Change this something normal into something beautiful

Earlier this week, I promised I'd write about the mailer I received from Lutheran World Relief. Seeing as it's Sunday, and that apparently I can no longer sleep for more than six hours at a time, now seems an appropriate time.

This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. (Isaiah 6-7, The Message)

LWR is working on a campaign entitled "Fill the Bowl." The goal: $500,000 raised to support current, successful food growing programs. These programs support food security (moving away from monocultures), sustainable agriculture (caring for the land as a way of improving crop yields), and emergency food aid (currently to assist communities in drought-stricken Niger).

There is a disconnect in our nation. We are obsessed with food. We frantically hunt for the best diet. We seek out new options to excite our dulled taste buds. We self-medicate by binging on sugar, and counteract by refusing to eat for days. We seek food that is easy, that is simple, that fuels us, that is cheap but that does not factor its true cost to society.

I do realize we're in an economic crisis. However, we've brought it upon ourselves. Our fuel costs are soaring--and we have an agricultural system based upon cheap oil. While it is tempting, as food costs escalate, to choose what has the cheapest price ticket at the grocery store, it is not sustainable. It is time to consider the true costs, and to see how those costs are affecting the rest of the world, a world fixated on food not because there are too many options, but because there are too few.

If Isaiah were writing today, I think his words might be something like this:
The fast I choose is this: Each day, as much as possible, to consciously avoid foods which perpetuate the endless cycle of injustice. With this fasting I will choose foods which support the local economy, which promote fair trade, which elevate small-scale farmers rather than large corporations. Join me. Your food choices, do, in fact, help you to feed the hungry. Consider others beyond yourself.

I chose to include the devotional from Isaiah that the LWR flier uses because, once again, I feel that many Christians are neglecting to view food and food policy as an essential element of social ministry. Do justice. It is easy to send away a donation (and I do encourage it; please visit LWR). But the broader view--seeing that food choices impact local farmers, undercut societal traditions, devastate the environment--this is a view that is gathering momentum, but it is not moving quickly enough.

It's not meant to be easy. But true justice rarely is.


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Now playing: Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light

Don't ask twice if you don't wanna know

To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of creation. When we do it knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, destructively, it is a desecration.
...Wendell Berry

Sometimes I get frustrated.
Me, frustrated? NO. Never.
Anyway, my frustration stems from the fact that many around me do not seem to understand why sound environmental policy, and particularly food policy, is an essential element of Christian ministry. Christians are starting to realize that their voting should look beyond abortion and homosexuality and embrace a platform that is truly pro-life. Many are concerned about urban poverty, about education, about foreign policy.

But why, oh why are we forgetting food policy?

I think it's because it's so easy to overlook. But it is such an essential part of ministry. Feasting plays a large role in both the OT and the NT. Jesus knew the role of food in ministry. He was always sitting down with people. And I'm betting his first priority was not "cheap."

And so that's why I've introduced the quote at the top of this blog as my email signature. It is a reminder that God gave us the gifts of creation. He blessed us with the ability to be discerning in what we choose to eat. When we take the time to consider what we eat--how it was grown, how it will be cooked, whether we choose to sit down with friends or grab it on the run--we acknowledge the wonder that is all around us, and we give thanks for it, and we remember that it is our job to honor and glorify creation. But when we consider food to be just a simple refueling exercise, meant to satisfy us temporarily at the lowest possible price, we damage both our bodies and the world around us.


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Now playing: Keith Urban - Where the Blacktop Ends
via FoxyTunes

I am but one small instrument

People say, "What good can one person do? What is the sense of our small effort?" They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time. We can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our hearts that will vitalize and transform all our individual actions, and know that God will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes.

- Dorothy Day
from Loaves and Fishes

Loaves and fishes, the subject of our gospel on Sunday and the bible study this week.

How many times I have asked myself...what's the point? What's the point in me recycling a can, paying more for organics, scootering instead of driving? After all, this is a city in which people freely toss cans and bottles in the garbage can (unthinkable to most west-coasters), a nation in which most people strive to find the best bargain on foodstuffs, a population who believes it to be their unalienable right to drive the biggest gas-guzzlers possible. What good does my individual effort really do?

Some days I'm tempted to just let go of the fight. Washing my tin cans is so much more time consuming than tossing them in the garbage sack, and if I didn't pay so much for my groceries, I could probably afford more shoes. When thoughts like these cross my mind, it makes me realize that these choices I make really do stem from my faith, in particular my biblical sense of justice.

God grants us life. God allows us the freedom to choose, from choosing faith right on down to choosing to drink from a disposable water bottle. But God also tells us, over and over, to care for the poor. To do all we can for those that have the quietest voice. To DO justice. I am fortunate enough to both have a voice and be able to make choices. What kind of faith would I be living if I were to not consider the rest of the world, who has no ability to protest when their soils are degraded, their staple food prices too high to purchase, or their waters are polluted?

And so, bit by bit, I consciously make choices that I often feel have absolutely no impact on the wider world. I'm trying to make them more and more, but it's extremely difficult some days (after all, I really do love shoes). But when I interact with others making those small contributions, I'm reminded that I'm not alone. And God gave me a voice. Others may tire of hearing it, but it's a call, a mission, a ministry.

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Now playing: Sherwood - We Do This To Ourselves
via FoxyTunes

The lifting up of my hands as an offering to you

And what are you doing for Lent?

Ashley Braun on Gristmill suggests putting our faith into action and reconciling not only with God but with our tendency to harbor "green guilt." (This is, of course, supposing that you DO harbor any guilt for not replacing all your incandescent lightbulbs with CFLs or for tossing that soda can into the garbage a few weeks back). What can we do in this Lenten season? Why, how about rather than giving up chocolate--I mean, really, who wants to deal with chocolate-deprived individuals--or abstaining from alcohol, for no real purpose other than to cloak ourselves with self-deprivation, how about instead we give up something that can help to promote justice in the world?

For instance, rather than giving up on chocolate (which has quite a few valuable antioxidants) why not, for these 40 days of Lent, only eat chocolate that is sold with a fair-trade label? You probably won't be able to indulge, but when you do, you'll know that the cocoa you purchase will go toward helping someone climb out from poverty, rather than continuing to perpetuate a system of economic injustice. Coffee drinker? If you're not already only drinking fair trade after hearing one of my many impassioned pleas, make that your Lenten vow.

Fair trade not your issue? If you want to reduce carbon emissions, designate one day of the week "car free". If you're concerned about the long-term effects of industrial agriculture on our soils, be like the Catholics and go meat-free one (or two or three!) days per week. If you want to change the bigger picture, decide to volunteer once a week for a political campaign (what are you "giving up"? Free time).

The point is that the season of Lent is meant to be one of self-reflection and self-denial...but it's meant even more to be one of justice and reconciliation. Rather than simply try to give up something just to say that you can, take these forty days to work towards the bigger picture of justice.


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Now playing: Nightmare Of You - Dear Scene, I Wish I Were Deaf
via FoxyTunes

What You Ignore Is Priceless to Me

Good morning, all.

I just finished my reading of Galatians (kinda sad that six chapters took me so long; I guess it's clear that I haven't quite established a daily pattern). In chapter six, the parts that really stood out for me are the parts relating to the idea that we, as Christians, are to take the side of the oppressed and speak out for them. Paul also notes that we cannot allow ourselves to become fatigued by doing good--we must remember to care for ourselves, because if we are tired and worn down, how can we help others?

So now it is time to take the plunge and return to the Old Testament, starting with Genesis. Again, it feels as though I've read the first half of Genesis over and over, but it seems like it would be cheating to start at Exodus. Besides, I have a new perspective on the OT after an article my dad sent me, entitled Reading the Bible in Spanish.

Well, I wrote this on Saturday and it's now Wednesday, but I'm going to try to find my train of thought.

Reading the Bible in Spanish. No, not literally. Instead, reading the bible in Spanish means taking a different worldview than you might when you read the bible from a typical middle class US citizen perspective. Quite a bit of this article clicked when I read it. For instance, the concept that much of our "bible learning" in the states revolves around sweet little bible stories. In the OT, these would include: Creation, the plagues, the 10 commandments, the flood, David and Goliath, Jonah and the Whale...you know the ones I mean. I realized that these are mostly the extent of my bible literacy, too--me, a PK!

This article points out that when all we know about the bible involves a whitewash of purity and holiness, we find it hard to relate to the events and stories. After all, we're not often pure and holy. But if we take the time to read further into the OT, we'll find the grit...and that's when we'll start to realize that we, too, can be part of the people of God, because the bible is full of people who are utterly sinful, and God uses them as important building blocks.

But the part of the article that really drives home how important reading the OT should be is the part where the author stresses that the message of Jesus cannot truly be understood without knowledge of the message of the OT. In particular, the author reminds us that Jesus is meant to be more than simply a "spiritual savior," but rather he is the last in the line of a great prophetic tradition. Our salvation is not limited to a life after death, but it incorporates life today. The OT shows us a God who is all about JUSTICE, and without that reading, we forget that Jesus came to bring about justice, also.

Ok, my message is getting lost here, trying to do too many things at once. The point is that I've stopped putting off my reading of the Older Testament, and will try now to see that what I think I know is not all that there is to know.