Finding the 'Magic Wand'...

Over this past month I have been fairly immersed in my work with Episcopal Appalachian Ministries. I have been filled with both excitement about the work being done to minister to the people of our region while at the same time, like many of you might be feeling, have a feeling of being overwhelmed by the shear enormity of the issues we face in our country and throughout the world. As I mentioned in one of my sermons this past month, we live in scary times. The economic crisis, the wars in the Middle East, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the coal mining explosion in West Virginia, the rising rate of unemployment… the list goes on and on. I wish so much we could find the one “magic wand” that would fix it all, but there just isn’t one we seem to see… at least not one we seem to be accessing. But despite the gloom and doom that seems to be all around us, there is some hope out there for the whole big picture.
I had the pleasure of attending an Episcopal Conference on Domestic Poverty in Newark, NJ about a month ago. At this conference, there were folks representing the whole gambit social, economic, healthcare and welfare groups within the Episcopal Church; in addition to experts from governmental and academic circles. I am still muddling through all the information that I received there… it is hopeful and at the same time overwhelming. Despite this, I left the conference with a renewed sense of energy about how we, as the Body of Christ, can begin to address the multiple issues that haunt us in this world. Although, as I mentioned, there is no one “magic wand” or solution, however there are many solutions just as there are many parts to the body… it is all connected. The one thing I heard, above all the many issues that were discussed, is that there is a resolve within our Church for us to work collaboratively to address the many complicated issues that we are all called to address by virtue of our Baptismal covenant. The truth is, we and “the issues” are all connected.
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, The Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori, was the keynote speaker at the conference. In her talk, she pointed out how so much of the problem with domestic poverty is interconnected with how we view each other and the earth we live in. She said, “We’re here to do justice, and love mercy. We’re here to walk humbly with God and bring good news to the poor. That good news of justice and mercy looks like the ancient visions of the commonweal of God where everyone has enough to eat, no one goes thirsty or homeless, all have access to meaningful employment and health care, the wealthy and powerful do not exploit the weak, and no one studies war any more. It includes the work of building community and caring for the earth, both of which are essential to the health of a spiritually rooted person, in right relationship with God and neighbor.”
I think for most of us, we tend to have this flaw of wanting to point the finger and blame many of the hardships of life on something or someone besides ourselves. It is very easy to fall into the trap of pointing our finger at “the liberals” or “the conservatives”. We blame BP, the Taliban, coal companies, lack of education or anything else we can point to for the plight of the world. But the hard truth is that we are all broken and flawed; we are all sinners. We put our own needs before others. We consume more than we need and we hold onto our “stuff” as if it were going to somehow save us.
As Christians, we know better… Jesus was very clear about that. We have all heard it before… “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)
I wish I could offer THE “magic wand” for the plight of our current world and country situation… all of the issues are very complicated. Like you, I still have to drive to work… this computer that I am typing on is most likely using electricity generated from coal burning generators. The oil spill crisis in the Gulf and the recent coal mine explosion in West Virginia just last month are all connected to our need to consume cheap energy. I, like you, would much rather I buy gas for $2.30 a gallon than $2.75 a gallon… I would much rather my electric bill be under $150 a month… it IS complicated…
I think that if there is a “magic wand” it has to be rooted in a change of heart for us all. It would be a spiritual change. It would look something like the Kingdom of God… or rather, would BE the Kingdom of God… Rather than be preoccupied with what we spend for energy or trying to hold onto and protect our “stuff” we would be preoccupied with loving our neighbors and protecting the neighborhood, “this fragile earth, our island home” (BCP 370).
You see, poverty at home and abroad, the environment, corporate greed, terrorism and energy consumption and all that other stuff that scares us, it is all connected. It is about the relationships we have with each other in this world. For there to be change we will all have to be willing to truly live into our Baptismal covenant and truly “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as yourself”. It means we each have to “strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being”(BCP 305). This my friends is the way of Christ… it is the way of God… it is the Kingdom of Heaven…

Proud to be...

There is a song by Lee Greenwood, “God Bless the USA”, that is one of those songs that usually gets and emotional response if it is played to a large crowd. Here in my part of the Southeast at least it is almost revered as much as the “Star Spangled Banner”. But I have to admit, I have always had a little bit of a problem with the song. There is a line in the song that brings the song to a crescendo: “... And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today, 'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land; God Bless the U.S.A....” At this point people usually stand up and clap and cheer. It has taken me a while to figure out what exactly, at a gut level, my distaste for the song has been about. I have begun to wonder if I have just lost all sense of being patriotic.

The election of Barack Obama as president helped me to finally pinpoint what it is about that whole patriotic thing that I have had problem with. In the song, the “…defend her still today” is what bothers me. You see to think about something in terms of “defense” or having to protect, implies an atmosphere of fear. And I think that has been why I have a problem. If we are always responding out of fear vs. compassion or love, then we will have to build more barriers and fortresses to “protect” ourselves from what we fear. For me, there in lies the problem of the last 8 years of our country... or really the whole history of our country since the end of the Civil War.

My belief is that the fear has caused us to breed greed and thus the predicament of where we are financially in the US. It is a simplistic explanation of our current economic crisis, but at the very core, that is what has driven it all; fear that we will loose what we have, the greed to get more than what we need and then take a posture of defense to protect what we think we deserve to keep, which feeds into this whole warped idea of “defending our freedom”. We tout freedom as a value we hold most dear, but our actions around this have not been contiguous with what we preach; “defending freedom”. At least what I think of when I think of freedom.

I am just old enough to remember growing up on the tail end of the civil rights movement of the early 1960’s. I grew up in the South and did not realize or understand fully until much later in life the significance of that time period. I remember when the issue of “busing” came up in Cary, NC, where I was raised, and all of the resentment around that on both sides of the issue. Of course I was not affected directly in that I was white and lived in an affluent part of the county. I do remember the racist comments that were made about the African American students that were being bused from Raleigh to attend the school that I did. My school went basically from being less than 10% African American to close to 30% African American overnight. There was a lot of unjustified fear that was bred through all of that. Some of the white parents were convinced that we would all turn into drug addicts or be mugged in our school… The good news of course is none of that happened. In fact I ended up with some African American friends who enriched my life and went very quickly from being “that colored kid” to being simply my friend; the obvious differences in skin color quickly faded and we were just all people and didn’t notice or even care who or what color there was. I also remember during those years going on a school trip and driving into the town of Selma, NC where there was still a big bill board that said, “The Knights of the Klu Klux Klan welcome you to Selma, NC”. I remember one or two of my black friends seeing it and a look of fear coming over their faces as they sunk into their seats. Truly, their freedom was lost in that moment… I wish I could have defended their freedom then… If only I had known how…

So this brings me back to president elect Barack Obama… I have been watching with enthusiasm this week the festivities and excitement we are seeing in our nation over the outcome of our election. I have been moved by what all this really means. I think as a country we have finally “gotten it”. Not totally because Barack Obama is African American and we elected him, but because the type of change he is recognizing that we need as a country. I think he truly understands the fear that has driven our country to where it is now. I think he understands that in order for us to truly have freedom, we all need to have access to the same basic needs such as quality healthcare, education, housing and jobs. Until everyone has the basics, there is no way we can “pull ourselves up by the bootstraps” and have true freedom and liberty in our country. Poverty and the lack of basic needs nearly always breeds loss of empowerment. No empowerment causes fear; as does the other extreme of opulence and too much power.

I have to admit after the last two presidential elections, I have been disturbed with the direction of our country. It goes back to the whole fear approach that has been taken. No I have not forgotten 9/11 and the pain that event brought our country. I truly believe we need to defend ourselves from attackers; it’s a basic need of safety. But I do not agree that we should go to war to “defend our freedom” when we have not been willing to work together within our own borders to assure people basic necessities of healthcare, education and jobs. If you really want to provide freedom then we need to free people from poverty and lack of basic needs; along with the oppression of racism and hatred. And I am happy to say, I feel like we are on verge of beginning to accomplish that with our next president at the helm…

I can say now I am proud to be an American… When you see that a little over 52% of the people support a person as president that also just happens to be African American, we are finally getting it… Not because he is African American, but because of color blindness that it represents. When you see the celebration of his victory and look at the crowd to see a mixture of faces that are black, brown, yellow, red and white we are finally starting to get it… when you see the joy and elation of a 90 year old African American who has lived through some of our country’s worst oppression of racism, we are finally starting to get it… As I watched the celebration on election night I could hear, running through my mind, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, “…I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together…" And I believe, we have finally gotten it…
For that I am proud to be an American!!

Osman Hope, Inc... bringing hope to the children of Honduras.

Osman Hope is a non-profit ecumenical organization that is dedicated to eliminating the cycle of poverty in the country of Honduras. Osman Hope provides day shelters to the poorest of the poor children... Find out how you can help by sponsoring a child or providing a scholarship by visiting www.osmanhope.org

The heart of bailing out...

As I thought and prayed about what to say in this blog on this day of prayer, fasting and advocacy, I had originally planned to speak to the poverty we find here within the United States. Specifically, I was going to speak to the high rate of infant mortality that is truly an epidemic among poor African Americans here in my own State of Tennessee and across the rest of the nation. I was going to speak to the fact that this phenomenon is a replication of the plight of poor folks all over the world and how it is a matter of the “haves” and “have nots” living separate lives, even though we are next door to each other... but I will save that for another blog here soon.
Instead, I decided I would speak to the one thing that has been in our thoughts and minds all week; the “melt down of Wall Street”. Now I know some of you might be thinking I have gone off the deep end by daring to compare the collapse of the American economy with the plight of the extreme poor in the world. However, it occurred to me this week that the root of the turmoil on Wall Street and the existence of extreme poverty are absolutely related. The problem of ending extreme poverty in the world seems on the surface to be an issue of “not enough resources”. We know that it would only take 0.7% of the world’s wealth to put an end to extreme poverty. Yet there is something that keeps us that are living in privilege from doing that. And that “something” is a heart problem...
You see, both the collapse of the economy and the poverty of the world are symptoms of our mindset and general approach to life. We have let our greed infiltrate us to the core and take over our hearts. We have let our fear of loosing what we cling to pull us into the mire of avarice. The privileges we have been blessed with have become our curse. The God we say we worship and say we trust in is only a concept. We hold up “family values” and belief in God as what drives up. But our actions and way of life points to something different. The recent events of this week and last are the evidence for that... As my friend The Rev. Mike Kinman so eloquently put it, “we dole out resources to the poor with an eye-dropper...” Then we build monuments to the almighty dollar that has printed on its side, “In God We Trust”. It is truly the definition of irony...
The leaders of our country will be making some hard decisions this week about how we are going to handle the crisis with the economy. It is pretty poignant to think that at the same time that congress is debating in Washington what to do about bailing our Wall Street, that in New York, the leaders of the world will be discussing the crisis of extreme poverty. It is so incongruous. Nevertheless, it is really dealing with the same issue. It is a matter of the heart and taking a hard look at what we really value.
Even though I know it will not happen this week, but I have wondered something... What would our world be like if we were to bail out the people of poverty in the world with the same fervor as we are wanting to bail out Wall Street... What if... we spent 700 billion dollars on the Millennium Development Goals... My hunch is that if we did that, the turmoil in the Middle East would come to a screeching halt; terrorism would see a drastic decline; there might even be a decline in global warming! But most importantly, the hearts of men and women all over the world would be changed. We would be “transformed by the renewing of our minds”. Jesus said, “"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money...” (Mat. 6: 24-25) We have the opportunity to serve God. We have been serving money and look at that outcome...
My prayer on this day of advocacy for the Millennium Development Goals is that our nation and world will have a transformation. I pray that our leaders will have the insight and courage to truly trust in God and end the cycle of greed and poverty in the world. I pray too, that our hearts will be healed and that we will move from the fear of loosing what we think we are entitled, to becoming true stewards of what God has given us by his grace. I pray for forgiveness from the sin of greed. I pray for comfort to all those who suffer from hunger and poverty. Lord give us peace in the world and change our hearts. Help us to show your love through our actions. All this we ask in your name. Amen...

Osman Hope Mission 2008

This past month(July 19-27) eight people from across the US went to the country of Honduras for a mission trip to work in the Osman Hope Children’s Shelters. Glenna Depew, Gordon Brewer, “Sister” Brewer, Rebecca Brewer, Donna Adams, Brian Dennis, Kimberly Dennis and Ed Warnol went for a week of ministry in Honduras in all three of the shelters run by Osman Hope, Inc. Osman Hope partners with local churches to provide day shelters in Honduras for children living in extreme poverty. Osman Hope is an ecumenical non-profit organization committed to working toward the Millennium Development Goals. Osman Hope is dedicated to ending poverty in Honduras and Central America by providing, nutritional meals, safety from the streets, help with schoolwork and spiritual guidance to the poorest of the children of Honduras.
Honduras is a country of contrasts. On one hand you have a country that is filled with tropical forests, lush green mountains and abundant in beauty. On the other hand, it is a country in which the majority of the people live in extreme poverty on less than $2 a day. Honduras is the second poorest country in the Caribbean and the poorest of the Central American Countries. Most effected are the children. It is not untypical to have several young children left to fend for themselves for weeks at a time while their parents are out trying to find work and/or scrape out a meager existence just to support the family. It is also, not uncommon at all to find a 6 year old left to care for children younger than they are or even infants.
Our week was spent traveling first to the town of Santa Cruz de Yojoa located about an hour south of San Pedro Sula. In Santa Cruz is the largest of the Osman Hope shelters where about 50 children are served. We were able to help another group in working on a water tower to supply water for new “banos” (toilets) and showers for the shelter. The second half of the week was spent in San Pedro Sula and Villanueva working and playing with the children in those two shelters. (Incidentally, the shelter in Villanueva is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras) Glenna was able to use her expertise in organizing games, art projects and activities with the children. We had a great time playing and interacting with the children. It was truly a ministry of presence in that most of the kids get very little love and affection at home.
Another highlight of the trip was to visit a new project that Osman Hope has become involved with in an area outside of San Pedro Sula called Rivera Hernanadez. Rivera Hernandez is a slum area developed on a levee of what is called the Rio Negro (Black River or River of Pollution). The families are squatters, living illegally on government land. In the middle of this muddy and disease infested village is a church. The church is run by Pastora Maria Flores. Pastora Flores has started a children’s feeding program and young adult literacy project program in this area of Honduras. Osman Hope has made a commitment to help with this project by subsidizing their feeding program.
Whenever you return from travel outside of the country, it seems like it is only natural to need a few days just to be re-acclimated to what is familiar and “back in the groove” of life in general. Even though this was my fifth trip to Honduras, it always takes me a few months to reflect and get my brain around all that was seen and experienced. The extreme poverty we witnessed is truly overwhelming to see and experience. It would be very difficult for one single group or mission trip to make a major difference. But I truly believe that lives are changed and enriched by mission trips. Not only on the receiving end, but it is ten fold on the giving end. It would be fair to say that our lives are changed by having been in Honduras, interacting with the families and children we encountered. Sure, we were able to give some things away and provide a lot of fun activities for the children in the shelters. But he significant change came through building relationships and sharing in the lives of the people. As a result, in the words of St. Paul, we were “transformed by a renewing of our minds”. I can dare say, that for most of us in the group, we gained much more than we were able to give. At the same time, we felt God’s presence along the way as we attempted to minister to the children and families of Honduras.
For more information about Osman Hope you can visit the website: www.osmanhope.org or contact Gordon Brewer at lgordonb@charter.net.