Together

This is an assigned response to Paul Louis Metzger’s important post entitled Lessons from Baltimore and the Bible: Work with the People, Not for the People.  Dr. Metzger quotes Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed to support his position, and while taking issue with many of Freire’s concepts I will offer a couple valuable Freire quotes of my own.

Are outside experts and problem-solvers the answer or part of the problem? In many places around the world, this is more than an academic question. From Baltimore to Bangladesh and beyond there are people suffering injustice. Will we be moved by compassion to advocate for them or with them? It makes a difference. 

Jesus sent his disciples out two at a time to establish the truthfulness of their witness, but also perhaps to teach us something about kingdom work—that it is to be done together. A partnership between those sent and the people of peace in each place to which they are sent. Hospitality and a "dwelling with" that mutually honors and respects the other as the kingdom of heaven breaks out in their midst.

God in the Trinitarian community of himself does everything as one and yet together as three, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…’.” (Gen. 1:26). Jesus, God the Son, did nothing on his own, but only what he saw the Father doing (John 5:19-20) and was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:22; 4:1).

Too often, those with the privilege of resources, education, and mobility, try to fix the circumstances of suffering experienced by those without privilege alone. There can be a bit of a messiah complex about our efforts if we think we are the answer. While it is right to show compassion to those who are oppressed in one way or another, we should not make the assumption that the person needs our help more than we need theirs. Our western, dominant-culture, problem-solving approach has a tendency to minimize the strengths and knowledge already present in an oppressed, under-resourced, or marginalized community. In our defense, we realize that we have freely received and desire to pay it forward by freely giving. Yet, despite good intentions, this may result in maintaining our own power and privilege at the expense of those whom we seek to help. Freire calls this false generosity and contrasts it with the true,

In order to have the continued opportunity to express their "generosity," the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well. An unjust social order is the permanent fount of this "generosity," which is nourished by death, despair, and poverty. That is why the dispensers of false gen­erosity become desperate at the slightest threat to its source… True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity.  False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the "rejects of life," to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these hands—whether of individuals or entire peoples-need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world. [1]

Listen First, Help Second

Why do we assume that we know best? Why do we presume that our answers are better than what others might come up with on their own? How can we diagnose a situation accurately when we don’t listen well and connect symptoms with historical and contextual causes?

The man or woman who proclaims devotion to the cause of liberation yet is unable to enter into communion with the people, whom he or she continues to regard as totally ignorant, is grievously self-deceived.[2]

In a recent sermon, I likened judgmentalism to a type of spiritual king-of-the-mountain game, where we try to climb to the top—the supposed place of God’s favor—by criticizing and judging others. At best such behavior is merely an emotional sleight-of-hand for certainly, God’s kingdom doesn’t play by such rules. I mention this here because if we are going to truly help others and work for the peace and justice that pleases God, we have to start by humbling ourselves and considering others as inferior no longer (2 Cor. 5:16), but as equals… or betters (Philippians 2:3).

Another of Dr. Metzger’s favorite sources (and mine), Dr. John Perkins wrote,

There is an old Chinese poem that illustrates the felt-need concept very clearly:

Go to the people

Live among them

Learn from them

Love them

Start with what you know

Build on what they have:

But of the best leaders

When their task is done

The people will remark

“We have done it ourselves.”

Felt needs are different from person to person and place to place, and in order to do ministry effectively, you will need to discover and identify these needs.[3]

Jesus did not complete his work of redemption from a distance, but to use Perkins’ term “relocated” and became one of us, taking our problems upon him, to set us free from ourselves so that we might be able to live free together.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

I wonder about something else. Without denying the omniscience of the Lord, were the first 30 years of Jesus' life spent listening to and experiencing the human condition (together with us) before he began speaking the good news of God's solution?

---

[1] Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 44-45.
[2] Freire, 61.
[3] John Perkins, Beyond Charity: The Call to Christian Community Development [Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition], 35.

Judgment in 3-D

[This post was originally posted on my Psalms blog, to read more devotional posts from Psalms, follow this link Honest2God.]

Psalm 28:3-5
Do not drag me off with the wicked,

                                      with the workers of evil,
            who speak peace with their neighbors
                           while evil is in their hearts.
        Give to them according to their work
                      and according to the evil of their deeds;
        give to them according to the   work of their hands;
                                        render them their due reward.
       Because they do not regard the works of the Lord
                                               or the work of his hands,
                                he will tear them down

                                    and build them up no more.

This passage starts with the psalmist expressing his dependence on the mercy of God for deliverance, then turns toward prayer for the Lord to judge the wicked in the sure knowledge that God will do so, and by verse 6 he is once again praising God for answering his prayer.

Dragged Off (v. 3)

David's request, "Do not drag me off with the wicked" can only be depended on if we are not the same as the wicked workers of evil.  We should not be self-deceived into thinking that we can be wicked and not suffer the wrath of a holy and loving God. 

Verse three's use of the word "drag" reminds me of several scenes in the old Whoopi
Goldberg movie "Ghost." 

It powerfully depicted the moment when an evil person died and demons came up out of the sidewalk and dragged their screaming soul off to hell. It was a graphic and memorable image in the midst of an otherwise forgettable movie. A more wholesome illustration is the scene from the Muppet Christmas Carole in which the late Marley brothers appear to Scrooge...wrapped in the chains of their own misdeeds and warn him to repent. David's request to not be dragged off was not a request for an exception in God's justice, but a poetic commitment to follow in the ways of the Lord by faith.

God is our saving refuge, our shepherd! To paraphrase Romans 8:37-39, nothing can drag us away from his love. Similarly, Jesus made it clear that if we hear and respond to his voice, none can snatch us from his hand! As it is written,

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. (John 10:27-29)

Due Reward (v.4)

The Lord’s cycle of reward and recompense is sure…though it may not come full circle in this life. What remains will be settled completely in the next. This reward (or recompence in this case) is just because it is “according to”. God will match his response to the person “according to” the three synonymous phrases “their work”, “the evil of their deeds”, and “the work of their hands”, the bill of sin is due and judgment will come.

However, if we think we can approach God and demand justice to be meted out, we may be setting ourselves up for a fall, since what we need personally is mercy. Our own righteousness is insufficient and we can only fall before a holy God and ask for forgiveness. Jesus taught that “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7) However, those who refuse the mercy of God and show no mercy to others but instead oppress and abuse them will receive their due reward. It will not be one that anyone in their right mind wants to collect and in fact, many spend their life self-medicating in an effort to forget for another hour that such a judgment is coming. It is so much easier to cry out to God like David did and allow God to call forth the response of faithful love in our hearts.

So should we advocate for justice? Absolutely. However the justice we should work for as flawed human beings is restorative rather than retributive. It is not our place to condemn others to an eternal fate but to call them to repentance. It is a merciful justice that advocates for mercy to be extended to those who are oppressed and marginalized by the selfishness of our society.

Downward Destruction (v.5)

God will not regard the work of the wicked and proud person but will oppose it. Verse 5 says,

      Because they do not regard the works of the Lord
                                                or the work of his hands,
                                he will tear them down

                                    and build them up no more.

There are some people who don’t value what God has created, sustained, and redeemed. They deny the existence (or at least the relevance) of God in the creation of the universe. They mock the redemptive work of God in the lives of former sinners. Their actions, attitudes, and words work to tear down what God has raised from the dust. But God will finally respond in kind by opposing their work and tearing it down.

Throughout ancient history, we can see God tearing down empires, nations, and social structures that do not regard his works: Babel, Egypt, Canaan, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and even Israel at times. Is it not still the way of things...that oppressive regimes are judged as God raises up a justice movement from within or by other nations from without? 

While it is easy to see sin in the lives of other individuals, other churches, other cities, and other countries, we need to take a second look at our own lives, etc., and make sure that we approach God and others in the humility of faith and the purity of merciful justice.

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:5b-7)

If we don't then we will collectively be at risk of receiving the kind of message from God that Pharaoh once did...

Locust Swarm in Australia

So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country, and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land. And they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day.’” Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh. (Exodus 10:3-6)

If we lift ourselves up then God in his love will bring us down, and if we are low in our own eyes then God will lift us up…higher than we would ever have imagined. We can trust him with our lives! And in that trust, we will pursue justice on behalf of others.

Beelzebul in Baltimore?

This post is an assigned response to Paul Louis Metzger’s post, Baltimore and Beyond: Cities that Wait for the Storm Cloud to Blow Over May Blow Up about dealing with the racialized economic structures in many large cities.

Dr. Metzger quotes at length from then-Republican Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech in his failed campaign against the Democrat Stephen A. Douglas regarding the problem of America's division over the issue of slavery. Lincoln quoted the Bible, Matthew 12:25, “A house divided against itself cannot stand” to make the point that being half slave and half free would not allow the United States to long survive. Lincoln’s conclusion is interesting in that he doesn’t predict the fall of the Union but for the issue to be decided one way or the other. He wasn’t reading off of the establishment's political teleprompter at the time. He lost the senate campaign but won the next presidential election. Perhaps his theology of the Union was galvanized in this early speech that would give him the iron will to fight a very long and devastating war to preserve the union.

Let’s look a bit closer at the passage Lincoln and Metzger referenced.

But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? (Matthew 12:24-27)

In context, the Pharisees were annoyed because Jesus kept healing the sick and delivering the demon-oppressed, and often it was on the Sabbath. People were now giving voice to the idea that Jesus might be the messianic “Son of David.” Since the Pharisees couldn’t dispute the historicity of the miracles (they could see the dramatic results for themselves) they had to contest the source of Jesus’ power. They demonized him—literally. Beelzebul, meant “Baal the lord” a name that originally had been changed to “Beelzebub” referring to “the Lord of the flies”, but had come to be a nickname for the source of personal evil, the accuser, Satan. As R. Kent Hughes comments,

“The heart of the Pharisees and scribes was so hard they said in essence, ‘Yes, Jesus has done a miracle, but only because he is in league with Satan, the Lord of the flies, the God of dung and carrion.’ It was a calculated blasphemy of immense perversity.” (Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth Vol. 1, 426)

This verse makes me think because sometimes being single-minded as individuals can produce a divided household, divided city, or divided nation. Jesus uses this argument not to defend the unity of Satan’s kingdom but simply to point out that it would be a stupid strategy for Satan to use. Ultimately Satan’s kingdom is divided and the kingdom of God is not. So how do we move from our individual wholeheartedness and move toward a greater unity that befits the kingdom of heaven?

What if all our particular callings are supposed to fit together to form one complete multi-faceted gem through which the nations enter? If this is to happen we must learn to give space for the passions which God has placed in the hearts of others. We can and should remain energetic and enduring in whatever lentil field the Lord has placed us (2 Sam. 23:11-12) even if not glamorous. At the same time, we can extend care, respect, and much-needed encouragement to others in their respective fields. Isaiah 5 says that the rich add field to field until they dwell alone in the land. What if we did the opposite, giving away fields until we dwell together with our brothers and sisters in the land of promise?

Israel had its share of inter-tribal conflict and misunderstanding. Some conflicts were unavoidable (Judges 19-20 War against the Benjaminites) where righteous action needed to be taken, while others were not and could be resolved through gracious speech and merciful listening (Joshua 22's Altar of Witness). My point here is that there are some convictions that divide and will always divide. But much division comes from fear and misunderstanding and needs to be worked through. Often such fear can arise when we sense we are losing power and control through the advocacy efforts of others. But there is nothing to fear from the pursuit of justice so why do we get uptight?

So how do we advocate for others instead of being apathetic or even resistant to their efforts? How do we support and encourage the work of others without becoming ineffective in our own fields? Well for starters, let's stop rebuking or demonizing those who are doing the work of God outside of our control (Luke 9:49-50).

In John 8:49-51 we see Jesus answering this charge,

Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

We need to seek to glorify God in all areas of our lives and communities. Metzger challenges us to consider those structural injustices that we at best often fail to notice and at worse seem to support.

Do we believe Jesus is who he said he was? There is no escaping his claims. Do we take his social justice commands seriously? We can't be neutral or undecided.

“Given the massive claims of Jesus, neutrality is a self-deceiving ruse. His claims are so great that protestations of neutrality are in fact declarations of disbelief. Further, no one’s life is neutral in its effects.” (Hughes, Luke, 429)

Is it possible that justice claims are that clear?

Beelzebul may be at work in Baltimore...but it is not in the way that we might think. Jesus was for everyone, and we should be as well. It may not be our context or experience but we should consider how we can carry one another's burdens (Gal. 6:2),