Relationships- The Glue of Humanity

So what do you do in the summer?

As a teacher I hate that question because I always assume that it is seeded with contempt that I've got three months of vacation.  First of all, June 15 to August 15 is not three months.  Second, I don't just lay around the house all summer catching up on the soaps or lounge by the pool all day.

This week, the first full week of summer vacation I traveled with twenty-two teenagers to Southeast Roanoke.  While there, we ran a day camp for children in a rather neglected community.  I got to watch a sixteen year old spend her mornings working with a three-year old autistic child.  I saw a fourteen year old deal with a child who came to camp every day with a different name.  A rising eigth grader bonded with a third-grader who still showed the effects of an unlucky birth to a crack-addicted mother.  We painted the porch of a WWII veteran because his elderly neighbor cared enough to seek out help and struggles against the odds to make a neighborhood neglected by the city look presentable again.  We entered the house of a woman who had a hard time getting rid of things, and help her pack things away and clean up her house.  Calming her anxiety was a bigger struggle that sorting through the accumulated stuff.

I learned last week that relationships are the glue that holds humanity together and when relationships are neglected or put on the backburner for other things-- humanity breaks apart.  I went to the home of one elderly lady.  When she started down the front porch steps to meet me I was afraid that she would fall.  Her feet were too sore for shoes.  Looking down I could see that her greatest need might be as simple as someone to trim her nails.  A lawn mower sat in the lawn, but grass was growing over its deck.  Her mental health matched her physical health.  She didn't understand that we were offering our services for free.  She insisted that her grandson would take care of it.  He is a landscaper.  He just cant work on her lawn as long as he has paying jobs that take the time.  Her neighbor knew her two sons.  Apparently they were alcoholics that caused her more harm than good.  In this poor old woman, I saw a soul without another soul to care for her.  Society has neglected her.  No one desires to have a relationship with this lady.

The veteran that I mentioned before, he's no better off.  He was so eager to share stories and talk, probably more so than getting his porch painted.  It seemed that his only companion was the nurse who came to his house every day to take care of him. 

We spent our week in a pocket of poverty.  It wasn't as bad as it could get, but compared to my lifestyle it was bad.  These pockets are easy to overlook.  They're out of the way.  We keep them clustered away from the paths that we cross daily.  As long as we have food on our table and clothes on our back, we can lay our heads in our comfortable beds and sleep well at night without a thought for the children who aren't sure what if anything they will eat for breakfast in the morning.  When we grab a to go cup of coffee and drive to our next destination it's easy to forget the poor old lady who can't get around because she can't get shoes over her untrimmed toenails. 

We drive by, we walk by, we fly over, but we seldom stop.  Stop to just see and hear America, the world.  Outside of our immediate five senses we allow ourselves to become ignorant of the reality of life.  We build an excellent buffer with our nicely trimmed lawns, personal automobiles, membership only swimming pools, and comfortable if not pretentious churches.  A buffer that we mistake for reality to mask and hide the ugly realities that we'd rather not think about.

It's not that we should all be considering "selling everything and giving it to the poor", at least I'm not so sure that Jesus meant that command for everyone.  It's easy to think that our job is to go in and fix the problems.  Jesus didn't do it that way.  Jesus entered our humanity and lived it with us, and continues to live it with us.  He didn't die to end human suffering, he died to enter suffering with us so that we may overcome in time.  He performed many miracles, but he didn't end poverty, hunger, or oppression.  He endured poverty, hunger, and oppression.  By doing so he intertwined the fate of humanity with the fate of the divine.  He created relationship with the world.

That is true relationship.  Enduring the hardship and walking alongside those in need.  Being willing to suffer with another and not just thinking that because I wear better clothes, have my own car, and extra cash on top of it that I can just use my resources to rescue others from their difficulties.  Whether it is poverty of the mind, body, economy, or soul, none of us possess the ability to rescue another but through our willingness to live life together in genuine relationships with others.  Relationships that intertwine our fate with the fate of others.

Relationship is the glue that holds humanity together.  I would bet that where we find humanity in ruins, not just places where people are poor but places that seem empty of hope, we also find that the root of that ruin lays in broken and unhealthy relationships.

That's what I've done and learned so far this summer.  I've got a few adventures still ahead.  I like seeing the counter numbers and site traffic climb when I post frequently, but lately I've gotten comfortable knowing that when I only get around to posting only every few weeks or once a month I'm only going to get a few readers.  But I've got a lot to do if I really believe what I just wrote about relationships.  I'll try to post a few more times this summer if you're interested.  I've got a few family trips, a week at a youth camp, and a big U2 concert to attend this summer. 

So what do you do in the summer?

Justice and Mercy Redux

Over the summer I posted a link to a sermon I gave at our church.  The text for the sermon was Micah 6:8 and the title "Justice and Mercy."  I also noted in a previous post that our church staff is currently involved in a study using the Kairos Lifeshapes tools.  The most recent shape we've looked at is the triangle as a tool for managing our relationships.

The three basic relationships in our lives are up, in, and out.  Up refers to our relationship with God, in to our relationship with a closer circle of friends, and out to our relationship with the larger world.  Jesus reflects this balance in his relationships, spending focused time alone with God, time in the company of a few disciples, and time among the crowd.  It only makes sense that we would strive for the same type of balance in our own lives.

The resource we use for this study compares the angles of the triangle to the three commands from Micah 6:8.  At first I didn't see the connection, and even felt like I had spent time trying to understand Micah 6:8, and this didn't seem to fit with my understanding.  The connection between walking humbly with Our God and the "up" portion of the triangle seems obvious.  But acting justly being an outward focus and loving mercy being an inward focus doesn't fit quite as nicely.

But then I got it.  Just last month I posted a video of Cornell West on the Colbert Report with a little commentary.  One of the quotes I shared was as follows: "Justice is what love looks like in public, just like tenderness is what it looks like in private."  If the "out" angle of the triangle represents how we relate to the world, this makes perfect sense--Justice is what love looks like in public.  And the "in" angle of the triangle represents how we relate to those we are closest to--Tenderness is what it looks like in private. (I'm taking liberty of associating tenderness and mercy)  The power to do both comes from the love of God which we draw from our upward relationship because after all, God is Love (1 John 4:8 & 16).

So may we learn to balance the relationships in our lives, acting justly in the world, showing mercy to those we love, and walking humbly with our God.

West, Colbert, and a Fresh Perspective on Love

I ran across this video of an interview with Cornel West by Stephen Colbert.  I don't watch very much Colbert, and I've only heard of Cornel West.  After watching this, I'm inclined to learn a little more about Dr. West.  The clip is well worth the watch, and just under seven minutes long.  I've paraphrased some of my favorite quotes below.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Cornel West
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West says I don't want social engineering, I want social justice.  Social justice is allowing for the love to flow so that poor people have the same dignity as investment bankers.
-How many people vilify the poor who live off the government but somehow think it's ok to bailout failed businesses.  What is the difference in a beggar who chooses to make a living off of handouts and an unscrupulous businessman/woman who chooses to make a living by exploiting others.  It seems that one is honest about his or her intentions while the other succeeds in wearing a veneer of respectability.

Colbert summarizes a point of West's book, Hope on a Tightrope saying "I hope things will get better, but I have no proof.  Optimism is evidence-based."
-This is a beautiful description of hope and how it leads us to strive to make things better.  Too much optimism leads to complacency-- hope drives us to action.

I'm a militant for tenderness.  Justice is what love looks like in public, just like tenderness is what it looks like in private.  Love is a steadfast commitment to the well-being of others.
-We've bought the lie about love.  We've grown to think love is something self-serving and self-gratifying.  We love because of what we get out of it and when we stop getting, we fall out of love.  We think love is a feeling and forget that it is wrapped up in expression.  No wonder we're left empty when the feeling is forgotten.  Without the expression, the feeling has no power.  We've forgotten what love is.

³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
 ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
 ⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

 1 Corinthians 13

 I don't know what kind of a person Cornel West is, but in seven minutes he's made an impression that will last.  May he find the path of God's blessing and spread the message of love to the world.

Justice and Mercy

For quite some time, I have been taken by Micah 6:8. I imagine quite a few people would cite it as their favorite verse:

He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

Justice and Mercy. I could spend hours thinking on the relationship between these two ideals. At once I think that justice is the opposite of mercy. If I am held accountable for my wrongs, how do I see mercy. But if I show mercy, justice is excused.

But then I imagine that if someone has done me wrong, and continues to beat me down, without justice, I will not know mercy.  Justice toward the oppressor may in fact be mercy toward the oppressed.

Only this week, I found these words from Micah echoed in the words of Jesus from Matthew 23:

But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.

I imagine that justice, mercy, and faithfulness relate to each other in an intricate way and that the context in which Jesus refers to them should shed more light on this relationship.  It is easy to dwell on justice at times, and mercy at others-- especially depending on the circumstances of our lives.  But perhaps standing alone, they cannot be understood at all.