'Hole in our Gospel"

Read an interview with Richard Stearns about his book "The Hole In Our Gospel" to hear about his personal journey from indifference to faithful participation in God's work of justice around the world, embodied in his life as head of World Vision. Stearns gave a powerfully motivating keynote at the MObilization to a End Poverty on Monday.

Ways to get in the way of injustice

+ Pray for God's justice to reign among nations, in families and communities, and in the lives of those who face hunger, disease, racism, and thirst as a result of Sin.
+ Call your elected officials.
+ Sign up for advocacy alerts and updates at the ELCA advocacy website.
+ Sponsor a child with World Vision
+ Find out what your church, denomination, or faith community believes and does about hunger, poverty, health care, etc...
+ Find out what other local community non-profits do to end poverty and partner with them as a volunteer.

Mobilized to end poverty

Why do we want to end poverty? It seems like an impossible goal, maybe an unattainable ideal by pie-in-the-sky liberals. We live in a time when the disparity between the rich and the poor is growing. I heard a story on the news today about the swine flu pandemic in Mexico, how sanitation is a problem in many places, because of a lack of clean water. Some parts of Mexico City go two weeks at a time without water service. Is this not unacceptable? We who have access to clean water, bottled water, bath water, swimming pool water, and car wash water are partly responsible for the lack of water in other places. We are because we are indifferent. Indifference is the Sin of the rich. If we were using wealth and means to serve the least among us that would be one thing, but we aren't. If we were Mexican children could wash their hands.
Why do we want to end poverty? Aren't some people poor because the population is unsustainable? Isn't because poverty breeds poverty? Isn't because some people don't want to work for a living? We hear a lot of excuses and interpretations of the problem of poverty, none of which address the problem with viable solutions. In fact, the excuses are ment to avoid viable, sustainable solutions, to avoid guiilt and responsibility. Its more comfortable to be blind to suffering than to see it and have to do something about it. People have the capacity to care, to show compassion. And the capacity to remain indifferent to the cries of the billions of people without enough food, water, clothing, shelter, medicines, and education.
Why do we want to end poverty? Because of Jesus. Jesus reveals that the heart of God's Torah,the heartbeat of the living God, is this concern for the suffering. And this concern transcends cultural and ethnic boundaries. GOD is impartial in his compassion toward the creation. God is interested in setting to rights a broken, wrong-doing, long-suffering world. We want to end poverty because it is cruel, and because our hearts break over the things that break God's heart. 26,000 children die everyday from hunger-related disease. No program or project or organization alone will end poverty. It will take a broad-based movement of activists, servant-leaders, and compassionate humanitarians in government and in communities of faith/goodwill.
Sojourners is a movement of Christians who are called by GOD to eliminate injustice. Jim Wallis and many others have been prophetic voices, speaking the truth to power people for many years. They align themselves with Isaiah, Amos, Joseph, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Mary, Jesus, William Wilberforce, Sojourner Truth, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., and so many other prophets who have faced injustice and said, "It it time to get in the way."
It is time to trouble the waters in a way that only people of faith can, in a way that is oriented to a biblical worldview and to the way of Jesus.
Rep. John Lewis embodies that call to justice because he does what he says. He told us on Sunday that he was going to protest on Monday and be arrested. And he did. He did what he said. He protested at the Sudanese Embassy because their government kicked out many foreign humanitarian aid groups to make a political statement. Rep. Lewis is no stranger to insjutice or to protest. He marched to Selma.
I left there wondering what I have done to get in the way of injustice? What risk have I taken, whose voice have I uplifted, to whom have I given hope? Indifference is inexcusable. The church has been indifferent, caught up in culture wars, politicking for votes on behalf of a narrow agenda--like abortion or creationism. The church has announced a weak and narrow gospel that equates salvation with the after-life and heaven, while avoiding the call to save dying children in Africa or haiti. Salvation that is not holistic, that does not announce that Jesus saves people now and in the hour of death, is an incomplete and therefore useless evrsion of salvation. Either salvation is everything, every hope for deliverance and rescue, or it is nothing. I don't want a GOD who saves me when I die, but does nothing to save us while we live. The GOD I love embodied salvation in the work of Jesus. That salvation announcement includes his teachings, his healings, and his dying and rising. IN the teachings and healings, we see a GOD who is deeply concerned for the suffering, sin-sick, broken world. This GOD is concerned for the poor, for women and children, for people overburdened in labor to an imperial system that creates conditions of slavery and poverty for many, even as it creates wealth and freedom for a few. I want a GOD, a man, Jesus, who is concerned for how we treat the earth and all it inhabitants. I want a GOD who is concerned about how we live as communities, as families, as nations. When Jesus is connected to the Torah and the Prophets, the Jesus you meet is rooted in a tradition that is most concerned about those things. And we couple that concern with an eschatological/apocalyptic worldview to get a Jesus who is also concerned for how it will all turn out in the end for us. A Jesus who is also preparing a liberation from the ultimate power of death. Personal, corporate, and national salvation ought to be interrelated aspects of Christian life.
As for the nation. I learned this week that our nation is in crisis. No one political leader will solve it. Not President Obama or any member of congress. But if people motivated by love influence people motivated by the law to enact laws to protect the most vulnerable, we are on the way together. The government has an important role to play in national salvation, mainly by creating the conditions by which the majority and especially the poorest among us can live sustainable and healthy lives. Together with churches and mosques and synagogues and people of good will we can create a common life that is more just than unjust.
I was convinced this week that things can change, politicians can change, oppressive systems can change. It is possible, if we live locally and speak globally to change the world. It was impressed on me this week that people of faith are called to exercise both an advocacy ministry and a servant ministry. And both of these things are tended and nourished by prayer and Scripture. Like three legs of a stool, we need to have a micro-,macro-, and inner spirit-life. Love for God and love for neighbor are embodied in prayer, in helping/serving, and by speaking/acting on behalf of the poor and unjustly treated. I have been mobilized to end poverty by serving the needs of local people in poverty and by addressing systems of oppression and economic injustice as a leader in this church called to public profession of faith in Jesus.

Tuesday at the hill or how I ended up on CNN

So here's the big story for today. This was advocacy day on the hill. We were going as a Pennsylvania cohort on behalf of the domestic and global poor to ask our two PA senators and Congressman Pitts to make poverty history by committing more U.S. budget dollars to foreign aid, up to $51 billionin 2010, as a sign of our commitment to the UN Millenium development goals. We want to marshall all of our collective influence and resources to eliminate extreme poverty, combat epidemics like HIV/AIDS, provide education and opportunity for women, etc...We also sought to encourage them to provide leadership in the health care reform debate. And we want them to sign on to legislation echoing President Obama's desire to reduce domestic poverty levels by 50% in 10 years. So we go as a group to the hill to meet with Senate staffers. Our first meeting with Senator Casey's staff went very smoothly and we know we have an ally in Senator Casey who tracks with much of the social justice agenda. I wonder how much of his Catholic background informs or shapes his willingness to fight for the lower class and the most vulnerable. The Senator was not present, but we did see him in the building.
Here's the big news: As we approach Senator Specter's office, we run into him. We walk behind him until he takes a phone call from "Joe". He passes through our group as we gather outside his office door. Some time goes by as we wait to meet with him.We are all encouraged by news that he may sit in with us on our meeting. Then we are informed that he will appear to announce his decision to change parties and become a Democrat! The above video occurred in our presence as he emerged to go do the announcement with VP Joe Biden. I assume he was speaking with the Vice President "Joe" in the hall! Apparently President Obama received word at 10:25 am and we received word shortly after noon and just before the rest of the world! Talk about being at the right place at the right time. Party defection has occurred 13 times since 1913. It is rare. In this case it changes some dynamics in the Senate, potentially giving the Democrats fillibuster insurance. Now republicans will not be able to block a vote that will move the senate to take action on legislation. They will have to find creative ways to cross party lines to get things done.
So, we were in the room as Senator Specter made history today. We met with his staff and find a lot of common ground on issues of poverty and health care. Altogether an inspring and empowering day in Washington.
I will post pictures after I get home.
What I find so interesting about this event is the ecumenical character of the church coming together to get in the way of social injustice-both global and domestic. Folks from various traditions understand the complexity of these issues, the biblical call of discipleship which compels us to act justly and with compassion, and the rich integration of personal salvation gospel and liberation/redemption/justice gospel. It is a spiritual movement that is occurring, whereby people of faith across various theological spectrum come together as an artistic depiction, an icon of grace. There were two artists who painted during worship time. Their paintings are beautiful and depict the church's call to boldly declare the reign of GOD revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus without justice is love without a real human embrace. Loving God, loving the neighbor entails micro-service on the grassroots local level, in which we care deeply for the hurts of our neighbors, especially the poor and suffering. And it entails macro-mission, where we embody and broad and sweeping vision for global healing and transformation. If we do not retain the vision of a world without poverty and hunger, we will not maintain the will to serve the kids in Akron elementary school or the folks who come to Peter's porch for food and clothes or the people in prison who want to know they are not abandoned to a system that enslaves young, uneducated, black men. (And whites and Latinos, too).
And we need to believe that with God all things are possible and that this is God's Work and our hands. We are called in the gospel of suffering and grace to give up our lives for the life of others, to give up our wealth so the poor are poor no more, give up our bread so others may receive the bread of life.
I have been nspired and transformed in my Spirit by this experience to know that it is my calling to invite other people of faith to act boldly, to learn selflessly, and to grow spiritually so that we can be the church sent to the darkness and despair with lght and hope. See you tomorrow. PM

do the right thing

The gospel text appointed in the daily readings was Luke 4,when Jesus quotes Isaiah:"The pirit f the Lord is upon me to preach good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, and to proclaim the year of God's jubilee." Jesus claims that his speech embodied in ministry fulfills this divine prophecyof one who is sent and anointed for this work of justice. All day long we heard from people who seek to embody this same mission of justice byt challenging the status quo systems that oppress and reject movements of the Spirit to promote the common good.
Jim Wallis says that we have the will of those in places of influence to drastically reduce poverty and hunger. But Nancy Pelosi says getting anything done politically requires influence from inside Washington and mobilization outside.
Today we heard from Jim Wallis. Budgets are moral documents that seek to embody what we believe. He believes that we currently have an administration that wil do more than give acess to the white house, but will listen in unprecedented ways to the faith community with ressect to the governments partnership in caring for the least among us. We are called to challenge the gov't to step up and protect women and children, minorities and the poor. major reform is needed though and we need the courage to stand in our convictions before our leaders and compel them to listen and change.
Richard Stearns, head of World Vision, told us to take the log out of our own eyes before we shift responsibility and blameto government or anyone else. Self-criticism is important. What am I, are we doing as church, to address the poor and systems that perpetuate a culture of poverty? Stearns believes that this is a major turning point in history; likened to 1776, 1860, 1963, and 1989. just a that year saw the collapse of the berlin wall and the economic ideology of communism, so 2009 sees the collapse of unrestrained capitolism. He gave us a picture of our possibility only after revealing our moral failure as people of GOD. Whyar 30 million kids dying from hunger related disease? Stearns was changed when he met three orphaned boys living in subsistence in Ughanda. I was admittedly moved by his conecton of our shameful neglect of these children with Matthew 25. "I was a stranger and you deported me, in prison and you said I was getting what i deserved; hungry and you bought fast food, thirsty and you drank bottled water; naked and you bought more clothes for yourself." He told us that Americans give 2.5% of income to global causes. 98% of faith-generated income is for local use; buildings and staff. 0.6 cents a day for the world's poor. He left us with a vision of what could be by 2020 if the church ook the gospel seriously enough to live it by giving generously. A full tithe from all of us would contribute 168 billion dollars to the global poor. He shared a vision of a revolution of giving that would change the world economy elevating the vast maority out of extreme poverty and disease.

A break: we had free lunch with the Lutherans and free dinner with the mennonites. nice. ecumenism as real table fellowship extended.
We heard great preaching calling us to live counter culturally as liberators and courageously compassionate advocates.
Tomorrow is capitol hill day. We will meet with staffers in the US senators' offices and in Rep. Pitts office. There is also a prayer vigil on the hill.
President Obama has promised to imlement a strategy to end childhood hunger by 2015.Shouldn't we agree and help him to accomplish this goal?
More tomorrow...pray for us as we go to the hill to speak the truth to power.

day 2 in the morning

We are staying in a bed and breakfast called Adams Inn in a seemingly Latino neighborhood called Woodley park. Tree-lined streets, churches, and Mexican restaurants beautify the landscape here. We walk to the subway. This is a neighborhood devoted also to civic causes. we see youth centers and other intitutions devoted to helping the disabled, helping chilren, helping people in poverty. I wonder how we might be church in this place? What can we exegete from the culture around us here that might help our mission? Might we find time to talk with some local folks? I don't know. But I always hope to meet local residents and listen to them tell their stories.Just don't know if there'll be time.
Our room has three beds and we share a public bathroom, but we are about to go for formal breakfast at 8:00. This place is nice, except for the large cockroach we encountered last night.
This morning Richard Stearns from World Vision is going to talk about the goal of half in ten, reducing domesticc poverty by 50% in 10 years, something that President Obama is committed to.There is legislation on the hill that would theoretically create the culture to do this.
At 10:30 we are slated to hear from President Obama and this afternoon we will undergo some advocacy training for our day on capitol hill tomorrow.
last night's prayer by Clement of rome (C. 96)says:
"Lord, we beseech you to help and defend us. Deliver the oppressed, pity the poor, uplift those who have fallen, be the portion of those in need, return to yor care those who have gone astray, feed the hungry, strengthen the weak, and break the chains of the prisoners. May al people come to know thatou only are God, that Jesus Christ is your child, and that we are your people and the sheep of your pasture. Amen."

Getting in the Way

day one: Mobilization to end Poverty. Already beginning to experience this as more than an event or a conference. This is what it means to join a movement, to take part in a rally, a march, a campaign. This is what rep. John Lewis meant when he said, "Its time for people of faith to get in the way." This mobilization is how people of faith come together to speak with one voice to those who will listen that we will not passively allow injustice to continue. Tonight we met for worship at Shiloh Baptist. We were treated to the best of Baptist liturgy, with powerful testimony delivered by a minister of the Word from NY. He spoke about his Harlem childhood, his imprisonment and walk away from the LORD. He spoke about his return to the LORD in Sing-Sing prison and his completion of the only MDiv program offered to people in prison. When he was released, he stepped into his new life with power and conviction, developing ministries with youth. His testimony showed the power of GOD to raise up a poor black child in Harlem to become a blessing to other children. Difficult to capture the evocative language and emotional strength of this voice. The cadence and character of Black Baptit preaching is hard to describe and requires that one actually experience it first hand to feel its authenticity in the delivery.
We heard the Howard University Andrew Rankin memorial chapel choir. They were amazing, inspiring, and brought movement to the movement. It's hard to characterize or capture the music in a way that does them justice. Soloists sang descant parts. Choir sang harmony on some powerfully moving spirituals and gospel songs. They had the entire congregation clapping and singing on "Let it rise."
We heard Jim Wallis of Sojourners introduce Rep. Lewis by reading a persuasive essay written by his ten-year-old son Luke about his hero-Lewis. Lewis was the son of sharecroppers in Alabama. He participated in freedom rides, bus boycotts, lunch counter sit-ins, the march on Washington, the Selma march over the Edmond Pettis bridge. He is a civil rights legend, who went to congress in 1986 as a rep. from Georgia's 5th district. He sits on the house ways and means committee. he is a trouble maker and a baptist preacher. After a fine introduction by Wallis, himself a prophet and champion of the poor as an advocate speaking the truth to power, Rep. Lewis spoke. He said, "What does it profit a great nation to gain the whole world and lose its soul?" he believes this movement is to enliven the soul of this nation to act with compassion and justice for the least who suffer the most. He is hopeful that we will pass more universal health care. He said, "War is obsolete and must not be used as a tool of foreign policy." He suggested that this movement is related in its heart to the civil rights movement. Dr. King and rep. Lewis believed that racial equality and economic justice are related as sisters. They are inextricably linked. I wonder how this event might relate to post-mobilization ministry at home. What is God calling me to do as a result of this experience and how will it impact local mission and a rethinking of economics on the home front. What story needs to be told to build the will to change habits, hearts, and minds in order to organize to eliminate poverty?
We have a 20 minute walk from Adams Inn to the metro train ad a five minute ride to the convention center. Tomorrow morning President Obama is slated to give a major address on poverty and his intentions with respect to the Millenium development goals and the half in ten pledge to reduce domestic poverty by 50% in 10 years. We will be prepping tomorrow for Tuesday on Capitol Hill with both PA Senators and Congressman Pitts. Tomorrow noon is a Lutheran luncheon. And tomorrow night is Cafe Koinonia with "Blue Like Jazz" author Donald Miller. I'll post more tomorrow night.