Author: Jeff

so what if we started every worship service with something like this…

Father
we come tonight
seeking to be a humble people,
desiring to encounter you in this time,
longing for crumbs falling from your table.

Take from us,
O God,
the cares and distractions of our lives
and let us see you with clear eyes and hearts,
unburdened by our worry and fear.

We praise you for the things,
seen and unseen,
you have done in our lives.

We acknowledge your work and power in our world,
and trust that you are in control of your creation
even when we cannot see your hand.

We confess that our lives too often
are lived in pursuit of our plans and agendas
instead of your kingdom.
For our selfishness,
forgive us.

We confess that our desire for the things of this world
has blinded us to the needs and poverty of others
both far away and in our own neighborhood.
For our apathy,
forgive us.

We confess that too often we choose to promote
our social status and popularity
instead of sharing the Good News of Jesus.
For our silence,
forgive us.

As we enter into your presence tonight,
meet with us,
speak to us,
fill us.

We eagerly await
the coming of the fullness of your kingdom,
and your return at the end of time.

Be with us now as we open our hearts to you.

We present our prayer and praise
in the Holy and Glorious name
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

In the spirit of some of the discussions of the past few days, I remembered an email Lisa Davidson had sent me from one of her professors, Dr. Elisa L. Everts. These are her words, what she terms her “social justice covenant challenge”.

Moral Humility:
I understand that I may have inherited classist ideas through cultural transmission in the same way that I have inherited white privilege, an evil that I am likely to be completely blind to until someone (God or any of His emissaries) shows me what I cannot show myself.

Moral Humility:
I will not assume that I know why another soul is poor, or that I know how they can fix the situation.

Moral Humility:
I will not assume that fiscal irresponsibility, fiscal ignorance, or unwillingness to work hard are the causes of a person’s poverty.

Moral Humility:
I will not recite unquestioningly the American mantra that education and hard work solve all social ills.

Moral Humility:
I will not blame the poor for their poverty anymore than I would blame a person with autism for their incapacity, nor a cancer victim of their terminal disease (Jesus did not).

Moral Humility:
I will acknowledge that my status in society is no evidence that I am more virtuous than my poor brothers and sisters—I will not contend that I work harder or smarter and therefore deserve my relative comfort to their relative desperation and dis-ease.

Identity:
I will not assume that God’s will is for all poor people to become middle class people (which is not the same as saying that it is God’s will for people to be poor).

Identity:
I will not behave as though I believe that poor people are failed versions of non-poor people (as Aristotle thought women were deformed versions of men).

Respect:
I will endeavor to treat poor people with the same dignity and respect that I would afford any dignitary and most especially Christ Himself, who came to earth as a poor and illegitimate Jew and remained so until His resurrection.

Respect:
I will not treat the choices, secrets and private lives of the poor as if they were more legitimately scrutinized by the public eye than I believe are my own (e.g., whether they brought lunch at McDonald’s).

Respect:
I will not criticize the poor for making their needs known. On the contrary, I will criticize myself when needs I should have seen have to be brought to my attention by the needy.

Active Compassion:
I will endeavor to discover who among those God designates “my neighbor” is in need.

Respect:
I will endeavor to discover what that neighbor needs with the maximum secrecy and anonymity that I am able to achieve.

Equity:
I will give sacrificially out of my abundance to the poor in maximum anonymity and in a manner that will protect the face needs and sense of dignity of the receiver.

Equity:
I will endeavor and aspire to match the widow’s mite in my giving to God and others.

Equity:
I will not pretend, like Ananias and Saphira that I am giving more sacrificially than I am.

Relationship:
I will not merely “throw money” at the poor and hope their situation improves. Rather, I will give of my time and my heart as well as my material resources. I will covenant to pray for the poor regularly.

Relationship:
I will develop a close lifetime relationship with at least one needy person or family and will endeavor maintain that relationship with the greatest degree of symmetry and equality between us as I possibly can.

Relationship:
I will commit myself to understanding that the poor have something to give me, which no amount of money could ever buy and strive to earn the right to receive that gift.

I would certainly be interested in hearing your comments on these ideas – they are both challenging and humbing to me, and ring true on many levels.

For anyone who still is under the impression that a) poor people are poor because they choose to be or b) America is immune to the situation, I submit to you this NPR report on Hunger in America. I especially recommend this section which chronicles the story of the Hankins, a family of five in western Virginia that makes around $22,000 a year, with the husband working full time and wife working part time. They are one of 38 million families in America classified by the Department of Agriculture as “food insecure” – people who can’t be certain of having enough money to buy food.

While the text of the story is good, I would encourage you to listen to the voices of the people – real people – who work hard every day, and still have trouble making ends meet.

Here are some of the statistics listed on NPR’s site which come from the USDA report on food insecurity and Second Harvest’s survey of 32,000 families.

Rural U.S. population considered “food insecure”: 7.4 million

Percentage of U.S. adults defined as “food insecure” reporting skipping meals or cutting meal sizes: 6.6 percent

Proportion of all U.S. households with children reporting children often or sometimes don’t get enough food: 4.6 percent

Proportion of people surveyed at America’s Second Harvest emergency food services forced to choose between buying food and paying utility bills: 45 percent

Proportion of people surveyed by America’s Second Harvest forced to choose between buying food and rent or mortgage payments: 36 percent

Proportion of people surveyed by America’s Second Harvest forced to choose between buying food and paying for medicine or medical care: 30 percent

Proportion of households surveyed by America’s Second Harvest reporting at least one family member in poor health: 29 percent

I particularly appreciated Brian’s suggestion this morning that our generosity toward God is at least in some way reflected by our generosity toward others. It is particularly convicting that I will think nothing of purchasing a 3 dollar cup of coffee when there are people in my own city who don’t have enough food to eat. Statistics like this serve as a reminder to me, and hopefully to us all, that poverty is not a problem for someone else to deal with.

I believe Jerrell said it best this morning: “When we say, ‘Poor people choose to be poor,’ what we’re really saying is, ‘It’s your fault that you’re poor, and therefore I don’t have to do anything about it.'” I believe we are called to reach out to the poor, that God often associates himself with the poor and oppressed, and that ultimately using the blessings we have for others returns more to us than we give away.