Raymond A. Foss
Crossroads Emmaus, Walk to Emmaus #41
April 6, 2008
A couple of days after the Martin Luther King Day holiday, I took my daughters to elementary school.
I observed a troubling scene. I was just an on-looker. I do not know what was in the hearts of the children. Any conclusion is merely my own, based on how it appeared.
Two young boys, one tow-head white and one ebony-black, likely a refugee child from Africa who may not yet speak English, were waiting in line to go into school. The black boy was ahead of the white boy in line. The white boy was just a few inches taller, heavier. He was facing the other boy. His head was hooded. He had his right hand held on the front of the other boy’s throat. It looked to me like the way a pit-bull, or other similar dog or a big-cat grasps its prey, immobilizing it. The other boy, facing me, did not move. I was struck by the scene. It may have been about 10 seconds, at most, before I stepped in to stop it. The staff moved in at the same moment, moved the attacker, and kept him separated. The teacher was alerted to what happened.
The school did the right thing, as far as I could tell, responding quickly.
But what of the two boys? What lessons have they been taught that led to this assault? What lessons did they learn on the playground this day? How far have we come as a people, to achieve Dr. King’s dream? How color blind are we?
How should we as Christians respond to injustice, even at the local level? How should we respond to injustice around the world?
Changing our world involves four fields of ministry:
1) Self
2) Others
3) Your community
4) The World
Micah 6:8 provides a helpful framework for understanding what is required of us and how we will bring about change in these fields of Ministry.
Micah 6:8 reads
“What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice (community), love mercy (others), and walk humbly with your God (self)?”
This talk is about making a plan for changing our world: making the world a more Christ-centered, just, and loving community. You have heard about piety, study, action and about the world’s desperate need for Christ and Christian leadership. But how can you go about responding to the challenge?
G. K. Chesterton early in the last century once said: “The only thing wrong with Christianity is that nobody has ever tried it.”
For the next few minutes, I want to talk to you about not only trying it, but making a plan to successfully live it and help Christ make a difference in the world as well.
First Field of Ministry: Yourself
• Make a plan for anchoring ourselves spiritually
• Become firmly rooted in a relationship with God and Christian community
• Jesus is our Model
• A changed world begins with a changed self
- In this first field of ministry, we are called to walk humbly with our God. Before we set out to change the world, we must make a plan for anchoring ourselves spiritually. If you are going to bring change to the world, then you must begin by changing yourself.
There is an old Jewish story about a man who set out to change the world. In making his plan, he said to himself:
Basing myself on the Talmudic principle that if all men repented, the Messiah would come, I decided to do something about it. I was convinced I would be successful. But where was I to start? The world is so vast. I shall start with the country I know best, my own. But my country is so very large. I had better start with my town. But my town , too, is large. I had best start with my street. No: my home. No: my family. Never mind, I shall start with myself. (taken from Souls on Fire, by Elie Wiesel)
- Walk Humbly – like a servant, the washing of the feet – John 13:3-5, "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him."
- See the world differently, through Jesus’ eyes – The Good Samaritan – Luke 10:25-37, "Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
My plan –
1. Study the Word daily – Upper Room, Alive Now
2. Fellowship with Ruth – Couples Devotional
3. Prayer (still need to do better)
4. Worship
5. Sunday School
6. Neighborhood groups
7. Poetry
8. Email – Partners in Ministry, other list servers from the church
9. Speak out
Like Dan said in the Life of Piety talk near the beginning of this Walk to Emmaus, we must be grounded in these disciplines.
When we try to change the world without being firmly rooted in a relationship with God and Christian community, we can fall into traps.
Four Traps
1) The “Pharisee” – just the law
+ Because the Pharisee is not motivated by God’s grace, he or she is driven by rigid perfectionism and guided by legalism. The mission is perverted into forcing everyone into one’s own mold.
2) The “do-gooder” – needing to be needed
3) The “savior complex” – we can’t save the world alone
4) “Burned out” – not grounded, too many hats, too many meetings, etc.
Second Field of Ministry: Others
• We are called to love mercy
• Attitudes toward others will either open or close relationships as channels of grace
• Prayers for others are acts of love for others
• Friendship with others is the means by which you can share your life and offer Christ
• When hearts are won, support the change
- We are to show mercy – Like Jesus healing on the Sabbath – Luke 6:6-10, "On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him. Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” He got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?” After looking around at all of them, he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored."
- Or, judge not lest you be judged by the same measure – Matthew 7:1-5 "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye.”
- And – Who needs your witness?
- Do you affirm people?
- Live by our Social Principles (of the United Methodist Church), by our common creed
I came back to Christ in part because of the way my church lived out that Field of Ministry. In the fall of 2003, one of the ladies living in my apartment building was struggling with the impending death of her husband. I would sometimes drive her to his bedside. She didn’t know where to have the funeral. I asked her what denomination and she said United Methodist. I told her about our church, right next door to the apartment complex. She asked me to contact the church, which I did.
The service was wonderful (thank you Pastor Joel Guillemette); but, even more so, was the way the Hospitality Committee, the unsung ladies of the church, showed the love of Christ to this stranger, who turned out not to have been a Methodist at all. We laugh about how United Methodists are always eating. Well, I saw Christ in that ministry.
In the same way, I remember well my paternal grandmother, Jessie Aiken Watson Foss. She grew African violets and she baked cookies (seems to be a theme this weekend). She would deliver them all around the Springfield, MA area for years, delivering them to shut-ins. They even ran an article in the Springfield Union about the “Cookie Lady”.
My grandfather, whose name I carry as my middle name, Arthur, got a bit of mention too; you see he drove my grandmother for all those years. But he stayed in the car. His ministry was in being a servant to the servant.
Do you see the images on the right of the powerpoint screen there? They are there to remind me of some simple lessons.
1. Shopping cart – The shopping cart is there because a couple of weeks ago, I was a little bit convicted. I was rushing around, as usual, trying to get to the bank and the grocery store before getting home to get the girls from their schools. I started to leave my cart in the lot, right next to where I was parked. I almost was into the car, when I thought how easy it would be for me to go the 3 or 4 spaces to put it in the cart corral. Many of the workers who have to collect the carts have disabilities, it is just part of the reality. I claim to be a Christian, and an attorney who tries to advocate for the rights of the disabled in school. I had to put the cart into the corral.
2. The tie – This time is one of my favorites, out of the about 150 ties that I own. I often where it to court, to remind myself I am a Christian first. This is part of my 1st Field of Ministry (Myself), and how I use that grounding in my 2nd Field of Ministry (Others), reminding me of what I must do, and what I must not do.
I had to cross-examine a child once, who had accused my client of sexual abuse. That was no fun; but I had that tie on and the Holy Spirit with me that day. There were some questions I couldn’t ask. Prayer helped me through it.
Simple visible reminders, that I need, connected to that same verse from the prophet Micah.
Third Field of Ministry: Your Community
• We are called to do justice
• Our world does not consist of one-on-one relationships alone
• We influence our community in how we do or do not participate as a Christian
• Our mission is to help Christ alter our communities by being effective Christian influences in it
• Christ’s spirit should be evident in what we do and how we do it
- Like Jesus with the woman accused of adultery and about to be stoned; drawing a line in the sand and asking who is without sin, so they could cast the first stone
– John 8:2-11, "Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
- Like stepping in or not when the bully was acting on the school ground.
- Like taking reduced fee cases or not
- Like sharing our faith
- Or like Solomon – who asked for Wisdom, not for riches from God
See those scales of justice? That too is a reminder to me, based on my work, to strive for justice.
Remember too there is a lot of scripture in the old testament about unfair scales. And Jesus had something to say about scales in the temple.
Mission to East Machias, ME
These images on this slide represent the work our church did on the Mission trip to downeast Maine last summer.
We didn’t have a plan, but Pastor Betty Palmer sure did. We were the hands and feet of God.
- We scraped, and scraped, and primed, and painted a house
- We roofed a house
- We sorted donations at the thrift store
- We built a ramp
But, and this is the most important part, we always came together, at the beginning of our day and at the end of the day, in fellowship, around the circle, around the cross of Christ
Fourth Field of Ministry: The World
I have included images of:
1. New Orleans after Katrina
2. A Mission team from Minnesota
3. A picture of starving children in Africa, off UMC pages
4. A graphic of the UMCOR, and
5. An image of the Nothing But Nets campaign, trying to get Malaria nets for all of the at risk populations in Africa
All of these are ways both financially and with our hands, we can minister to the whole world
And these are just a small set of options.
- our community is as big as the world
- Together we can make a difference
- Hope comes from trying
Something we need to remember - The validity of our witness is not in immediate results.
“Some will plant,
some will water,
and some will harvest”
1 Corinthians 3:8
Micah 6:15
You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
1 Cor. 3:5-9 – "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building."
Look at the faith of Abraham.
It was centuries before it was fulfilled; but it was faith that mattered, not the works themselves
– Genesis 12:1-4a, "Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.”
and Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, "What then are we to say was gained by* Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.. . . For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
Conclusion
• What will be your plan?
• What can you do now that will make a difference?
The image of a map, a plan, reminds us to be conscious that we need to follow the urging of the prophet Micah, as Christ’s hands, his feet, his voice in the world.
De Colores!
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Poetry Where You Live.
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