Category: Witness

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