You.

You’re important to what we do here at Hope Lutheran because you’re important to God’s mission in this world.

And when you’re involved at Hope, you’re involved in changing the world - because whatever we do, you do.

We’re a group of folks who aren’t afraid to get dirty, tackling some of the worlds and our own issues with our hands and our feet.  We’ve helped clean up our neighborhood, built fences, planted gardens, and hauled trash.  We’ve helped with relief work in Haiti and Chile following the earthquakes there and have collected literally thousands of cans of food for those who are hungry in our communities.  We’ve helped house those who need a warm place to stay at night and those who need some help with their rent or utilities.

We’re also not afraid to get dirty and do the tough work when it comes to our relationship with God either.  We ask the tough questions and are willing to wrestle with God and each other a bit.  We acknowledge life is messy and that we worship a God who knows this and is willing to wade into the muck with us.

And YOU are important to this.  Whether you are part of the community for worship on a Sunday morning or if you show up to help build a fence or a garden, you are a part of what we do here - living out God’s mission in the world, providing hope where there may not have been any before.

Our Adult Sunday School is using the Nooma (www.flannel.org) video series as a jumping off point for discussion about faith and spirituality.  This past week we watched the video “Noise” and it the midst of the discussion about silence and the ability (or lack there of) to find it in today’s world, I thought about those things which are very much present in our world but we just don’t seem to hear or see.

During my first year of college, I lived in a dorm room right off Figueroa near downtown Los Angeles.  If you’re not familiar with Figueroa, it’s a very busy street so there are constantly cars going up and down at all times of the day not to mention a few traffic lights which urge the most impatient of drivers to honk their horns the instant the light turns green and the car in front of them isn’t moving.  But the kicker was the fire department was just around the corner and no matter when they left, I always heard their sirens when I was in my room.  It was impossible not to.

But one day my mom called.  I answered the phone and heard my mom start to say something before stopping mid-word.  Then she said, “That’s right, you live right around the corner from the fire department.”  It was only after she said that I noticed the fire engine barreling down Figueroa.  I’m sure my ear drum moved with the sound of the siren, that is I physically heard it, but it just didn’t register.  I’d gotten so used to hearing the sound of sirens that I didn’t hear them - I blocked them out.

As I recounted this story for the adults in Sunday School this past week, I wonder what we hear but don’t really hear.  What are the things (or even people) we see, but don’t really see?  What are those things that are very much a present reality, part of our world, but we don’t even begin to see or hear them?  Sometimes it may be out of familiarity (do we really see our spouses, girlfriends, boyfriends, brothers, sisters?) or an instinctual self-preservation (because it’s too difficult to deal with the reality it’s there).

I suspect this may be the same for God’s action in our world - it’s there, but do we really see it?  Do we hear it?

So I ask, what’s there but neither seen nor heard?

Photo courtesy of MPHDodgeDaytona (rights)

The past three days have been very, very full days for us.  It has been a challenge to even find a spare moment of time for sleep let alone to write a blog post detailing what is going on here in New Orleans.  But tonight I’ve got some time (although again, not much) so I thought I’d share a bit about what has been going on.

This is the first gathering of such a size the city of New Orleans has hosted since Hurricane Katrina and in some ways it is a bit obvious.  Things that would have worked  a bit more smoothly 12 years ago when the city last hosted this very gathering are now a bit kinky.  But the major issues that we’ve had as a group have had less to do with whether the city of New Orleans is ready for us and more to do with the actual Gathering participants.

The streets are crowded!  There are at least 36,000 people walking the streets to and from the Superdome for our nightly Mass Gatherings.  And while we are all coming from different hotels in slightly different areas, it gets a bit oppressive especially up at the Dome.  In response to this, people are crowding each other, pushing and shoving, and disobeying traffic laws.  It’s a bit chaotic.

But, things are still good and we’re learning and growing a lot.  We’ve spent time in the Interaction Center which provides all sorts of opportunities for learning (including Justice Town where our group learned about human trafficking among other things) as well as fun and games (did you see the pictures of the bumper cars from day two?).

Today though we spent time at a Catholic Charities building cleaning it up so that it can open as housing for homeless and battered women and children.  We did a lot of different things around the buildings, everything from packing up a food-pantry to move from one building to another to sweeping to washing windows and painting.  It was incredible to see the ways in which God is at work in our kids and the other groups who were there.

I will hopefully write about the Mass Gatherings and the speakers/bands we encounter there each night.  But that will have to wait for another time because I am in need of some sleep before another full day tomorrow.

In the meantime, enjoy some pictures from today.

Jesus, Justice, Jazz - Day Three

Pastor Kate

Want to see what we’ve been up to for the past two days, here are two more photo albums, one for each day.

As the Gathering is very fast paced and we don’t often get down time, I will have to post captions later.  But please enjoy the pictures while you wait.

Jesus, Justice, Jazz - Day One

Jesus, Justice, Jazz - Day Two

After almost 27 hours on the train from Union Station to New Orleans, we have finally arrived for the National Youth Gathering!

It’s now the first morning of the gathering and I’m looking forward to what this day and the next four bring.  I’m sure they promise new experiences, hard work, worship and encounters with God, as well as new friends and the opportunity to see old ones.

So here’s to the start of a great experience!  Amanda and I hope you follow us on our journey through these next couple of days.  We’ll write a few things and put them up here (click on the “blog” link above for more soon) and put pictures up for you to see.

Speaking of pictures, here are a few from the train ride down here:

Jesus Justice Jazz 2009 - Train

Jesus, Justice, Jazz - here we come!

New: If you want to see photos from the first two days of the Gathering, head on over here: http://www.hopeclinton.org/events/jesus-justice-jazz-days-one-and-two-pictures/

And for pictures and a reflection from the third day, check this page out: http://www.hopeclinton.org/events/jesus-justice-jazz-day-three/

Pastor Kate

There is a story in which a young minister is sitting in her house one day when she hears a banging on the door. When she opens the door she discovers one of the church members standing before her. It is obvious that he is exhausted from running to her house and is barely holding back some tears.

“What’s wrong” asks the minister, seeing that this man is obviously in distress

“Please can you help”, replied the man, “A kind and considerate family in the area are in great trouble. The husband recently lost his job and the wife cannot work due to health problems. They have three young children to look after and on top of all that the man’s mother lives with them as she is unwell and needs constant care. They have no money at the moment and if they don’t pay the rent by tomorrow morning the landlord is going to kick them all onto the street, even though its winter”.

“That’s terrible”, said the minister, “Of course we will help. Anyway how do you know them”?

“I’m the landlord” replied the man.

The above parable is courtesy of Peter Rollins and is taken directly from his blog post on Irony and Fetishism.  What I most appreciate about Pete’s parables is his way of transforming the way we think about our faith and religious activity.  It makes me pause and think a bit.

I told the congregation in worship yesterday that when I first heard this parable, I imagined myself as the minister.  I was upset and outraged how this man could make such a decision, ignoring his responsibility to the family.  But the more that I’ve thought about it, I’m really the landlord in that story.

I’m the one who has the means to help others, the ability to make decisions regarding the use of the resources God has blessed me with.  And yet, I squander them.  Last week alone I spent $25 on coffee at Starbucks.  25 dollars!

What if I only spent $5 – instead choosing to use the rest of my money in a different way?

$8 can buy me two Venti, Caramel Macchiatos, or it can buy 25 fruit trees for farmers in Honduras to grow and sell fruit at their local market.

$25 can buy me five Grande, Mocha Frappacinos, or it can help feed a family of four who has lost their only source of income for two days.

Or the $75 I’m likely to have spent on coffee this month could be invested in a Kiva microfinance loan that will help women in Uganda start their own business – allowing them to feed their families and repay the loans.

I am the landlord telling the family they can no longer live here because I’ve got to buy coffee - really expensive coffee.

And I suspect I’m not the only landlord among us either.

So I have made a public commitment to reduce the amount of money I spend at Starbucks to once a week (so $5).  Instead, the rest of the money I may have otherwise spent there (at least $10 but at much as $20) I commit to investing in the work of the kingdom of God.  I will give that much more to the church, or to the Oxon Hill Food Pantry, or to Lutheran World Hunger.

And I asked those in worship yesterday morning to consider what resources God has blessed them with and how they could reorder their resources, investing some in other places.  Then I asked them to fill out a sheet of paper committing to God what that action will look like and place it on the altar as a sacrifice.

I was moved by the number of people who chose to make such commitments.  Many have committed to reordering their lives as I have, by eating out less and giving that extra money back to the church or another service organization.  But some others are choosing to walk and reorder their health/fitness so that they can be of more service to the church and the world.

While the Apostle Paul used financial language in the 2 Corinthians text yesterday (quoted below), I also wonder how many of us sacrifice our time - choosing to turn off the TV and invest that time in our families or friends.  How many of us are willing to invest in new relationships or those that are on shaky ground.  As I write this I’m beginning to think that will be my next sacrifice - investing in strong relationships, new relationships, and those with my neighbors.

Finally, I also asked the congregation to hold me accountable; to ask me from time to time how my commitment to spend less at Starbucks is going, how I’m investing more of my financial resources back into kingdom work.  I also encouraged them to each find somebody who is willing to do that for them as well.

As people left the worship space yesterday, many told me what it is that they are sacrificing, how they are reordering things.  I’m excited!  God is up to amazing things here and I look forward to how this will unfold into more in the future!

So what are you willing to sacrifice?  What commitment are you going to make?  If you’d like some accountability, then I encourage you to comment on the post and we can hold each other mutually accountable.

Now as you excel in everything– in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you– so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.  8 I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others.  9 For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.  10 And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something–  11 now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means.  12 For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has– not according to what one does not have.  13 I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between  14 your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance.  15 As it is written, “The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.”  2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Photo courtesy of Steve Webel

About a month ago I was in a conversation and one of the people responded to something I had said with, “That’s life.”

Now, while I do agree that there are some things which we must accept as part of life (i.e. the very fact that change is a certainty), but there are many other things that we do accept as part of life when they should not be.

So I’m stating that I do not accept that this is the way it is.

I don’t accept that in Prince George’s County, at least 8.1% of all residents live below the poverty line.

I do not accept that some have access to affordable health care while others do not.

I do not accept that 186 people were murdered in DC last year nor that at least 125 people were murdered in Prince George’s County last year.

I do not accept that in the District, 1 in 2 children is at risk for hunger nor that 1 in 5 children is at risk in Prince George’s.

I do not accept that more than 12,500 people die every day from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and that we have the resources to help lower this number dramatically yet don’t give access. (http://www.one.org/us/issues/)

I do not accept that 884 million people across the world do not have access to clean water or that 2.5 billion (that’s right, billion with a ‘b’) do not have access to adequate sanitation. (http://www.one.org/us/issues/)

I do not accept that this is just life or that it is the way that it is.  I do not accept it and instead feel that it is an obligation for me to help my brothers and sisters just as I expect they will help me.

This is not the way it is meant to be - this is not how God imagined creation to be.

And it is not the way it has to be either.  We have the resources and together we can change the world.

It does not have to be like this - instead we can do something about it.

What will you do?

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?  38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?  39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’  40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25:37-40)

Photo courtesy of tombothetominator (rights)