The Treasure of the Poor

The poor have a treasure to offer precisely because they cannot return our favours.  By not paying us for what we have done for them, they call us to inner freedom, selflessness, generosity, and true care.   Jesus says:  “When you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; then you will be blessed, for they have no means to repay you and so you will be repaid when the upright rise again”  (Luke 14:13-14).

The repayment Jesus speaks about is spiritual.  It is the joy, peace, and love of God that we so much desire.  This is what the poor give us, not only in the afterlife but already here and now.

- Henri Nouwen

“Communities as well as individuals suffer.  All over the world there are large groups of people who are persecuted, mistreated, abused, and made victims of horrendous crimes.  There are suffering families, suffering circles of friends, suffering religious communities, suffering ethnic groups, and suffering nations.   In these suffering bodies of people we must be able to recognise the suffering Christ.  They too are chosen, blessed, broken and given to the world.   

As we call one another to respond to the cries of these people and work together for justice and peace, we are caring for Christ, who suffered and died for the salvation of our world.”

 
- Henri Nouwen

“Yet in killing the hero and murdering the Word of Life, the Powers necessarily reveal their own corrupt nature and through that revelation, we - as the faithful in these United States - are liberated from America’s idolatry. In Jesus and through his Word, we have seen the truth and the truth has set us free.”

- Philip Wheaton and Duane Shank, Empire & the Word: Prophetic Parallels between the Exilic Experience & Central America’s Crisis

Advent Reading Day 1

Isaiah 64:1-9

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence–
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil–
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
From ages past no one has heard,no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.
You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself we transgressed.
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on your name,
or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
Yet, O LORD, you are our Father;we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD,
and do not remember iniquity forever.
Now consider, we are all your people.

Psalm 80

Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock; *
shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim.
2
In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, *
stir up your strength and come to help us.
3
Restore us, O God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.
4
O LORD God of hosts, *
how long will you be angered
despite the prayers of your people?
5
You have fed them with the bread of tears; *
you have given them bowls of tears to drink.
6
You have made us the derision of our neighbors, *
and our enemies laugh us to scorn.
7
Restore us, O God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.
16
Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, *
the son of man you have made so strong for yourself.
17
And so will we never turn away from you; *
give us life, that we may call upon your Name.
18
Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

(from Scot McKnight)

“The church should provide leadership to the world by our spiritual and moral example of how we live together and serve the world, not by our self-designated superior wisdom on how to fix society by political means. Swearing allegiance to Christ doesn’t mean we know more than others. It just means we are willing to sacrifice more than others. Swearing allegiance to Christ thus doesn’t mean one has more wisdom on domestic or international social issues. It just means one is willing to bleed more to bring God’s love to domestic and international social issues.

This willingness to suffer gives the Church a unique and powerful authority to address issues and transform the world. But it does so only if the Church in fact is willing to sacrifice more than others. If the Church would model the beautiful life as a community and in our Christ-like service to the world, we would win authority to speak into domestic and international issues. But when we focus on how we should speak into domestic and international issues before we ourselves model the beautiful life, we have no more authority than anyone else. Like everyone else, we have only our opinion to offer.”

- Greg Boyd on where Christians get it wrong on participating in the political process.

To read the whole article, go here

“If you ever see bankers giving half of what they own to the poor, and returning fourfold anything they’ve taken by unjust means, then you’ll know that Jesus has …finally… been to Wall Street.”

- Dan Martin

”The basis for the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount is not what works but rather the way God is. Cheek-turning is not advocated as what works (it usually does not), but advocated because this is the way God is — God is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. This is not a stratagem for getting what we want but the only manner of life available, now that, in Jesus, we have seen what God wants. We seek reconciliation with the neighbor, not because we feel so much better afterward, but because reconciliation is what God is doing in the world through Christ.” – Stanley Hauerwas