Category: Witness

What To Do About the Caravan

Five to seven thousand men, women, and children, in what has been called a “caravan,” are moving slowly from Central America to the Mexican-U.S. border with hope for help and asylum. Their movement has become a political stratagem in the rhetoric of the president of the nation of which I am a citizen. As we move toward midterm elections, the idea of this caravan is used as a hook into fear. In order to enhance the fear effect, our president throws middle-easterners and gang members into the caravan fantasy he is producing. Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times reminds us that “more than 1.4 million foreigners immigrate to the United States each year. If, say, half the caravan reaches the border, and half of those people actually enter the U.S., they would represent less than one-tenth of 1 percent of this year’s immigrants.” It seems there are other much larger problems facing the American people.

In any case, I am interested in looking at this issue as a follower of Jesus. I am able to set aside the geopolitical arguments of various political persuasions because they are not mine. And Donald Trump’s hooks are not hooks for me. What I have to say concerning those who come to the border of my nation is quite simple and straightforward: Love them. Welcome them. Respond concretely to their needs. They are reaching out for help, therefore, help them. Do unto others as you would like others to do unto you. “Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.” (Jesus)

Know that when you respond to their needs, you are responding to Jesus and the One who sent him: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” When did we do this? “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.” (Matthew 25:33-40)

Jesus told his followers to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them. This love of enemies is the love that is from God, who while we were enemies to God, God reconciled us. (Romans 5:10) The kind of love that can love enemies is a love that changes all our relationships. It enables us to see (past our fears) the needs of others and respond. Jesus keeps it simple: Love people. But, of course, simple is not necessarily easy. This love requires action. Often, in the face of fear and hate, it demands our time, energy, and resources. Love is the hard, narrow road that leads to life. Jesus says that it requires us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him in a world that does not understand this love. This kind of love requires that it be poured into our hearts by the Spirit of God. (Romans 5:5)

Do I expect my nation or the nations of the world to operate this way? Not without a great deal of repentance, that is, change. Our relationships within and outside our nation would have to become just. We would have to stop building, maintaining, and selling arms globally. The reality is that all administrations have supported war, including war to simply maintain our hegemony. Recent administrations—whatever the party—have sold arms to Saudi Arabia and supported its war in Yemen, which has brought about massive atrocities, hunger, starvation, and refugees. It is hard to imagine the change of heart and mind that would be necessary to stop killing and to truly embrace needy people at our border and within our nation. But, as Jesus says, what is impossible for human beings is possible for God.

Followers of Jesus are called to be witnesses to God’s love and God’s ways in a world hostile to those ways. I am speaking here of those who follow. There is clearly a difference between going by the name “Christian” and following the one who is being named. We are to be salt, light, and yeast in the world—change agents. I am grateful for the witness of churches offering sanctuary for undocumented persons and for the various immigration and refugee services of churches. And the witness of other peoples of faith and their communities. And people who do not see themselves as people of faith but embrace humanity. If we truly welcome our humanity and that of others, a humanity made in the image of God, we cannot be far from God.

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Witnessing to a Love without Borders

“More Love, More Justice” (Sign at “Families Belong Together” March in Chicago protesting an immigration policy that separates children from families and detains families.)

“Love has no borders” (Protest March in Chicago)

“Love never ends.” (St. Paul)

“Welcome one another with the welcome of Christ.” (St. Paul)

“Humanity Before Law” (Protest March in Chicago)

“The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath.” (Jesus)

Jesus came proclaiming God’s reign, God’s governance. He proclaimed that it was not far away, but near. Jesus called people, therefore, to turn (repent) and enter into God’s reign and become witnesses to God’s governance. Those who follow Jesus would, like him, be a sign that contradicts the world’s ways of operating. They would witness to a form of governance that is radically (at its roots) a critique of the governments of the world.

The witness to God’s reign, as we experience it in the letting go of our lives to God and as its reality increasingly becomes ours, exposes false allegiances and false dependencies and the distance from reality that the world and its various national governments manifest. We who are witnesses to God’s way of governing cannot get caught up in any notions concerning the exceptionalism of our nation. I believe it was Soren Kierkegaard who made the observation that democracy exchanges the tyranny of kings for the tyranny of the people. The tyranny of what Christians confess as the “bondage to sin,” remains. Democracy is a step forward because it puts the responsibility on “we the people,” but the problem of sin and selfishness does not go away simply because “we the people” are deciding how to govern ourselves.

The human condition, in its alienation from God, from the source of its life and reality, establishes ways of governing that move far from the reign of God, which is a reign of love. We establish within our “democracies” all manner of injustice and oppression. We find ways to suppress the votes of those we want to exclude; we construct a racist criminal justice system; we ban people whose religion we fear, but do not understand; we snatch children from their parents at our borders to cause fear to others who may want to cross over; we go to war and kill soldiers and civilians alike in order to maintain our power over others (for our “security”); we sell arms and support wars that destroy whole societies, causing starvation and untold suffering. And then “we the people” sing, “God bless America,” remaining in denial about God’s judgment.

It is into this environment, this world as it exists, that the followers of Jesus are sent to be witnesses, not to our nation’s pride of place or our nation’s security or prosperity or its constitution, but to God’s reign. Jesus says we are to be salt, light, and yeast in the world by witnessing to God’s governance.

So we witness: Under God’s governance there are no borders. “Love has no borders.” There is one human family. All are welcome into God’s reign. Yes, we understand that because of the condition of sin, nations will have borders, but we are not sent to witness to our bondage but to God’s liberation. With God, “love never ends.” As it is with salt, light, and yeast, so our witness is to effect change in our world.

We do not have an ideology that can, if adopted, make everything right and just and borders no longer felt to be necessary. Our call is not to an imagined ideal society mapped out in rational terms. Rather our call, as followers of Jesus, is to witness to the Source of our lives and our liberation and transformation. We are to witness to what is on the heart of our Liberator God as we are coming to know it and live it. There may be some who undergo a conversion at the center of their lives because of our witness. Others may, at the least, be moved to see the plight of others and to ease their disregard for other people’s humanity.

I write these words with the church in mind. The church is losing its way. And “the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God.” (1 Peter) We are called to repent from all idolatry of race and nation and “our religion.” We are called to turn back to the center, to the One in whom we live and have our being, having no other gods before the one true and living God.

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Witness in a Time of Social Breakdown and Hypocrisy

An article in The Nation, Yes, Donald Trump Is Making White People More Hateful:
A new study finds empirical evidence of the “Trump Effect,” by Joshua Holland, concludes with the following words:

“It appears that both are true: Obama’s election activated white voters’ racial grievances and anxieties about being displaced by other groups. But it was Trump’s nasty rhetoric that gave them permission to say what they might have kept quiet out loud – and in some cases, to act on those feelings.”

I am reminded of St. Paul’s words: “The law was our disciplinarian until Christ came.”[Galatians 3:24]

We must not underestimate the power of a nation’s laws and its social norms. Before a person discovers the power of grace, it is often society’s norms that provide the boundaries for behavior. On the other hand, we must also not overestimate the power of laws and social norms. We have seen how lies and propaganda can undermine norms and move nations to authoritarian rule and even genocide. The genocide in Nazi Germany and the genocide in Rwanda are examples. The rhetoric that dehumanizes and appeals to hate paves the way.

Furthermore, laws and norms, in relation to human behavior, always have the weakness of being too general to help us in our everyday situations, in our relationships with partners, coworkers, friends, and enemies. They also prove weak when there is a daily onslaught of lies coming against them. And, of course, there have always been unjust laws.

And yet the law, as weak as it is, does have a disciplinarian effect and, therefore, provides some degree of social order. But that is until grace (the experience of God’s liberating presence) comes into our lives and we experience the Spirit. Paul is quite radical here: “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.”[Galatians 5:18] This is because the Spirit produces what the law cannot: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.”[Galatians 5:22-23]

If we have come to experience grace and to live in some measure from the Source of all life, then we are called to be witnesses to that reality and to speak and act beyond what the law provides. At this time, in these United States of America, when the law is being undermined and social norms are further weakened, we must declare the larger reality: what is on the heart of God as we are coming to know it. We must embody and give witness to the matters Jesus says get neglected: Doing justice, loving mercy and living faithfully. We have to call for justice in specific ways to correspond to specific injustices. We must demonstrate mercy in specific situations where people are being demeaned and judged. And we must do this faithfully, trusting in God, walking humbly with our God.

We must do this in an age of hypocrisy when it is easy to be a Christian without Christ, to name the name, but not live in the reality. Jesus says, “You will know them by their fruits.” I have often read comments by those who identify themselves as “unbelievers” and yet who call “Christians” to account on the basis of what Jesus has said. Many who do not name the name of Christ can see the falsehood of those who name the name but do not live the life.

In a time of breakdown in the so-called “rule of law” and in social norms, our nation is in need of witnesses to that which comes from grace: the call to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.

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Evangelical Support for Trump and Following Jesus

Eighty percent of white evangelicals support Trump. Why? An evangelical faith adviser to Trump says the number one reason is “religious liberty.” The issue of abortion is number two.

Reverend Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, in a PBS News Hour interview, explains:

“Evangelicals experienced or felt that, in the past number of years, the past 10 years, issues of religious liberty, issues of advancing their Judeo-Christian value systems stood…threatened. Sisters of the Poor, Hobby Lobby, Supreme Court cases that to evangelicals infringed their ability to advance the Gospel of Jesus. So, all of a sudden, we have President Donald Trump, and the public policy initiatives as it pertains to faith is much more favorable to the evangelical community indeed.”

Christianity, as a religion, has had a privileged place in American society, from having chaplains for the House of Representatives to special tax breaks for clergy. Above all, Christians, along with other religions, have been legally free to worship and free to share their message with others. They must proclaim their message, however, in the midst of many other competing messages and at times in hostile environments. That is to be expected.

But compare that to the experience of Christians in the second century, when Justin Martyr pleaded with the Roman emperor, that Christians be judged justly, not merely because they went by the name Christian. Justin was addressing a situation where going by the name of Christ brought on persecution and even death. Justin himself was martyred. The issue was life and death. Even so, Christians continued to share the gospel and to serve. They had learned that they could do all things through the One who strengthened them and could proclaim the gospel in all circumstances. (Paul, in one of his imprisonments, writes that everyone guarding him was hearing the gospel.)

So, what is this concern for religious liberty on the part of “evangelicals” today? What more, in the way of liberty, is being expected from a highly secularized or “pagan” society? Apparently, the expectation is for a government that will make advancing our “Judeo-Christian value systems” less threatened, by carving out special laws that make room for our ability to take stands according to our peculiar consciences without any loss or discomfort.

I suspect that Pastor Rodriguez represents the evangelical community with some accuracy when he says that the number one white evangelical reason for voting for Trump is “public policy initiatives” that are “much more favorable to the evangelical community.” I also suspect that there are other underlying and hidden reasons. Trump’s appeal to racist and anti-immigrant attitudes is a significant factor, as it is in the general white populous. But the ostensible admission that “public policy initiatives” favorable to the evangelical community is the number one reason for continued support of Trump is surprising, given that it comes from those who say they are followers of Jesus who said, “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”[Matthew 16:25]

Jesus’ followers, rather than securing their positions, are called to lose their lives in order to serve. From a place of humility, we are empowered to do what Jesus did: Declare God’s reign which manifests itself in compassion for those who are “harassed like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus went to those who carried heavy burdens in order to liberate them, and he spoke against those in power who added to their burdens. Jesus ate with sinners, welcomed the outcast, healed the sick and brought good news to the poor. Jesus’ focus was not on obtaining and holding on to a place of privilege. He “didn’t come to be served but rather to serve and to give his life to liberate many people.”[Mark 10:45]

It would seem that those who go by the name of Christ, who experience God’s governance, would make their number one issue when voting for a leader, the care and uplift of others, especially the “least among us.” It would not be about themselves and gaining or holding on to a privileged position. It would be about the refugee, the hungry, the poor, the oppressed, the imprisoned, the life of the born as well as the unborn. It would seek leaders with some measure of compassion. When Christianity is true to its roots in Christ, it serves others, giving its life for others. It forgets itself and focuses on others, serving them with the good news in word and deed.

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Holy Communion From Below

On Maundy Thursday, our church—St. James Community Church—celebrated the last meal of Jesus with his disciples among the homeless camped in the lower reaches of the city. We went three levels down from the main level of streets of downtown Chicago to what is sometimes called Lower Lower Wacker Drive, a concrete environment, dark, dirty and distant from the lively streets above. It was there that we joined those who had made for themselves beds of blankets, a few with tents, along with various other items of survival. We brought hot meals, personal hygiene kits, and blankets—and the Eucharist.

Our pastor, William Hall, by bringing us to this place, made the connection between the night when Jesus was betrayed and the experience of those who are homeless—many of whom suffer with addictions and/or mental illness, and are forgotten and discarded by the society above. In the night on which Jesus was betrayed, we joined with those who have been betrayed by our society and often by the church.

After his last meal, Jesus went to a place of prayer and brought with him Peter, James, and John and said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.” (Matthew 26:38) Jesus still calls us to come and remain with him and to stay awake with him. So, where do we find Jesus grieving today? Where are we to remain and stay awake?

For us, at St. James, we found a place on Maundy Thursday where Jesus grieves, three levels down, distant from the lives of most of us. Our ministry to those who were homeless was at the same time—and, even more so, a ministry to our community of faith. We experienced the ministry of Jesus in our lives, as we came out of our places of comfort to a place of discomfort where Christ was present.

We offered Holy Communion to those who desired. Some embraced it as something they had long been without. Some joined us for prayer and asked for our prayers: “Pray for my deliverance from this addiction.” We saw hope in that place, the hope that is a response to being loved in some tangible way. There was community and God’s presence.

We do not have a ministry focused on the homeless at St. James. There are such ministries. And there are also justice ministries that work for societal change in relation to the homeless. What we had, on Thursday of Holy Week, was an act of serving that connected us with hurting people on the fringes of our society. We experienced Jesus leading us to deny ourselves (of what we could be doing instead), take up our cross (in the form of entering the suffering of others), and share in a holy communion from below.

Filed under: Faith, Serving, Witness

Witness From Silence

We live in a time where there are mass migrations because of war, economic breakdown, and famine. Globally and in this nation, there has been growing economic inequality. Racism has been virulent and violent. Anti-immigrant sentiment has grown at a time when the needs of refugees have become desperate. Those who Scripture calls “children of light” must give witness in this global darkness. So, what makes that witness possible?

When we feel the darkness gathering around us, do as the prophet, Zephaniah, tells us, “Be silent before the Lord God.” When we experience the breakdown in our society, the incivility, the hate and anger, the hurt, be silent before the Lord God. When we experience these things in ourselves, the hurt and sin, the racism, the stinginess, the indifference to the pain of others and the ignoring of the plight of future generations, be silent before the Lord God.

We often have so very much to say. We carry within us, ways of thinking that are rationales for our hidden prejudices, disoriented desires and values, ways of judging others and ideologies formed from selves constructed from a false center. And we speak and act out of that which is within. So the word to us is: “Be silent before the Lord God.”

Before we can be light in the darkness, we have to be still and listen. We have to listen and be changed by what we hear. We have to attend to what is going on within us.

“Be silent before the Lord GOD!” In silence before God, we get in touch with ourselves. Before God, no longer talking, no longer explaining ourselves, we acknowledge our own brokenness, our own false selves. We acknowledge our need. We desperately need God. Only as we live from our source will we truly do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.

In silence before God, we acknowledge that God can do for us what we have been unable to do for ourselves: Liberate us to have compassion and love for others, other others (those very different from ourselves, including those whose ideologies are repugnant to us). Deliver us from people-pleasing ways, so that we speak the truth in love. Free us from fear, so that we speak truth to those in power.

In this present darkness, we must be silent before the Lord God and awake to what is happening around us, so that we might have something to say. Let God reveal to us ourselves and reveal to us the work and witness God calls and empowers us to do. This orientation to the source of our lives does not exclude gaining an understanding of the context and time in which we live but provides spiritual roots to our knowledge.

In the early hours of the morning, or if we are night people, in the late hours, do as Jesus did, take time to pray. Pray out not only our own needs but listen for the still small voice. Reach out for God’s will. Wait on God to speak. In the quietness, surrender our wills to God’s will. Pray, “Your will be done,” and wait. Be awake to hear from God, to be prompted by the Spirit of God. Let God enlighten the eyes of our hearts and give us discernment. Let the Spirit pour out God’s love into our hearts.

Go walk in the woods or along a lake or among the hills and be open and aware, awake to the ways God speaks through God’s creation, speaks without words, through the beauty and delicateness and power. Let God release us from the troubles of our hearts and free us for the action God has prepared for us. God intends for us to be lights in the darkness.

The children of light live from the Light. As children of the day, bear witness in the present darkness. Silent, open, and listening, we become witnesses to what we receive. From silence and listening, justice and mercy pour forth.

Filed under: Faith, Prayer, Witness

Privileged Or Servant

Recently, I participated in a People’s Lobby gathering in Chicago. This progressive community organization has been focusing on, among other things, ending mass incarceration, renewable energy, fair elections and corporations paying their fair share. There were commitments made, by various office holders, to our agenda. There was a celebration of new people—about three dozen, many young adults, running for office with commitments to social justice.

I have been involved with faith-based community organizing for years: the Calumet Community Religious Conference (responding to the closing of steel mills), Witness for Peace, the Developing Communities Project (with Barack Obama as our organizer), Metropolitan Alliance of Congregations and SOUL (Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation). These organizations were led by clergy and people of faith. They were heavily Christian. Some included Jewish and Muslim leaders. People’s Lobby, however, is not a faith-based organization. It includes, among other elements, a “Faith Liberation Movement” of clergy and people of faith, but the organization itself is broad-based. It is made up of a diversity of ethnic groups, urban and suburban, religious and non-religious (agnostic and atheist), all of which are represented in the leadership. What we have in common is a commitment to social justice.

I like the nature of this organization. Christians do not have a privileged place. We are one group among many others. We are engaged in a common mission of bringing about change in our society oriented to justice. We share from a place of faith—of a particular faith. Others share from other places. We are able to serve the common good along with others. We are able to be what Jesus called us to be, salt, light, and yeast. We can hardly be these without being engaged in our world which includes embracing the gifts and visions of others.

Early on in the program, various groups, perhaps a dozen, were given an opportunity to make some noise indicating their presence among us. By the level of noise, it was clear that there was a sizable group of faith leaders. I was grateful for this witness that linked our faith to social justice, especially given that many, with little experience with Christians, have (through the media) associated Christians with reactionary impulses: anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-others, narrow, mean-spirited, and judgmental. The impression is given that Christians are looking out for themselves and are pressing for a privileged place for Christianity in American society and law.

A pastor, an African American, ended the meeting with a prayer. Before praying, he acknowledged that what he was about to do came from his faith tradition and that there were many others who did not share in this tradition or in any faith tradition. He encouraged others to reach out to God in the way they thought of God, or if they did not believe in God, to simply share in the spirit of the work we were doing together. He did not speak from a place of special privilege but from a place alongside others and as a servant to others. Certainly, this is where Jesus, who was the servant of all, has called us to be.

Filed under: Justice, Witness