One of the ways we seek the kingdom of God and “love mercy and justice” is to promote a fair wage and fair treatment for the workers who help create the society in which we live. Regulations that promote safe working conditions, and a basic living wage, are for us first matters of faith. Politics is simply one means by which we help ensure these things.

Sometimes we want to tell ourselves that economics and business belong “out there” and that “in here” is for matters of the head and heart. Loving Jesus and Loving Neighbor. Believing that Jesus shows and brings us God’s redeeming love, and that in him we can have “life abundant.” (John 10:10) Belief, worship, study, be kind to each other. And give to charity now and then, “helping those less fortunate.”

That’s not what Christianity or the other two Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Islam, are about at all. The consistent witness of all three traditions is that we are called to create a society in which generational poverty is eliminated, and in which people can work to support their families and provide their basic necessities. Beyond that, Christianity proclaims a theology of abundance with stories like the feeding of the 5000 (Mark 6:30-44). Jesus teaches us that when we give generously we will get back exponentially more (Luke 6:38). So if we live in a world of abundance, why do so many life in scarcity?

It is not, as some would suggest, that the poor are lazy or lack initiative. The majority of adults living in poverty are working. The problem is not that they won’t try, but that the opportunities to make a living wage are insufficient. The graph below shows how in the 1970 wages began to fall behind as the economic productivity and prosperity of the nation as a whole continued to grow. That wealth had to go somewhere. And the cost of living continued to rise with inflation over this time even while wages stagnated for many. The result is that more people are living in poverty.

We are called to both charity (Matthew 25) and Justice (Micah 6:8). Charity is about responding to the immediate needs during a crisis. 1 John 3:17; James 2:13-26. These texts certainly call us to respond to people’s immediate need if we have the ability. And notice there is no mention of whether they are worthy of such help based on the situation or how they came to be in need. They are in need and you can help, therefore you should help. End of story. So it seems.

Yet if we press ourselves into this question longer, we can begin to realize that giving charity may not be the best or only solution. Perhaps God wants and needs more from us. Perhaps our neighbors do too. When Jesus says, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:28-34) quoting from Leviticus 19, and then goes on to say, “Love your enemies,” (Luke 6:27-36) he is calling us to more than charity or mercy. Jesus is recalling us to God’s command for a just society, one in which each person is given the opportunity to provide for themselves and their loved ones in a reasonable and equitable way. Then those who are unable to do so are given special care and attention through the nation’s tithes every three years (Deut 14:27-29). This is not a liberal or conservative issue. This is a faith issue.

We are called as followers of Jesus to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to work, and that everyone who works can earn enough to support themselves and their family. We have a lot of work to do in our own community, our nation, and around the world in pursuit of economic justice. Where would you start? What are you already doing in support of fair labor practices and fair wages? How can we as a congregation, and as individuals, live out our faith in obedience to God’s requirements for economic justice for all people? What will you do differently in the coming months? 

veryone outside the affected areas along the Texas Gulf Coast is eager to help, stirred by compassion for our neighbors who are suffering. We have witnessed the very best of human nature as hundreds move out to rescue strangers from the rising flood waters. And we will want to see this spirit continue and grow in the weeks and months ahead.
 
Of course, we pray. We pray for an abating of the rain and receding of the flood waters. We pray gratitude for First Responders and Good Samaritans. We pray for generous hearts and actions as people begin to rebuild their lives. We pray for health and safety in the midst of the ongoing crisis over the coming weeks. We pray for peace, cooperation, patience, resilience and unity as people tire and as resources are stretched. We pray for an abundance of aid in the right ways and at the right times.
 
All the disaster response experts seem to agree that the most important thing to do right now is donate money. You certainly will want to pick the agency of your choice, but I would recommend Church World Serivce via CWSglobal.org/Harvey. CWS has one of the lowest administrative costs of any disaster response agency, and they partner broadly with other groups on the ground, bringing needed resources to those most familiar with the situation.
 
Clean Up – The mind spins at any attempt to consider the scope and scale of cleanup that will be needed. We will be collecting Hygiene Kits and Cleanup Buckets at Central. You can learn more about them below and print off the pdf shopping lists here: HYGIENE  /  BUCKET. Likely hundreds of thousands of homes affected in the greater Houston area and along the coast from Galveston to below Corpus Christi, including particularly Refugio, and our personal favorite vacation spot, Port Aransas, which the mayor says is 100% loss.
 
On the CWS website you will also see a continuing Situation Update on recovery work.
 
Check back here at CentralChristianDallas.org as we will be updating how you can partner with us to respond, as together we practice “love your neighbor as yourself.”

However you choose to respond, thank you. If you or someone you know needs to talk about what is happening, where God is in all of this, and how you are being affected, please let us know.

Your neighbor,

Pastor Ken

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HYGIENE KIT

• One hand towel measuring approximately 15″ x 28″ to 16″ x 32″ (no fingertip, bath, dish towel or micro-fiber)
• One washcloth
• One wide-tooth comb removed from the package
• One fingernail or toenail clipper removed from the package
• One bath-size bar of soap in the wrapper
• One toothbrush in the package
• Ten standard size Band-Aids

All items need to fit inside a one-gallon plastic zipper closure bag. Remove the excess air from the bag and seal before boxing. Do NOT add any extra items or toothpaste. A tube of extended expiration date toothpaste will be added to each hygiene kit just prior to its final journey.
Value: $15.00
Processing fee: $2.00 per kit
*Do not enclose money inside the kits or in the shipping boxes. Find shipping and donation instructions at cwskits.org.

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BUCKET KITS

• One five-gallon bucket with resealable lid (If bucket has been used, clean well but do not use if it has held chemicals of any kind.)
• Four scouring pads
• Seven sponges, including one large
• One scrub brush
• Eighteen reusable cleaning towels (e.g. Easy Wipes)
• One 50 oz. or two 25 oz. bottle(s) of liquid laundry detergent
• One 16-28 oz. bottle of liquid disinfectant dish soap
• One 12-16 oz. bottle of household cleaner that can be mixed with water (no spray bottles)
• One package of 48-50 clothespins
• Clothesline, two 50 ft. or one 100 ft.
• Five dust masks
• Two pairs non surgical latex gloves
• One pair work gloves, cotton with leather palm or all leather
• 24-28 heavy duty or contractor type 30-45 gallon trash bags on a roll and removed from carton
• One 6-9 oz. bottle of non-aerosol insect repellent

All cleaning items must be new – all liquid items must be capped and securely tightened. Place all items into the bucket, making sure they are packed securely to avoid damage during shipment. Snap the lid on tight and seal with packing tape.
Value: $75.00
Processing fee: $3.00 per bucket
*Do not enclose money inside the kits or in the shipping boxes. Find shipping and donation instructions at cwskits.org.

​The “spiritual” aspects of our faith – worship, prayer, study, contemplation – must be undergirded and infused with the deeper realities of compassion, mercy and justice. We work toward the coming of the kingdom of God on earth as in heaven – we don’t just pray for it. The promise God makes is that we will gain the reputation of being people who bring healing to the city and renewal to homes and communities. If we are not doing this harder work, then no amount of prayer or praise is worthwhile or meaningful in God’s eyes.

The text begins with a complaint from the people to God. “Look at us God! We are so faithful in our prayer and worship and spiritual practices and yet you continue to ignore and abandon us. What’s up with that?!?!” Over years and generations the people had shifted the emphasis of their faith on these private and communal practices. The life of faith is incomplete without them. Yet they are not the life of faith. Micah 6:8 summarizes it so well: “What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” This response comes as a reply to the very same complaints we see in Isaiah 58.

As individuals, families and congregations we may often wonder why things aren’t going better for us, and how we might experience greater spiritual vitality in our lives. One place to look is at our interactions with the world around us. Are we rebuilding shelter and security for people that has been threatened or destroyed (often by our own behaviors)? Are we reconstructing the bridges that enable people to gain access to God’s best for them? Are we restoring the streets where families live, work and play?

Let’s look very literally at these questions as we consider the neighborhoods within a 2 mile radius of the church. Do we even know the people who live there? And do they know us? Do we know the other people of faith who live and worship there?

What are the challenges and areas of need in the communities around us? How can we find out? Do we know people who live and work there well enough to come right out and ask them? How can we gain access to demographic and other data that will give us insights? Who else is working in these areas that can be partners both in understanding and in responding to the opportunities for development toward wholeness?
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 As we walk into this coming season we seek to discern how God has gifted and called us to serve in the community and world. Why has God placed us here, in this place, and what might God dream for us and through us? The more we lean into blessing the world around us, the more open our lives will become for God’s blessings to flow toward us. The more our worship and prayer will be infused and overflowing with gratitude, love and power.

Traditions around St. Roch show him as a friend of Dogs who became a third-order Trappist - a lay person who lived as a poor pilgrim. After years of caring for the sick he also contracted the plague, and a nobleman's dog attended to him, bringing him food. Eventually the dog's owner discovered St. Roch and nursed him back to health. He is known also as the patron saint of epidemics.

We acknowledge St. Roch as a way to remember that God gives us a special gift in loving and being loved by dogs. They are unique companions to human life - often regarded as expressing unconditional love in a way rarely found elsewhere. This can remind us of God's unconditional love for us.

On this day, and in this week, we give thanks for and ask God's blessings upon dogs and dog owners and caretakers.


A word about the recognition of Saints among Protestants:
Why is a Protestant church talking about saints? Isn't that a catholic or orthodox thing? Well, yes and no. The traditions of recognizing the saints do derive from the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions. It is also true that they originate centuries before the Protestant reformation when nearly all Christians were one or the other (except in Egypt and India where other ancient Christian traditions had developed independently from the 1st Century).

Paul reminds us that we are surrounded by "so great a cloud of witnesses" which is meant to encourage and inspire us to deeper and bolder living of our faith. There is no notion of worshipping the saints, in the way that some cultures worship ancestors. Rather, it is drawing inspiration from their lives of virtuous faith and the power of the Holy Spirit demonstrated in and through them. We might even use them as a way to focus our prayerful intentions, similar to how we ask others to remember us in prayer or put us or a particular situation on their church prayer list. If we believe that those who dwell with God are living with God, and we pray directly to Jesus and the Holy Spirit (see Romans 8) to intercede with the Father on our behalf, then it is not beyond reasonable faith that we might imagine in our prayers these others who dwell in the spirit with God to also remember us in prayer.

This is no magic. And it certainly is not needed. According to consistent teaching of the Christian faith traditions, we clearly have direct access to God in our prayers. And yet, we do consistently ask others to intercede for us, and we do pray not only to the Father but also to the Son and Spirit.

We worship the triune God - Father/Son/Spirit - Creator/Redeemer/Sustainer. We also receive a vast array of helps and aids to our worship and spiritual growth from many different cultural heritages. So long as they help us draw nearer to God as revealed in Jesus the Christ, then they are sources of blessing and can be received and appropriated as such.

(The image above can be found and purchased here) http://www.modernartisans.com/p-1947-patron-saint-retablo-plaque-st-roch.aspx
You can learn more at the following links:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Roch
• https://2mooseontheloose.com/2014/08/23/the-churches-of-san-miguel-de-allende/
• https://www.pinterest.com/pin/575194183629225783/?lp=true
• https://www.catholiccompany.com/getfed/st-roch-patron-of-dogs/

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God does not choose us because we are exceptional. The world is captivated by fame and glory and the next new thing. What people crave (and what God offers) is authenticity even with all of our quirks and faults, our scars and wrinkles. God chose you.

None of the Apostles or early Christian leaders (men or women, Jews or Greeks) had what one would call a great resume for ministry. And many had things that would directly disqualify them – i.e. a sinful past, the wrong gender, religious or ethnic background, or lack of proper training. Some, like Paul, even had a reputation for working directly against the Christian movement they later came to lead.

Jesus himself was from the wrong kind of family and community to be thought a fitting leader (Nathaniel said, “Can anything good come from Nazareth!?!?” referring derogatorily to the region as unsuitable to produce a religious leader who would be theologically and culturally astute and morally righteous.  Jesus repeatedly called people to follow him about whom others said, “Lord, don’t you know what kind of person this is?” (Tax collectors, women with questionable sexual histories, people who were diseased.)

It is certainly true that people with big dynamic personalities have the ability to draw large crowds with compelling presentations that entertain and inspire and possibly edify. Of course God can and does use such individuals and groups to further the Gospel. It is equally true that most people and groups are not this way, and that God works through all kinds of people and organizations. Congregations often look for the next dynamic leader who will “bring the magic” that solves all the problems and either continues or restores a vibrant and growing ministry. Yet while leadership is key, leaders do not grow ministries. It is ultimately God’s Holy Spirit working through the individual members and participants, using their gifts and graces for ministry, that attracts others and brings growth. It is one-on-one and small group relationships where people feel they are seen, known and loved that cause churches to thrive. It is each person being inspired by the work of the Holy Spirit through their own lives – so that they experience the joy of fruit-bearing faith.

It is equally true that as we look beyond the walls of the church we should not stop at the pretty and popular and powerful folks, but look to the left and the right, ahead and behind, to see all people for who they are and who God is calling them to be in Christ. Each person we encounter is made in God’s image and precious. Each one bears the spark and breath of God. Each one is beloved. Each one has gifts to offer and a dream which may be the seed of the kingdom of God within them.
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Who has God put in your life so that you might call them toward Christ, help them name and celebrate their giftedness, and live into God’s fullness for them? 

Whoever tells the story determines the heroes and villains. Western history has been written primarily by wealthy, white, heterosexual Christian men – the holders of societal power for the last 17 centuries. We learned the story of Oz from Dorothy’s point of view, but there are other perspectives and HERstories. Jesus engaged people based on a true understanding of their background stories rather than the external presumptions or common assumptions.

No one alive today is older than the original story of the wonderful Wizard of Oz. Or of the first Broadway musical adaptation from 1902. The movie which made the story of Dorothy ubiquitous was released in 1939. Which means that in various ways everyone alive today is inheritor of imagination shaped by this narrative. But what if the narrative is wrong.

Wicked the musical is presented as a prequel to the wonder wonderful Wizard of Oz, offering some backstory imagining how the characters and situations we discover in the Wizard of Oz along with Dorothy came to be. How did the wizard come to be the wizard and how did it come to be that Glinda is the good witch and Elfaba is the bad witch? The “Wicked Witch of the West.” Popular history is always written by the winners. Other groups write history but it doesn't survive at all or remains hidden.

From early childhood we are taught by intentional peer and adult messages along with narratives from the wider culture that there are insiders and outsiders, people who are on our side and those who are on the other. Even in the Bible we see indications of this in Hebrew Scripture and the New Testament when God’s people struggle with their relationships they have with those outside their own tribes. How often do we make assumptions and snap judgements about people based on where they are from, who their people are, what we think they say or do?

One of the challenges we face theologically is wrestling with the presence of evil in the world. Are there actually evil people, or is it rather that evil “spirits” take control of people and organizations and pull them away from the divine image in which they are made? What does it take to bury the Light and Breath of God in each person that would then allow them to behave destructively toward others? And what about mental illness or other expressions of distorted nature (like brain tumors) which prompt people to act in ways contrary to the love of God that creates, redeems and sustains all things?

Perhaps you had the experience of visiting with aunts, uncles or cousins as an adult and hearing alternative versions of stories you received as a child from your own parents. As you're sitting around the kitchen table you hear them talking and the dissonance rings in your years. Either their version is incredulous, or you hear a truth in it that brings to clarity the discomfort you always felt with the versions of the story you received as a child.

My purpose here is not so much to challenge the validity of whether certain actions were good or bad. Rather to help us see behind the actions to the person of the actor and wonder about what led them to take those actions. As Brene Brown asks of herself and those she teaches, “What story are we telling ourselves to makes sense of the world as we experience it?" The story you tell yourself then gives rise to the actions that you take. In Rising Strong, Brown tells the story of swimming in the lake with her husband. She thought they were going for a swim together and he apparently thought they were competing and so he took off swimming without her. She began to create a narrative in her own head to make sense of what her husband was doing. She became increasingly upset because he abandoned her in the water. After having conversation with him later that day she realized that they simply had different understandings of the situation and therefore different expectations and different actions. Her interpretation was based on her understanding and expectations which were completely different from his.

Even when it is objectively true that another person's words or actions are hurtful and harmful, it is still worthwhile to understand what's behind their choices. We may discover sympathy, empathy or compassion toward them for the brokenness behind their bad decisions. At the very least we can experience a reduction in our own resentment when we see that they were perhaps not as free or complicit as we imagined.

During the spring of 2017 we gathered in small home groups as a congregation simply to hear one others' stories. I don't know about you, but as I listen to people's stories from childhood, adolescence and earlier adulthood, I gained a much greater appreciation for their personality and how they live and move in the world. Through this process people may become four dimensional beings rather than the two-dimensional caricatures we often project upon them through our presumptions and laziness.

As we look around our church, around our community, and around the world, how can we learn to see others as God sees them, rather than as our dominant cultural narrative or our own distorted stories present them? Until we move beyond our assumptions and see the image of God in each person we will not be able to love our neighbors and our enemies as Jesus both commanded and demonstrated. Each person has the spark of God in them, and each person has a story that shapes their thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, words and actions. Let us learn to listen and appreciate each person as a child of God.

Matthew 13:24-46
The Kingdom of God as Jesus presents it is a kind of La La Land. It’s idealistic, fanciful, hopeful, starry-eyed. It imagines another world and another way of living that may seem unrooted from reality.  God invites us (pleads with us?) to live differently, to follow and share this dream of a different way and world.
What’s your dream and how hard are you willing to work for it? Are you able to pursue it even when others around you want you to be more realistic?

The parables of the Kingdom of God told by Jesus present God’s preferred future as a kind of fantacy, a flight of fancy, a “la la land.”  The motion picture La La Land is the common story of artists in Hollywood seeking to live out their dreams – one a writer and actor, the other a jazz musician. It becomes clear through their telling of their own stories that these are long-held goals from early childhood. It also is clear, and no surprise, that the chances of “making it” are slim – the odds are definitely not in their favor. And yet, they persist.  But their persistence is not without struggle, doubt, and even moments of giving up hope. After all, “maybe I’m just not good enough.”

This narrative holds two themes we will highlight – the first is that many people have dreams that seem to go unfulfilled, and often even untried. (It may be all people, but I have no way of knowing that.) Whether their circumstances or people around them present obstacles, or simply don’t offer any clear path forward, these people do not pursue their dreams. And I think the world is the poorer for it. After all, “The dreams in our hearts may be the seeds of the kingdom of God.” And if that is true, then one goal of faith is to allow the dreams within us to emerge, and to encourage and support the dreams of others as they give voice and vision to new life and hope.

The second theme is that The Kingdom of God is itself a dream which seems far off and improbable, if not impossible. We read what Jesus asks of us, and look at ourselves, those around us, and the resources available, and we say, “Who is God kidding? Who are we kidding? This will never happen. It will never work.” And so often we don’t even try, or try so halfheartedly as to ensure failure before we even begin. Again, we and the world are the lesser for not having given God’s dreams our all, despite the high possibility of failure.

So much is beyond our influence and control. Yet God calls us forward into faith, and invites us to launch into this grand experiment of the church, the Body of Christ on earth (itself an absurd and mysterious premise). We journey together with one another and with God. We dare to dream the improbable, and to pursue it trusting that these acts of faith are themselves some fulfillment of God’s dream for us. Let us boldly pursue the foolish gospel of Jesus and work together with God to create this la la land, the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. And let us sing and dance our way through the sorrows and the joys of this adventure together.