Who does God love?

The Poor, the poor, the poor! God loves the poor!! That is good news!! And as much as it is good news, sometimes it feels like old news. Granted, much of that is based on your physical and social location, and I'll explain a little why. Right now, I live in Durham, NC, a move I made from Asheville, a place I dearly loved and would have happily lived out my life until I was ready to be buried, but I made the move in response to God's call to be a reconciliation person. (Disclaimer: Sometimes answering that call is to stay EXACTLY where you are--just go pray about it if you're confused). I came here to learn how to love the poor and disempowered in better and more meaningful ways. In my Methodist upbringing, I heard that message a lot from the pulpit, saw it in action from hippies and the like in Asheville (Christian or not and most often not through the Church), and then in both Mainline and Evangelical churches I saw mostly rich people in church claiming God's grace. And it is weird, lately my time in Durham I've seen a lot of people who claim to love the poor (and they do), but yet have deep contempt for the rich (yet of course, that's not them--they aren't rich, they are poor and at most "middle class" or in debt--but never do they lump themselves in with the rich).

So who does Jesus love? Does he love the poor or the rich people on the pews? Over the past few years I've come to realize that He equally loves both, yet he shows more active concern over the poor more or less as an equalizer and also as a realist, knowing full well that money can distract people who have already hardened their hearts and chosen their own god.

Much of my story growing up in L-town gives me this hybrid identity: a born-and-bred white person going to a predominately multicultural school where I was the one who had to learn the art of acculturation to a certain extent; an AIG/AP kid and considered a "prep" without ever truly feeling that I belonged to the incrowd; yet when I explain where I went to school I was told that I was from "the disadvantaged parts" yet I would simultaneously rub shoulders with prominant North Carolinians and attend all the social functions of the Old South.

As the children's book I have on Barack Obama says: In a world of separation, "being both, [you can] not take sides." For a good chunk of my life, I tried to pick sides. Am I going to be the outcast or the socialite? I spent a number of years trying to be totally one or the other. It was torturous living in a world where I didn't totally fit into either category. I wouldn't say that either one is better than the other, but I can say that I'm learning that God can use and redeem both parts of me. And when I'm operating from the place of not choosing sides and letting God both use me and transform me (and of course repeat the process again), then I feel that I can obey both the parable of the talents and the parable about giving up all for the Gospel.

To me, this is part of what reconciliation means. It isn't about an outside force arbitrarily trying to give justice when they can't do it (because they represent a certain "side"), but it is about Jesus. Jesus was the epitome of what it means to experience both sides, "fully God and fully man." Jesus is able to re-establish relationship because He can't take sides, but he can arbitrate justly from both.

Yes, I've been in those churches that says God wants to make you wealthy and prosperous (and not so much in the Joel Osteen way, but just really emphasize that Scripture is talking about spiritual conditions and not physical) and I've also been to the ones who encourage you to give all to the poor. I find that in both extremes, people lose parts of the Gospel--Jesus LOVES lost, messed up, screwy, hypocritical and screwed over people. He doesn't pick sides. He does some radical things. Extremely radical things for the poor, disempowered, ethnic and gender issues, etc. But he also didn't turn away Nicodememus the Pharisee or the Rich young ruler. He lauded the man who had many talents and multiplied them and punished the man who had little and didn't squander it but rather saved it--a 100% return investment.

I'm not saying that I know how God works, because as much as I love Him and as much as I come to know how amazing God is, the more I have to admit that I don't understand. We must be careful in how we love and attempt to love people--and who we say that Jesus loves. For if you are like me, saying that God hates the rich means hating people like me. Seriously, are you going to hate on Bono for using his celebrity to draw attention to Africa and AIDS? Are you going to hate on his Product Red campaign which uses capitalisim and consumerism to save lives? Are you going to hate the three American cowboys who on a whim went to Uganda and started the Invisible Children project, using their privilege to truly change things on the ground--even helping to stop a war that lasted for decades?

Reconciliation (to me) is about what God has first done for us in Christ. Where God reaches down to us who have wronged him and yet also have nothing to repay their debt, and all of it is taken care of (painfully so) through Christ's incarnation, death and resurrection. That Christ did not see equality with God something to be held on to or merely thrown away, but to bring restoration. For us to mimic this is not only to recieve this grace, but for us to equally love those Christ died for (which Romans says for is the ungodly)...and uh, yeah, last time I checked that would be all of us.

**Disclaimer: This does not mean go and make lots of money. It means that money can actually translate into change. I believe God calls us to use our material blessings well. I used to think all people who aspired to be doctors and lawyers were scum of the earth who couldn't really love God; and then I learned about how God's calling is purposeful, and it is simply our human designation of salaries that causes discrepencies in professional wealth (ie. think teachers). Yet that doesn't mean that someone couldn't equally serve God all day in their work environment and then give a large portion of that away through tithing. Even when I lived on a teacher's salary, I found that I had (as a single person) waaaaayyy more than I needed to live on and could lavishly give when anyone had a need. I could have chosen to buy a new car instead, or upgrade other parts of my material life, but through growing me in contentment, God helped me to give and to give cheerfully. I then taught at a non-profit boarding school where all of my living expenses were met on a very very low salary (below minimum wage), yet I did just fine. I didn't have as much freedom to give, but I experienced life on the recieving end and I never had a need.

Social Justice, Food and the Land(s) of Plenty

Today at the Divinity School I attended a seminar called "Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty" (based on a book of the same name by Mark Winne). It was co-lead by Dr. Ellen Davis (Old Testament Scholar at Duke) and Dr. Norman Wirzba (Ecology and the Land Scholar at Duke).

Living with Katie Potter pointed me to what it means to see Jesus and the Land--granted the two professors noted above make their living in this area and who I can learn from in my time here at Duke, but it is Katie who showed me much of the truth that could be found in the lecture. Katie was able to show me that God called her to care about the land because it was not only part of creation that we are bound in relationship with, but that our sin shows up in how we treat the land. Issues of social injustice and poverty can be found in food and water distribution.

As citizens of two lands of plenty (the United States and the Kingdom of God), we are olbigated to play a part in the just distribution of food. Gupy taught me that God has provided more than enough for all his creation (populations explosions aside--remember God was also the one who said be fruitful and multiply--and that doesn't mean go have a quiver without praying).

Some notes/and thoughts from the discussion are found below:

Eating reminds us that our first identity is that of creature. It is therefore a reminder that we depend on others for our eating which results from the sacrifice of others. We are creatures of dependence in our natural state, and in our rebirth we are now dependent of the Bread of Life (Jesus). --Norman Wirzba

The poor are deprived of the nourishment in food that God gave for them. Due to the injustice of healthy and inexpensive options of grocery stores not opening in areas where the poor live. And also, on a more global scale regarding the poor, we deny people the privilege and humanity to feed themselves--rather than rely on food kitchens, banks and other non-profits organizations.

11% of Americans go hungry, while 65% of Americans suffer from obesity and diabetes (most of this percentage falling heavily on the poor.

A food desert is a rural or urban area that one has to travel more than 10 miles to buy healthy food. Keep in mind that most of the people in those areas probably do no have access to a car. Bus systems are great, but it you have humbled yourself to use them (I say that because in my privilege it was a shock to my system) you quickly find out that you are a slave to the bus' schedule and not your own. I remember during Gupy that it took an entire afternoon to go to the grocery store across town using the bus. And just think, we still had to have a staffperson with a car pick us up because we couldn't carry all that we needed just for one week!

"Poverty is the cause of Hunger."--Mark Winne

"We cannot turn our food into energy."--Norman Wirzba on turning to our food into gas because our entire consumption of food (I can't remember the time period) results in 2 gallons of gas.

Poverty and the Problem of the "Boot straps": An American Fallicy

So today in my Pastoral Care in Cross Cultural Perspective class, I found myself wanting to weep at the cross. We were having a discussion about Eastern culture (which experiences more communal identity) and Western culture (which has an individualistic perception of identity). Dr. Acolatse, our professor, grew up in Ghana. And she mentioned that the issue of homelessness would NEVER occur in African culture. In Africa, a person would never have to feel the shame of feeling that they failed at making a living for themselves. In our culture it leads to homelessness or suicide--feeling that you can't provide for yourself. Rather, an African would be taken in my a family member, no matter the hardship it proved to add another mouth the feed. As Americans, we look at people as if it is their own fault for not "making it," sending that person in despair. In Eastern culture, you make a living together--not on your own.

What a humbling thought to think that in some places around the world that homelessness and suicide would not exist just because of a way of thinking or a value system.