The Haitian Earthquake - Personal Responses

What will our response to this tragedy look like? Will it go beyond check books and donation boxes?

The love and life of the Holy Spirit spreads through breath, through touch, through sharing the same space with others. We believe in a God that hears the cry of those who are suffering, that is present in all human experiences, that brings redemption into broken places.

I've been encouraged to see people making the effort to go beyond just giving money, and risking to stand with our suffering Haitian neighbors. Some are responding by adopting, and welcoming into their lives those orphaned by this disaster. Some are responding by supporting those who adopt finacially, emotionally, spiritually. Some are responding by getting ready to go to Haiti, some are responding by supporting those who go. Some are fasting and praying, standing in solidarity with their suffering neighbors, and crying out to the God that hears.

Give money, thats good. Give donations, they are needed. But lets consider how to spread the love of Christ in deeply personal ways, ways that will inevitably cost us so much more than money.

The worshiping community of Sojourn is a part of a larger community called the Free Methodists. Members of this community are organizing trips to Haiti and have been called to a day of prayer and fasting on Wednesday January 27. Click here for more information.

Witnesses to the Light

"There was a man sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning the light... The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world."

Today is Epiphany, the day that Christians, since ancient times, have celebrated the coming of the Light. Those of us who have met Christ, the Light, like John have been called to be witnesses testifying to the light. John came with a very specific message, and he went to a very specific place, and in a very interesting way delivered that message.

Jess and I believe God has given us a specific message and called us to a specific place to deliver it. We are in the final stages (hopefully) of obtaining a house in the northside neighborhood of Syracuse. This is one of the more ethnically diverse neighborhoods of Syracuse, with one in every six of our neighbors being foreign born. Yet it is quite homogenous when it comes to socioeconomic class; one in three live below the poverty line, and the per capita income is near $13,000 (half the per capita income of the suburban town I grew up in).

Most of us would agree that racial segregation is wrong. However, the socioeconomic segregation that we participate in today is still racial segregation. People of poorer minorities are abaondoned to impoverished neighborhoods with decaying infastructure and educational systems, while the rich (and white) majority retreats to the suburbs to build their safe neighborhoods with first rate schools.

Our churches mirror this segregation. It was nearly 50 years ago that Martin Luther King Jr. commented on how Sunday morning is the most segregated time in America, but still today less than 7% of churches are considered ethnically diverse (check out this article from this week's TIME magazine). There is a darkness, or as my favorite author Richard Foster puts it, evil principalities and powers that divide us.

My family wants to be a light in this darkness. A light to our suburban church, a church that before God brought 40 African refugees to our doorstep was completely white. But also a light to the northside neighborhood in Syracuse. So often desegregation looks like minorities joining the majority, or the have-nots joining hte haves, however, Jesus modeled something different for us:

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich."

This is what we have been called to be witnesses to, the good news that the light has come to all people, no matter what your race or socioeconomic status.

As we seek to be living witnesses to this it may seem strange to some; that we would sell our nice home in a safe neighborhood to make this move. Many people from both communities may misunderstand us, and look at us as extreme. But then again, was it not the same for John, a fellow witness to the Light?

Christmas Eve - He's Coming

Growing up, my cousins would often bring along a cousin from the other side of the family to our holiday gatherings. Tony was mentally disabled, and whenever he came, he would enter the gathering and come up to each one of us and enthusiastically proclaim, "Ho Ho comin'!" He was half looking for our affirmation of this statement and half wanting to make sure no one was ignorant of this. You couldn't help but nod and assure him that Ho Ho was indeed coming.

I wonder what reaction the shepherds got as they enthusiastically went around proclaiming that the Messiah was coming.

Everyone had missed it. The very Master of the universe had come to Earth, but He came to their small village in an occupied country on the fringe of the Empire. Both the religous system and the government, symbolic leaders of God's people, had missed it. Only a couple of kids who were supposed to be out doing their chores were clued in. So they ran up to everybody making sure they knew, "Messiah coming!"

Did their hearers patronizingly nod and affirm them, not wanting to be the kill-joy that exposed the myth?

It seems that today so many still miss the Messiah each Christmas, and I'm not talking about the secularists or pluralists, but our church culture today, and a government that still clings to a Christian facade. Jesus never told us that we would find Him in elaborate buildings, decadent feasts, and holiday rituals (the prophets actually tell us God even hates those things). Instead He said we would find Him in those who are hungry, prisoners, sick, homeless.

So let's proclaim enthusiastically, "He's coming!" All who have missed Him by looking in cantatas, candles, and cookies, look over here - this is no myth! He's with those who are hungry, prisoners, sick, homeless. To all those whom our culture, including our church culture, has labeled as far from God, let's proclaim this good news, "He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty." Most people who've missed it will just smile and nod affirmingly, all the while discounting us as over optimistic idealists. But let's never stop proclaiming:

Joy to the world, the LORD is come.

Advent Conspiracy

Give as God did this Christmas; give presence. Share gifts that set us free and present others with hope.