Social Justice and “the Poor You Will Always Have With You”
I have received so many comments about the last posting on Glenn Beck’s fear of Christian social justice, that I can’t help but continue the conversation. This past Sunday’s Gospel lesson from John 12:1-8 provides some tension for those that support social justice for social justice’s sake. Jesus says to Judas, who recommends the costly perfume should be sold and the proceeds give to the poor, “the poor you will always have with you”. First it must be said that this quote form Jesus has often been extracted and isolated from the Canon to mean that helping the poor is unnecessary. There is nothing in this text that seems to indicate that Jesus is canceling all of the other things that he said about helping those in need. So here are some thoughts to help bring this text into proper perspective.
- It is easy to forget that Jesus was poor. He chose to be poor. So Mary’s act of anointing Jesus for burial was an act for a poor one.
- Jesus in his quote is alluding to Deuteronomy 15:11, “Since therefore there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open you hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’” Placing Jesus’ quote in its fuller context gives us a hint to what he is saying to Judas. We are commanded to open our hands to the poor. That was not Judas intention.
- As I look around most of the churches in which I am involved, I wonder if Jesus would find it strange that there are not very many of the poor with us. I wonder if we should hear Jesus’ warning to Judas as a warning to us. The fact that the church in America has become socio-economically segregated should trouble us.
- Finally, John here foreshadows the climax of the passion story. We know that Judas had no intention of giving the money to the poor instead he plans on giving the money to himself. It is Judas’ greed that cause him not to always have Jesus with him by his betrayal. It should go without saying that Jesus comment to Judas is a not prohibition of helping the poor but warning to Judas, and maybe to us.
So, it is clear that the passage is not Jesus changing his mind about social justice, but it does challenge supporters of social justice. I find this to be a troubling passage of scripture, because when I read myself into the story I don’t find myself sitting with her—with my own jar of perfume, washing Jesus’ feet, preparing him for the cross. Instead, I find myself agreeing with Judas Iscariot. He gives the much more Methodist/American answer. Stop all of this frivolousness and do the practical thing—let us sell this expensive stuff and give it to the poor. We know that Judas didn’t mean it—he really wanted the money for himself. His suggestion is really to turn this act of worship into an act about himself.
Isn’t that one of the main reasons we go to church? Don’t we feel good when we take up an offering for Haiti—or hear a beautiful piece of music? Sometimes, we leave church with the idea that we can save the world. If we drove less, burned less fossil fuels, go back to the Constitution, ate more tofu, or let the free market work we can save the world. But Christians are people who believe that the last best hope for the world is God. God is the only savior.
Bishop William Willimon has some remarks about what salvation may mean in our modern world.
“The modern world teaches us to narrate our lives without reference to God. It’s all our decision, our actions, our feelings and desires. Celebration of the human potential is the dominant, governmentally sanctioned story but is not the story to which we Christians are accountable. It is the conventional North American story that at every turn, is counter to the gospel. Thus there are few more challenging words to be said by the church than “salvation”.
We can take up our offerings, we can march for justice, we can vote for to make the world a better place….but God is the only answer. We do these things because of what God has done for us. God alone can save. We just sit at his feet and pour our lives out before him. The most challenging word that we can say in our culture is “salvation” It flies in the face of all that we are taught to believe.
The most important thing that we can do as Christians is not to go out a save the world with act of social justice, but to witness in our words and in our actions to a God that has saved/is saving/will save the world through Jesus Christ. Christian’s are committed to social justice for one reason –the extreme act of justice and mercy that God has shown the world in the cross.
Glenn Beck on Christian Social Justice
Responding to Glenn Beck is probably a waste of time. I don’t think that most people take him seriously.[1] His show is like a depressing Daily Show (comedy news), depressing because we are laughing at him and not with him. But this time, I think he points out something helpful. I find myself wanting to agree with him.
This past week he has been attacking the Christian idea of social justice. He said, “I beg you look for the words social justice or economic justice on your church Web site…If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. … Am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!” Later, he compared Christian social justice with fascism and communism.
Christian leaders from all sides of the church have been speaking out against Beck. There is a fuller description by ABC news. I, however, see his point. The radical social justice theme of Christianity is troubling. The Old Testament is filled with troubling ideas like the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25) not to mention the prophets. What would happen if we “let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everlasting stream” (Amos)? It wouldn’t work out very well for me.
I wish this “social justice” theme was limited to the Old Testament, so we could explain it away with dietary laws, but Jesus has to bring it all up again. The Sermon on the Mount (Sermon on the Plain in Luke) is terrifying—blessed are the poor? Not to mention Jesus’ ministry theme in Luke 4. If only Mary could have sang a different song (Luke 1). This year as my church is focusing on the Gospel of Luke (from the lectionary), it has surprised me to find such a focus on the social implications of the gospel. I have written a study guide called The Gospel According to Saint Luke: A Participatory Study, that goes in further detail on how the Jubilee theme is core to Jesus’ message in Luke’s gospel.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Christianity was only about spiritual matters? Loving God would be much easier if we didn’t have to love our neighbors. Unfortunately “social justice” is not peripheral to the gospel it is central. Maybe Beck misspoke, or maybe he said what we’ve all been thinking—following Jesus is hard work—too hard. Reading the story of the rich young ruler (Luke 18), can keep you up at night. One really can’t blame Beck or anyone else for wanting to go a different direction, the real challenge is for those that want to follow him. Unfortunately, this blog posting will eventually find its way to my church website and it contains the words “social justice”. Run as fast as you can.
[1] For non-republican readers, I do not think Beck should be used as a symbol representative of conservatism or the Republican party.
LOST and the Lost Son
This week’s episode of LOST was one of the strongest pictures of redemption ever shown on network television. The key villain of the series, Ben Linus, had killed Jacob, who is the leader of the “good guys” and seems to represent God (probably a Christ figure…I predict a resurrection). The “good guys” then order Linus to dig his own grave and prepare to execute him for his crime. Then John Locke, the evil one, set him free and tempts him to join the dark side with promises of power and prestige. Linus runs for it and is free. The leader of the “good guys” asks him where he is going and he says he is going to join the “bad guys”, because they are the only ones who would take him after all that he has done. The leader then in tears says, “I will take you.” And the most despised character of the five seasons of lost is redeemed and joins the team to save the island.
That is exactly that same story we have in the lectionary this week. It is hard to imagine that God would take us back after all that we have done. Gustavo Gutierrez said that sin is “a breach of friendship between God and others.” We have sinned like the prodigal son and our friendship with God is broken. But the story is not really about the son, it is about a father that takes us back no matter what. That type of radical grace is scandalous. When Jesus was challenged by the Scribes and Pharisees in his acceptance of sinners, he tells them this famous story about how God accepts sinners even the most difficult ones like the Pharisees, the elder brother, and us. God says with tears in his eyes, “I will take you”.
Traditioned Innovation
This is a time of flux for the church. The world is rapidly changing with the rise of Postmodernism and the church feels like it must radically change in order to keep engaged with the world. Many new ideas are being tried, but often the baby is thrown out with the bath water. Seekers churches have realized that some people don’t like church, so they give them a concert. It is effective numerically, but it is not faithful to the gospel. A concert and motivational speech is no substitute for church. There is great danger in innovation, and yet the church must innovate in order to survive and preach the gospel.
John Wesley said in religion “he desired as little innovation as possible”. However, he created a revolutionary and innovative movement that changed the world. I think that what he meant was that all of our innovation should be set at getting back to the basics of our faith laid out for us in scripture. It is clear by the movement he created that he believed that the best way forward was to reach back to the early church and scriptures.
Gregory Jones, former Dean of Duke Divinity School, has coined a term that is helpful to our modern/postmodern dilemma. He has lecture and spoken of Traditioned Innovation as the only way forward for the church. He states:
In the church, as in business, we often put things in opposition. So there are the conservatives who want to preserve the past, and there are the liberals who want to think about change and new opportunities, and often they end up butting heads. Innovation is being stressed these days because of the need, whether it’s for revenue or for new life, but it’s often confused with making things up as you go along. If you just keep making up new things, you often end up with chaos, not creativity. Innovation with out attention to practice and tradition sounds more like a middle school band concert than improvisation.
Traditioned Innovation, much like a great jazz combo, draws on the richness of the past to discover genuine creativity.
Jaroslav Pelikan has a wonderful distinction: he says, “Tradtionalism is the dead faith of the living. Tradition is the living faith of the dead.” I think holding both of those words together, traditioned innovation, enables the greatest sense of new life, whether it is for the Divinity school, for congregations, or whatever institution.[1]
Many contemporary services and emerging forms of Christianity, are chaotic and not creative. The church needs to get back to the basics of the faith—the Creeds, the liturgy, the scriptures. This model of Traditioned Innovation is the only faithful way to reform the church. Reaching back is the only way forward.
As we have set to plan for the newest service at my church, called ICON. We have strived to make no contradiction between being cutting edge and tradition rich. Every week for worship we hope to be becoming more radically contemporary and radically traditional. We area still learning to master the scales, but we have already had some great moments of improve.
[1] Divinity Duke Universty, Winter 2010Volume 9, Number 2, Ed. Elisabeth Stagg
Prayer for Epiphany
I haven’t posted anything during Christmastide, so I thought I would share a great prayer from the Book of Common Prayer(BCP). Because the roots of Methodism are thoroughly Anglican, I find the BCP to be an anchor for my own spirituality. It gives me a connection to the ancient church. When I have run out of good words to pray to God, the BCP comes to my aid expanding my theological vocabulary. It teaches me to pray prayers that are balanced with praise and not just petition. It teaches me to pray the scriptures. The prayer celebrating the Epiphany is a great example.
O GOD, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of earth;
Lead us, who know you know by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
That is my prayer for today. Help me to see.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel—Tomorrow Would Be Great
On the seven nights before Christmas, the church has, since early times, prayed the O Antiphons. These are seven petitions directed to Jesus that express great longing. Each petition begins with a vocative “O”, crying out for God to intervene in our lives. Each petition addresses the Savior with a different title that is appropriate for Advent:
- December 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
- December 18: O Adonai (O Adonai)
- December 19: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
- December 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
- December 21: O Oriens (O Sunrise)
- December 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the nations)
- December 23: O Emmanuel (O Emmanuel)
These antiphons eventually became the well known Advent song, ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel”. They are perfect prayers to prepare for Christmas.
Legend has it, that the monks that developed these songs hid within them a secret code. Starting with last day, the first letter of each antiphon forms an acrostic, (Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia) spelling Ero cras — I will be there tomorrow. That is the true hope of Advent. Even tough we pass through dark times, even the dark is not dark to God. God promises to be with us.
Advent is a time to confess that God often feels absent from our lives. We need a Savoir to come and rescue us. Only when we realize that we need a savior are we prepared for Christmas and the baby born in Bethlehem. During this last evening and day of advent, we wait on God’s promise—I will be there tomorrow.
The Politics of the Christian Calendar: Thoughts on Christ the King Sunday
Christ the King Sunday is probably the most political Sunday of the year (with the possible exceptions of Easter, Epiphany, Christmas, Ascension, and Pentecost). Being the last Sunday of the Church calendar, it concludes the church’s story. The baby born in Bethlehem, the man that died on the cross, the one that rose from the dead is the King of the Universe.
Christ the King Sunday is the newest major feast of the church founded in 1925 to combat the forces of materialistic secularism and the rising tide of communism and capitalism. These forces are still alive today and seek dominion in our lives. Therefore, Christ the King is a great opportunity to talk about what it means to say ‘Jesus is Lord’.
When I was in high school, I responded to lots of altar-calls for Jesus to be my savior. I have always wanted a savior to get me out of the mess that I am in. Asking Jesus to be your ‘savior’ is easy, but asking Jesus to be your ‘lord’ is something completely different. Christians are people who believe that you don’t have to ask Jesus to be the ‘lord of your life’, he already is Lord of Everything. Christian are people who work hard daily to figure out what it means to live in such a kingdom.
I thought this quote from N. T. Wright, the Bishop of Durham and New Testament scholar was helpful for this Sunday:
[Caesar Augustus] proclaimed that he had brought justice and peace to the whole world; and, declaring his adoptive father to be divine, stylized himself as ‘son of God.’ Poets wrote songs about the new era that had begun; historians told the long story of Rome’s rise to greatness, reaching its climax 9obviously with Augustus himself. Augustus, people said was the ‘saviour’ of the world. He was its king, its ‘lord.’ Increasingly, in the eastern part of his empire, people worshipped him, too, as a god.
Meanwhile, far away, on that same eastern frontier, a boy was born who would within a generation he hailed as ‘son of God’; whose followers would speak of him as ‘saviour’ and ‘lord’; whose arrival, they thought, had brought true justice and peace to the world(Tome Wright, Luke for Everyone, S.P.C.K., 2001, p.23).
In does give new meaning to the beginning of the Christmas story in Luke doesn’t it? “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered”– little did he know he would set in motion a world changing birth in Bethlehem. There the King of Kings would be born and the future of Rome would be in great danger.
Geoffrey Lentz Reviews: Megabelt by Nick May
Megabelt is the title of a new book written by Nick May. He says that the title came from a blend of “Mega-church” with “Bible-belt”, but eventually the neologism developed its own identity. The book is a fictional account of a young man growing up in the evangelical subculture of the Deep South (the Bible-belt). Fictional it may be, but it is the story of my life and the lives of many of the people I grew up with.
The book is filled with sarcasm and irony as it critiques old-fashion Southern churches and new Mega-churches, alike. For those familiar with this subculture, the book will be hilarious. It pokes fun at the phenomena of terribly written church signs, tells story from the emotional high of summer camp, and opens up a world where a displaying a church bulletin saves you 10% at restaurants on Sunday.
I had a brief opportunity to interview Nick last Saturday. My first question to Nick was ‘what did your parents say(his parents were my youth directors in middle-school)’. He said that they had been supportive of his effort and had actually been able to step back a laugh a little. There will be some that upon reading this book will be insulted and think that May has gone too far and is hurting the church, but I think most “belters” will find it humorous.
May explained to me that his motivation for writing such a book was not out of some deep pain or hurtful place. All in all, his experience in the ‘mega-belt’ was positive. But through his life experience and his journey through college he has been able to step out of the bubble of the “belt” and see a Christian sub-culture that has shaped his life.
I found the afterword of the book written by Jon Morris helpful. He states:
I finally saw that in the place I had grown up, Christianity was really just another social byproduct, one as natural as sweet tea and backyard barbeques. I realized that, in some ways, the bible-belt had cheapened the teaching of Jesus to just another set of moral values, just another pledge to tradition. Religious devotion and church membership had merely become flaky substitutes for the revolutionary movement Christianity was marked by at its outset.
Referring to St. Paul’s exhortation to not be conformed to the patterns of the work but to be transformed, he goes on to say:
What if this pattern of the world, the very pattern which Christians are called to resist, were a pattern of religion itself? What if the world in question were one in which the majority claimed to be Christian?
In short, Megabelt is not about attacking the church, but trying to find a more faithful way of being the church God has called us to be. It represents one fictional case study from the emerging church. Nick May presents not an end to the evangelical church, but instead its future-a new reformation of faithfulness.
A Saintly Stimulus Package
This past Sunday we celebrated All Saints Day. We called out the names of members who have died this past year, and we also remember all those that have gone before us and made our way possible. I thought of some of my favorites: St. Patrick, St. Brigid, St. Gregory the Great, St. Benedict, St. Thecla, St. Simeon the Stylite, and St. Augustine. There other others that are not usually referred to as saint that came to my mind: St. John Wesley, St. Martin Luther, and St. Alexander Talley (founder of my church).
Thinking about all these people made me think of what kind of saint we need today—in today’s economic climate. This year we have faced the deepest recession since the Great Depression. It has been a difficult time for churches. Many churches have been forced to close. University endowments are depleted. Funds for missions and social outreach are drying up.
Economists are saying that the recession is officially over and we have begun a slow recovery. People like Warren Buffet are putting their money where there mouth is and investing in our economy’s positive future buying up railroads and infrastructure. However, it is little comfort to those that are unemployed or who have had their salaries cut back.
So what kind of saint should we be looking for in this economic downturn? The first that come to my mind are the thrifty saints like St. Francis and St. Clare. They would have a lot of healthy advice for our overheated economy. Professor Stephanie Paulsell, who teaches at Harvard Divinity School, says that what we really need is a saint that is a “big spender”, someone who is not too scared to invest in God’s Kingdom. In an article in the Christian Century, she nominates the little known St. Hedwig as a “saint for hard times”. Hedwig was married to the wealthy Henry I of Silesia at the age of twelve. After giving birth to seven children, she devoted her life to sustaining the church. She urged her husband and powerful leaders to provide land to build churches and schools. She created endowments to sustain their ministries. She founded hospitals and volunteered in them. Paulsell explains why Hedwig is the right saint for the times:
There is no bailout coming for institutions devoted to prayer, learning and service. There is no rescue program for the seminaries where future ministers study, no check in the mail for the churches, shelters and prison chaplaincies that minister to the bodies and souls of those whom society has rendered invisible. Hedwig has a message for us: if we long for communities devoted to prayer and study, communities in which needs are met with compassionate attention, we are going to have to build and sustain those communities ourselves.
Hedwig is the kind of patron saint we need for a time such as this. We need Christians to make investments in God’s future. The government is taking care of major industries, wealthy tycoons like Buffet are ready to invest in the future of railways and internet hubs, but who is willing to invest in the future of the church? Politicians and billionaires, most likely, will not step forward to invest in God’s future. I am afraid that God may be calling you and me. Following in the footsteps of the saints, particularly St. Hedwig, I think we can answer the call.
You’re Invited to Participate in a Blogging/Essay Contest – 21st Century Church
I am exited about a new Blogging/Essay Contest hosted by Energion Publications. The deadline for participation is November 2, and the winners will be announced by November 16. The prizes are:
- First prize – Free copy of The Jesus Paradigm + two other Energion Publications books, with a $25 gift card for Barnes & Noble
- Second prize – Free copy of The Jesus Paradigm + one other Energion Publications book, with a $15 gift card for Barnes & Noble
- Third prize – Free copy of The Jesus Paradigm with a $10 gift card for Barnes & Noble
To enter follow these directions from Energion Publications (http://jesusparadigm.com/?p=203):
Simply write an essay in answer to the question: What should a congregation following Jesus Christ in ministry look like?
If you are a blogger, post the essay on your blog and link back to this post, then also e-mail pubs@energion.com just to make sure. We will add your post to the list of those participating. If you are not a blogger, e-mail your essay in either Word document or Open Document Text (OpenOffice) format to pubs@energion.com and indicate in the e-mail that you are entering the 21st century church contest.
Entries will be judged in the following areas, with each area receiving a score of from one to ten:
- Biblically rooted
- Historically aware
- Complete
- Clear and Concise
- Overall impression, including appearance, discussion generated, and anything one of the judges wants to include
Note that 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 may conflict in the approach of some people. That is why there will be three judges, who come from different theological traditions.
I am honored to be one of the judges, and I am looking forward to reading some great entries on what a faithful congregation looks like.