Epiphany

MEDITATION

Among the wonders worked by Jesus Christ, can any match the healing compassion He showed to lepers? Somehow the wretchedness and horror of their condition represent everything about our lives that express our brokenness and poverty, and yet, nothing is impossible for God. When the leper approaches Christ filled with faith, an entire life is changed in an instant. The on-going Epiphany of Christ through the ages makes that very offer available to each one of us.







PRAYER

Lord, open our eyes that we may see You in the poverty of our brothers and sisters. Lord, open our ears that we may hear the cries of the hungry, the cold, the frightened, the oppressed. Lord, open our hearts that we may love each other as you love us. - Blessed Mother Teresa
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Project 50

J.F. sends in a story spotted in the LA Times January 8, 2008. It is reported by staff writer Susannah Rosenblatt ... "A recent survey counted 471 people regularly sleeping in encampments on 5th Street’s skid row in downtown Los Angeles. Fifty of the most "at risk" transients have been identified and will receive special consideration for housing by the county Board of Supervisors. They are scheduled to vote soon for the three-year, $5.6-million pilot program called Project 50, which is designed to provide immediate housing and services for the participants.

"The 50 categorized as most at risk had been homeless for at least six months with at least one chronic ailment, such as HIV or liver disease, or recent emergency room visits or hospitalizations. The members of that group visited emergency rooms 120 times in the previous three months and had lived on the streets an average of 9 1/2 years, according to the survey.

"The process of moving someone from the streets into an apartment could take as little as a day or up to six months, said Beth Sandor, Los Angeles field director for Common Ground, a New York City nonprofit group that is helping coordinate the L.A. effort. Common Ground launched a similar, largely successful effort to house homeless people living in Times Square."

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More on the Internet:

http://www.latimes.com/

Question?

Keith Drury (Associate Professor, Indiana Wesleyan University) contributed over the past two days a compelling commentary on John Newton’s song, Amazing Grace. (See Saving Wretches Like You and Me, Part I & II, Monday, January 7 -Tuesday January 8, 2008). And so the following poll begs a response:

Is the term “wretch” only for the poor, homeless & addict? Should Christians take liberty to change lyrics making songs more palatable in our culture of self-esteem? Substitute Amazing Grace, God “saved a wretch like me” for ... “that saved and set me free?”

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Saving Wretches Like You and Me

Part II

Today’s blog brings to a conclusion Keith Drury’s compelling commentary on John Newton’s hymn, Amazing Grace (see Saving Wretches Like You and Me, Part I, Monday, January 7, 2008). He writes, “Self-esteem theology teaches us we’re deserving. Being basically good we expect basically good things to happen to us. We expect God to provide money for our new house, college tuition, and funds for our latest adventure in missionary tourism. We expect good health and a fulfilling life and good grades and pretty girlfriends and a husband that meets the criteria on the list we made at youth camp. We are entitled to these things. So why be grateful when we get them? We abhor sacrifice and suffering for ourselves and only love the idea when the stories are about people far in the past or far away on the planet. Being fairly good people we think we deserve a fairly good life. Even heaven is nothing to get excited about—after all, God has such a crush on us—where else could he send us? This is why we tune in to preachers who will tell us how good we are and how much God is totally absorbed with blessing us with material possessions, fulfillment in our careers and really great sex lives. Is the reason Christ died—for cars and promotions and good sex?

“Of course, there are occasional sour notes in the choir. They usually come from some conservative reminding us of our total depravity. These guys take Romans 7:24 seriously—they believe that we all are wretched. They string verses like Job 25:4-6 and Psalm 22:6 with the Romans verse to make a necklace of wretchedness and wormlyhood. They claim that even our good deeds are besmirched by sin. You were bad before you were saved and you are still bad now. Nothing good lies within you. You are wretched and poor and blind and naked. You are a worm! It is only by God’s grace that you are set free—so be grateful!

“The rest of us just sing louder and drown out these sour notes. There are far more choir members singing songs of self-esteem than conservatives singing songs of total depravity. Since we’ve already rejected their “worm theology” we just ignore their warnings. We continue to preach a happy face doctrine of self esteem. People like it. Which is why so many on Sundays have changed the lyrics of Amazing Grace. We might think John Newton [along with the homeless, addicts, jobless and all other losers] was a wretch and worm, but not us, thank you very much. We’re far better than that.”

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Saving Wretches Like You and Me

Part I

About one year ago, Keith Drury an associate professor at Indiana Wesleyan University authored a compelling commentary about John Newton’s song, Amazing Grace. (See Saving Wretches Like You, January 30, 2007 at http://www.tuesdaycolumn.com/) He writes, “It is hard to sing some songs the way they were written. They just go against our grain. Few folk today want to sing John Newton’s Amazing Grace the way he wrote it: God “saved a wretch like me.” Or, how about Isaac Watts’ hymn, Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed, “for such a worm as I.” It isn’t nice to call people wretches or worms. It’s not good for their self esteem.

“This is why we change the lyrics to make songs more palatable in our culture of self-esteem. We substitute “that saved and set me free” or “for such a one as I” for the outdated wretch-and-worm references. We have removed the wretches and worms from our theology. While we might agree that the whoring-raping-slaver, John Newton was a wretch, none of us will volunteer for wretchedness ourselves, and we know for sure we’re better than worms. To be quite honest we don’t believe we were ever wretches—even before getting saved. Basically we think of ourselves as fairly nice people who became Christians and added meaning to our lives. We were told “God has a wonderful plan for your life.” So we signed up for this wonderful plan. Sure, we had sinned, but we had done no sins that God didn’t “understand” or that are not done by church folk now. Our sins were mostly sins of ignorance or immaturity—nothing that deserves the label wretch or worm. [Those are terms best used to describe addicts, homeless, bums, hobos, gypsies and other types of losers]

“We Christians believe we were basically fairly good when we found God. And we’re even better now. Salvation is “all about me.” We like to say, “If I were the only person on earth, Christ would have come to die for just me.” This beefs up our self-esteem. To be quite frank, we actually think God needs us, and is actually quite lucky to have us. That’s how we see our devotions, for instance. We imagine a lonely God who is hungry for our company. When we don’t have devotions on some days, God mournfully walks away singing Larnelle Harris’ song, “I miss my time with you.” If we were totally honest we’d change the lyrics of another song [I need Him every hour, evr’y hour I need Him] to, “He needs me every hour, evr’y hour He needs me.” To be continued tomorrow…

Great Words of Wisdom

Responding to the blog's Christmas post, "Behold I Stand at the Door and Knock," (see Sunday, December 23, 2007) BB.Boy passed along some great words of wisdom ...

The foolish work for money,
Not other values, so they get only money.
The clever work for improvement;
They gain success and money.
The wise work for goodness and charity;
They receive friends, success, money,
And happiness.

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Hell is Others?

The famous french philosopher John-Paul Sartre once said, “Hell is others!” (Photo, Dante and Virgil in Hell circa 1850 by the artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau) His philosophical thinking obviously promotes self-centeredness. Biblical based theism would reverse Sartre’s statement and say, “Hell is self” meaning, “selfishness.” The sins of egoism, pride and selfishness divide us from each other and thrust a person into isolation from God. Unchecked, it delivers a person into perpetual and mortal loneliness.

All types of "homelessness" at its core is aloneness stemming from the conditions of sin at work in each one of our lives. Sin divides us from a relationship with God and from each other. “Homelessness” and most loneliness result from the sins of pride, arrogance, selfishness, self-centeredness, self-absorption and superiority. When these types of conditions are rampant within our individual lives and within the lives of families, churches and other groups – there may be a house, but there will not be a home. Everyone involved will experience isolationism and thus “homeless” conditions.

New Testament based theism calls the person out of self and into community. In Mark chapter 10 Jesus promises the Christian an extraordinarily large community of people - brothers, sisters, mothers and children a hundred times as much if they leave everything to follow him. In Christ we find the exit from the hell of self-absorption. It is here that God wishes to nourish, bless and move each one from aloneness and into community. He restores our souls by giving many friendships as well as new and dynamic relationships. We are no longer homeless, but home.

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Homeless Freeloaders!

On a special edition of ABC 20/20, John Stossel examined homelessness in America. He asked: "Does America "create" more homeless freeloaders, because of our compassion? Does it make it worse? Should we help able bodied homeless or are we creating a culture of dependency that makes it difficult for people to improve their lives?"

One viewer responded, (true story): "When I was 22 years old I saw a "homeless" person with a "will work for food" sign in a snow storm. My heart ached for the man. I went to the store and purchased a jacket, gloves, and food. I drove back to the corner and gave him what I had purchased. He said "thank you", but didn't seem appreciative. I assumed he would have eaten some of the food immediately, but he stuffed the food in his bag and didn't eat a thing. As I drove away perplexed I looked in my rear view mirror and the man had begun to walk to the far corner of parking lot. I was curious so I drove around the block and came back.The man got into a brand new Chevy Corvette!!! I kid you not! I was shocked and disgusted." The viewer, from this one experience felt qualified to agree with Stossel's premise: American compassion may be "creating" homeless freeloaders. So, there it is ... someone has apparently figured out the complexity of poverty in America by one charitable encounter gone bad.

Thanks be to God that His mercy is not of the same rationale as humans. If it was, all of us would be in a lot of trouble at the moment of death as well as on Judgement Day. If Jesus measured mercy the way we do (thanks be to God that he does not) - he could hypothetically write in a blog some time, somewhere, something like this: "When that Mr. or Ms. so-and-so arrived at the gates of heaven, I couldn't help but remember when they were 30 years old. I sent a "neon sign" to repent of their sins. They changed just for a short time, but old habits of lust and wrongdoing crept back in. Oh well, humans must be alike so I think that all of them here-to-fore are going to have to dig their way out of hell. I refuse to help any of them based on my experience with Mr. or Ms. so-and-so! Love, Jesus."

Obviously, we are grateful that God does not deal with us in this manner. God is pure love. But unfortunately, humans can be very unkind and extremely unmerciful to losers and sinners. And yet, we are all losers and sinners in one-shape-or-form. When all is said and done, this type of unmerciful thinking toward the homeless is reminiscent of the parable that Jesus tells of the wicked servant. In the story, the servant gets forgiven an enormous debt, but then goes out and refuses to be merciful to a fellow servant who owes a small debt. In the end, the master finds out about the injustice and throws him into jail. Then, he is tortured until the very last penny is paid. (Matthew 18:21-35)

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More on the Internet

http://www.city-data.com/forum/politics-other-controversies/116706-does-america-create-more-homeless-freeloaders.html

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Preaching the “Prosperity Gospel” to the Homeless?

Recently, Associated Press religion writer, Eric Gorski reported a story about a generous Christian by the name of Cindy Fleenor. Each night she invited into her living room television preachers that told her, “Be faithful in how you live and how you give; God will shower you with material riches.” And so the 53-year-old accountant pledged $100s a year to evangelist Joyce Meyer, to faith healer Benny Hinn and a local Tampa, Florida preacher. The blessings never came. Fleenor ended up borrowing money from friends and from payday loan companies just to buy groceries.

Eric Gorski reports that all the ministries mentioned here are among six major Christian television outreaches under scrutiny by Senator Charles Grassley. The probe is essentially calling into question those who preach the "Gospel of Prosperity," or the notion that God wants to bless the faithful with earthly riches. Some argue that “prosperity preaching” is a Biblically sound message. Others say it is a distortion of the truth. It has evolved from "it's all right to make money" to it's all right for the pastor to drive a Bentley, live in an oceanside home and travel by private jet.

Oral Roberts and Kenneth Hagin — and later, Kenneth Copeland — trained tens of thousands of evangelists with a message that resonated with an emerging middle class, said David Edwin Harrell Jr., a Roberts biographer. Copeland is among those now being investigated. The teachings took on various names — "Name It and Claim It," "Word of Faith," and “the Prosperity Gospel.”

But would the “Prosperity Gospel” work, say for the 74,000 homeless living in Los Angeles, many of them Christians? There is no doubt that God wants to bless his followers. Jesus however, describes the nature of our blessings when he says, “Blessed are the merciful, they shall obtain mercy.” (Matthew 5:7) When we are patient, kind, loving, forgiving, giving and merciful to the poor, the criminal, the orphan and the widow – we confirm God’s generous mercy upon ourselves by receiving His free gift of eternal life that we do not deserve. We get to go to heaven by God’s mercy! Heaven and eternal life are the blessings and riches that God has promised each of us.

When Jesus developed his preaching of compassion for the poor, there is no doubt he was acutely aware of the piercing Old Testament scripture of Proverbs 14:21 which says, "Anyone who despises his [poor] neighbor commits sin. But blessed is the person who is kind to the poor." Our blessings are eternal and spiritual – the best type – they are better than money! John tells us, “We know that we have passed from death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.” (1 John 3:14)

When we give alms, show mercy, love and kindness to the poor and homeless, we have an opportunity to confirm God’s gift of eternal life. His blessings therefore are not temporal, but spiritual - the reward of eternal life with God the Father, our Creator. We don’t go to hell as each one deserves. Christ blesses us with adoption as sons of God. (Galatians 4:5) And so we discover that there are blessings for giving out of love, but it more than likely will not be a new car or winning the million dollar lottery.

A List Better than the Age-old New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year! A whole new year lies ahead. For most, the thought of the future is both exhilarating and worrisome. It’s exciting to think this may be the year that the million dollar lottery is won, the job promotion comes or the trip of a lifetime takes place. Yet, we don’t know the flip side of the coin. Could this be the year that my company goes under, I lose my job or my health unexpectedly turns for the worse? Could this be the year of another “Katrina” or California-type wildfires leaving one destitute and instantly immersed into homeless conditions?

Of course only God knows our futures. He knows everything, from its beginning to its end. Because we don’t know the future, there are a few things we can do to prepare for whatever may come our way. The following is a list better than the age-old New Years resolutions – 99% of those fail. This plan is sure:

* Dedicate a minimum of 30 minutes of prayer/spiritual reading to God in the morning and in the night. As a result, God will reward you this year with a glad rejoicing heart and strengthen you with grace in the day of harm.

* Find the poor and “homeless” at your job, grocery store and wherever you go and serve them well. Show them kindness and hospitality. Many have even entertained angels unawares. By doing so, God will reward you this year with a glad rejoicing heart and strengthen you with grace in the day of harm.

* Forgive! Make a list of all those who have hurt (no matter how terrible) and offended you. Now forgive them. Then, in the day of trouble God will show mercy upon you. “Blessed are the merciful, they shall obtain mercy.” As a result, God will reward you this year with a glad rejoicing heart and strengthen you with grace in the day of harm.

* Serve! Get plugged into an outreach that serves the poor and the homeless like the Los Angeles-based St. Peter’s Scalibrinian Mission in Chinatown or Skid Row's Midnight Mission. God’s consolations and peace will be yours when you give even an hour or two a week of your time. Give alms to the poor through groups that serve them. As a result, God will reward you this year with a glad rejoicing heart and strengthen you with grace in the day of harm.

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