’s Jesus?
By John Page
In 2007, the Barna Group published a study of perceptions of Christianity among 16- to 29-year-old Americans.[1] They found that among young non-Christians, 87% perceive Christianity as judgmental, and 85% as hypocritical. Even among young Christians, about half agreed that Christianity is judgmental and hypocritical.[2] The researchers found that one of the most frequent unprompted observations by both Christians and non-Christians was that "Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus."[3] Little wonder, if nearly 9 out of 10 non-Christians describe Christianity with the same terms Jesus himself used to characterize his antagonists.
Do these perceptions matter to us? They ought to, precisely because the church’s commission[4] is to make disciples of all peoples by proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. If proclamation is our task, clarity of proclamation is no trivial consideration. And what we “do” is every bit as important as what we “say”, because our conduct will proclaim as loudly as – if not louder than – our words.
If the church is the body of Christ, shouldn’t Jesus be more visible among us? Shouldn’t Jesus’ antagonists be less visible among us? If so, we might start by examining what makes Jesus recognizable.
Jesus and the Kingdom of God
According to the Gospels, Jesus inaugurated his public ministry by proclaiming that the kingdom of God had come near – which we are told is good news – and inviting people to turn their lives around and believe the good news.[5] His proclamation included teachings about the nature of God’s kingdom, tangible signs of the kingdom’s presence, and its consequences for people’s lives. But why would the nearness of God’s kingdom be “good news”?
Actually, it wasn’t good news to everyone. But, for those living with hunger and abject poverty, for those tormented by chronic sicknesses or demons, for those grieving untimely deaths, for those treated as disposable human commodities, for those who longed for justice in a despotic society – for those people, the nearness of God’s kingdom was welcome good news. In Jesus’ teachings which we know as the Beatitudes, we are told:
- Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God
- Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. (Luke 6:21a; Matthew 5:6 reads “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”)
- Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. (Luke 6:21b; Matthew 5:4 reads “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”)
- Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. (Luke 6:22; Matthew 5:11-12 reads “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”)
- Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)
- Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. (Matthew 5:7)
- Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. (Matthew 5:8)
- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9)
- Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10)
According to Jesus, people should expect a radically different and abundant life in the kingdom of God
And the kingdom of God
Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God
After this, the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, "Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, "The kingdom of God
With words and tangible evidence, both Jesus and his disciples proclaimed the nearness of God’s kingdom here and now.
As noted before, not everyone greeted this proclamation as good news. For those who only see life in categories of “winners” and “losers”, where “blessings” are in short supply and have to be rationed and hoarded, the nearness of God’s kingdom poses a serious threat. The Beatitudes suggest a reversal of fortunes, and the wealthy fear for their wealth; the powerful for their power; the influential for their influence; and the privileged for their privilege. Fear of becoming one of the “losers” leads to desperate actions, and in the case of Jesus and many of his disciples, that fear could only be placated with the decisive end of the so-called “good news” and those who proclaimed it. Jesus was not the first Jewish “messiah” – nor the last – and experience taught the fearful that an appropriately gruesome and humiliating death[9] for messianic leaders effectively buried their messages with their corpses.
But Jesus’ resurrection frustrated the purposes of the fearful. By raising Jesus from the dead, God effectively vindicated Jesus’ mission, Jesus’ proclamation that God’s kingdom has come near, and Jesus’ teachings about the consequences of God’s kingdom for humankind and for all of creation.[10] The new community that Jesus created with his disciples was called to embody the risen Jesus and to continue his mission to all people.[11]
The Disciples
Before his crucifixion, Jesus gave his disciples a “new commandment”:
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)
By mutual love, Jesus’ disciples make Jesus’ presence known. What’s more, the disciples are to love one another as Jesus loved them. Often misunderstood and much abused, “love” as Jesus loved is no sentimental indulgence. Jesus’ love was intentional under the most revolting – and risky – circumstances[12]. For Jesus and his disciples, it wasn’t just about feeling love; it was about doing love.
But Jesus’ love is not constrained exclusively within the community of believers; disciples are to love their neighbors – all neighbors – as well. Love manifest is the sine qua non of the kingdom of God
When the Pharisees heard that [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:34-40)
Jesus’ disciples are to love one another and all people as Jesus loves them. By this, the kingdom of God
So Paul reminds believers that they are a body – the body of Christ. Each member of the body participates in the whole, and the whole serves the head – who is Christ. Diverse as the body may be, each member is essentially joined to the others in Jesus’ love – for the purpose of manifesting that love with words and actions – and thereby make Jesus known and visible for all to see.
Making Jesus Visible
Why do so many today say that Christianity no longer looks like Jesus? We know that Jesus proclaimed the nearness of God’s kingdom with words and tangible signs. We know that God’s kingdom is welcome good news to the poor, the hungry, the abused, the sick and grieving, and those who yearn for peace and justice. We know that God’s love pervades God’s kingdom, and that intentional self-sacrificing love is the clearest evidence that God’s kingdom is near. We know that Jesus’ disciples are called to manifest Jesus’ own love for one another and for all people – to embody the risen Christ, and thereby make Jesus known.
If Christianity no longer looks like Jesus, we Christians have no one to blame but ourselves. We obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when we fail to proclaim the nearness of God’s kingdom with both words and tangible actions that the poor, the hungry, the abused, the sick, the grieving, and those who yearn for peace and justice can recognize and welcome as good news. We obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when we avoid intentional self-sacrificing love for one another and for our neighbors, and instead sacrifice one another and our neighbors on the altars of our own righteousness. We obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when we hijack – or passively allow others to hijack – the name of Jesus to proclaim the bad news – the anti-gospel – that poverty, hunger, abuse, sickness, grief, violence, and injustice are perfectly acceptable if working toward their abolition isn’t profitable or doesn’t otherwise serve our own self-indulgent agenda. We obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when by words and actions we deservedly earn a reputation of arrogant pretentiousness that revels in the show of “righteousness” – as if we are somehow better than “those” people – while forgetting entirely that we are debtors ourselves whose gratitude to God can only be expressed by self-sacrificing acts of love toward our neighbors – including “those” people. And we obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when we manipulate the instruments of secular power to serve the anti-gospel – in the name of God, of all things!
Healing... How do we make Jesus visible in the church in the midst of our current national debate about healthcare? Jesus made healing one of the most obvious signs of the nearness of God’s kingdom, revealing God’s compassion for the sick and afflicted who were otherwise without hope or recourse. Christians might reasonably and faithfully disagree about the “particulars” of what healthcare reform should look like, but can we plausibly dispute the claims that God desires the health and wellbeing of all people, and that profitability is an unconscionable excuse for allowing sickness and affliction to continue when remedies are available? When fear, greed, and secular partisan ambitions conspire against efforts to make healing and relief available to all people, the body of Christ is called to act with hope, with the intentional love of Christ, and with a partisan commitment to making the nearness of God’s kingdom a tangible reality for everyone who suffers disease and affliction.[15]
Making peace… One of the longest running conflicts of sustained violence in this and the previous century has been the conflict between Israel
Thirsting for righteousness… Far too often throughout the centuries, Christians have abandoned mutual love for one another for the pretense of righteousness. We have a long history of supplanting the apostles’ teachings that the righteousness of God is disclosed through faith in Jesus Christ[18] with false teachings about the righteousness of being bound to the law. Loving one another as Christ loves us has been of secondary importance to being right about our righteousness. “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it” – and God forbid that the Holy Spirit should act beyond the constraints of established law, dogma, tradition, and ministry policies! How do we make Jesus visible in the midst of our family squabbles? Surely, Jesus’ commandment “… love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” would go far in making Jesus visible for all to see, for “by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.[19] When righteous indignation, hidden agendas, and pious contempt for others[20] conspire to rend us, the body of Christ is called to act with hope, with the intentional love of Christ, and with Jesus’ own commitment to making the nearness of God’s kingdom a tangible reality in our communities of faith, as places where Christ-like love abounds.
Following the Way of Jesus… The Way of Jesus stands in contrast to the way of the world, precisely because hope in God’s kingdom and the work of making the Beatitudes a tangible reality for people can often seem ludicrous to the faithless; self-sacrificing love for strangers is pointless; and a single-minded commitment to the kingdom of God, and making the nearness of God’s kingdom known by words and deeds, can pose a serious challenge to the demands and expectations of human kingdoms. The Way of Jesus is a challenging way to follow, and we Christians have often found ways to mitigate the challenges: we’ve found novel and convoluted ways to confuse the kingdom of God with the kingdom of human ambitions – to transform Christianity into Christendom; we’ve become so adept at “spiritualizing” the Beatitudes and the kingdom of God, that we are content to push out to some future undetermined date any tangible evidence of the nearness of God’s kingdom, making Christianity little more than a cognitive and largely self-centered exercise in self-justification and personal salvation – Caesar need not worry himself about the Jesus who’s just lord of my life, and who otherwise makes no inconvenient demands on the whole world, where greed, self-interest, and fear are beatified.
We make Jesus visible among us, for all the world to see, when we follow the Way of Jesus; when we embrace the kingdom of God for all that it stands for: relief and blessings for the poor, the hungry, the grieving, the persecuted, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers; when we proclaim the good news that God’s kingdom is near, by words and tangible signs; when we love one another in the body with the intentional self-sacrificing love of Christ; and when we love all people in the same way that all people are loved by Jesus.[21]
[1] Kinnaman, David, and Lyons, Gabe. unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters. Grand Rapids , MI
[2] Ibid., p.34.
[3] “A New Generation Expresses its Skepticism and Frustration with Christianity”. Barna Group. September 24, 2007. http://barna.org/barna-update/article/16-teensnext-gen/94-a-newgeneration-expresses-its-skepticism-and-frustration-with-christianity
[4] See Matthew 28:16-20
[5] See Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:14-15; Luke 4:43
[6] Whatever you may make of demon possession, the relevant point is that people suffered.
[7] Certain afflictions could make a person “unclean”, which could require that they restrict their contact with others or be removed from communities. Examples include leprosy (Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16), menstrual bleeding (Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-34; Luke 8:40-56), and demon possession (Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:22-39).
[8] See also Matthew 10:1-15
[9] According to Deuteronomy 21:22-23, a person executed by hanging on a “tree” was cursed by God, making crucifixion an especially effective way of ending messianic careers.
[10] Debates about the “historicity” of Jesus’ resurrection tend to miss the theological point that his resurrection validates his mission and proclamation. When Christians affirm the resurrection of Christ, we profess our conviction that Jesus faithfully and authoritatively represented God’s kingdom in his life and teachings. We further profess, that in baptism we are united to Christ in his continuing life and mission, with the hope of the resurrection assuring us that Christ’s mission is valid and our participation in his mission is not in vain.
[11] See Mark 16:14-20; Matthew 28:16-20; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:19-23; Acts 1:4-8
[12] Jesus’ willingness to suffer and die for the sake of his mission and proclamation to the world is the most obvious and dramatic example and model of how Jesus loves. But Jesus’ ministry abounded with acts of risky and intentional love. Examples include healing people in defiance of the law (Luke 5:17-26; Luke 14:1-6; John 5:1-16) and risking ostracism and retribution by associating with the wrong – unclean – people (Matthew 9:9-13; Matthew 9:20-22; Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 5:25-34; Mark 7:24-30; Luke 5:27-32; Luke 7:1-10; Luke 8:43-48).
[13] See Romans 7:4; Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27; 1 Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 3:6; Ephesians 4:12; Colossians 3:15
[14] Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians provides a substantial litany of some of the problems. See 1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 1 Corinthians 1:17-31; 1 Corinthians 3:16-20; 1 Corinthians 8; 1 Corinthians 11:18-22.
[15] See the ELCA social statement Health and Healthcare – Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor. Also, Jim Wallis at Sojourners offers some thoughts about faith-based principles to guide efforts to reform American healthcare: A Faith Declaration for Health-Care Reform
[16] Christian Zionism of the 20th and early 21st centuries, coupled to “dispensationalist” theology, actually justifies and encourages ongoing violence and injustice toward Palestinian people – including Palestinian Christians – because Christian Zionists are convinced that it is God’s will that the Biblical land of Israel must be “cleansed” of what they consider interlopers, in anticipation of “end-time” events. For more information, see Toward a Lutheran Response to Christian Zionism by the Rev. Robert O. Smith of ELCA Global Mission.
[17] Ann Hafften provides frequent updates and information about peace and advocacy efforts toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at her blog A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Middle East Peace.
[18] See Romans 1:16-17; Romans 3:21-24
[19] See John 13:34-35
[20] Lutheran CORE’s website provides a number of examples: A Vision for Lutheran CORE, RECONFIGURATION, and What After Minneapolis?
[21] The ELCA tagline “God’s work, our hands.” represents something of our Church’s understanding of our mission and purpose, and encourages all of the members of the Church, individually and together, to make Jesus’ mission of proclaiming the nearness of God’s kingdom a present reality for all people, and to invite others to join that mission. Read the theological foundation for this tagline here.
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