We too quickly get caught up in methodology, i.e. how will we accomplish what it is that we desire to do? Yes, there is great debate as to this social program or that, to welfare type programs and subsidies for impoverished schools. I certainly hope that the debate is not merely our way of putting off the sacrifices needed in order to care for God’s children. I hope this isn’t the case.
Most of you are aware that we have started the 2010 Habitat for Humanity house. We were fortunate yesterday to have the homeowner with us for the morning. Taking time off from her full time job as the director of a local day care center, she was there when the first nails were driven and the outline of the house began to take shape. Seeing this project through her eyes, had a profound impact. “It is fun,” some will say. “Look at the nails I drove,” others will add. Her reaction, “I can’t believe I am going to own my own home.”
We must get around the paralysis of analysis which keeps forever debating what the best method of addressing poverty is. We cannot be stymied by the complexity of the problem. We must take action.
I invite you to join in the following prayer. To pray it, and then to live it.
“O God of the hungry and of the full, God of the poor and of the rich, you have spoken a strong word, a beautiful and terrible word of liberation and salvation, of freedom and unity, to all you children, through Jesus, in the Spirit’s power. May your Spirit move us to stop resisting, so that we may really will to live ad exercise the freedom you have given us: freedom from our idols and property and plenty, freedom from our worship of a social order in which others starve while we have our fill. Teach us to take our lives and our institutions in hand, making them serve you through serving our neighbors, reshaping them for worldwide sharing. We pray clearly and surely in Jesus’ name." Amen.
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