Sit
empty cupped hands
outreached in supplication
for the daily bread
that feeds and sustains you.
Everyday you must
acknowledge your own hunger,
acknowledge your own emptiness,
acknowledge your own longing…
in this weakness
lies your strength.
Freed from all you cannot do
you are released to do what you can
and it begins when you sit
empty cupped hands
outreached in supplication.
Talitha Fraser
~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
We are running a fortnightly bible study following our community dinner looking at the exegesis (interpretation) of the bible passages that underpin each of our community values. You can read the list of Values here so you know what’s coming up next.
These values can be relevant whatever context you live and work in just make the Word you own.
Value 4: Seeking justice for the poor
We value God’s priority for the poor and seek to prioritise the marginalised of Footscray. We do not want to just show mercy, but instead offer our lives, in voice and activity, with those who we seek to serve.
Biblical basis: Jeremiah 22:16, James 2: 1-5
Let’s read the value together… what words/phrases stand out?
Who do we think are “the poor”?
Those who are poor in heart? in spirit? or without money? It’s those who are poor in spirit that are worst off = those who feel empty. When you eat you’re full. If you don’t eat you’re empty.
We need to be helping one another more.
Read the bible. What words/ideas stand out?
What can we learn from the bible about living the Value: Seeking justice for the poor?
Jeremiah passage brought to mind people such as Donald Trump and Gina Rinehart…
Who gets behind and left out? What kinds of people?
What does it mean to “have a huge head-start in the faith stakes”?
Know how to be grateful.
Jeremiah 22: 16-17
“Doom to him who builds palaces but bullies people,
who makes a fine house but destroys lives,
Who cheats his workers
and won’t pay them for their work,
Who says, ‘I’ll build me an elaborate mansion
with spacious rooms and fancy windows.
I’ll bring in rare and expensive woods
and the latest in interior decor.’
So, that makes you a king—
living in a fancy palace?
Your father got along just fine, didn’t he?
He did what was right and treated people fairly,
And things went well with him.
He stuck up for the down-and-out,
And things went well for Judah.
Isn’t this what it means to know me?”
God’s Decree!
“But you’re blind and brainless.
All you think about is yourself,
Taking advantage of the weak,
bulldozing your way, bullying victims.”
The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighbourhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
The Message
James 2: 1-10
……..Sisters and brothers, if you really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, how come you still play favourites? If people walk into one of your meetings and you make a fuss of the ones dressed up to the nines and looking a million dollars, ushering them to the best seats in the house, while at the same time turning up your nose at those dressed like battlers, down on their luck, telling them to stand out in the foyer, aren’t you practicing apartheid, segregating God’s children? You’re as crooked as a judge who bases your sentence on the length of your skirt!
……..Get this straight in your minds, dear friends. God has turned the world’s opinion polls upside down. Those who have been deprived of what the world values have a huge head-start in the faith stakes. Their names are at the top of the list of those who God has chosen to inherit the riches of the kingdom. All who love God have an equal share in God’s promises, but you’re insulting some of them by means-testing your welcome.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
Reflection time… followed by sharing time.
Who are “the poor” in Footscray?
Offer our lives – in voice and activity…
I will tell you something that has been a secret; that we are not all going to die, but we shall be changed.
1 Cor 15
I am hungry. I am full. I am empty. I am all these things in You.
These words from Corinthians bear hope for me. They give me a sense of space and flexibility where I have felt rigid and tight. This is the gift of Your grace and I am grateful for it.
We draw lines in the sand and then are constricted by the confines of the smallness of our own imaginations. This is why we require You and cannot trust to our own abilities. Let me confess I am slow to seek You, You speak but I do not hear, I look but do not see what You would show because I imagine I know. Give me the grace to know all I do not know, humble me to be dependent on You always and in all things.
Is our destination to You outside of ourselves or inwards? Both at the same time? It was clever for cities of old to be built as a maze with the church at the centre. You would always have a sense that you could not get lost because you’d have some understanding of where you stood in relation to God at all times. Sometimes near. Sometimes far. Even a deadend is useful in that we have learned the way not to go. Perhaps we find a place along the Way that is comfortable and we do not wish to go any further? Perhaps if we go too far we will not be able to find our way back? …but that is a fallacy – there is only ever forwards. Our commitment to God needs to be this, that ‘I will keep on moving forwards’. This page, limited to two dimensions, the image could seem to ascend or descend but it would be better to imagine some sort of Cubist mobile suspended in space and time in constant motion.
This is our God.
This is why I – and you – can be made new
in every moment, made anew, renewed
in every moment.
itellyouarise 