"Relieving Poverty" -- Quote from St. John Chrysostom

photo © 2010 Ted | more info (via: Wylio)

Let us relieve the poverty of those that beg of us and let us not be over-exact about it.

St. John Chrysostom (349-407)

British Methodists (And Others) Take A Stand

photo © 2006 Brian | more info (via: Wylio)

Believe it or not, I actually pay attention to what's going on in the British Methodist Church.  That's because there are a couple of blogs, (Richard Hall's Connexions and Paul Martin's Turbulent Cleric) that I enjoy reading.  But it's been interesting as of late because of economic issues.  The British government is tightening its belt. They are cutting a lot of places and there are Christians in Britain who have been watching the cuts very closely, concerned that they were going to hurt the poor in society more than those with financial means.

The following is found on the Methodist Church site in Britain, posted on 11 November 2010 (highlights are mine):

Christian organisations have warned that the Government’s welfare proposals are based on a lack of understanding of the poor. They argue that constructive reforms are at risk of being lost under a wave of punitive measures and cost-cutting.

The Methodist Church, the Church of Scotland, the United Reformed Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Housing Justice and Church Action on Poverty have welcomed plans for a simplified benefits system, but have raised concerns that the proposed reforms are based on inaccurate assumptions about the poor.

“There is a serious danger that people living in poverty will be stigmatised by government announcements that imply they are lazy or work-shy,” said Revd Alison Tomlin, President of the Methodist Conference. “The Government seems to assume that if people are forced into working they will comply and their lives will be made better. The poor we meet are seeking to better their lives in difficult circumstances. They are willing to work, but face difficulties in finding jobs, in meeting caring responsibilities and in living on the wages offered.”

“People who are long-term unemployed are already struggling to find work in a market place where there is increasing pressure on both the public and private sectors,” added Alison Gelder, Director of Housing Justice. “Some need help to develop the skills to find and keep a regular job. What they do not need are punitive measures such as the proposed cut in housing benefit by 10% after a year out of work. Most of all, they should not be forced to do manual labour in return for their benefits for just £1.73 an hour - £4.20 below the current adult minimum wage.”

The group argues that Government welfare policy needs to be based on a realistic assessment of those living in poverty and what they really need to get back into the work force. They are concerned that policy should not be based on a skewed figures and a misunderstanding of the poor.

Revd Graham Sparkes, Head of Faith and Unity for the Baptist Union of Great Britain said: “We meet people on a daily basis who are experiencing long term unemployment. Unemployment, especially in an area where there are few jobs available, damages a person’s self-confidence, health and ability to survive life’s knocks. The Government needs to understand what people in poverty need in order to return to work. It’s not good enough to just tell people to ‘pull their socks up’.”

Niall Cooper, National Coordinator of Church Action on Poverty, said “We ask that the government to talk to people in poverty and base their policies on combating the problems they face daily. Iain Duncan Smith should come to one of our listening events, where people struggling to make ends meet tell their stories. Simplistic solutions such as benefit cuts, telling people to get on a bus to find work, and enforced labour would face a harsh reality check.”

Some of this is getting fleshed out in Common Wealth: Christians for Economic & Social Justice, which has several Methodists as initial signatories.  Their document can be found HERE but I'll highlight a section of it below:

Christians in Britain today are called to take a stand. Faced with the biggest cuts to public spending for over a generation, it is not enough to retreat into the private ghetto of religious consolation.

As Christians, we are convinced that the actions of the current government are an unjustified attack on the poor. The rhetoric of necessary austerity and virtuous belt-tightening conceals a grim reality: the victimisation of people at the margins of society and the corrosion of community. Meanwhile, the false worship of markets continues unchecked and the immorality of the growing gap between rich and poor goes unquestioned.

We call on the churches to resist the cuts and stand in solidarity with those targeted. We urge them to join the forces fighting back against a distorted ideology. Above all, we commit ourselves not to give in to despair, fear and fatalism. Another world is possible, the world announced by Jesus in his teachings, embodied in the love he took to the cross, alive in the Spirit of his risen strength.

This is, I would argue, the church at its best; confronting power with the Word and a call to action.

Scripture for Sunday -- Philippians 4:10-14

photo © 2006 Gisela Giardino | more info (via: Wylio)
 
¹⁰ I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. ¹¹ I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
 ¹⁴ Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.

Am I a Moderate Evangelical? Does it Even Matter?

photo © 2008 Marguerite | more info(via: Wylio)

I have been, over the last several years, in a constant effort to try to define myself for others.  And this is not because I feel a need to be pigeonholed as a liberal or conservative or whatever, but because I think self-definition can be a tool to be in dialogue with others.

And it's a struggle.

For instance, while I do adhere to the traditional United Methodist understanding that "homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching" I've always felt uncomfortable with a lot of the antihomosexual dialogue coming from "the church" and am greatly aware that I have sin in my own life that is "incompatible with Christian teaching" as well.  I've never felt like I could fully stand in judgment against homosexual practice because of my own need of redemption.  Furthermore, I have some libertarian tendencies when it comes to government and, therefore, I take issue with the government enforcing "moral" issues.  Well, this perspective has meant that many would have thought me too "liberal" in the midwestern Bible Belt of Indiana, but perhaps too "conservative" among some of my peers in Alaska.  Furthermore, I really want to be able to listen and talk to those who disagree strongly with me and want to be open to persuasion.  I don't claim I have all of the answers here.
Well, that's just one issue that I like to think I don't really fall into some of the traditional "camps." 

Biblical interpretation is another one.  I believe that all of scripture is "inspired" by God -- the good, the bad, and the ugly--the easy stuff and the hard stuff.  Therefore I want to take seriously all of Jesus' words about reaching out to the poor and the outcast, those outside of the traditional confines of the church.  Now, if one looks at my life, it's right to question whether or not I'm doing much to reach those "outside of the traditional confines of the church" but I hope that in some of my actions, and definitely in my preaching, this comes through.  Well, when you talk about the poor and the outcast it kind of thrusts you into the "liberal camp" in today's world.  I know there are a good many conservative Christian folks doing great work with poverty and world issues.  I celebrate that and I celebrate that they can do so and never bend from their "conservative credentials."  However, it's hard to preach about the poor man, Lazarus, at the rich folks' doors and not be branded liberal...or worse..."socialist."

Yet, amidst all of this self-reflection I don't waver from the assumption that this Gospel message we have, the good news of Christ's life, death, and resurrection, is a message to be shared with this world.  I believe it is a "saving" message although I don't presume to understand all the nuts and bolt of the soteriology involved.  And, I'm not a big fan of the "in your face," "this is the day of your salvation" evangelism of some of my sisters and brothers in the church.  I'm in it for the long haul.  I'm in it for the relationships.  I'm in it grow and learn and live life together, journeying with Jesus.

So what does this make me?  I don't know.

However, I came across Paul Martin's blog from Bideford in the UK.  He's a Methodist minister over there and describes himself this way:

I am theologically a liberal evangelical. I believe that faith influences political judgments so I am a convinced believer that it is imperative to support the poor and the powerless and to seek to promote their interests above all others. If this puts me on the left so be it.

So, am I a "liberal evangelical?" 

Perhaps I'm a "Moderate Evangelical" and it's just that in today's world with conservative Christians talking loudest, moderate seems more left than it has been for a while.

Then again, maybe it doesn't matter and, instead of trying to define myself or worry about being defined by others, I should just focus on what I'm doing--trying to be faithful to the claim Christ has on my life and live that out in community, sharing, as best I can, the message that I have received.

You Poor Thing -- A Little Perspective On an Index Card

This is from the very often profound Indexed.  I am presently getting some perspective in my own life.

How Rich or Blessed or Fortunate Do You Feel?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. NO. -- New Monasticism and Me

Image via Wikipedia

I can't help but wonder if my life would have been different if I had really been exposed to the "New Monasticism" at an earlier age--when I was young and carefree, when I didn't have kids.

It seems like my life, over the past few years, but really in the last 6 months, has been been bombarded by images of these new monastics in the world.  Well, I'm sure I haven't been bombarded, but that's kind of the way it feels.

In seminary, back in the early 90s I had a friend who, with his wife, purposely chose to live in a more dangerous, poorer section of the Durham area than a lot of us other students.  I don't think you'd say it was a slum, but it was clearly living in a rougher part of town.  And, even if I wasn't sure I had the guts (faithfulness) to do that myself, I admired this.  This, I thought, was really taking the call of Jesus seriously.

Then, of course, we had Shane Claiborne come to Girdwood Chapel this summer and I could sit and listen to him for days and never grow tired of it.  Here is someone who, living in community in Philadelphia is really initiating change in the roughest section of that city.  I was taken aback when Shane even offered for me and the whole family to come and live in community with them.

Recently, I've been sitting on a news story by the Religion News Service of an account of persons making a difference in Gresham, Oregon.  There is a "romantic" and "adventurous" feel to this account.  It all seems so simple, yet so very challenging.  The story is by Steven Beaven and includes the following:

In the two years since David Knepprath and Josh Guisinger moved into the rough-and-tumble Barberry Village complex, roughly a dozen young Christian men and women have made Barberry Village their home.

Their goal: Create a sense of community in a chaotic neighborhood overrun with drugs, prostitution and gangs.

Their work mirrors, in some ways, the "new monasticism" movement, in which Christians move into urban or rural areas to work with the poor.

It's not an easy way to live. Some neighbors have been suspicious. Safety is an ongoing concern. And some of these urban missionaries have burned out on a project that can be a 24-hour-a-day burden.

Yet they've been so successful that other complex owners have asked them to replicate their efforts. Congregations have volunteered their services. A woman from Virginia is moving to the Portland area so she can do similar work in another neighborhood.

With guidance from a nonprofit called Compassion Connect, they moved with friends into an apartment, putting two sets of bunk beds in one room and using the other two bedrooms as an office and a closet.

Still, they remained outsiders who could live in almost any neighborhood they chose. They had to strike a delicate balance; they didn't want to come on too strong and alienate their neighbors.

So while they were open about their Christianity, they didn't plunge into conversations about their faith. Nor did they move in acting as if they could solve the social ills at Barberry Village.

"We were very conscious of that," said Knepprath, who has since moved out but remains active in the ministry. "Our perspective from the start was that we're not here with all the solutions, or even thinking we know all the problems."
So they walked door to door, handing out chocolate-chip cookies. A letter explained their purpose and faith. They invited residents to the first community meal.

This fascinates me and I feel a calling to something like this, but I'm just not sure I'm up to it to this extent.  I'm not sure I'm that faithful yet.  In particular, I'm not sure I'm that faithful on behalf of my children.  What would moving into a setting like do for them.  I'm sure it's many positive things.  But when I try to reconcile the lack of neighborhood amenities or the safety of the area or the ability to be with my "usual" friends.

So I say, yes, yes, yes, and finally a no to monastic living.

But, all is not lost here.  I think I'm left with the challenge of trying to interpret this new monastic living with the church structure I'm already in.  I might not be living among the poorest of the poor in our area, but how can the church do that?  How can it give up some of its status and make a home among the poor and forgotten.

Also, on of the things I really like here is the assumption that this all takes some time.  Evangelism, at heart, is about building relationships over time and working, systematically, to alleviate the problems of a neighborhood or community.  Whether that's the family in apartment next to a new monastic order or if it's a community half-way around the world, the church can still reach out in concern and service to those around it.

I don't think I'll ever find myself in a "new monastic" community.  But I can still learn from them and try to be a monastic in my own community...even here up in Alaska.

"Another Day in Pardise" -- Phil Collins

Image by mermay19 via Flickr
As we think about poverty...


Embedding has been disabled, but here's the link

If the World Were a Village of 100 People...

Image via Wikipedia
If we could reduce the world's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, the demographics would look something like this:

• The village would have 60 Asians, 14 Africans, 12 Europeans, 8 Latin Americans, 5 from the USA and Canada, and 1 from the South Pacific
• 51 would be male, 49 would be female
• 82 would be non-white; 18 white
• 67 would be non-Christian; 33 would be Christian
• 80 would live in substandard housing
• 67 would be unable to read
• 50 would be malnourished and 1 dying of starvation
• 33 would be without access to a safe water supply
• 39 would lack access to improved sanitation
• 24 would not have any electricity (And of the 76 that do have electricity, most would only use it for light at night.)
• 7 people would have access to the Internet
• 1 would have a college education
• 1 would have HIV
• 2 would be near birth; 1 near death
• 5 would control 32% of the entire world's wealth; all 5 would be US citizens
• 33 would be receiving --and attempting to live on-- only 3% of the income of "the village"

This is from Family Care Foundation and is also found in START: Becoming A Good Samaritan which we're presently using as a study at Girdwood Chapel.

Discussing Poverty This Week

Thanks to my friend Elischa for the video.

I Want to be a Giant Killer

Image via Wikipedia

Let's see.  Two weeks ago we introduced our "Good Samaritan" theme to the congregation and told them that we're going to be addressing the plight of some of the world's most needy people.  This was not going to be small task.  These were going to be big issues.  A week ago we talked openly and honestly about AIDS and pandemic disease.  We threw out facts and figures with the hopes that persons in the congregation would get a sense of just how many people are dying of diseases that we can actually do something about.  Yesterday we dove head first into issues of justice, highlighting the growing world slave trade, including sex trafficking.  As I look to next week, I'm excited to be looking at poverty.  That's something that hits a little closer to home for our folks and for me as well.  Here is something that we've actually seen in some of its forms...a more familiar enemy.

These are big issues.

These are bad issues.

These are issues that are clearly not what God wants for the world.

However, their size and their scope can make us feel so very small.  In fact, I think the issues are so big that we have this natural flight response that makes us want to run away from them as fast as we can so that we can deal about those issues which are more personal to our own situations.  Give us something smaller.  How about talking about trying to be Godly spouses or our need to read the Bible more frequently?  Tell us some nice stories of Jesus and the coming Kingdom of God.  When's Christmas?  At least these are issues we feel like we can do something about.


But next week I'll be in that pulpit with sermon in hand and I will try with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength to have our congregation get passionate about the poverty issue that face so many of the people in the world and so many people in our own country and, really, so many persons in our own community as well.  And I'm not sure where we'll be at the end of the hour (or hour plus).  Will anyone be moved?  Will anyone have their eyes opened to little things that can be done in our own backyard?  Will lives be changed?  Will a new generation of advocates rise up? 

Or will everyone get a glimpse of the size of the issue at hand and run the other way?

(Sigh.)

One of my favorite prayers is the prayer of a fisherman that I had heard years ago.  It says:

"Dear Lord, the sea is so wide and my boat is so small."

That gets at some of what I feel as these issues are addressed.

From Scripture we also get the account of David and the giant, Goliath.  It's in 1 Samuel 17 and the Wikipedia account of the battle goes like this:

Saul and the Israelites are facing the Philistines at the Valley of Elah. Twice a day for forty days, Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, comes out between the lines and challenges the Israelites to send out a champion of their own to decide the outcome in single combat. However, Saul and all the other Israelites are afraid of him. By chance, David is present, having brought food for his elder brothers. Told that Saul has promised to reward any man who defeats Goliath, David accepts the challenge. Saul reluctantly agrees and offers his armor, which David declines, taking only his sling and five stones chosen in a brook.

David and Goliath confront each other, Goliath with his armor and shield, David with his staff and sling. “The Philistine cursed David by his gods,” but David replies: “This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down, and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that God saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is God’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

David hurls his sling with all his might, and hits Goliath in the center of his forehead. The Philistine falls on his face to the ground, David takes Goliath’s sword and cuts off his head. The Philistines flee and are pursued by the Israelites “as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron.” 

We're facing some giants on these Sundays. These are big beasts.  Our ammunition seems so puny in comparison.  I mean, how are we to do battle against AIDS, and injustice, and slavery, and hunger, and poverty, and all the damage that's been done to our earth?  How are we to deal with these big issues that have a way of making us feel, rightfully, so small and insignificant?  What could we possibly bring to the fight?  Here we are, waging battle, and we have a sermon and a video and a Sunday School class, and a take-home devotional.  Can anyone take us seriously in this fight?

We need to remember as we do all of this that David didn't have much either.  He was just a kid who was pretty good with a sling shot and had the faith of God that he'd be victorious.  He just found a few good stones right as he goes off to the fight.

Says David right before the battle:  "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied."  (1 Samuel 17)

And we know of that turned out...for both David and that menacing giant that he faced.

So, next week, once again we'll gather and we'll hand our our little stones...small changes in life, ways to get involved, bits of information to spread the news about the issues at hand so that we can better know our enemy.  Together we'll fling these with all the faith and strength we can muster...praying that we hit our enemy right where it hurts...and that we win through the grace of our God.

And, when all is said in done, perhaps we will be giant killers and the world will see the glory of our Lord. 

It's something I pray for.

A Stewardship Prayer

Image by Hamed Saber via Flickr
Almighty God, we do not deserve the Promised Land; we deserve endless exile. We say that money does not buy happiness but then live as if money is the chief source of happiness. We are quick to be haughty, thinking ourselves better than others. The poor starve while we supersize our snacks. We place some money in a plate or jar and tell ourselves we've done our part to fight poverty. We are inconsistent stewards when it comes to what you have entrusted to us.

By the blood of Jesus the Steward-Master, forgive us. Please. Yes.

Amen.




This is a prayer by David von Schlichten and found over at Allan Bevere's blog.

"This Too Shall Be Made Right" -- Derek Webb (opening for Stanley Hauerwas!)

Stunning/haunting lyrics below from the Derek Webb Website.

people love you the most for the things you hate
and hate you for loving the things that you cannot keep straight
people judge you on a curve
and tell you you’re getting what you deserve
this too shall be made right

children cannot learn when children cannot eat
stack them like lumber when children cannot sleep
children dream of wishing wells
whose waters quench all the fires of Hell
this too shall be made right

the earth and the sky and the sea are all holding their breath
wars and abuses have nature groaning with death
we say we’re just trying to stay alive
but it looks so much more like a way to die
this too shall be made right

there’s a time for peace and there is a time for war
a time to forgive and a time to settle the score
a time for babies to lose their lives
a time for hunger and genocide
this too shall be made right

I don’t know the suffering of people outside my front door
I join the oppressors of those who i choose to ignore
I’m trading comfort for human life
and that’s not just murder it’s suicide
this too shall be made right

America and the Third World -- Quote from Andrew Peterson

Image via Wikipedia

Andrew Peterson is a Christian musician.  He wrote a post about money over at Rabbit Room, reflecting, in part, on his experience in going to Bolivia with Compassion International.  This is just a small section of it.  I've highlighted what I think is a very cool part of it.

What I envied about the Bolivians wasn’t poverty. It was simplicity. They didn’t choose it. It’s a necessary result of living in poverty, the silver lining on a dark cloud. That’s why people come back from Africa with that infectious gladness–not, of course, because of the terrible smell or the sickness or the injustice–it’s the simplicity. It’s a life uncluttered by television and power bills and traffic jams–a life enriched by the intense joy of interacting with other souls at a profoundly deep level, which is what we were meant for. What we miss when we come back from mission trips and church camps and spiritual retreats is life at its simplest.

American culture is one extreme (a land of plenty at the cost of simplicity) and the Third World is the other (poverty with the gift of simplicity). Each has its blessings and its curses. This point of this isn’t to get to the bottom of which of these extremes is better, but to propose a better way. A Christ-centered life of intimate fellowship unharried by either sickness and starvation or the chaos of a capitalistic rat race might be a good picture of the order of the day in the New Jerusalem. We don’t want to thrust electronics and trinkets and McDonald’s fries on Elba’s family any more than they’d want to thrust their dirt floors and malnutrition on us. What I wish for Elba is clean streets and sturdy houses, good food and warm clothes: hope. What I wish for us is walks in the woods, good friends, a tight community with a loving church at its heart: peace.

Embracing Poverty -- Henri Nouwen

Image by mikmikko via Flickr

How can we embrace poverty as way to God when everyone around us wants to become rich? We have to ask ourselves: "What is my poverty?" Is it lack of money, lack of emotional stability, lack of a loving partner, lack of security, lack of safety, lack of self-confidence? Each human being has a place of poverty. That's the place where God wants to dwell! Blessing is hidden in our poverty. - H. Nouwen

Got this from the Facebook Page of my friend Pastor Jenny (actual real-life friend and not just a good blog I read). 


What I want to follow it with is this....


Poverty is not just a metaphor.  It is not just symbolic.  Yes we can be poor in spirit and poor in security.  That's true.


But, I think the heart of the Gospel gets at the fact that some persons in our world are just economically, real world, not symbolically, actually POOR.

Colonialism

Found this picture over at Believing In the City.  It's a blog by Chris Shannahan, who, interestingly was a Methodist pastor for 15 years but is now, get this, Research Fellow in Urban Theology at the University of Birmingham.  I think that's cool.  He says he's exploring what it means to believe in a liberative God in the city in the 21st Century.

This poster, a protest concerning Shell Oil making huge profits while the people of the Niger Delta live in poverty, bothers me.  It bothers me, not just because there are people who have polluted water and polluted soil and polluted homes.  It bothers me because I am part of the problem...me and my Chevy Suburban and Honda Pilot.

Sure, I want all the world's people to be free of poverty.  But I also want my gas as cheap as possible.

So, "Fill 'er up!" with a healthy dose of guilt today.

What We Can Learn About Money from the Third World?

Image by Stathis Stavrianos (Stathis_1980) via Flickr

Craig Ford wrote an article for Wise Bread, a blog subtitled "Living Large on a Small Budget."  Craig writes about personal finance for Money Help for Christians and Help Me Travel Cheap.  The article that caught my attention is "5 Money Lessons From the Third World" which was gleaned from the time since his family has moved to Papua New Guinea.  He claims that the time there has been ripe with money lessons learned from those who have a whole lot less than he did. 

Here he came from an environment where we amuse ourselves with gadgets galore and can't leave the house without iPods in ears and recreational equipment in the car to an environment where things from nature and the very simple things around homes become toys and entertainment.

Here he came from an environment that has throw-away appliances and clothes and...well...everything to one where they fix things.  He recounts the joy of being creative with a headlight repair in the US when he wasn't able to buy one in town and his creativity saved him some bucks.

Here are his 5 lessons learned from the Third World:

1)  TRY TO FIX IT BEFORE YOU BUY A NEW ONE -- You might be surprised what you can fix if you put a little time an elbow grease into it.

2)  BE CREATIVE AND USE WHAT YOU HAVE -- People in the Third World are resourceful and get multiple uses from the things they have.  They don't just throw it away.

3)  FOCUS ON FUNCTIONALITY -- We're too concerned with what looks good.   (I think this is a lesson I've learned from my father.  But I've also learned I have limitations on how bad I want things to look...even if they are still functional).

4)  FUN IS NOT A BYPRODUCT OF MONEY -- You can have a lot of fun for cheap and for free.  What are they where you are?

5)  DON'T BUY IT IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE CASH -- Third World folks don't have credit.  It's not an option for most of them.  What might it look like if you moved to a cash-based system in your household?

So...as a Christian...what can I learn here?  There's really not much more in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University or a basic budgeting course.  But our culture is such that we have difficulty with these.  But, perhaps if we paid attention to the living habits of our Third World brothers and sisters we'd learn a thing or two...or five.

Stanley Hauerwas, Greed, And Me

Image by TW Collins via Flickr

Anyone who has been reading any of this stuff knows that, with Shane Claiborne, and thinking missionionally, and talks of immigration and politics, a lot of my own personal conviction has centered on how we are called to be faithful with our finances.  We live in a world that tells us that we can't have enough and I'm still very moved by Compassion International's comment that the opposite of poor is not rich but enough.

I can't say I've come up with a lot of answers or what this all means for my life, but I'm asking the questions.  I was very happy to find the following comments from Stanley Hauerwas, Christian ethicist, over on Richard Hall's blog, Connexions.  The comments are from Hauerwas' article, "Can Greed Be Good?" at the ABC Religion and Ethics Site -- a site I'll have to look around a bit more.

Greed presumes and perpetuates a world of scarcity and want - a world in which there is never “enough.” But a world shaped by scarcity is a world that cannot trust that God has given all that we need.

Greed, in other words, prohibits faith. But the inverse is also true. For it is in the Christian celebration of the Eucharist that we have the prismatic act that makes possible our recognition that God has given us everything we need.

The Eucharist not only is the proclamation of abundance, but it is the enactment of abundance. In the Eucharist we discover that we cannot use Christ up. In the Eucharist we discover that the more the body and blood of Christ is shared, the more there is to be shared.

The Eucharist, therefore, is the way the Christian Church learns to understand why generosity rather than greed can and must shape our economic relations.

As I've talked of the Eucharist, I have always said that it has bearings on economic justice...and how it is that we can share, intimately, in the body and blood of Jesus and then not share when it comes to things as "trivial" as money and goods.   I like Hauerwas' notion that "Greed...prohibits faith."  If one believes that we operate from a position of "scarcity" can one ever really believe that we have a God that gives us all that we need?

My problem with all of this is that I see myself operating from a perspective of "scarcity" in my own life...with my money, my goods, my belongings.  Then how can I fully trust in our God to provide for me.

Poverty and the World Cup -- The New York Times Asks the Questions

Image via Wikipedia

Interesting read from the New York Times about poverty and what affect The World Cup had on it in South Africa -- if at all.

But now that the monthlong circus has left town, the hard questions that were raised by community activists before the World Cup are back: Who won? Who lost?

The event has generally been hailed as a great success, with talk now turning to a South African Olympics as a possibility. New stadiums were constructed along with new roads leading to the stadiums, construction that helped create thousands of jobs. But is South Africa — and a majority of South Africans — better off than before the World Cup came to town?

The Article is by William Rhoden and can be found HERE.

Homelessness. Poverty. The ideas keep coming.

Funny how so much of my online thinking has revolved around these social issues as of late.  While I'll say that it's God who is leading my thoughts in these directions, there is something that's going on that's shaping what's going on in my head and heart.  A lot of it is cerebral.  I wonder how it's going to be manifested "on the ground."



The latest comes to me by way of United Methodist Communications, in a post called "5 Ideas for Holistic Ministry With the Homeless."  I particularly like #5 "GAP ministry" -- (Getting at a Problem).  It makes me look at our own food pantry and how it can be a band-aid without actually fixing the problem.  



Again, this is from United Methodist Communications.  They have some good stuff there. 

SUMMARY: You’ve probably heard the adage “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”
Food pantries and clothing closets offer a quick fix and a simple, temporary solution to some of the problems homeless people face. However, the problem of homelessness is usually deeper than a meal or a change of clothes. What if your church could empower homeless people to regain a sense of identity, purpose and worth? 

Below are five ideas to get your church thinking about a holistic ministry approach with the homeless.

1. Provide a place of grace. Shelters are available in the evenings, but clients must leave early in the morning. In many states, police can arrest homeless people for loitering in parks or around buildings. Where are the homeless supposed to go during the day? Set up a room where people can gather for a couple of hours each day. Have a phone available for local calls. Gather volunteers to serve as hosts and friends to visitors. They might also assist in connecting people with agencies and medical care.

2. Encourage good hygiene. Solicit donations of sample-size toiletry items and make hygiene kits. Inside a zip-close bag, place a washcloth, a comb, deodorant, a bar of soap, shampoo, a toothbrush and toothpaste. Some churches may offer shower facilities as well as restrooms. Set specific days and times in which the bags and the facilities are available.

3. Develop a job-training program. Persons released from an inpatient 12-step program or from prison often lack the skills or developed work ethic to be employable. Seek ways in which your church could employ someone while teaching them a marketable skill or trade. Job possibilities might include custodial work, grounds keeping, vehicle maintenance, painting or working in the church kitchen.

4. Offer a place for learning. Some homeless people still have a steady stream of income but no money-management skills. Offer one-on-one money-management and banking classes. Establish a place where people can receive help with job applications and learn interviewing skills. Consider cooperating with an alcohol- and/or drug-rehabilitation center to sponsor people who wish to receive treatment but cannot afford it. Teach people to read and write.

5. Develop a GAP (Getting At the Problem) ministry. Get to the problem that is the source of the other problems. Maybe people cannot work because they don’t have childcare. Provide childcare for the family. Is transportation an obstacle? Work with your local bus company to purchase low-cost bus tickets for people to get back and forth from work. People may be intermittently homeless because they don’t know how to manage their money. Be the teacher who helps someone learn budgeting and priority spending. People who struggle with mental illness may need someone to help contact physicians, schedule appointments and get the medication they need. How can your church fill in the GAP?

What else can your church do? Look around, listen carefully and talk to those who are homeless. See where the needs of the community and the gifts of your church intersect!