Thought for First Month, 2012

Privilege and crumbs

Our favorite coffeehouse placates the consciences of urbanites who see themselves as caring, eco-conscious people. We buy fair-trade, shade-grown coffee, and our bottled water funds wells in Third World countries.

Meanwhile, street people search the trash outside for leftovers. The drug-wasted girl who stops me daily as I go for coffee says she's full if I offer her a sandwich instead of money.

I go there every day.

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

—from Mark 10: 17-31

Friends,

I resisted the leading to publish the above message, because it convicts me of what I often rationalize away: my own complicity in the injustice of poverty.

Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

May this be our path, to open to God's tenderness.

Blessèd be,
Michael

What's NEW: Events of Concern & New Links

Reclaiming Young Black Males for Jacksonville’s Future - An Urban Education Symposium at Jacksonville Main Library, 8:30 - 2:00, Saturday, February 4th

• Young African American Males in Crises - A Wendyletter to Friends, Family & Other Scattered Pilgrims (12/27/2011)

• NEW Social Services for the Homeless (Green Card) - Created by Jacksonville's Emergency Services and Homeless Coalition for distribution to folks on the street
  • Friends may want to find out whether other Florida cities have such cards
• 2012 Peacebuilders Camp - Americus, GA, at Koinonia Partners Community (June 25-30, 2012), supported by a collaboration of members of the Atlanta Mennonite Fellowship, the Atlanta Friends Meeting and the Southern Appalachian YM

• Friends Peace Teams to Indonesia - January 7 – March 25, 2012


• Historic Peace Churches: 3rd Annual Peace Gathering - Sebring Church of the Brethren, 700 Pine Street, Sebring, FL 33870, January 28, 2012


• Minute on the Federal Budget, Clear Creek Monthly Meeting, Richmond, IN (from November 9, 2011, FCNL E-Newsletter)
  • As Congress continues to dismantle programs to protect the poor and to heal the sick, Clear Creek Meeting in Richmond, IN is speaking out against the bloated Pentagon budget and for a compassionate one.
• Could your meeting or church approve a minute similar to this one? If you do, please take a co py to the local offices of your members of Congress and send a copy to FCNL as well. As a group, your voices can be powerful.


• "Most of you have no idea what Martin Luther King actually did" - Daily Kos article by Hamden Rice (8/29/2011)
  • "What most people who reference Dr. King seem not to know is how Dr. King actually changed the subjective experience of life in the United States for African Americans.... His main impact was his effect on the lives of African Americans, not on Americans in general. His main impact was not to make white people nicer or fairer. That's why some of us who are African Americans get a bit possessive about his legacy. Dr. Martin Luther King's legacy, despite what our civil religion tells us, is not color blind."
    

Note: Friends are encouraged to send suggestions for added topics of concern and for links or other content to Mike Shell.