The verse of the day from the good people at Sojourners:Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.- Philippians 4:4-7
How very good and pleasant it is
when kindred live together in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down upon the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down over the collar of his robes.- Psalm 133:1-2
One of the mysteries and comforts of liturgical worship -- doing certain things on certain days just because that's what the schedule (or the prayer book, or the lectionary, or the e-mail) says -- is that believers often find themselves saying, "How did God know that was what I needed to hear today?" For instance, the daily reading from the good folks at Sojourners, today from the prophet Jeremiah [17:7-8]:Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.
To the true servant of God every place is the right place and every time is the right time.Catherine of Siena
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.
Frederick Douglass, from his speech celebrating West India Emancipation Day (August, 1857)
How can the solidarity we feel – our faith’s call to emulate the Lord’s compassion toward those engulfed in darkness on the labyrinth of life – become concrete in our Ash Wednesday fasting? Consider spending $2 or less on the meager meal you will eat, remembering how much of the world lives on $2 per day or less. Take the time to place a glass of water on the table, remembering millions that suffer disease, poverty and conflict, for they have no glass of water to drink. May the water remind us of our baptism, which calls us to be Christians not just in name, but by the actions we undertake for justice and peace.
Let your daily walk, used to dispel a sedentary lifestyle, become a fast from consumerism. Place in a grocery bag items you would take if you were going to be homeless, and carry them while you walk. Feel the solidarity by remembering those without shelter — what it is like to place all your belongings in one bag — and think about the earthly treasures we reverence.
I now understand the mandate given to me in the scriptures to love and serve the poor. The greatest commandment, to love God and love your neighbor, is as important as the great commission! The two are intertwined. Because this has become so real to me, I want to help others make the connection. That is why I am working to bring a delegation to The Mobilization to End Poverty event in April. The Mobilization will provide the perfect environment to inspire, equip, and send Christians to love God, love others, and work toward justice.
And in response, "Lord_Voldemort":We have trusted in “the invisible hand” to make everything turn out all right, believing that it wasn’t necessary for us to bring virtue to bear on our decisions. But things haven’t turned out all right and the invisible hand has let go of some things, such as “the common good.” The common good hasn’t been very common in our economic decision-making for some time now. And things have spun out of control. Gandhi’s seven deadly social sins seem an accurate diagnosis for some of the causes of this crisis: “politics without principle, wealth without work, commerce without morality, pleasure without conscience, education without character, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice.”
If we learn nothing from this crisis, all the pain and suffering it is causing will be in vain. But we can learn new habits of the heart, perhaps that suffering can even turn out to be redemptive. If we can regain a moral compass and find new metrics by which to evaluate our success, this crisis could become our opportunity to change.
That's just a wee bit of an oversimplification. Actually, we've trusted in a mixed economy of private business overseen by an often burdensome regulatory state, backed by a substantial welfare state. That's especially true in Europe, which hasn't escaped any of the difficulties of this recession, and largely true in the US, although the welfare state aspect is much less substantial here.
I think Jim's reference to Gandhi's "Seven Deadly Social Sins" was quite apt, but I think a strong case can be made that much of what has gone wrong is more a failure of the regulatory and welfare state than of markets. For years governments have been inclined to see the goods that private enterprises actually provide, however imperfectly, as secondary to their value as a source of tax revenue or as tools that they can redirect toward their favored ends. In the process, they have created many of the things that Gandhi rightfully scorns: wealth (redistributed) without work, education (in public schools) without character. Not to mention politics without principle. (See: HR 1, the "Stimulus Bill" Heh heh.)
A free-market advocate will not go for very long without acknowledging that markets are to some extent a deal with the devil; much of what we propose to do is harness self-interest. But the same self interest is present in all persons, in the market or in government. Advocates of activist government seldom acknowledge that self-interest affects government as well. If we have romanticized anything in this age, it is the state. And now, I suspect, we are paying for that mistake.
The practice of economic discipleship has four parts: give thanks, spend justly, spend less and give more. Economic discipleship groups start with participants drawing up and sharing their household budgets. (Yes – people share real numbers with each other about household income and spending.) Members commit to personal lifestyle changes – eating out fewer times each month, walking rather than driving, avoiding impulse buys. Then groups select a recipient for a collective gift – drawn from the participants’ commitments to spend less. Altogether, the Lazarus groups have given away more than $100,000 to fund health care in Haiti, midwives in West Africa, and HIV/AIDS relief in Asia. In Boston, many participants are joining in a campaign to bring more ethically produced fair trade products to Boston – a way of working together to make our theme of “Spend Justly” more feasible.
The verse of the day from the good people at Sojourners:Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.- Revelation 7:12
