Tag Archives: the Common Good

 Desolate People

Eastertide
May 24, 2017

Scripture Reading: Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35

Father of orphans and protector of widows
   is God in his holy habitation.
God gives the desolate a home to live in;
   he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,
   but the rebellious live in a parched land.
–Psalm 68:5-6

I could not find a count of the number of orphaned children, where both parents are dead, in the USA. Relatives assume the care for most. In the years I worked in child welfare, we never received custody of a child whose parents were both deceased. I only recall one, where the mother knew she was near death with cancer who relinquished custody of her four children to the state because she had no family to help her. She kept them as long as she was physically able. Well mannered, smart kids, they were all quickly placed for adoption, not together though. I always regretted that. The system is better at keeping children together now than it was fifty years ago. There are millions of orphans in third world countries, and they are the targets of much global missions work.

The care of orphans was in the earliest Hebrew law (Deuteronomy 14:28-29) and continued to be assigned to the governing authorities whether it was the religious leaders in the early years or later the kings. Children are important for many reasons and particularly because they are all our futures. Thus, I find myself in total shock at the callous way some Oklahoma state legislators and national leaders consider children. We here in Oklahoma are grossly under-funding public education. Recent actions considered at the federal level include skimping on school lunch programs and at the state level attempted to pass a law that would turn children receiving English as second language classes over to ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to get them tossed out of school to cut the cost of education.

Forty-three out of the 300 or so children in the school near my church receive backpacks of food provided by the local food bank each week to take home to eat over the weekend. The school lunch program is most likely their only source of food. Ninety-seven percent of all the students at that school participate in the free or reduced-cost food program. Many ESL students are citizens and all children taken into custody would be traumatized. It is not going to happen. I guess someone did not do their research when considering this action. In June 1982, the Supreme Court issued Plyler v. Doe, a landmark decision holding that states cannot constitutionally deny students a free public education on account of their immigration status*.  It did its job of driving fear into all immigrants and feeding the emptiness of those who fear them.

I wonder from where such thinking comes? Have our lives become so desolate that we can no longer care for the least of these. Are we those rebellious people the Psalmist describes living in a parched land? How do we regenerate, if we are?

Prayer: Lord, let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24) Make our parched land a nurturing oasis for all. Amen

*https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/plyler-v-doe-public-education-immigrant-students

All scriptures are quoted from the new Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Wake Up!

Lent
March 24, 2017

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14

For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light—for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
‘Sleeper, awake!
   Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.’

The last phrase in this scripture is most likely a quote from an ancient hymn now otherwise lost. It made me wonder how numb have I become to the world about me. Does anything I do make a difference? At times, I identify with Don Quixote who did battle with windmills. What seems so right to me is deemed wrong by many.  How do we ever define what the common good is, if our values are so different?

Perhaps we all need to exchange places for a time and view the world from another’s perspective. I worked in human services for 35 years and was aware of the tremendous lack of services for the mentally ill during that time. It was through my church that I experienced the reality of the life for many persons with mental illness. I was serving in a soup kitchen line one evening. A local pie company had donated some pies whose shelf life was ending soon. The ones I was handing out were packaged in wrappers displaying ninja turtles in various stances. The next man in line stepping before me picked up one of the packages of fried pie and studied it intently. He was a giant of a man. At least a head taller than me. A Native American, his skin was bronzed deeply from the sun. I could not guess his age but he wore dog tags, I supposed he was a Vietnam War veteran. He asked, “What kind of pie is green?” Realizing he could not read, I explained the pictures were of cartoon like characters; the pie crust was filled with vanilla pudding. He took one and proceeded down the line. My dad and uncle were veterans of World War II; they both received excellent follow-up care from the Veterans Administration. I stood stung by the reality that, not just this one, but many of our veterans struggle daily to survive on the street.

We all need to wake up to the world around us and see the reality of it, and only then attempt to define and provide for the Common Good.

Prayer: Lord rescue us from the barriers we build each day that keeps us from seeing the needs of our neighbors near and far. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the new Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Oneness

people-arguing1Living in the Spirit
September 7, 2015

Scripture Reading: Proverbs 1:20-33

Wisdom cries out in the street;
   in the squares she raises her voice.
At the busiest corner she cries out;
   at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
‘How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
   and fools hate knowledge? –Proverbs 1:20-22

I’ll admit I am a news junkie, but I am wearing pretty thin on what even the major stations are broadcasting. Apparently, the morning show, I normally watch, is planning to have each presidential candidate come on the show and share their ideas, which is a good thing, right. One candidate did appear recently and his four or five minute segment was spent primarily challenging him to say something about another candidate whose antics are all we hear about in the news. Most of the reporting about other candidates is a travel log where they are speaking, not what they are saying. When we do hear about what they are saying, it is normally quotes about the controversial issue of the day not their plans for our country. I have to assume the news programs are doing this because it helps their ratings and if that is true then that is on us. We need to demand substance.

Sorry about the rant, but when I read our scripture for today, it seemed to be describing our political system. We make big deals out of issues that have little if any impact on most of the country while our economic system is upside down, our infrastructure is falling apart, and who has a clue about what to do regarding Syria and ISIS. We are a house divided and we all know what happens to houses divided.

Jesus Christ called us to be one, to love one another, which I believe requires us to work diligently toward the Common Good, not tear it apart so that I can have what I want at your expense. The Body of Christ needs to set the example of such oneness not be the source of the division.

Prayer: Lord forgive us for making you a pawn in our political games. Give us a new song to sing your oneness throughout this land. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.