relationships, not justice vs compassion

cross-posted from Hugh’s Views by Hugh Hollowell

A friend recently sent me a link to this blog post. In it, the author talks about the differance between justice and compassion – as he describes it, compassion is feeding the hungry, while justice is working to end the causes of hunger.

This sort of talk makes me uneasy.

Don’t get me wrong – I am all for working to end systemic problems. If you have the chance to make life better for those on the margins and you do not, I think you are wrong. On two days out of three, I would even call it sinful.

But I suspect the reason so many of us are attracted to high level solutions (ie. “working for justice”) has less to do with our desire to see a just world and more to do with us. We have bought into the myth of our exceptionalism.

We believe that all problems have solutions and, what is more, that those solutions can be discovered by us. In fact, I would go further than that – we believe that those solutions should be discovered and implemented by us. We view ourselves as the world’s problem solvers. We are the virtuous ones. We are the standard. We have nothing to learn. Because we already know the answers.

Most faith based versions of compassion, such as a short term mission trip or an afternoon at the soup kitchen, are no better. They reinforce to us that we are the fortunate ones, that we are the standard and that we deserve to be the way we are. Short term service can, and often does, revolve around our issues of convenience and control.

My work is about moving beyond, to use, the author’s words, either compassion or justice and into relationship.

Relationship is not me centered, but relationship centered. Entering into relationship is messy and time consuming. Entering into relationship is humbling – because in a relationship we have to subliminate some of what we want in order for the relationship to work.

If the church were to focus on entering into relationship with the poor instead of merely having compassion for the poor or instead of working for justice for the poor, then the church could learn from the poor. But first we would have to believe that they have something to teach us.

******

I agree with Hugh. It reminds me of the phrase “the poor will always be with you.” I most often hear it interpreted as a rebuke — Jesus is saying the poor will always be with us because we do not give enough. If we lived by God’s law justice would prevail and there would be no needy. But in context of the story this interpretation (though perhaps with some truth) is off target.

At Bethany, the woman with the alabaster jar anoints Jesus with expensive perfume. The disciples are upset because the perfume costs more than a year’s wages & could have been spent on the poor. Here the disciples’ thinking is straight up utilitarian — more for as many as possible. Jesus on the other hand praises the woman for having done a beautiful thing.

What is it that she did that outweighs our understanding of the ‘greater good’? Well, the obvious is that cost was not on her mind (the perfume cost over a years wages.) But more is revealed in what Jesus said, “the poor will be with you but you will not always have me.” He seems to be asking why the disciples are not thinking of the one immediately before them — the one they love & with whom  they have a close relationship? Jesus is saying nothing is wasted on him. The woman did not feel sorry for giving the God before her the best she could in a righteous, priestly act.

At first this may seem like the words of a selfish god. But earlier in Matthew we see Jesus tell us “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Suddenly, this becomes a lesson on how we ought to love one another. We are not to simply dole out compassion or be the upholders of justice, but give up everything to do so, to lay down our lives for our friends.

We are to give to each other freely and completely. We hold nothing back from those who are in front of us whom we love & know, from those we call friend. We are to give without fear that it could be of better use elsewhere.

Yes, Lord, this is absolutely a beautiful thing. – EP

hear, hear!

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

the rapture – the ultimate blasphemy

JC still loves Harold Camping though, God bless him.

cross-posted from Jottings by Michael Cardin

Many people might think Camping (!) a fool and wonder why I would waste my time writing about this. He is a fool and the millions he spent on his promotion campaign could have been much better spent. He would have made a much better testament to his Lord if he had followed the Gospel dictum to sell all he had (no small fortune) to give it to the poor and embrace a life of poverty and prayer and works of mercy. Instead he traduced the gospels utterly and brought Christianity into complete disrepute. The most depressing thing is that he has played into simple media binaries, in this case Christians vs unbelievers/secularists/atheists/humanists with Camping (!) himself as a key exemplar of what Christianity is all about. And of course Camping (!) is an exemplar of a type of Christianity or I would say a perversion of Christianity that has taken root in the US and, with the US global hegemon, is spreading throughout the world, like a noxious toxic bloom. In my opinion it’s a heresy of the worst order, a vile pernicious heresy that perverts and inverts the central Christian message. Thanks to Camping (!)  unfortunately a large proportion of of the world’s population believe that this pernicious theology is normative, traditional Christianity. It’s not, it’s a 19th century aberration that took root in the United States in the mid-19th century in a time of major transformation and upheaval.

It’s all based on a single word in the Christian scriptures. It’s found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and in the Greek in which it was written, the word is harpagesometha, ‘we shall be taken away’ or ‘we shall be caught up’, derived from the Greek verb harpazo. In the Latin translation the word is rapiemur, from the verb rapio. In the passage, Paul is talking about the very end, the final things of the world, the Second Coming and he says that when it occurs, first the dead will be raised up from their graves and then the living will be caught up from the earth to meet Jesus as he returns at the end of the age, which Paul and the audience for this letter considered imminent. The issue that is being addressed here is not an elaborate end times scenario, that we see in the modern Rapture cult but rather the concerns by some in the Thessalonian community that those who have died will  not participate in the final moment of the Lord’s return, or even, possibly by some, that those who are living who are alive at the Second Coming are in some way better or more fortunate than those who have died.This passage is written to disabuse  these Thessalonian Christians of such concern, or conceit. And the thing is, its context is the last things, the last day, the end of the world as we know it, the transformation and reconciliation of heaven and earth, that has always been key to the Christian proclamation. And throughout Christian history that’s how it’s always been understood and still is for the vast majority of the Christian world.

Read the rest here. -EP

we need more uninspired christians

cross-posted from Real Spirituality

by Mark Parker

I’ve enjoyed over the past few weeks watching in person or via social media as I and my fellow ministers have experienced and celebrated mountaintop experiences. We have come together in person or virtually to be inspired by some of the best communicators in my fellowship.

But this morning the phone rang.

It was a man in Colorado who works with a Mennonite community there. These people bring the “orphaned” children of prisoners into their home and raise the children while the parents are incarcerated. Upon release, the family that cared for the children helps the parents integrate back into society. And they reunite the parents and children.

I’ve never seen anything about that on Twitter. I’ve never heard of a “take a convicts kid into your home” seminar. Not sure they even know the word missional.

The contrast was disturbing: people humbly changing the lives of “problem” children versus . . . well, versus people just like me:

• Tweeting about helping the poor on a $200 iPhone with a $70/month data plan.
• Working at elite schools and churches while calling for social justice.
• Choking up at pictures of white guys surrounded by happy African children he has just helped in his one-and-done mission trip—ignoring the kids he’s never visited living in the slum he drove past as he went from his suburban home to the airport.

Through books and blogs and tweets and conferences, we never have to leave the mountaintop. We are addicted to inspiration, regardless of how insubstantial. We want to have the emotional rush of being called to something greater, but not have to do the hard stuff to actually be part of that greater thing. As much as I like them, I have to admit that sound bites rarely facilitate the reign of God.

Talk is cheap. Tweets are cheaper. And there are plenty of both to anesthetize me to the reality of hurting children whose parents are incarcerated, or who live in nearby slums, or live anywhere and need Good News.

May we never be satisfied with the allure of mere human inspiration. Let us seek God as he works, and become a part of what he is doing.

****

Reminds me of  Oswald Chambers. -EP –

Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor is it sin. The trap we fall into is extravagantly desiring spiritual success; that is, success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live.

a parable of brothers

from Am I a Heretic?

There was once a family of four brothers: Jonathan, Michael, Peter, and Timothy. Every day the brothers would be out working in the vineyard. One day, the father came to Jonathan, the eldest, among the vines and noticed that the he was incorrectly tending the vines for that part of the vineyard. He corrected the eldest brother’s tending and said “If you continue tending the vines incorrectly they will wither and die.” The next day the father left on a journey.

While the father was gone the eldest brother, Jonathan, was placed in charge. He went out to the vines and noted that Michael was incorrectly tending the vines, just as he had before his father corrected him. He corrected Michael and said, “You idiot! Don’t tend the vines that way, otherwise they will die and our father will be severely upset with us!” Jonathan left and though upset, Michael continued on with his work.

The next day Michael went out to the vineyard and found Peter incorrectly tending the vines in the same way he had incorrectly tended them. Michael came up to Peter, struck him on the face and yelled at him, “You stupid lazy fool! How do you not know how to tend vines? If our father knew how you were tending these vines he would kill you! Let me show you how it’s done.” Then Michael showed him how to tend the vines while Peter fought back his tears.

The next day Peter went out to the vineyard and found his youngest brother Timothy tending the vines. Timothy was very young and only helped in a small part of the vineyard but he was incorrectly tending the vines and so Peter took a stone and killed Timothy. At this time the father returned and found Peter with his hands covered in blood tending the vines near his dead brother. The father ran to Peter and asked him what had happened. Peter cowered and said, “See father? I am tending the vines just as you taught Jonathan, who taught Michael who taught me. Please don’t be angry with me for how I tended them before! See I have killed Timothy who was incorrectly tending the vines so that your wrath against us all would be stayed!” The father tore his robes and wept at what his sons had done.

popular evangelicals discuss the afterlife

by matt mewhorter

Hilarity. -EP

9 reasons *not* to live in community (humor)

cross-posted from front porch

1. A recipe for disaster.

Can you imagine coming home from work and someone else had cooked you dinner? There’s so many ways this could go wrong. What if you had already be planning to eat Tuna Helper? What if this new chef created something you’d never tried…like Peruvian food or something his grandmother makes? Or what if she threw in someone you’re skeptical of… can anyone say eggplant? It’s better to stick with the tried and true and leave any new grandmothers out of it.

2. Ice cream makes you fat.

Every once in a while, when you happen to drive by that favorite spot, you treat yourself. Now, you have someone texting you to say that she’s passing by that special place, and would you like her to pick you up something. This can only go from bad to worse…

3. Knives should point up in the dishwasher.

Running a household takes a lot of work. And other people can just slow you down… they might wash dishes differently than you, take out the trash before you would, or mow the lawn horizontally, when diagonal is clearly more visually engaging. Thanks, but no thanks.

4. Why?

When your toddler asks his 60th “Why?” of the day…YOU want to address this. You do not want a close friend fielding these important life discovery moments. You want to answer him… every, single time. And if you your response isn’t quite what your kid was after… there’s another “Why?” close behind and you get the opportunity to try again.

5. Who likes BOGO?

If your housemate shared her crock pot, lawn mower, TV, or even dining room table, you wouldn’t be able to buy one yourself. She might even lend you her clothes, effectively doubling your wardrobe for free. Where’s the fun in that?

6. The efficiency model.

Building true, lasting friendships consumes a lot of time and energy. You could make hundreds of Facebook friends in the same window of time. Definitely more bang for your buck.

7. It’s like dying your hair purple.

When you explain that you bought a house with friends, or that you’re married and have roommates..people have questions and uncomfortable facial expressions. Who wants to have to explain themselves all the time or feel like an outsider? It’s better to fit in.

8. To thine own self be true.

What if you learned something new about yourself? Then you might have to address that weakness. Or maybe it’s a strength you’ll then need to sharpen and grow. Another person who lives with you day in and day out might affirm gifts and talents in you that cause your life to begin to move in a different direction. That all sounds like a lot of unnecessary trouble.

9. Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Intentionally loving others is time consuming and challenging on every level. And what does it really get you anyway? Someone to care for you when you’re sick? Someone to talk to late at night? That’s what Twitter’s for! Someone to love you through the hard times and celebrate the good times? Maybe…

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