One of my favorite places that I get to go to regularly as a representative of Bethlehem is to Redding Social Services. Throughout the year the people of Bethlehem donate food, cleaning supplies and money to the food bank and I often am the one who gets to stop by and drop off those items. So I'm sure they love it when I stop by as well since often I have a donation with me.
Yesterday after senior lunch, I stopped in to RSS to drop off a check that a member of the congregation gave. (In all honesty I forgot to bring the check the last time I came and then forgot about the check in my computer bag pocket.) Carol greeted me with a huge hug and I took my usual seat and as always my 30 second errand turned into a 30 minute visit.
I see God in Carol. Carol has worked for RSS for the last few years, starting a few hours a week volunteering at the food pantry then being hired to organize it and now working part time also helping people apply for energy assistance along with other services. She is a ball of energy and has never met a stranger. Yesterday I got to hear a little bit more about her story and how she came to work there after being unemployed and finding RSS as a place to go just to get her out of the house while she was looking for another job.
I know her job is not an easy one. There is always more need than funds. She also deals with people who don't understand that they don't qualify for assistance because their homes are valued at half a million dollars. And there are always the stories of people who feel they deserve money without any work. But Carol is so caring and friendly and I know that she does more than is required of her. And it is always a joy to see her.
Showing posts with label Redding Social Services. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Redding Social Services. Show all posts
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Being Church in Georgetown
It has taken me over a week to write this and even now I don't feel I have accurately conveyed the thoughts that are going through my head on being church, emergent churches and locations. But I will probably never accurately convey these thoughts.
I've been reading a lot of "emerging church" voices lately, Brian McLaren, Shane Claiborne, and Rob Bell to name a few. Along with my readings, I've been participating in formal and informal discussions via facebook, ravelry and with other in the synod about this revolution that is going on in the church as we, as Christians, are trying to figure out what it means to be the Church and a follower of Jesus in this changing world. Overall, I am excited for the future of the Church.
These conversations have also been closer to home. Bob has had the pleasure of being part of the St. Francis House community in New London this year. At Bishop's Convocation multiple conversations occurred about starting a living-learning community somewhere in the synod. And Bob and I have talked for a few years now about wanting to open our home (granted not the small two bedroom we currently live in) to college students and other young adults, especially those who are working with non-profits, as a intentional living community.
Among all these experiences, conversations, books and websites, one thing that keeps coming up, though never directly is location. Many emergent churches and emergent communities like the idea about being in a city, in an area with a good public transportation system, in an area near the poor, in an area surrounded by the least of God's children. Often this is for practical reasons, more people are in urban areas and therefore there are more jobs, more public services, and therefore also more places to volunteer and serve God.
The other option is to be in a rural area, set apart from society in order to focus on God, or in an area with a large enough plot of land to farm for the community that is created. Or to be a place that is a destination, a getaway, a sanctuary for those in need of an oasis from their daily lives as people come and go for personal retreats.
But where does that leave the rest of us?
I have been called to Georgetown Connecticut. And for those of you who do not know where or what Georgetown CT is (which is about everyone who lives more than 15 miles away), Georgetown is well, Georgetown. The town/hamlet/village (whatever you want to call it) was built around a factory starting in the 1800's. Georgetown never became a city, and many would say it is a stretch to call it a town in the population sense of the word and as it is at the border of 4 townships it is not a town in the political sense of the word either. Being less than 60 miles from Time Square it is not really rural either (even by Connecticut standards, much less midwest standards). So maybe "Metro North" (which is the name of the rail-line that runs near the house) is the best name for this area. We are north of the New York Metro area but still close enough that many people do commute in daily, but yet it is not a suburb nor a bedroom community as it began before people ever dreamed of being able to commute to New York on a regular basis and most people do not commute to New York but to more local cities like Norwalk and Danbury.
So why am I going into so much detail to describe Georgetown? Well because God is here even though it is not the city. God is here even though it is not a place to get away from it all. And even in this area, that is wealthy by not just the world's standards but the United States standards, the least of God's children are here too.
And yet I struggle with how to reach and connect them. I don't believe that people in urban and rural areas are better able to experience God compare to those in the suburbs or towns. I don't believe that some of the wonderful values that have come up (or in some cases been reborn) in the emergent church movement do not apply to those in suburbia. (you can find a nice list of those values here). And please trust me when I say that I also do not believe that the emergent church is only focusing on urban or rural areas as many churches that have readily identified with this movement are located in suburbs.
My concern though is that we see the poor and the needy only in the city and we see places to commune with God through nature only rural areas. That we are saying to people who live in suburbs or in towns that you go to the city to serve God and you go to the country to reconnect with God but in your everyday life you do not need to interact with God.
Yes the percentage of people who live below the poverty line in Georgetown and the surrounding areas is quite low. But often I find that instead my neighbors can be poor in Spirit. They are living the American Dream: a few kids, two (or more) cars, a big house with plenty of land and enough money to pay someone else to take care of it.
Yet they are also searching for something. Their kids are over-scheduled, they work long hours, many feel the need to constantly compete with their neighbors for the latest and greatest.
But I don't sense that with the members of Bethlehem. There is a sense that God is with them daily and they are able to connect with God in their everyday lives. I have been blessed to be called to lead this community.
And yet we still struggle with how to serve God. Per capita this congregation collects more food, cleaning supplies and personal toiletries than any other congregation I know. Whenever a natural disaster occurs, there is no discussion that a special collection will be taken over the following month to give to Lutheran World Relief or another worthy agency. But doing something hands on? Well that hasn't happened so much, at least not yet.
That is my hope, that is my struggle, where are we being called to serve God with our hands and feet? Do we help out at a already existing soup kitchen, homeless shelter, children's program and if so do we go north to Danbury or south to Norwalk? Or do we find a way to feed the spirit of those around us? And how do we do that? And isn't that all really what being church is about?
I've been reading a lot of "emerging church" voices lately, Brian McLaren, Shane Claiborne, and Rob Bell to name a few. Along with my readings, I've been participating in formal and informal discussions via facebook, ravelry and with other in the synod about this revolution that is going on in the church as we, as Christians, are trying to figure out what it means to be the Church and a follower of Jesus in this changing world. Overall, I am excited for the future of the Church.
These conversations have also been closer to home. Bob has had the pleasure of being part of the St. Francis House community in New London this year. At Bishop's Convocation multiple conversations occurred about starting a living-learning community somewhere in the synod. And Bob and I have talked for a few years now about wanting to open our home (granted not the small two bedroom we currently live in) to college students and other young adults, especially those who are working with non-profits, as a intentional living community.
Among all these experiences, conversations, books and websites, one thing that keeps coming up, though never directly is location. Many emergent churches and emergent communities like the idea about being in a city, in an area with a good public transportation system, in an area near the poor, in an area surrounded by the least of God's children. Often this is for practical reasons, more people are in urban areas and therefore there are more jobs, more public services, and therefore also more places to volunteer and serve God.
The other option is to be in a rural area, set apart from society in order to focus on God, or in an area with a large enough plot of land to farm for the community that is created. Or to be a place that is a destination, a getaway, a sanctuary for those in need of an oasis from their daily lives as people come and go for personal retreats.
But where does that leave the rest of us?
I have been called to Georgetown Connecticut. And for those of you who do not know where or what Georgetown CT is (which is about everyone who lives more than 15 miles away), Georgetown is well, Georgetown. The town/hamlet/village (whatever you want to call it) was built around a factory starting in the 1800's. Georgetown never became a city, and many would say it is a stretch to call it a town in the population sense of the word and as it is at the border of 4 townships it is not a town in the political sense of the word either. Being less than 60 miles from Time Square it is not really rural either (even by Connecticut standards, much less midwest standards). So maybe "Metro North" (which is the name of the rail-line that runs near the house) is the best name for this area. We are north of the New York Metro area but still close enough that many people do commute in daily, but yet it is not a suburb nor a bedroom community as it began before people ever dreamed of being able to commute to New York on a regular basis and most people do not commute to New York but to more local cities like Norwalk and Danbury.
So why am I going into so much detail to describe Georgetown? Well because God is here even though it is not the city. God is here even though it is not a place to get away from it all. And even in this area, that is wealthy by not just the world's standards but the United States standards, the least of God's children are here too.
And yet I struggle with how to reach and connect them. I don't believe that people in urban and rural areas are better able to experience God compare to those in the suburbs or towns. I don't believe that some of the wonderful values that have come up (or in some cases been reborn) in the emergent church movement do not apply to those in suburbia. (you can find a nice list of those values here). And please trust me when I say that I also do not believe that the emergent church is only focusing on urban or rural areas as many churches that have readily identified with this movement are located in suburbs.
My concern though is that we see the poor and the needy only in the city and we see places to commune with God through nature only rural areas. That we are saying to people who live in suburbs or in towns that you go to the city to serve God and you go to the country to reconnect with God but in your everyday life you do not need to interact with God.
Yes the percentage of people who live below the poverty line in Georgetown and the surrounding areas is quite low. But often I find that instead my neighbors can be poor in Spirit. They are living the American Dream: a few kids, two (or more) cars, a big house with plenty of land and enough money to pay someone else to take care of it.
Yet they are also searching for something. Their kids are over-scheduled, they work long hours, many feel the need to constantly compete with their neighbors for the latest and greatest.
But I don't sense that with the members of Bethlehem. There is a sense that God is with them daily and they are able to connect with God in their everyday lives. I have been blessed to be called to lead this community.
And yet we still struggle with how to serve God. Per capita this congregation collects more food, cleaning supplies and personal toiletries than any other congregation I know. Whenever a natural disaster occurs, there is no discussion that a special collection will be taken over the following month to give to Lutheran World Relief or another worthy agency. But doing something hands on? Well that hasn't happened so much, at least not yet.
That is my hope, that is my struggle, where are we being called to serve God with our hands and feet? Do we help out at a already existing soup kitchen, homeless shelter, children's program and if so do we go north to Danbury or south to Norwalk? Or do we find a way to feed the spirit of those around us? And how do we do that? And isn't that all really what being church is about?
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Ingathering Results
This past Sunday was our "ingathering" Sunday, when Bethlehem collects food and money for local food banks. Money is collected at various coffee hours throughout the year and with that money produce is bought to decorate the altar (which is also donated to the food bank). When the offering is brought forward so too is all the non-perishable food items that people bring in.
In previous years, a few people will collect food at one of the local grocery stores, however due to schedule issues that didn't happen. But even without the additional collection, the people of Bethlehem came through with a LOT of food. In fact this is what my car looked like as it was loaded up to go to Redding Social Services
In previous years, a few people will collect food at one of the local grocery stores, however due to schedule issues that didn't happen. But even without the additional collection, the people of Bethlehem came through with a LOT of food. In fact this is what my car looked like as it was loaded up to go to Redding Social Services
Next year, I might need a bigger car!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
An Afternoon at the Food Bank
Yesterday I went to drop off the food that was collected at Bethlehem on Sunday. The Sunday School set a goal of 102 non-perishable food items for the food bank at Redding Social Services to be collected on Rally Day. That goal was met and exceeded with 117 food items.
To give you some perspective on how much is 117 food items, they filled the back section of my little Honda Fit, was about 12 reusable grocery bags full, would have filled a shopping cart and that is about 5 items per person who was in attendance at our small congregation on Sunday.
Now I love going to RSS. Actually it is a lot of fun to go anywhere where you come in with a large check or car full of items and just drop them off. But I particularly enjoy RSS because I have gotten to know the staff fairly well as the workers are a group of talkers. And I have been able to discuss ideas with them, issues that have come up and just gotten to know the community better through them.
So yesterday when I pull up to RSS, the woman who runs the food pantry was busy sorting a bunch of food that came in earlier in the week. By law food pantries are not allowed to give away food that is expired even though it is still perfectly good. Now most people when donating to a food pantry either go out and buy food specifically for the food pantry or they take items in their cupboards that they bought just a few weeks ago and donate those items. However a few people take a donation as a time to clear out their cabinets of food that they never got around to eating, which leads to some interesting donations.
Among some of the items that were in the expired plied were: 6 LARGE boxes of pasta salad, baker's chocolate, frosting, an open partially used jug of laundry detergent and wait for it......smoked salmon! Yes someone donated (expired) smoked salmon to the food pantry. So this lead to an interesting conversation about weird things people have donated to the food pantry. (And this might help you understand the wealth that does exist in Redding.) The weirdest thing the food pantry coordinator has ever seen: Oysters!
So of course now I want to donate a jar of caviar.
But what does the food pantry need and what does the food pantry not need?
To give you some perspective on how much is 117 food items, they filled the back section of my little Honda Fit, was about 12 reusable grocery bags full, would have filled a shopping cart and that is about 5 items per person who was in attendance at our small congregation on Sunday.
Now I love going to RSS. Actually it is a lot of fun to go anywhere where you come in with a large check or car full of items and just drop them off. But I particularly enjoy RSS because I have gotten to know the staff fairly well as the workers are a group of talkers. And I have been able to discuss ideas with them, issues that have come up and just gotten to know the community better through them.
So yesterday when I pull up to RSS, the woman who runs the food pantry was busy sorting a bunch of food that came in earlier in the week. By law food pantries are not allowed to give away food that is expired even though it is still perfectly good. Now most people when donating to a food pantry either go out and buy food specifically for the food pantry or they take items in their cupboards that they bought just a few weeks ago and donate those items. However a few people take a donation as a time to clear out their cabinets of food that they never got around to eating, which leads to some interesting donations.
Among some of the items that were in the expired plied were: 6 LARGE boxes of pasta salad, baker's chocolate, frosting, an open partially used jug of laundry detergent and wait for it......smoked salmon! Yes someone donated (expired) smoked salmon to the food pantry. So this lead to an interesting conversation about weird things people have donated to the food pantry. (And this might help you understand the wealth that does exist in Redding.) The weirdest thing the food pantry coordinator has ever seen: Oysters!
So of course now I want to donate a jar of caviar.
But what does the food pantry need and what does the food pantry not need?
- Overall most food pantries get a lot of mac & cheese and canned vegetables so maybe skip these the next time you shop for a donation.
- Soups, especially in winter, are appreciated, but make sure they are real soups that you eat as soup and not like cream of mushroom (seriously who eats cream of mushroom other than in a casserole/hot dish?)
- Fruits go quickly and there never seems to be enough
- Cleaning supplies are always in need an don't go bad so there is no chance that they will end up in the trash
- Personal toiletries are also always needed: shampoos, soap, tampons, body wash
- If you don't want to eat it, neither do the people who use the food pantry
- Make sure the item is not expired (dates are printed on most cans, jars and boxes) and not opened. While you may feel good about giving food away, they will just end up in the trash.
- Also when given the option, a monetary donation is better. Most food pantries have "professional shoppers" and get special discounts at many grocery stores so they can often purchase twice as much food or more than you can with the same amount of money.
Most food pantries shelves are barren by the end of summer and remain sparse until Thanksgiving, so please take some time to help restock those shelves.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Financial Crisis: What Can We Do Now?
This was a tough sermon to preach. More accurately this was a tough text to study. Luke 16:1-13, the parable of the dishonest manager, is really hard to understand especially starting at verse 9. Plus we hear a story about a guy who was dishonest with another's wealth in order to make sure that he would be okay and he was praised for doing so. That sounds a lot like what some financial advisors and investors were doing on Wall Street which is a big reason why we had the financial meltdown. Plus on top of a tough text, it was Rally Day.
I ended up basically ignoring Rally Day other than a reference at the end of the sermon as we collected food for Redding Social Services. Our goal was 102 food items, as of the end of the education hour we had 117 items, though more may have been brought in after the "official" count.
Now onto the sermon. I hope it has meaning for you in light of were our country is financially today.
So let me summerize that gospel in case you didn’t understand it, it took me 3 times reading it to sort of figure out what is going on. There is a rich man, he has his accountant. He hears that the accountant is not doing his job so he fires him. But before the accountant gives the rich man his financial records back he calls together all the people that owe the rich man money and he reduces their debts. He did this because he didn’t know what else to do now that he was going to loose his job, but he knew that if he reduced everyone else’s debts that they would now be indebted to him and would help him out once he is no longer the rich man’s accountant.
Okay that kind makes sense, I can see this happening. Someone works for company A and hears that layoffs are a coming. In order to make sure that she will still have a job, even if she is laid off, she goes and cooks the books so that company B owes less money to company A and therefore company B will want to hire her after she is laid off from company A.
Unfortunately our parable did not end with the manager being hired by another master or even welcomed into the debtors’ homes. Instead there is this twist….there is always a twist in the parables….the rich man finds out what the accountant is doing and instead of killing him on the spot or slapping him with some huge lawsuit, he praises the accountant for cooking the books! What! The man gets praised because he was dishonest?!
Okay so I understand the first part of the parable. Each and everyday we are faced with financial decisions. Do I buy Jif, Skippy, Peter Pan or the store brand peanut butter? Should we eat at the Lumberyard or the Saloon?
Some are a little tougher. What bank should I have my accounts with? Who will give me the better interest rates, or the least amounts of fees, or has the most convenient locations and hours or has the best reputation for treating their workforce fairly and reinvesting in the community?
When needing a new car, should I just pay to have the old one fixed? Should I buy new or used? What car maker? What style of car fits my lifestyle the most? How much should MPG’s factor into my decision? What payment plan can I get?
And some financial decisions are quiet a bit bigger. Do I pay my electric bill or buy groceries? If I don’t pay my mortgage this month, is this the month that the bank will finally file for forecloser? How can I pay for gas so I can actually make it to work?
Over the last few years more Americans have been faced with those tougher financial decisions. More Americans have been in the place of this manager, this accountant, not knowing what to do now that they are loosing their jobs. They have been hit with the “what now?” question. What will I do now that my master is taking the position away from me? What will I do now that I have been laid off? What will I do now that my mortgage is worth more than my house? What will I do now that the bank has started the foreclosure process? What will I do now?
The question about “what now?” is often in the singular, “what will I do now?” and sometimes it is in the plural but about your individual family “What will my family and I do now?.” We have become individual minded people and not corporate, communal, community minded people. Because overall wealth allows us to become devoid of community. We can pay for services to come to us, groceries magically appear at our door, through the internet we never have to see anyone at a bank, or store again, much less step foot in one. We can pay to have enough land that we don’t have to see our neighbor’s house or hear them, and often that means that we then don’t know our neighbors. We can pay to join private clubs so we only have to interact with those who we want to interact with. People strive for the type of wealth that allows you to pick and choose your community. But that is not really community. And what people have discovered, what America is starting to figure out through this recession, is that it is community, real community, is what we long for, not wealth.
For many people that question about “what will I do now?” has lead them to seek out the help of community. Multi-generational living arrangements are becoming more normal as grandparents have to move in with their children or grandchildren or the children and grandchildren are moving back home into their parents’ house. Support groups and networks for the unemployed are popping up across the country. Public schools are seeing increased enrollments as parents are no longer able to pay private school tuition for their children. Community gardens and farmers markets are having a resurgence as people connect with neighbors and want to support their local growers. Bartering is becoming a more popular way to pay for some services as people trade babysitting time for a haircut or some home improvement jobs for garden vegetables. More people are volunteering their time to a variety of organizations, especially as those who were laid off or took earlier retirement try to find ways to fill their new found free-time.
Our question about “What will I do now?” is starting to become a corporate, communal, community-based question “what will we do now?” “What can we do to help those whose positions and homes are being taken away from them?” “What can we do to make sure a financial meltdown like this never happens again?” “What will we do now to rebuild our financial infrastructure, to rebuild our communities?”
But now what about the second part of this parable. What about the rich man praising the manager for his dishonest ways? What does that mean for us? Well thus far I have been fairly Pollyanna about the countries financial recovery but let’s be a little real. We are in this situation because people were acting shrewdly. People were busy looking out for their own immediate financial gain and not the long term benefits for themselves, their companies, the country and the world. Because people like Bernie Madoff, and corporations like Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, JP Morgan, Bank of America and many others were shrewd to their own generation instead of thinking about the future and the next generation we are now in this situation. And up until two years ago many of the top executives of those companies were praised and commended for what they were doing, even by the people who knew that it was all smoke and mirrors. And as we as a country, as a world, as a community of people recovering from the financial fallout that has happened, people will continue to act shrewdly. Some people will continue to think only for themselves and not the community. Some people will not learn from these past two years and try to do the same thing again.
But there is hope. I hope that many of us have learned from this financial turmoil and what looks like a long road to recovery. That in the many financial decisions that we make everyday, we ask ourselves questions like “does this company reinvest in the community or do the profits just go to the few executives at the top?” “Is my bank willing to help those in need, even if it means less profits for them?” “Do I shop at stores that treat their employees fairly and pay them a living wage?” And I still need to ask myself these questions: Bob and I have bank accounts with Bank of America and we have a Chase credit card, two companies who names have come up over and over again in the wake of the financial crisis. But by asking these questions we can make the “What will I do now?” question into “What will we do now?”
And there is hope that God is changing us. Unlike money which is finite, God’s love is infinite. God’s love knows no ending. God has entrusted us with the greatest of riches, the gift of eternal life. God has moved many people to seek out community and for communities to envelop, love and care for those who are in the most need. We as a community of faith have been called to care for the people of this greater community. This past Wednesday, I took a basket full of soap, shampoos, and other toiletries up to the Americares Clinic in Danbury. When I arrived there were out of such items and they said that even with such an amount, most of those items would be gone by this weekend. And today we have been called to gather food for our local food bank at Redding Social Services. This collection is hope. This collection is God’s work in this world. This collection is a call for community. God has given us hope. God is calling us to do God’s work in this world. God is calling us to community. God is asking “what will we do now?” We face many financial decision each and everyday, about our earning, spending, saving and giving but there is only so much that we can do. However God’s giving knows no ending. And through God’s love we can give to others as we ask “what can we do now?”
I ended up basically ignoring Rally Day other than a reference at the end of the sermon as we collected food for Redding Social Services. Our goal was 102 food items, as of the end of the education hour we had 117 items, though more may have been brought in after the "official" count.
Now onto the sermon. I hope it has meaning for you in light of were our country is financially today.
So let me summerize that gospel in case you didn’t understand it, it took me 3 times reading it to sort of figure out what is going on. There is a rich man, he has his accountant. He hears that the accountant is not doing his job so he fires him. But before the accountant gives the rich man his financial records back he calls together all the people that owe the rich man money and he reduces their debts. He did this because he didn’t know what else to do now that he was going to loose his job, but he knew that if he reduced everyone else’s debts that they would now be indebted to him and would help him out once he is no longer the rich man’s accountant.
Okay that kind makes sense, I can see this happening. Someone works for company A and hears that layoffs are a coming. In order to make sure that she will still have a job, even if she is laid off, she goes and cooks the books so that company B owes less money to company A and therefore company B will want to hire her after she is laid off from company A.
Unfortunately our parable did not end with the manager being hired by another master or even welcomed into the debtors’ homes. Instead there is this twist….there is always a twist in the parables….the rich man finds out what the accountant is doing and instead of killing him on the spot or slapping him with some huge lawsuit, he praises the accountant for cooking the books! What! The man gets praised because he was dishonest?!
Okay so I understand the first part of the parable. Each and everyday we are faced with financial decisions. Do I buy Jif, Skippy, Peter Pan or the store brand peanut butter? Should we eat at the Lumberyard or the Saloon?
Some are a little tougher. What bank should I have my accounts with? Who will give me the better interest rates, or the least amounts of fees, or has the most convenient locations and hours or has the best reputation for treating their workforce fairly and reinvesting in the community?
When needing a new car, should I just pay to have the old one fixed? Should I buy new or used? What car maker? What style of car fits my lifestyle the most? How much should MPG’s factor into my decision? What payment plan can I get?
And some financial decisions are quiet a bit bigger. Do I pay my electric bill or buy groceries? If I don’t pay my mortgage this month, is this the month that the bank will finally file for forecloser? How can I pay for gas so I can actually make it to work?
Over the last few years more Americans have been faced with those tougher financial decisions. More Americans have been in the place of this manager, this accountant, not knowing what to do now that they are loosing their jobs. They have been hit with the “what now?” question. What will I do now that my master is taking the position away from me? What will I do now that I have been laid off? What will I do now that my mortgage is worth more than my house? What will I do now that the bank has started the foreclosure process? What will I do now?
The question about “what now?” is often in the singular, “what will I do now?” and sometimes it is in the plural but about your individual family “What will my family and I do now?.” We have become individual minded people and not corporate, communal, community minded people. Because overall wealth allows us to become devoid of community. We can pay for services to come to us, groceries magically appear at our door, through the internet we never have to see anyone at a bank, or store again, much less step foot in one. We can pay to have enough land that we don’t have to see our neighbor’s house or hear them, and often that means that we then don’t know our neighbors. We can pay to join private clubs so we only have to interact with those who we want to interact with. People strive for the type of wealth that allows you to pick and choose your community. But that is not really community. And what people have discovered, what America is starting to figure out through this recession, is that it is community, real community, is what we long for, not wealth.
For many people that question about “what will I do now?” has lead them to seek out the help of community. Multi-generational living arrangements are becoming more normal as grandparents have to move in with their children or grandchildren or the children and grandchildren are moving back home into their parents’ house. Support groups and networks for the unemployed are popping up across the country. Public schools are seeing increased enrollments as parents are no longer able to pay private school tuition for their children. Community gardens and farmers markets are having a resurgence as people connect with neighbors and want to support their local growers. Bartering is becoming a more popular way to pay for some services as people trade babysitting time for a haircut or some home improvement jobs for garden vegetables. More people are volunteering their time to a variety of organizations, especially as those who were laid off or took earlier retirement try to find ways to fill their new found free-time.
Our question about “What will I do now?” is starting to become a corporate, communal, community-based question “what will we do now?” “What can we do to help those whose positions and homes are being taken away from them?” “What can we do to make sure a financial meltdown like this never happens again?” “What will we do now to rebuild our financial infrastructure, to rebuild our communities?”
But now what about the second part of this parable. What about the rich man praising the manager for his dishonest ways? What does that mean for us? Well thus far I have been fairly Pollyanna about the countries financial recovery but let’s be a little real. We are in this situation because people were acting shrewdly. People were busy looking out for their own immediate financial gain and not the long term benefits for themselves, their companies, the country and the world. Because people like Bernie Madoff, and corporations like Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, JP Morgan, Bank of America and many others were shrewd to their own generation instead of thinking about the future and the next generation we are now in this situation. And up until two years ago many of the top executives of those companies were praised and commended for what they were doing, even by the people who knew that it was all smoke and mirrors. And as we as a country, as a world, as a community of people recovering from the financial fallout that has happened, people will continue to act shrewdly. Some people will continue to think only for themselves and not the community. Some people will not learn from these past two years and try to do the same thing again.
But there is hope. I hope that many of us have learned from this financial turmoil and what looks like a long road to recovery. That in the many financial decisions that we make everyday, we ask ourselves questions like “does this company reinvest in the community or do the profits just go to the few executives at the top?” “Is my bank willing to help those in need, even if it means less profits for them?” “Do I shop at stores that treat their employees fairly and pay them a living wage?” And I still need to ask myself these questions: Bob and I have bank accounts with Bank of America and we have a Chase credit card, two companies who names have come up over and over again in the wake of the financial crisis. But by asking these questions we can make the “What will I do now?” question into “What will we do now?”
And there is hope that God is changing us. Unlike money which is finite, God’s love is infinite. God’s love knows no ending. God has entrusted us with the greatest of riches, the gift of eternal life. God has moved many people to seek out community and for communities to envelop, love and care for those who are in the most need. We as a community of faith have been called to care for the people of this greater community. This past Wednesday, I took a basket full of soap, shampoos, and other toiletries up to the Americares Clinic in Danbury. When I arrived there were out of such items and they said that even with such an amount, most of those items would be gone by this weekend. And today we have been called to gather food for our local food bank at Redding Social Services. This collection is hope. This collection is God’s work in this world. This collection is a call for community. God has given us hope. God is calling us to do God’s work in this world. God is calling us to community. God is asking “what will we do now?” We face many financial decision each and everyday, about our earning, spending, saving and giving but there is only so much that we can do. However God’s giving knows no ending. And through God’s love we can give to others as we ask “what can we do now?”
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
In-Gathering Sunday
I can't believe that I made it to Wednesday before posting about In-gathering Sunday. It has been a busy week, but that is good.
So for those of you who are not familiar with Bethlehem, you might be wondering what In-gathering Sunday is. Well I was too. I had heard about In-gathering Sunday when I first arrived at Bethlehem and while it was described to me a few times I was still confused at exactly what it was. Basically in a nutshell, it is the Sunday when everyone brings in food that is then donated to the food pantry for Redding Social Services. It is normally a few weeks before Thanksgiving but also during the Stewardship campaign for the next year so hopefully people make the connection that stewardship is about all of our resources which go to help others, not just money that goes to the church.
The altar is COVERED in produce and during the offering many people bring forward the bags and bags of food that are collected.
So unfortunately I don't have pictures of this year's altar yet. But here are two pictures from a previous year.
Standing at the altar amid all that food was spectacular! It also really added to all the illusions of communion being a feast.
What a visual joy!
So for those of you who are not familiar with Bethlehem, you might be wondering what In-gathering Sunday is. Well I was too. I had heard about In-gathering Sunday when I first arrived at Bethlehem and while it was described to me a few times I was still confused at exactly what it was. Basically in a nutshell, it is the Sunday when everyone brings in food that is then donated to the food pantry for Redding Social Services. It is normally a few weeks before Thanksgiving but also during the Stewardship campaign for the next year so hopefully people make the connection that stewardship is about all of our resources which go to help others, not just money that goes to the church.
The altar is COVERED in produce and during the offering many people bring forward the bags and bags of food that are collected.
So unfortunately I don't have pictures of this year's altar yet. But here are two pictures from a previous year.
Standing at the altar amid all that food was spectacular! It also really added to all the illusions of communion being a feast.
What a visual joy!
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