As the semester finishes, I am reflecting on hunger and poverty in the context of human rights as well as from a perspective of how to lead congregations in our response. Returning to the lessons of Scripture reinforces my understanding of how God calls us to respond and reminds me how our response is grounded in our identity as the Body of Christ.
Isaiah 58 and Matthew 25:31-46 are two principal texts that teach us how God calls us to respond to our neighbor.
Isaiah 58:6-7 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Matthew 25:40 And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'
The gospel accounts of the ministry of Jesus each emphasize different aspects of what our lives in Christ look like. The Gospel of Matthew presents Jesus as Messiah, both for the Jews and all nations, offering an invitation to everyone to join in the blessings of the Kingdom.[i] There is no one and no place that is excluded from God. In the Gospel of Mark we are “called to be part of the unfinished, ongoing story of Christ’s mission on earth.” [ii] Mark describes our role as disciples open to joining in the boundary-breaking work of Jesus Christ. [iii] Luke gives particular attention to the marginalized in society. In this Gospel, it is clear that “all who experience misery are, in some very real sense, poor.” [iv] The theme of Jubilee, or “the re-creation of a just society” is a central one for Luke.[v] In the Old Testament tradition of Jubilee, debts were forgiven and slaves were set free. But it was good news for all involved because it freed the debt-holders as well to prepare for the kingdom of God. And finally, in the Fourth Gospel, John emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit, “[making] our witness for Christ and the kingdom of justice and peace on earth bold enough to confront and rattle the powers that be.”[vi]
Philippians 2:1-7 and 1 Corinthians 12 remind us of our identity and unity in Christ while James 2:15-17 and Micah 6:8 share a vision for what our service looks like. Direct service is a way that many of us participate already, whether it is in donating to area food banks, cooking soup kitchen meals or volunteering at emergency shelters. The Micah text particularly convicts us that we enter into service with a humble spirit and endeavor to complete these tasks with the same deep love that we might have for our own mother, father, spouse or child. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, we are encouraged to stand with others and not alone. We can raise our voices and be heard on behalf of the world’s hungry and poor and we can find strength in numbers. Finally, Ephesians 6:10-20 identifies our calling to struggle against “powers and principalities.” “By [our] peaceful existence in the world, the church community stands as a challenge to the power of evil.” [vii] We are called to be Christ’s Body in the world every day.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
No Rising Tide?
In No Rising Tide Joerg Rieger challenges the relevance of President John F. Kennedy’s well-known
statement that “A rising tide lifts all boats.” (1) As the Occupy movements have brought to the
headlines in recent months, “the gaps between the very wealthy and the rest of
the population keep increasing” and “life-and-death struggles are no longer
just a matter for the poorest of the poor.” (3) Even New York Times columnist Thomas
Friedman, who Rieger identifies as “a long-time supporter of globalization who
[has] great faith in the free market” has said, “We are going to have to learn
to live with a lot more uncertainty for a lot longer than our generation has
ever experiences.” (2)
Rieger challenges us to evaluate our assumptions about the
economy and free markets. Observing that
often we believe “the authority of economics is unquestionable and often even
infallible, and in the assumption that the current system is the only one that
is viable” he suggests that there are parallels between economics and
religion. He cites theologian and Union Theological
Seminary professor Paul Knitter
as one who has gone as far as to say that the market is a religion and therefore,
should be in conversation with other religions. (6)
What would that discourse look like? What would the questions
be? Rieger suggests several: “On which authorities, powers, and energies do we
rely? [Are they the right ones?] What is it that gives us ultimate hope, shapes
our desires, and provides reasonable levels of stability?” (4)
These questions
matter because in this disparate world where we live “power and influence
determine who gets to shape the world, who gets recognized, and whose ideas
count.”(3) One example of an explicit theology
of economics is pronounced by Michael Novak, an American
Enterprise Institute scholar to whom Rieger attributes the idea that “the
status quo should not be challenged since this is the way God intends things to
be.”(6) Arguing that often the
relationship between economics and theology is more implicit than explicit, Rieger
suggests “the principles of mainline economics are mostly taken for granted by
religious communities, presupposed as part of the way things are, and virtually
never discussed in critical fashion.” (10) Because the principles are embedded,
“Hope, even in the midst of the most severe economic crisis, is thus built on
the faith that things will eventually get between and that the reign of
free-market economics will be reaffirmed.” (7)
Why don’t we talk more about “the alternative approaches to
the world of economics”? (11) How can we awaken critical self-reflection of our
economic positions, and initiate a movement away from market fundamentalism
which promotes adherence without “consideration of changes in context or the real
needs and concerns of people?” (14-15) At this point, I am not advocating one
position over another; instead what I want to do is to echo Rieger that we have
a responsibility to understand more about the world in which we live and the
assumptions that are built into the systems and institutions that we live
within.
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