Lenten Challenge Day 3

I felt the need to share the entire post from today:

Matthew 14:13-16 - 13: Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. ¹⁵When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ ¹⁶Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ (NRSV)

One of the main ideas that drove this Lenten Devotional Blog was the hope that we could use some of this space to reflect on issues of justice, equality, and poverty.  Let us open ourselves up to the ways in which God may speak to us regarding these issues.

Recently, I had a job interview in which the interviewer asked me what I thought the connection was between the gospel message and the work of social justice.  I had not prepared for such a question as it is not one that common interview guides really talk about.  But the thing that immediately came out of my mouth was the word “dignity”.  The gospel message, at least in one of its interpretations, is that Jesus ministered for the dignity of each person, looking deep into their personhood, acknowledging their status as children of God, and offering love to that very core.  Each person he healed was not a tool for the demonstration of his power, but a human being deserving of his compassion.  He looks upon the crowd of people and is moved to heal and feed them.  The gospel message is that you are somebody…somebody worthy and deserving of God’s grace.

As Urban Village Church starts to engage more and more in social ministry, through serving food, teaching cooking classes, planting gardens, etc., we must be cognizant that this work is not a means to an end.  That each person we try and help along the way is not a tool for some greater cause of justice.  That we must not use people to fulfill our obligations.  The act of loving another human being, the giving of ourselves for others, is an end in itself.

From the journal of Father Oscar Romero:
Nothing is so important to the church as human life,
as the human person,
above all, the person of the poor and the oppressed.
Besides being human beings,
they are also divine beings,
since Jesus said that whatever is done to them
he takes as done to him.
That bloodshed, those deaths,
are beyond all politics.
They touch the very heart of God.
-March 16th, 1980 (The Violence of Love)
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Response: The thought of poverty and inequality has been HEAVY on my mind this semester, thanks to my class "American Schools." The class has primarily focused on problems facing our school systems in the United States, and how race and socio-economic status affects those problems. Having been raised in predominantly white, upper-middle class, suburban neighborhoods my entire life, it's been a foreign concept for me to grasp. Diversity and economic turmoil have not had a great impact on my life, and it's difficult for me to grasp these concepts when I have little-to-no exposure to them. As much as I try to understand, I'll never be able to pull from first-hand experience on the subject matters.

However, the more I work in the Tacoma public schools (especially volunteering at a tutoring program for elementary kids), I'm becoming more exposed to those different than me, especially when it comes to those issues of race and economic divide. Tacoma certainly isn't an inner-city region, but there is much more diversity than my known land of manicured lawns and homeowner association regulated house colors. I'm beginning to learn how different life can be when you're not as privileged as I am fortunate enough to be.

And as I learn to work with these amazing kids, I'm realizing how truly brilliant they are. Every time I work with a kid, they teach me. They blow me away with their ability and their brilliance. Teaching really is a miraculous profession, one that allows you to see people for who they really are, despite stereotypes and preconceived notions. Although you may expect one thing from a student, they can rock your world and change your entire perspective. Even in the few weeks that I've been able to work with these kids, I've learned to reconsider how you approach working with them. 

My experiences are helping me to realize how Jesus looked at the world. He didn't see people for their race, their diseases, their poverty, or any other labels that the rest of society had for them. He saw them as a child of God, and refused to judge them or discriminate against them. His work defied those laws (whether written or not) set in place by the rest of mankind and treated every man, woman, and child as the special creature that they were. He was a Teacher, after all, and he sat side-by-side with those willing to learn. We all could take a lesson from the Teacher. He knew how to treat his neighbor.

-Amy-