social justice & the meaning of love to a servant of the loving God

I got an email today from my good friend, Sarah, with a link to a wonderful essay printed in the New York Times by Jonathan Franzen. Her subject line read “This is why social justice should be based on love.” Franzen did not write about social justice specifically but ruminates on significance of love & technology in a consumerist culture. However, his definitions & insights into love were definitely pertinent to the Christian who wants to serve because our greatest calling is to love God & to love one another.

Franzen says –

Love is about bottomless empathy, born out of the heart’s revelation that another person is every bit as real as you are. And this is why love, as I understand it, is always specific. Trying to love all of humanity may be a worthy endeavor, but, in a funny way, it keeps the focus on the self, on the self’s own moral or spiritual well-being. Whereas, to love a specific person, and to identify with his or her struggles and joys as if they were your own, you have to surrender some of your self.

Also relevant is this excerpt from The Wounded Healer by Henri Nouwen –

The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there. Our lives are filled with examples which tell us that leadership asks for understanding and that understanding requires sharing. So long as we define leadership in terms of preventing or establishing precedents, or in terms of being responsible for some kind of abstract “general good,” we have forgotten that no God can save us except a suffering God, and that no man can lead his people except the man who is crushed by its sins. Personal concern means making Mr. Harrison the only one who counts, the one for whom I am willing to forget my many other obligations, my scheduled appointments and long-prepared meetings, not because they are not important but because they lose their urgency in the face of Mr. Harrison’s agony. Personal concern makes it possible to experience that going after the “lost sheep” is really a service to those who were left alone…

All this suggests that when one has the courage to enter where life is experienced as most unique and most private, one touches the soul of the community. The man who has spent many hours trying to understand, feel, and clarify the alienation and confusion of one of his fellow men might well be the best equipped to speak to the needs of the many, because all men are one at the well-spring of pain and joy.

This is what Carl Rogers pointed out when he wrote: “…I have–found that the very feeling which has seemed to me most private, most personal and hence most incomprehensible by others, has turned out to be an expression for which there is a resonance in many other people. It has led me to believe that what is most personal and unique in each one of us is probably the very element which would, if it were shared or expressed, speak most deeply to others. This has helped me to understand artists and poets who have dared to express the unique in themselves.” It indeed seems that the Christian leader is first of all the artist who can bind together many people by his courage in giving expression to his most personal concern.

Which reminds me of the popular saying, “to save a life is to save the world entire” derived from the Talmud: For this reason man was created alone, to teach thee that whosoever destroys a single soul… scripture imputes [guilt] to him as though he had destroyed a complete world; and whosoever preserves a single soul…, scripture ascribes [merit] to him as though he had preserved a complete world. 

I serve a God that suffered & died for all of humanity but He also would have done it for a single one of my friends. In my mind He died for everyone I know but He also died just for Sarah. His infinite nature allows him to love the world yet love my friend so deeply that for an eternity He listened to each thought & prayer she would ever utter in this life with sweet, loving anticipation before making her out of clay in the unknown depths of the earth. He saw her unformed body & counted every hair on her head, and in the core of her being lie compassion, empathy and a capacity to love & these are His fingerprint. I am reminded that this is how much He loves my friend. It is also how much He loves me and that is why she & I love each other. It is from this place we carry out His justice serving the poor, defending the fatherless, caring for the widow & loving those who are foreign to this land.

Love is such a beautiful thing. -EP

wake up, he loves us

Cover of He Loves Us by John Mark McMillan with besties Nells & Kyles! – EP

on osama

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away men’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.

-William J. H. Boetcker

For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. – Ezekiel 18:32

Sometimes I forget this — my God is merciful. -EP

UPDATE, 5/13/2011:

Stephen Prothero, author of American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon, says in a CNN blog entry

“Poll on bin Laden’s death reveals a disposable Jesus“

Only 53% of those surveyed say the United States should follow the golden rule and not use any methods on our enemies that we would not want used on our soldiers. Oddly, support for the golden rule in this case was actually lower (47%) among white evangelicals.

In other words, when Jesus said, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12), he didn’t really mean “everything.” He thought there should be an exception in the case of waterboarding your enemies.

One thing that struck me hard while researching my 2003 “American Jesus” book was how malleable Jesus is in the American imagination. Instead of lording over American life, telling us what to do, he seems to be taking orders from us, carrying our water.

Something about our culture has to change… -EP

the gospel

Sometimes I forget how powerful the gospel is — just how upside down are the mores of society? And, how righteous is the sermon on the mount? I don’t know much about this Matt Chandler fellow but I have not heard the gospel preached like this in a long, long time. -EP

george muller — trusting God

cross-posted from The Faithful

Background Check:
The main religious group in Germany by the late 1700s were the Lutherans. As Lutheranism developed, however, the original cry of Martin Luther “Salvation by Faith Alone” became “salvation by believing in the right doctrine.” Most Lutherans thought that if you believed the right things about God and Jesus, then you were going to go to heaven. Some believers, though, were reading their Bibles and firmly believed that it mattered just as much how one lived in Christ. These were called Pietists, and they focused on the reading of God’s word and in living holy lives before God.

His Story:
George Muller, a young man in the early 1800s, was raised a Lutheran, but became influenced by the Pietists in Germany. Excited to live a life of faith in God, he traveled to England to be a missionary to the Jews there. When he arrived in England, he met some members of the Brethren movement, who believed that Christians should not participate in the affairs of earthly government and in simple living.
Muller decided to live according to Scripture’s radical way. He and his wife gave away all of their property, and refused to accept a pastor’s salary, instead receiving only what was given to them through offerings. One of the main ways a church would receive money in those days is by families “renting” pews—paying a certain amount per year in order to have a seat reserved especially for them. Muller stopped that practice, saying that seats in a church should not be sold to the highest bidder. All of these changes left Muller in a difficult situation. He now had no regular income with which to pay for his food and clothing. He and his wife made due with little, but when they were in great need, they did not go to the wealthy people and ask for funds. Rather, they prayed to God and asked him for what they needed. During that time, they learned that God would provide for all their needs and they could live by depending only on the Lord.
A congregation in Bristol, England asked Muller to take the pulpit there. George began preaching about giving to the poor and needy. Suddenly, there was a terrible outbreak of cholera, a terrible disease, that killed many people in Bristol. Muller believed that God was calling him and his wife to assist the poor during this time. They helped many survive that disease. After this, Muller decided to open an orphanage for children without parents to live in and to learn God’s word in. Again, they prayed to the Lord and let their intentions be known, but they did not ask anyone for money. This was their experiment—would God provide for them, if they only ask for their needs in prayer?
But God came through. Money came in, a building was provided as well as all of the necessary food and clothing. Many times there was not enough food to feed all of the children, but the Mullers and their helpers would pray and—in the last minute before the meal—food or funds would come in to provide for the children’s needs. George wrote a journal of his experiences day by day, to testify to God’s power and provision. By the end of his life, the account books showed that George Muller gave away about 3 million dollars that he had never asked for!

WWJD
Jesus told his disciples to completely trust in God for their provision. They could feel free to completely surrender their whole lives to building God’s kingdom, because God would grant them everything they need. Jesus himself lived this out, depending on others to provide for him and his disciples as he traveled around and taught about God’s kingdom. George followed this principle precisely, and Jesus provided his example just as the economics of the whole world was changing, to show that trust in God never becomes outdated.

A Word From Our Sponsor:
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?… You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ … But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Matthew 6:19-21, 25, 31, 33-34

Helpful Hint: Trusting in God’s Provision
Most people clamor and seek other people to provide for their daily needs—jobs, handouts, security from people. However, the Faithful look only to God for their support, only to Him for their provision. Anthony was in the desert, depending on God for food. George Muller never asked from anyone, but waited on God alone to provide. As we will see, Hudson Taylor sent his missionaries out without their provision to do the task, and they all prayed to God to provide. To be faithful to God is to trust that God would be the Good Father he is and to give all that his children need.

Check It Out:
The Autobiography of George Muller
George Muller of Bristol