Humanity

Sometimes it's easy to think that as humans we've evolved in a sense. Looking at the advances in technology, political theory, relief work, and even the way humans interact. Take for instance the way the world responded to the crisis in Haiti. A 7.5 earthquake devastates the country, and the whole world comes to the rescue. But if things are progressively getting better, then how do we account for the pain that comes at the hands of other human beings? In Uganda, there are men kidnapping children to have them fight a bloody horrible war. Or in Burma, the National Army could literally go from village to village seeking out ethnic minorities in order to cleanse the national population. What about the men in Amsterdam who kidnap women and sell them into the sex trade to fill their wallets? How can humanity being progressing towards a grand Utopia if we are still so capable of causing so much pain on other human beings? It seems so obvious to me that Humanity itself is hopeless. Stuck here with no hope. Even nature seems to be taking part in the onslaught. It's so difficult to see God in the midst of such despair. Where can he possibly be when the very ones who glorify his names are the ones buried underneath 8 feet of rubble from a tsunami? Where is God in bloated black stomachs? Where is he when a woman's body is treated like a commodity to buy and sell?

The Cleansing

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. Mark 1:40-42.

Reading this, I begin to see and feel the compassion of my savior. By Jewish understanding, to worship Yahweh, one would enter into the Temple, and bring your sacrifice to the Lord. In Jewish law, it was a sin to enter into the temple if you were unclean. In that same law a person would be declared unclean by a number of things: Handling dead bodies; giving birth; having sex; or even touching a person who was unclean. Jesus reached out and touched an unclean leper. He Touched Him!! Unclean. Jesus cared so much about this man being restored into relationship with God he was willing to be made unclean to allow this man to worship. God's cleansing into his life. The leper for the first time in his life would be able to enter into the temple. He would finally be able to worship the way he'd longed to his whole life. His infirmities would no longer hold power over him. From now on this man would be a product of Jesus' restoring power. Christ would take on that uncleanliness so this man would be able to worship.

Ultimately that is what Christ offers. He lays down his position of authority and power, making a way for every man to be able to have what was lost that day in the Garden. Relationship. Christ embraced the uncleanliness of a leper and is more than willing to embrace the uncleanliness of every one of his followers in order to let them stand without blame before his father.

The Church

Tonight I had the distinct pleasure of being able to be a table host at a church-wide Christmas dinner. It was an outreach event geared towards the lonely and poor in the Paradise community, and I got to be the face of Jesus to whoever would sit at my table. With my passion for poverty, I had hoped to get a table filled with druggies and homeless, but as it usually happens in Paradise, my table was mostly elderly people. 2 of them had just had their 70th marriage anniversary, another was just a lonely old man, and the last was a elderly Mormon whose wife was in the hospital and didn't want to spend Christmas alone. But the thing that really caught my attention tonight was the table next to me. Sitting next to a bunch of elderly ladies was a lady obviously strung out on meth. Her hair was dreaded from neglect and she was wearing an Orlando Magic jacket from the 90's that couldn't have been washed since then. I began hurting inside to talk to her, I figured at this church people aren't used to poverty, so a woman like this would scare our little old grandmothers. I could not have been more wrong. I got to see over the course of the night these older ladies share their food and their lives with this woman. They didn't care that she smelled, or that she could barely speak in intelligent sentences, all that mattered to these ladies was that this lady was here and she needed some lovin'. It put such a smile on my face to see as she left each one of the ladies get up and give the homeless woman a hug, I knew they actually cared for her. I feel as if so often I don't give the body of Christ a chance, I tend to think of everyone as another consumer. Another person just trying to get their fix of religion, but tonight I got to see some little conservative old women be The Church.

Hunger riots in Haiti
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A shooting today in South-Central LA
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This young girl lost her family to AIDS left to fend for herself and her two brothers
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Tsunami kills thousands
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For a mere 30 cents a day you could send a girl like Rosa to school
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Race riots wreck downtown Detroit
....
I guess there's nothing good on TV

My heart is in my throat.
Is this really what God requires?
I've never killed a man before, yet here I am, sword in hand being urged on by my Imam.
What makes him an infidel? He talks about the one true God, so do I. This man ready to die for his God. Would I die for mine? I'm about to kill for mine.
Is
This
What
God
Wants?
...
Bloodshed
Persecution
Purity of our religion
I look down... My hands... Sticky... Warm... Crimson... Is this what pleasing God feels like?

Time had run it's course. Never did it seem like the day would come. He kept waiting for the money to come in, but something always comes up... this paycheck... lost in the mail... clerical error... economic turmoil. All he hear was, "I'm sorry, but it's your problem." It seemed like only a week had passed when he was told he had one month until he saw the dreaded red tag on his door. But sure enough there it was with big red letters saying "EVICTED". He is alone in a strange city with nowhere to go or anyone to turn to.
Everything he owns on what was his front porch with that feeling his stomach. You know that one feeling where its almost like everything inside is trying to escape.
He would've cried if it weren't for the children walking home from school around him.
Where do I go?
Where do I stay?
What about my things?
He didn't have a ride, he didn't have a home, he had a few possessions but most were too bulky to keep...
So
He
Just
Began
Walking

Joy

When I was working at Mt. Gilead, I came to a point when I didn't want anything to do with anything or anyone. Week after week of investing in kids who didn't care just drained me, so much that I simply didn't feel like praising God. I had been completely robbed of my joy.
However when I thought I was at my lowest, God sent me a gift. As I looked around the worship pit I noticed a young girl with down syndrome. I watched her in her to devotion to God, who she only had the simplest understanding of and realized this young woman was doing exactly what she was created for. She doesn't understand the fulness of the trinity, eternity is a word she probably has never heard, eschatology is the farthest from her mind. All she knows is that God is there and that he loves her just the way she is. And in return she loves him. She lifts her hands in the air, and occaisionally claps off beat, but there is no doubt that her affections towards the almighty ignite passion in all around her. She even revived it in me. Which made it all the more fitting that when I met her her name was Joy.