November 7, 2009

  • God’s love for the marginalized

    I had a conversation this week about church growth and what needs to be done to attract young people to the church as they are our future.  I was asked where MCC was having the most success attracting youth.  I responded we are seeing the greatest involvement by people under thirty years old in Eastern Europe, Haiti, The Dominican Republic, South America, and Africa.  The primary reason for this youth involvement is because we are seen as the church who speaks out against hatred toward same gender loving and sexually fluid people.  We are seen as the church that is willing to speak truth to power and particularly to the power of the church.  MCC stands in direct opposition to the political and religious authorities.  It has been true throughout history that the church has been its most powerful and effective in times of persecution.  One of the most effective ways to diminish the impact of the church is not to ban it, but to co-opt the church into sharing power with political authorities.

     

    It is clear to me God never intended for the people of God to find their strength in political, commercial, or social organizations.  God grants the Israelites a monarch only because they want one to be like the nations around them.  God warns them a monarch will demand much from them and they will lose many of the freedoms they enjoy as a people ruled by God.  Governments almost always create classes of people, citizens and non-citizens, aristocrats and servants, leaders and followers, those in power and those out of power.  Some have said one of the worst things to happen to Christianity was when Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.  People were required to call themselves Christian if they wanted influential posts in the government.  Conquered people were forced to convert to Christianity.  Christian leaders became political leaders and the church functioned like a political organization.  People were forced to support the church, the leaders of the church controlled information and members of the church were forced to obey church orders or sacrifice their freedom and often times their lives.  Instead of bringing God’s word of liberation to the people on the margins of society, the church became one of the persecutors of the marginalized.

     

    This is in direct opposition to the way God has been revealed throughout the Judeo-Christian sacred writings.  God has repeatedly spoken in defence of the marginalized, the aliens, the widows, the orphans, the poor, the ill, and the imprisoned.  In the story today, Ruth is an alien, widow, and poor.  She has come to Israel with her mother-in-law Naomi and they have survived on by gleaning in the fields of Boaz.  Some see this as a story of Boaz’s generosity and it is true he is kind to Ruth, but, by Jewish culture, Boaz owes Naomi and Ruth much more, he is their kinsman redeemer.  It is only when the marginalized Ruth uses her sexuality to prompt Boaz does he do what he was morally obligated to do when Naomi and Ruth returned to Israel.  We are like Boaz when we share with the marginalized out of our abundance and fail to recognize our real obligation to care for our sisters and brothers who cannot provide for themselves.  Real ministry to the marginalized occurs when we recognize their worth to God and our connection to them as children of God.  We are their kinsman redeemers.

     

    The story of the widow’s might is also a story of a marginalized person, a widow with no apparent means of support.  She is recognized by Jesus as the one who has given her all, more than what the others have given.  For people who do not live at the margins, it is very difficult to understand why the widow would drop her last two coins into the temple treasury.  Surely Jesus wasn’t suggesting we should throw all we have into the collection plate.  It wouldn’t make any sense for everyone to just give all of their money to the church, it isn’t practical.  However, the marginalized widow realized she could not place her confidence in the coin of the realm.  Hanging onto those two last coins was not going to make or break her future.  She, like many marginalized people, realized her future was dependent upon the grace and mercy of God and God’s people.  She gave her future to God and did not trust in the symbols of the world.  Those of us who have sufficient resources to meet our basic daily needs find it difficult to surrender our futures to the grace and mercy of God.

     

    There is much for us to learn from the faith and lives of the marginalized.  They very often live much closer to what they believe, they have determined what they can count on, and they have stretched themselves to survive in ways almost beyond our understanding.  To paraphrase Edwin Markham, the powerful drew a circle that shut the marginalized out, lazy, mentally impaired, criminal, heretic, different, a thing to flout, but God had the wit to win, God drew a circle that took the marginalized and the powerful in.”  Amen.

Comments (1)

  • I am much more impressed with people who care for others rather then those who give to charity. To give of your time and sweat is much more valuable. I know people who will write a big check, make sure that others know what they  have done, and walk away feeling like a hero.  While those who have little have shared it with others also in need, to me is a much greater jesture.
      I admire you Bob, for doing what you’re doing and where you’re doing it. Sweat and time to those in need….  be well.
    *~matthew~*

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