the new world is falling...

well, i have a midterm tomorrow that i'm fairly unclear about...so here I am, being queen of procrastination.

i've had the fortune in attending a course taught at grandview calvary the past weeks entitled "reading the text/reading the world"...which looks at the poverty in our community (world) and relates it to the biblical call to justice (text). although my mondays are long, i feel a great deal of hope everytime I enter that sanctuary. there is a sense of urgency, a willingness to learn, and a hunger for the Word of God to feed us in how we can better serve and engage in our world.

here are some ruminating thoughts:
1) i remember something being said in regards to what our role should be, as "middle-class" christians in regards to how to serve the poor: if we want to simply help the disenfranchised...that help will not be welcome. what is demanded of us is to stand up with those who fight hunger, lack of housing, disability, abuse, and addiction...we must stand together and fight together. as a united body, we must voice our concerns to the culturally, politically, and economically powerful of our time.
2) "we live in a time of fear and complacency" - i've sensed this in every part of my life. people distrust the government, and no longer believe in the power of the public sphere. although I myself have grown cynical of the lack of communication between citizens and government, that cynicism does not justify complacency. we are in need of an audacity of hope: a hope that shatters the limitations we have placed in ourselves and in our political system.
3) our prejudices and preconceptions about "they way things are" are internalized and requires a renewal on our part. we must challenge our "common sense" and make an effort to see beyond the individual - see beyond the lack of hygiene, the worn-out clothing, the pain - and begin to understand the structural inequalities of the liberal democratic system that we hold in such high regard.

friends, we must be partners in this cause and have the audacity to hope for a better future for everyone in our community: rich, poor, middle class...
learn, inform, act - the way of the open hand is our call.

more to come about this in the near future=)