How do I rate the weekend retreat? Well, I’ll give it a 70. I’m glad I went; I got a chance to chat with a few guys and get to know them better; but I have a strong feeling I’m not on the same page as most of them. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just something to sort out. I’ll probably talk more about this in the future, but for now I’ll leave it at that.

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The one hook both groups readily latched onto was the spiritual angle. There is a habit for Scripture to speak of spiritual matters through physical metaphors, and this is something we evangelicals seem to be good at catching onto. We read words like

He has demonstrated power with his arm; he has scattered those whose pride wells up from the sheer arrogance of their hearts.

He has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up those of lowly position; he has filled the hungry with good things, and has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel, remembering his mercy, as he promised to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.

and we see the spiritual realm. We see the spiritually hunger being filled with Living Water and the Bread of Life. We see the spiritually proud being cast down in judgment, while the lowly are lifted up. This we can identify with. We get spiritual hunger and poverty; we understand spiritual pride. This is how we understand such passages of scripture. Such an understanding is right… but incomplete.

Yes, passages such as this express hope for a spiritual liberation from spiritual poverty and hunger, but they also express hope for a physical liberation from physical poverty and hunger. It is yet another “both-and” of which I am so fond. So, how to we live in light of this double-edged perspective?

My suggestions in the class centered on seeing, serving, and shopping.

Seeing the Poor

For many of us this is the first step. We live in the burbs, work in the burbs, shop in the burbs, etc. We can go weeks without seeing our next door neighbor much less someone who suffers. Our media is sanitized, ever turning our eyes upward – no, not to God, but rather to those higher up the social ladder, those whom we are told we must strive to emulate.

Instead, we must be intentional in our efforts to see the poor. This means we must choose sources of information that will tell the stories of those who suffer. Newsletters from organizations such as World Vision or Compassion International, for example, open our eyes. On a smaller scale, but doing no less good, are charities like Tijuana Christian Mission, and the thousands of others who work quietly around the world lifting up the lowly and filling the hungry.

In the class I shared some stats from Global Rich List:

• The bottom 10% of the world’s population live on $400 a year
• The bottom 50% of the world’s population live on $850 a year
• In 2004, the US federal poverty level for a family of 5 was approx. $22K; that is in the top 11% of the world’s income
• My own income, approx. $45K, is in the top 1.5% of the world’s income

Seeing the poor and changing our perspective is the first step.

Serving the Poor

“The work we do may not save ourselves, but it might save another.”

The next step is action. It can be as simple as sponsoring one of those children you see at the aforementioned charity websites. Or, you can get local, and volunteer at one of your city’s soup kitchens of shelters. Next vacation, go on a mission trip instead of to Disney World. The impact of such an experience will last far longer than the souvenirs. To tease you into coming back (and to get me writing regularly again) I’ll tell you what I recently did in my neighborhood in another post.

[BONUS] Here’s one I didn’t share in the class, because I didn’t have my act together enough to put together handouts or slides. How about supporting the (Red)emption Campaign? I’ve mentioned it before, and it’s only $10… Canadian! Act now, and your donation will be matched dollar-for-Canadian-dollar.

A good friend of me has said something to this effect on more than one occasion: “The work we do may not save ourselves, but it might save another.” Words to live by there. In serving the poor we are allowing Christ to re-incarnate in our lives, and continue the work of ushering in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Shopping Differently

OK, this last one I threw out there on a whim. We had just watched the Walmart movie, and so I wanted to see what kind of reaction I’d get. My goal here was to get people thinking about how they live and how that lifestyle might unwittingly be oppressing others. For example, have we ever wondered how Walmart (or any other big box suburban retailer) can afford to sell their stuff so cheaply? The same question can be asked of our restaurant food. (I watched Supersize Me last night.) This is an area I’m just just starting to explore, so I didn’t have any answers; mostly I was sharing the questions in my own head.

“May It Be”

My goal here was to drive home Mary’s courageous faith as expressed in her simple statement of acceptance. I asked folks to share any stories they had about teen mothers. (I asked folks to talk about “a friend” regardless of the true relationship, since there was no established trust of confidence.) To these stories I added some recent statistics, such as:

• More than 75 percent are on welfare within five years of the birth of their first child
• Only about one teenage mother in four ever completes high school
• Seven out of ten marriages fail among women who had a baby while in their teens

A picture of hardships and struggles quickly becomes clear.

Then I tried to take us back in time. Back before women’s lib when women went from their father’s household to their husband’s household with little to no freedom to choose otherwise. Back before the sexual revolution which has altered society’s reaction to sex and childbearing out of wedlock. (Whatever your ultimate opinion and judgment on these social movements, the above is undeniable.) Back before WIC, Medicaid, and the other social programs that provide assistance to teen mothers. I tried to take us back to a poor girl from a poor family in a poor town, a girl who was suddenly pregnant for reasons most would assume was adultery and who didn’t know what the reaction of her parents or husband would be. This was the girl who said, “May it be unto me as you have said.”

“He Will Cast Down Rulers”

The reason, I argued, that she could say “May it be” is because she believed what the angel said to her. She believed that her son would be the long-awaited Davidic king who would cast out the oppressors and restore Israel to her glory. The hope was expressed in her magnificent song, the… er… Magnificat. I talked about how Mary’s song was rooted in her nation’s expectations for the Messiah, and how these same themes are expressed in Jesus mission statement, Luke 4 quoting Isaiah 61 back in his home town. After doing a little bit of history and such, I got to the tough question:

How do we, wealthy suburbanites, identify with this thread of liberation that runs throughout the Messianic story without – and here’s the key – super-spiritualizing the whole idea? That is, to say the Scriptures talk about spiritual liberation and freedom from spiritual oppression is accurate… but incomplete. We cannot strip away the physical component without neutering and fundamentally changing the Gospel. So, how do we pray and live out this story of physical liberation when we are not physically oppressed?

I’ll share my answer to this question in another post.

The first class turned our to be mostly my support group: Kerri, a couple who are among our dearest friends, and one young lady whom I didn’t know. The hour went well, and my nerves settled…

…because the announcement made during the first service was effective. I had nine in the second class and didn’t know a one. No problem, though. The hour went well. One nice lady thinks I should teach a class every Sunday! I don’t know about that, but I’ll definitely look into something again.

Studio 60 is about to come on, so I’ll share what I talked about later.