Have you ever read a book called Companion to the Poor? It’s about a man’s journey living and preaching in the informal settlements of Manila, Philippines in the 1970-80s. There is one line that continues to resonate with me even years after I read it. I don’t remember the exact wording, but it was an exhortation to recognize the difference between when sin is the cause of poverty and when poverty is the cause of sin.
He gave several examples of what this means, but it’s basically this. There are some people who make bad choices and they end up in poverty because of it. But then there are people who are already living in poverty and chose to sin because they don’t see any other options for their lives.
Living in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the last month has really been an eye opener on this subject for me. There are definitely people who I see making poor choices, spending every last dime at the corner bar. But I also hear the stories about how my friend chose to sell drugs because it was the only way he could make enough money to support his family.
In that second example, poverty was still caused by sin, but not in a personal way. It was caused by systemic sin. His poverty was the result of a system that said kids from his part of town weren’t worthy of a quality and affordable education. His poverty was caused by the societal idea that people from his neighborhood were all criminals and lazy, and if you hired them they would steal from you.
So, sin and poverty are inextricably linked. And while we can and should work towards the transformation of individuals, each one turning away from their personal sin, we must also work at a societal level. Because, when a system is running smoothly, it takes a lot of force to stop it and even more to make it go the other way.
This is sometimes a hard concept for those of us from the USA because our culture is HIGHLY individualistic. Even within the churches where we talk ourselves in circles around the idea of community, we still end up with a highly individualistic understanding of the world. But we cannot let this stop us. We must step outside the boxes our culture has put us in and follow the way of Jesus.
And Jesus, he addressed systemic sin in his culture. Each time that we see him heal someone, remember that he is breaking religious purity laws to do so. He stopped concerning with culture of religious purity so that he might restore one of God’s children to the family of God.
If we, as Americans who have the privilege of access to the internet and the time to write and read blogs (which, lets face it, sets us firmly in the “not poor” category) want to follow in the footsteps of our Jesus, we need to follow in his footsteps in this way. Let’s take a critical look at the systems of our society that tend to keep people poor. Whether it’s the supermarket deserts in inner cities, or the chronically low standards of inner city schools. What about how many churches ask the homeless? people to leave their services because they make the church members feel uncomfortable? Are we uncomfortable because we assume they are criminals? Does their poverty make us uncomfortable with our own wealth?
Instead of participating in the systems that criminalize the poor and homeless, how could we stand in holy defiance against it, like Jesus did and still does today?
Bio
I am a 24 year old graduate student studying Transformational Urban Leadership at Azusa Pacific University while living in a favela of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I enjoy laughing, learning, and leading others to glorify God. I also enjoy coffee, cookie making, and amusing Brazilian friends with my broken Portuguese.
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Simon Ushakov last supper 1685
Today I am focusing on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday, which commemorates Jesus’ last Supper with the disciples and the institution of the Eucharist. Its name of “Maundy” comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning “command.”This stems from Christ’s words in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give unto you. Love one another as I have loved you”. Many of us associate it with foot washing:
a rite performed by Christ upon his disciples to prepare them for the priesthood and the marriage banquet they will offer, and which is rooted in the Old Testament practice of foot-washing in preparation for the marital embrace (II Kings 11:8-11, Canticles 5:3) and in the ritual ablutions performed by the High Priest of the Old Covenant (contrast Leviticus 16:23-24 with John 13:3-5). The priest girds himself with a cloth and washes the feet of 12 men he’s chosen to represent the Apostles for the ceremony. Read more
It is the oldest of the observances peculiar to Holy Week but seems to have attracted the least attention and I must confess creative suggestions were hard to come by.
Foot washing has taken on new significance for me in recent years as I reread two posts that have been contributed to my blog. Some of you might like to revisit these too.
The Dirty Job of Special Needs Parenting by Barbara Dittrich
Living Into the banquet Feast of God
I also love this post Replacing Holy Week – Towards a Public + Local Liturgy by Brandon Rhodes.
Or check out the Maundy Thursday resources at re:Worship and those at Textweek.com
Or plan a celebration based on these excellent suggestions from UCC.
I have adapted other customs of Maundy Thursday here that you may like to consider for your own observances:
- Consider a Passover meal like this Christian Seder celebration and this one detailed by Ann Voskamp
- In Germany, Maundy Thursday is known as “Green Thursday” (Grundonnerstag), and the traditional foods are green vegetables and green salad, especially a spinach salad. Consider planning a vegetarian Last Supper banquet for your celebrations and highlight the environmental issues you are concerned about.
- Visit a local homeless camp or home for the elderly (make sure you get permission first) and do foot washing and pedicures for the inhabitants.
- This is the traditional night for an all night vigil of prayer and meditation. Give yours a new twist by holding an all night reading of Dante’s Inferno as St Philips in the Hills Episcopal Church has done for the last 5 years.
- This is a day to reach out and help someone in a special way: consider looking after a child so that the mother could have a free evening, undertaking some mending or darning, humble, unostentatious things like that.
- Visit 3 or 7 local churches or other places of worship after (or before) your own service.
- In Mark Pierson’s Lenten devotional for 2013, he comments: Jesus, a king who acted like a slave. Perhaps on Maundy Thursday you would like to consider a special way to reach out to those who are still in slavery.
- One symbol of Easter I grew up with that is not so common in the U.S. is hot crossed buns wich some think originated from a 12th-century English monk who placed the sign of the cross on the buns in honor of Good Friday. So if you want to have your hot crossed buns ready for Good Friday make them on Maundy Thursday, together with your family or community. Here is the recipe I use.
For those celebrating with kids I rather liked this Fill Your Seder Plate game.
So consider including this day in your Holy Week celebrations and if you do something creative let me know.
This is part of this series on Resources for Holy Week. Here are all the posts:
What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? by Steve Kimes
John became homeless just a couple months ago. He was an honored veteran, and had worked hard and kept fit all of his life. He moved to Portland, having a little money for hotels and contacts with friends, confident that the job he had lined up would soon set him on a good path. Unfortunately, the job dried up and so did his friends. He found himself outside in the coldest week of the year, when almost all services were shut down. He applied for a couple jobs and then asked some people where he could go for the night, out of the snow and ice. He was told to go to a local church, where he found himself next to addicts and the mentally ill. He has no idea how he came to be in this place.
Soon the shelter was closed, because the weather crept barely above freezing. But although he applied for jobs, no one wanted to hire someone without an address, without a regular shower. He found himself out on in the middle of a park wondering where he would eat without money. That night, the police roused him and told him roughly that he had to move on. The next morning, he called veteran’s services, and he would be able to get help, but not for many months. He went back to the church, dejected and exhausted. They allowed him to sleep on their porch for a few nights, but just as he was getting comfortable he was asked to move on because there were others who needed the space.
Although this story is true, it is a common story among many people today. Strong people who had a clear direction in their lives, who knew how to live and thrive, but were broken by homelessness. Most homeless people, at one point or another, looked at a street person and said to themselves, “That will never happen to me.” But it does. Every day another six and a half thousand people in the United States lose their housing. Perhaps a quarter of those will be broken. That’s how many won’t get off the street for at least a year.
What is it that breaks the homeless?
Walking for miles to get to a meal or to get bus tickets.
Unable to get a shower for weeks.
The shame one feels because one has played the game of adulthood and lost.
The fear of being caught as a criminal for being without a roof.
The hatred of those who see you as harming their neighborhood.
Late night attacks by police with dogs who will steal all of your possessions.
Seeing your friends die due to the stress of life on the street.
Having a police officer tell you that you have to leave the town you grew up in.
Homelessness is the great equalizer. No matter what race, what education level, what cultural background, what social class, what income one identifies with, once a person becomes homeless for a few months, society sees them as just the same: the bottom of society, those who couldn’t work the system for their own benefit. Black, white, Asian, Hispanic, college professor, skilled carpenter, expert mechanic, beloved grandmother, favorite son, once you live on the street or in your car long enough you are seen only as one thing: a loser.
When we experience brokenness like this for long periods of time, our human minds can either crash, or learn to accept this new state as normal. We might travel toward mental illness in which we imagine hope where there is none, or we might fight old fights in our minds, trying to win battles we have long lost. We might drink a little to help us sleep through our anxiety and shame. Then next week we might drink a bit more. We will make new friends in our low estate, also in the same condition, because no one else wants to be reminded of our poverty. They become our new family, those who support us and we support them because, like our original family, we did not choose them, but God chose them for us.
Many learn that God is with them in a way He never was before, because God has his eye on the broken.
Jehovah Jireh provides money on the street or food in the dumpster for the hungry.
The Compassionate provides friendship for the shamed.
The Great Father provides shelter for the cold.
The Merciful provides hospitality for the merciful.
The Comforter provides succor for the mourning.
The Omnipotent provides strength for those whose minds are broken.
God promises a new life for the broken in Jesus, a second chance at restoring life. Perhaps not today, not tomorrow, but soon. For those who are bone-weary, broken to the core, God will renew their strength, He will restore them like the phoenix.
“It’ll be a day like this one when the sky falls down and the hungry and poor and deserted are found.” -Switchfoot
Steve K
Bio
Steve Kimes is pastor of Anawim Christian Community, a church of the homeless and mentally ill in Portland, OR. For more reflections on homelessness and the church, please visit Anawim’s website, www.NowhereToLayHisHead.org Steve is pictured with his daughter, Mercy.
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He Qi Triumphal Entry
Some of you may remember that last year I broke the resource lists for Holy week into four lists – Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Stations of the Cross and Easter Sunday. As the list continues to grow I have done the same thing this year and am adding another list for Holy Week with kids.
Holy week beings with Palm Sunday, this year April 7th. It celebrates Jesus procession into Jerusalem where people threw down palm fronds to celebrate his entry into the holy city. Many churches process around their churches waving palm fronds and crosses as a symbol of this triumphal event.
What we often don’t realize is that this was a very subversive event, symbolizing the in breaking of God’s kingdom with its upside down values and countercultural ways. Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem may have begun with crowds shouting Hosanna but it ends with Good Friday and the apparent triumph of the powers of the Roman Empire and of Satan. It does not end with a gold crown but with a crown of thorns. Jesus triumphal entry ends with his willingness to take into himself all the pain and suffering of our world so that together we can celebrate the beginning of a new procession on Easter Sunday – a procession that leads us into God’s banquet feast and the wonder of God’s eternal world. I talk about that in a previous post I wrote Palm Sunday 2012 – Which Procession Will We Join? which contrasts Jesus entry into Jerusalem with the very different entry of Pilot on the other side of the city
In this post on Palm Sunday I have particularly focused on images of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem which often suggest the subversive nature of the event.
Entering the City – Jan Hynes – Used by permission
There are of course a huge number of resources available for this season.
As usual Textweek.com has a very comprehensive and excellent list of resources from all over the world to help prepare for this celebration.
Anglican Prayer has just updated this list for Palm Sunday
Presbyterian Church USA has an excellent liturgy available here.
Work of the People also always has good video clips available
And some great prayers from Carol Penner
And some great downloadable resources from the Mennonite Church Canada.
And from our friends at re:Worship.
A powerful film clip Scattered Palms from The Work of the People
Dinah Roe Kendall Triumphal Entry
And if you don’t know how to make palm crosses watch this short video on how to make a palm cross for Palm Sunday.
And if you are looking for a traditional hymn for the day All Glory Laud and Honour is a must listen to
Let me end with a prayer that I wrote several years ago for Palm Sunday
Let us enter the city with God today
Let us sing hosanna to our king
To the son of God riding on a donkey
With shepherds and prostitutes,
With the blind and the leper
With the abandoned and oppressed
Let us shout for joy at Christ’s coming
And follow the One who welcomes the sinner and dines with the outcast
Let us touch and see as God draws near
Riding in Triumph towards the Cross
Palm Sunday by Jesus Mafa
This is part of this series on Resources for Holy Week. Here are all the posts:
Resources for Maundy Thursday:
Resources for Celebrating Holy Week With Kids:
Nine years. That’s 3,285 days. It’s hard for me to even begin to imagine what nine years of being separated from my family would look like. My parents live in Australia and they visit here once a year and every few years I go down there to visit them for Christmas. It’s a long flight, but you can watch four movies in a row and then you are there. The small amount of separation that I feel must be nothing compared to a family that hasn’t been allowed to see each other, hug each other, or be in the same country let alone under the same roof for nine years.
Two years ago I met a man named Yemane (pronounced yuh-mahn-nee) who fled Eritrea escaping persecution with his younger brother. They traveled through countries like Sudan and Libya where he met other hostilities. Eventually, after a seven year journey they were able to resettle here in Seattle. A few days after Yemane arrived to the US, we were chatting and he explained that he had a wife and three children who were still back home in Eritrea and things weren’t safe for them there and soon they were going to have to flee to a refugee camp in Ethiopia.
Three weeks ago I got a call from Yemane and he sounded excited. He was talking fast using his newly acquired English (he didn’t speak English when he arrived) and he told me that his family was coming. “They will be here next week,” he said. I was excited and I told him that I would be there with him at the airport when they arrived and we started making preparations. I’ve had the privilege of going to SeaTac airport dozens of times to pick up refugees and help them begin their new lives here. To me baggage claim is holy ground. The times when families are being reunited are always extra special. It’s hard to explain how powerful these moments can be to people who haven’t experienced them. The closest comparison is when military service men and woman reunite with their families after stepping off the plane.
A lot happens in nine years, a lot changes. A son who was only one years old is now ten. A daughter who was eight is now becoming a young woman. A husband who spoke no English now can. But some things don’t change either. A wife still remembers how to make her husband’s favorite meal. A father’s love for his children still remains. A family is still together, and now not just in spirit. They are home together.
Originally posted by World Relief Seattle at http://worldreliefseattle.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/nine-years-divided/
Today’s Lenten prayer comes from Cesar Chavez (1927 – 1993) – Mexican American farm worker, labour leader and civil rights activist. He did much to raise awareness of the need for justice for those at the margins and it seemed very much in keeping with my post this morning about homelessness.
This was a great place to start my personal reflections this morning. Here are a couple of powerful quotes from Cesar Chavez writings that highlight this concern. I suggest that you read through these several times reflecting on your own commitment to justice and acceptance then read the prayer at the end aloud.
“We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community… Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others for their sake and for our own. “
“Social justice… you see… the oppressors always underestimate the oppressed and the oppressed almost always overestimate the oppressor.”
The following prayer comes from the Mosaic Bible whose meditations have really nourished my soul throughout Lent in past years.
Show me the suffering of the most miserable
So I will know my people’s plight
Free me to pray for others;
For you are present in every person
Help me to take responsibility for my own life;
So that I can be free at last.
Give me honesty and patience;
So that I can work with other workers.
Bring forth song and celebration;
So that the Spirit will be alive among us.
Let the Spirit flourish and grow;
So that we will never tire of the struggle.
Let us remember those who have died for justice;
For they have given us life.
Help us love even those who hate us;
So we can change the world.
Amen.
After reading Chavez’s prayer this morning I read Psalm 99 which talks about God in these words:
Mighty King, lover of justice,
You have established fairness.
You have acted with justice
and righteousness throughout Israel
Exalt the Lord our God!
Bow low before his feet, for he is holy! (Psalm 99:4,5)
The question I grapple with as I read this and reflect on how I make a difference in the lives of others is Where do I establish fairness and act with justice in my life today?
This week the Lenten reflections on Godspace will focus on homelessness. I had planned to write a traditional post to start the week by talking about the statistics and the challenges of homelessness in its many forms from refugees to street people. But that just was not resonating in my spirit. As I listened to the rhetoric flying backwards and forwards about World Vision, and read about the growing ground swell for immigrant reform it occurred to me that home is more than a place to live and the challenge of homelessness is more than that of providing a roof over someone’s head.
Home is a place where we feel loved, safe and accepted. The deep longing of all our hearts is to find our way home. Unfortunately there are many homeless exiles in our world because of our rejection. Some we reject because of their sexual orientation. Others we turn away from because of their disabilities, or their ethnicity or their social status. Sometimes we reject people because they don’t adhere to God’s law in the way that we interpret it.
I could not help but think about that in church on Sunday as we read the story in John 9:1-41 of the man born blind whom Jesus healed. This story is amazing, not because of the miracle Jesus performed but because of society’s response. The man is doubted by his friends who begin to wonder if he really was born blind, abandoned by his parents who are afraid of the religious leaders, and thrown out of the synagogue by the Pharisees who were totally closed to anything outside their understanding of the law.
Their response leaves him homeless, without friends and without a religious community to support and guide him. Then Jesus comes back into the picture, and reaches out to the once blind man bursting out beyond the rigid barriers of blame and condemnation with non judgmental acceptance. Jesus offers him a place of belonging, a place in the family of God to call home.
How often I wonder have I been blind to what God is doing in someone’s life because that person’s understanding of God and faith is outside the bounds of what I think is acceptable? How often have I denied them a home in the family of God and stripped them of humanity because of my judgement of their behaviour or their appearance? How easily do I forget that I too was once without a home in the family of God, blind to the truth of Jesus’ all embracing love?
Overcoming this type of homelessness requires a transformation of our attitudes from blame and condemnation to acceptance and love. Jesus finds many people acceptable that we do not. He goes out into the highways and byways and says come to the unacceptable – to male and female, to black and white, to Jew and Greek and I think to straight and gay, to rich and poor, to all that we want to exclude and deny a home to.
We need to remember that it is only by the grace of God that any of us find our way home. Our job is not to condemn but to accept without judging those who are searching for a home. We should focus not on what they have done wrong but how we can support and help those around us on their journey.
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