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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

25.9 Million Tons of Trash and Counting

Some Americans find it difficult to reach out to the homeless poor living on our city streets with food and water. One of the reasons for this hesitancy to help has been the fact that some feel they have “limited resources” and cannot afford it. However, at the same time, food waste is a huge issue in America, especially in light of this growing divide between the rich and the poor.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Loss Project, U.S. citizens throw away more than 25 percent - some 25.9 million tons - of all the food produced for domestic sale and consumption. A 2004 University of Arizona study pegs the figure at closer to 50 percent, finding that Americans squander some $43 billion annually on wasted food.

Timothy Jones, a lead researcher for the AZ study reported that on average, U.S. households waste 14 percent of their food purchases. He estimates that a family of four tosses out $590 per year in meat, fruits, vegetables and grain products. Is this a possible indication of the high cost of “not giving?”
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Friday, August 27, 2010

What’s the Possible Downside to being Wealthy? It can Empower One to Walk Away from Truth!

Does today's headline seem unbelievable? Admittedly, some headlines can be deceiving from time to time, but not this one. Read on . . .
. . . Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"

"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." "Which ones?" the man inquired.

Jesus replied, "'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.' "All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Matthew 19:16-22
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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The Diabolical Self is Worse than the Animal Self

By C.S. Lewis

Finally, though I have had to speak at some length about sex, I want to make it as clear as I possibly can that the center of Christian morality is not here. If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and back-biting; the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self, and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither. (Mere Christianity, Chapter 15)
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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Robert Kennedy: Why Am I Here?

When asked by the 60s television show host David Frost what people are put on earth for, Robert Kennedy replied, “If you’ve made some contribution to someone else, to improve their life, and make their life a little more livable, a little more happy, I think that’s what you should be doing.”

How did our bloggers respond to a similar question?

Over the past nine months, readers participated in a poll: What are you put on this earth for? Here is how they responded . . .

Only 8% think our mission here is self-centered. They believe that first and foremost we are to foster a personal relationship with God that is expressed in personal prosperity and blessings.

However, a whopping 90% believe our mission is first and foremost to foster a personal relationship with God that is expressed in self-giving service to others.

About 2% of readers were unsure about our purpose in the world and responded with, “Neither [choice], because I don't know.”

Thank you for participating! Please scroll down to near the bottom of this main page and participate in all the polls.
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Friday, August 20, 2010

A Disney Fantasy?

Many of the rich, famous and powerful stars seem to be spared of all the anguish of ordinary people while living an apparent disregard for God. In the glare of the camera lights and flashing camera bulbs, their lives appear to be a Disney fantasy. The tabloids and the public idolize them and many imitate their hairstyles and looks. Why not? They are glamorous! The Psalmist David wrestles with the same problem here . . .

Psalm 73
Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.

For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills.

Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity the evil conceits of their minds know no limits. They scoff, and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression.

Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.

They say, "How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?" This is what the wicked are like - always carefree, they increase in wealth.

[However], till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.
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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Vexed Is The One Who Sees This

Coming from the wisdom of King David, the psalmist, this Psalm exceeds all we ever knew of the Lord. Clearly, God's ways are not our ways: Blessed is the one who scatters and does not hoard things. Secure are the ones who give away. Vexed is the one who sees all this kindness and rebels against the giving preferring the living. Go figure?

Psalm 112

Praise the Lord.
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
who finds great delight in his commands . . .

Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely,
who conducts his affairs with justice.

Surely he will never be shaken;
a righteous man will be remembered forever.

He will have no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

His heart is secure, he will have no fear;
in the end he will look in triumph on his foes.

He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor,
his righteousness endures forever;
his house will be lifted high in honor.

The wicked man will see and be vexed,
he will gnash his teeth and waste away;
the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.
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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

What does it mean to love?

By Brother Roger of Taze

Are we sufficiently aware that God trusts us so much that he has a call for each one of us? What is that call? God invites us to love as he loves. And there is no deeper love than to go to the point of giving oneself, for God and for others.

Whoever lives a life rooted in God chooses to love. And a heart resolved to love can radiate goodness without limits.

Life is filled with serene beauty for whoever strives to love with trust.

All who choose to love and to say it with their life are led to ask themselves one of the most compelling questions of all: how can we ease the pain and the torment of others, whether they are close at hand or far away?

But what does it mean to love? Could it be to share the suffering of the most ill-treated? Yes, that’s it.

Could it mean having infinite kind-heartedness and forgetting oneself for others, selflessly? Yes, certainly.

And again: what does it mean to love? Loving means forgiving, living as people who are reconciled. And reconciliation always brings a springtime to the soul.

Brother Roger of Taze (+2005) founded the Taze Community August 16th, 70 years ago. Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of his death.
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Saturday, August 14, 2010

The Wealthy-Poor in America

By
G. Jeffrey MacDonald

The American clergy is suffering from burnout, several new studies show. And part of the problem, as researchers have observed, is that pastors work too much. Many of them need vacations, it’s true. But there’s a more fundamental problem that no amount of rest and relaxation can help solve: congregational pressure to forsake one’s highest calling.

The pastoral vocation is to help people grow spiritually, resist their lowest impulses and adopt higher, more compassionate ways. But churchgoers increasingly want pastors to soothe and entertain them. It’s apparent in the theater-style seating and giant projection screens in churches and in mission trips that involve more sightseeing than listening to the local people.

As a result, pastors are constantly forced to choose, as they work through congregants’ daily wish lists in their e-mail and voice mail, between paths of personal integrity and those that portend greater job security. As religion becomes a consumer experience, the clergy become more unhappy and unhealthy.

The trend toward consumer-driven religion has been gaining momentum for half a century. Consider that in 1955 only 15 percent of Americans said they no longer adhered to the faith of their childhood, according to a Gallup poll. By 2008, 44 percent had switched their religious affiliation at least once, or dropped it altogether, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found. Americans now sample, dabble and move on when a religious leader fails to satisfy for any reason.

In this transformation, clergy have seen their job descriptions rewritten. They’re no longer expected to offer moral counsel in pastoral care sessions or to deliver sermons that make the comfortable uneasy. Church leaders who continue such ministerial traditions pay dearly. A few years ago, thousands of parishioners quit Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minn., and Community Church of Joy in Glendale, Ariz., when their respective preachers refused to bless the congregations’ preferred political agendas and consumerist lifestyles.

I have faced similar pressures myself. In the early 2000s, the advisory committee of my small congregation in Massachusetts told me to keep my sermons to 10 minutes, tell funny stories and leave people feeling great about themselves. The unspoken message in such instructions is clear: give us the comforting, amusing fare we want or we’ll get our spiritual leadership from someone else.

Congregations that make such demands seem not to realize that most clergy don’t sign up to be soothsayers or entertainers. Pastors believe they’re called to shape lives for the better, and that involves helping people learn to do what’s right in life, even when what’s right is also difficult. When they’re being true to their calling, pastors urge Christians to do the hard work of reconciliation with one another before receiving communion. They lead people to share in the suffering of others, including people they would rather ignore, by experiencing tough circumstances — say, in a shelter, a prison or a nursing home — and seeking relief together with those in need. At their courageous best, clergy lead where people aren’t asking to go, because that’s how the range of issues that concern them expands, and how a holy community gets formed.

Ministry is a profession in which the greatest rewards include meaningfulness and integrity. When those fade under pressure from churchgoers who don’t want to be challenged or edified, pastors become candidates for stress and depression.

Clergy need parishioners who understand that the church exists, as it always has, to save souls by elevating people’s values and desires. They need churchgoers to ask for personal challenges, in areas like daily devotions and outreach ministries.

When such an ethic takes root, as it has in generations past, then pastors will cease to feel like the spiritual equivalents of concierges. They’ll again know joy in ministering among people who share their sense of purpose. They might even be on fire again for their calling, rather than on a path to premature burnout.

G. Jeffrey MacDonald, a minister in the United Church of Christ, is the author of “Thieves in the Temple: The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul.”
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Friday, August 13, 2010

Holy Fool

By Abbey-Roads

Saint Simeon Salus lived with his mother until he was about 30 - so you stay-at-home-sons, don't be discouraged. He then went to the desert to live as a monk - when he was old - he left the monastery to live amongst the genuinely poor: the outcasts, amongst whom were the prostitutes and other low life. He actually lived along side prostitutes and the wicked people they attract - the indigent homeless, mentally ill, crippled, alcoholics, homosexuals - the dregs of any society. Some say he simply feigned madness, while others think he may have at times been truly out of his mind. One must remember that Christ was considered mad by his townsmen as well - these people who supposedly knew him, thought Jesus out of his mind at times. And yet Jesus, free of all sin - notably original sin and its effects - could not have been crazy... Though he indeed emptied himself and took the very last place, which even Simeon, for all his humiliating madness, nor the wretches amongst whom he lived, were able to snatch that very last place from Jesus, the Son of God.

The holy fool Simeon brought many people to repentance by his example and his roughened charity amongst the most disenfranchised of the city. Perhaps his greatest penance was the awareness of his own imperfection, weakness, inconstancy and sin which impelled him to take his place amongst the outcasts, sharing their shame, trusting in the mercy of Christ who suffers with all who are rejected and marginalized.
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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Cry of the Earth – Cry of the Poor

There is a link in our Christian spirituality between the defense of the rights of the poor with that of the destruction of the ecological environment. In fact, the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor are one. At first glance, this may seem surprising. We must ask ourselves: Are we still capable of hearing and listening to the cry of the poor? Are we attentive to the cry of the earth itself?

“I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.” (Exodus 3:7) In our spiritual tradition, we know that God is close to those who suffer violence, injustice and poverty. In this regard, we must go on in order to move towards God's salvation which can never be separate from the liberation of all forms of slavery here on earth.

“If my land cries for vengeance against me, and its furrows weep in concert, (...) let brambles grow instead of wheat.” (Job 31: 38-40) This relatively unknown text from the Book of Job shows that even the earth can bear witness against human beings for the violence to which it is subjected. Victims of violence and of destruction, it borrows the voice of humans to declare that it is time for change. “And all the trees of the forest cry out for joy at Yahweh's approach, for he is coming to judge the earth.” (1 Chronicles16: 33)

Excerpted from L'Assemblée des évêques du Québec.
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Monday, August 9, 2010

Homeless God

We don’t often think of the God of the universe as being “homeless,” but in reality He like most homeless people, suffers from the judgment, condemnation and rejection of others. These types of mechanisms of hate played out throughout the course of the entire life of Christ. When Jesus lived here on earth, he was homeless, despised and rejected at the time of his birth, homeless in the flight to Egypt and homeless again during the life of his public ministry. He was buried “homeless” in another's grave.

But is God homeless today? Quite possibly! Our cities and towns are filled with “homes” for McDonald’s, the Gap, malls, Starbucks and the like, but what does God actually get in all of this in order that people can welcome Him into their hearts? Obviously, in an overly obsessed commercial environment, God undeservedly gets very little in comparison to the greed and houses of idolatry that are rampant in our consumer-based world.

The next time we see a homeless person, quite possibly that may be an image of God Himself saying loud and clear, “I’m homeless in my own home. Have pity on me!” Possibly we will be inspired to open our hearts with hospitality, kindness and compassion and welcome Him in.
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Thursday, August 5, 2010

Authentic Place of Refuge

In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
deliver me in your righteousness.

Turn your ear to me,
come quickly to my rescue;
be my rock of refuge,
a strong fortress to save me.

Since you are my rock and my fortress,
for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
Psalm 31: 1-3

When even a house does not seem like a home, the Lord is always there waiting to be our authentic place of refuge. With confidence, let us pray:

R Lead your people home, Lord!

* For those lost in the darkness of disbelief, confusion and sin: R

* For those who are hungry, thirsty, naked and in need of clothing: R

* For those who thirst for righteousness and hunger for holiness: R

* For those who feel lost and alone: R
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Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Homeless Guy Goes to West Point

Tyki Nelworth, 18, was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point this past June after recently graduating from high school. He has endured a lifetime of obstacles that would have stopped most people from accomplishing much of anything.

Tyki’s mother is in jail, his father is dead and he has had no permanent home. At one point, he was taken from his mother because of suspected child neglect, and his sister told him he was a "crack baby."

The Los Angeles high school student could have ended up in a gang or on the streets. Instead, the football team captain and student body president will graduate with a 4.2 GPA from Washington Preparatory High School and now is headed to one of the nation's most elite institutions in the fall to become a cadet.

Nelworth's unlikely story has attracted a lot of attention. In Los Angeles, churches and community organizations raised money so he could attend his prom. Nelworth told the L.A. Times. "I honestly didn't know that there were so many people that cared for me. It's something I definitely won't forget."

"We have to let him know that his efforts have not gone unnoticed," Laquitta Cole, an alumni board member, told ABC News. "He could've chosen to be a drug dealer, he could've chosen to be in a gang. But he chose to succeed."
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