God Is Coming! -- Alternative Lectionary for Advent 3 (David Ackerman)

God is coming -- is a word like that a cause for celebration or angst? I suppose how you answer will depend on how you envision God. For many of us who live on the left side of center the idea of judgment is a difficult concept to get hold of. And yet the biblical story is not without passages that speak of judgment, especially in regard to the coming of God. As we pursue this Advent journey toward Christmas and its celebration of the incarnation, words like those found in these texts that David Ackerman, in Beyond the Lectionary: A Year of Alternatives to the Revised Common Lectionary, has chosen for us as an alternative reading (I plan on preaching from Daniel 5), require some deep reflection on our part.  Perhaps they can push us to stand with courage for the things of God.

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Advent 3

December 15, 2013

“God Is Coming!”

Call to Worship: Psalm 62:1-2 NRSV

One: For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.

Many: He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken.

Gathering Prayer: You bring us together today, God, and we look for you to come and rescue us from the brokenness of life. Be near us, Holy One, and deliver us from times of trial.

Confession: God, we have been cowardly people who have spoken without thinking and kept silent when we needed to speak. In our thoughts and actions, we are guilty of failing to trust in you. In this season, when we hear your call to turn to you, we ask your forgiveness. Where we deserve to be judged, we ask you for mercy. We also ask that you give us the courage we need to forgive others in the same way that you have forgiven us.

Assurance: God gives us abundant assurance this day of grace, love, and forgiveness. In the spirit of this season, let us give thanks to God for coming to us so that we might have new life this day.

Scriptures:        

                        Daniel5:1-7, 17, 25-28 – “The Writing on the Wall”

Revelation 15:2-4 – “Song of Victory”

Matthew 24:15-22 – “Coming Judgment”

Commentaries and sermon ideas are available in Beyond the Lectionary.

Reflection Questions:

·         What do you think is the point of today’s story from Daniel 5? Can religion and politics ever be completely separate? How do they influence and impact each other?

·         What do you think the intended readers of John of Patmos’ writing would have thought the “beast” in Revelation 15 represented? (Hint: keep thinking politics.) What do you think the beast’s overthrow would have meant to first/second century Christians? What does it mean to you to think that the victor would be known as “the Lamb”? Should these images be taken literally or as attempts to describe something that transcends human language?

·         What do you make of the kind of description of the “end times” that we see in Matthew 24? What do you think is the point of readings like this? Again, should these images be taken literally or as attempts to describe something that that is indescribable?

·         How do you feel about Bible readings that focus on judgment? Are there any good things that might come from those kinds of readings? What could they be?

·         The teaching of Jesus’ return to judge the earth is often lifted up in Christian theology, but it also divides many Christians, who envision it very differently. What do you think that what people call “the return of Christ” might look like? Do you like the idea of it? Why or why not?

Prayer of Thanksgiving: We give glory and praise to you, our victorious Lamb, for leading us down a path of indescribable joy. We pray that our lives might reflect true gratitude for all the good you have done for us and all the love you have shown us.

Benediction: We have been sent to proclaim the liberating good news of a God whose coming into our world changes everything. Let us go now and share a message that our world yearns to hear – a message of hope, peace, love and joy. Amen.

Pope on Unequal Wealth -- Sightings (Martin Marty)

Pope Francis continues to blaze new trails, focusing his attention on the needs of the poor and the marginalized.  He's got a lot of fans, especially among Protestants, including lots of liberals.  Even Jon Stewart likes  him!  Now Francis has his critics.  Rush Limbaugh continually denounces him as a Marxist, and his vision for the church doesn't fit everyone inside and outside the church, who seek to emphasize the individualistic pursuit of wealth.  In this week's edition of Sightings, Martin Marty again addresses the importance of Francis' call to action on the part of people of faith in the public square on behalf of those in need.  Not only that, but Francis is challenging the very economic structures that the West, especially the United States, have embraced.  Take a read, offer your thoughts.    

 

Pope on Unequal Wealth by MARTIN E. MARTY Monday | Dec 2 2013 Pope Francis                                            Credit: Catholic Church (England and Wales) / flickr “Pope attacks ‘tyranny’ of markets in manifesto” (Chicago Tribune, Nov. 26), “Pope Assails ‘New Tyranny’ of Unchecked Capitalism” (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 26), “Pope Francis the Revolutionary” (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 28) are just three of the thousands of headlines in newspapers and on blog posts this past week. The focus of these headlines—Pope Francis’ “apostolic exhortation”—wiped out all competition for attention among opinion-makers and reporters who deal with significant news in the spheres where religion (once a.k.a. a “private affair”) and everything public meet. First, this is so because the Pope, any Pope, commands notice as head of the Catholic Church and its more than one-billion adherents. Second, it is so because this Pope, with his refreshing statements, has surprised pro- and con- religion world citizens and observers on the left, right, and center. Third, journalists, commentators, and their readerships and audiences can grow, have grown, weary of the obsessive preoccupation with sex-related issues which has dominated the media for years. They are not alone: the Pope is also weary of what he calls such “obsessive” concerns and says he wants to change the topic. And, fourth, because he has lifted up the often-obscured, but certainly the oldest, ethical issue in the Christian treasury, rooted as it is in the Gospels, the whole New Testament, and the Hebrew Scriptures, which Christians share with Jews. A student in one of my courses used a ruler to measure how many inches of type in his New Testament were dedicated to various topics. “Homosexuality” took up about two inches in the Pauline writings, and that was that. “Birth control?” Zero. “Abortion?” Zero. I don’t mean to trivialize these subjects, but this student chronicler found that throughout his Bible, the ethical focus for individuals and “the people of God,” more often than not—in many, many inches or feet of measured type—dealt with “economic inequality,” “unequal wealth,” and the “tyranny” of various economic orders or disorders. Champions of inequality, in their legions of legions, should not quake because a mere pope speaks critically of the way of life they champion or embody. “We” are accustomed or even wired to turn off visions of the poor. Nicholas D. Kristof, in the New York Times (Nov. 27), pointed to a typical finding, this time by Susan Fiske of Princeton: “When research subjects hooked up to neuro-imaging machines look at photos of the poor and the homeless, their brains often react as if they are seeing things, not people.” Fiske’s analysis—and you do not have to be a Princeton psychologist to observe this—“suggests that Americans sometimes react to poverty not with sympathy but with revulsion.” I like the words “often” and “sometimes” in the previous two sentences, for they suggest that positive visions, criticisms, and appeals “often” and “sometimes” bypass our neuro-imaging blockings and do inspire sympathy. Pope Francis believes that, and “exhorts” others—not only Catholics—to react with sympathy, and then to change, and act on the many levels where inequality goes unnoticed or where notice can do some good. Some of the media images of Thanksgiving/Black Friday week showed that not all citizens are idolaters of wealth, but displayed their generosity of spirit and how, both personally and through organizations and political approaches, they worked to effect change. References and Further Reading: O’Leary, Naomi. “Pope attacks ‘tyranny’ of markets in manifesto.” Reuters. Chicago Tribune, November 26, 2013. Accessed November 30, 2013.http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-pope-document-20131126,0,2437489.story. Moloney, Liam. “Pope Assails ‘New Tyranny’ Of Unchecked Capitalism.” Wall Street Journal, November 26, 2013. Accessed November 30, 2013.http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB20001424052702303281504579221933931268354. Weigel, George. “Pope Francis the Revolutionary.” Wall Street Journal, November 28, 2013. Accessed November 30, 2013.http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304017204579224030204080004. Burke, Daniel. “No more business as usual.” Belief Blog, November 26, 2013. Accessed November 30, 2013. http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/26/pope-calls-for-big-changes-in-the-church/. Kristof, Nicholas. “Where Is the Love?” New York Times, November 27, 2013. Accessed November 30, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/opinion/kristof-where-is-the-love.html?_r=0. Photo Credit: Catholic Church (England and Wales) / flickr Author, Martin E. Marty, is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of the History of Modern Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His biography, publications, and contact information can be found at www.memarty.com. Editor, Myriam Renaud, is a Ph.D. Candidate in Theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She was a 2012-13 Marty Center Junior Fellow. Share Tweet +1 Forward to Friend Sightings Home Page | Submission Guidelines | Reprint Policy

Time to Repent? (Matthew 3) -- An Advent Reflection

Matthew 3:1-12 (Common English Bible)

3 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the desert of Judea announcing, ² “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!” ³ He was the one of whom Isaiah the prophet spoke when he said:

The voice of one shouting in the wilderness,
        “Prepare the way for the Lord;
        make his paths straight.”

⁴ John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey.

⁵ People from Jerusalem, throughout Judea, and all around the Jordan River came to him. ⁶ As they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. ⁷ Many Pharisees and Sadducees came to be baptized by John. He said to them, “You children of snakes! Who warned you to escape from the angry judgment that is coming soon? ⁸ Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives. ⁹ And don’t even think about saying to yourselves, Abraham is our father. I tell you that God is able to raise up Abraham’s children from these stones. ¹⁰ The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be chopped down and tossed into the fire. ¹¹ I baptize with water those of you who have changed your hearts and lives. The one who is coming after me is stronger than I am. I’m not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹² The shovel he uses to sift the wheat from the husks is in his hands. He will clean out his threshing area and bring the wheat into his barn. But he will burn the husks with a fire that can’t be put out.”

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Thank God I’m not like those Pharisees and Sadducees who are the target of John’s rant.  Do you ever read this passage in that way, excluding yourself from being the target?  It’s not easy listening to such words.  This is especially true of Americans like me, who are taught from early on that we’re special; perhaps even God’s new chosen people.  Early on our national ancestors adopted the ideas of John Locke, accepting as fact that we are blank slates (tabula rasa), upon which our experiences can build.  You can be whatever you wish.  We became individualists, rejecting criticism and judgment from others – including God.  Of course, there have always been others whom we’ve deemed worthy of judgment, but what about us?  What is the nature of our baptism?  Does it have something to do with repentance?

As I read this passage, one I’ve read many times, I recoiled at its rather harsh wording.  John shouts to the Pharisees and Sadducees, questioning why they’ve come to be baptized.  In reference to them, The Common English Bible softens things a bit – “you children of snakes.”  The older translation of “Your brood of vipers” does seem to get to the heart of things.  Snakes come in all forms, not all of which are dangerous, but a viper is dangerous.  Its bite being full of poison.   Why have you come?  Is it out of duty?  Is it to make mockery – to be part of a spectacle?  Or have you come in recognition of a need for a changed life?

In Matthew’s account, John is preparing the way for the Realm of God to come into existence.  For this to happen there must be radical change, a cleaning out of the barns and clearing of the forests.  Everything that stands in the way of God’s reign must be done away with – thrown into a fire that can’t be put out. 

This isn’t an easy text to preach, especially in circles that struggle with the idea of divine judgment.  If God is love, then how can we preach and hear a message like this?  Surely this isn’t the God of Jesus?

As I approached this text I had just finished reading a sermon by theologian Helmut Gollwitzer.  He preached the sermon the Sunday following Kristallnacht (November 16, 1938) at the Berlin-Dahlem Church – the church that Martin Niemöller served until his arrest.  Gollwitzer took up the parallel passage in Luke, but the message is similar.  Reflecting on the horrors of the pogrom against Germany’s Jews, Gollwitzer asked his congregation how they could do anything at that moment but sit in horrified silence. 

"What if we just sat here for an entire hour without saying a word, no singing, no speaking, just preparing ourselves silently for God’s punishment, which we have already earned?" (in Preaching in Hitler's Shadow: Sermons of Resistance in the Third Reich, ed. by Dean Stroud, p. 118).

  As Gollwitzer continues he makes it clear that whether directly participating in this violence or simply standing by hoping it would go away, they were implicated.  We can look at ourselves and not see ourselves in Gollwitzer’s acceptance of a word of judgment on the nation.  We do it all the time.  In our individualism we fail to see our own complicity in structures and systems that oppress.  Slavery was a long time ago, so let’s get over it.  The holocaust that consumed the majority of Native Americans and marginalized the rest – that’s old history.  We’re all blank slates, we're not responsible for the actions of others long ago.  Or are we?   

So what does this word from Matthew have to say to us as we venture through Advent?  Isn’t it a good thing that we can get distracted by the frivolity of the season in all its consumer glory?  It is in this moment that we hear a call to repentance.  To repent is to turn aside, and journey in a different direction.  Gollwitzer puts it even stronger, in words that are to me reminiscent of Bonhoeffer, Baptism and repentance are means of death.  He writes:  “Repentance is the terrible discovery that I live under a death sentence, and even worse, that I must say yes to this condemnation to death” (p. 120).  In many ways Gollwitzer is recognizing that Germany had take a step toward evil and that it would pay the price.  The question for us – do we recognize the price of our own choices?

There is hope, however.  If repentance takes hold, then it will lead to fruit.  It will place the neighbor before us, so that we might be in relationship.  Gollwitzer speaks of repentance building a bridge to the neighbor (in his case, a bridge to the Jewish neighbor).   What does God desire to see from us?  John and Helmut Gollwitzer declare that God desires deeds – fruit.  Gollwitzer writes in conclusion to this sermon on a day of national penance:

Now just outside this church our neighbor is waiting for us – waiting for us in his need and lack of protection, disgraced, hungry, hunted, and drive by fear for his very existence.  That is the one who waiting to see if today this Christian congregation has really observed this national day of penance.  Jesus Christ himself is waiting to see.  Amen.”  (Gollwitzer, p. 126).

            As we take this next step toward celebrating the good news of the incarnation, what word of preparation do we need to hear?  How might we search our souls and come before God in repentance, letting that which separates us from God and neighbor die in baptism that we might experience the forgiveness and grace of God?  

Christian Action Package -- Energion Book Special

Christian Action Package

My publisher, Energion Publications, has put together a special package of my three most recent books.  There are ebook editions at normal prices.  Check it out!

For a link to the site to purchase the books --  click here.

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Save $11.98 on this package of three important books!

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall is a pastor who is fully connected to the 21st century world. While he believes that our ultimate allegiance belongs to God, he also believes that same allegiance will lead us to change the world in which we now live. He is not intimidated by the discoveries of science or modern social trends. Instead he reaches out both to help and, through dialogue, to learn. He is a person of faith committed to the common good.

He has provided some resources to help you work more effectively for the common good under the guidance and with the power of God's Holy Spirit.

	Faith in the Public Square calls on Christians to make their presence felt in the political realm. In this book Bob looks at various issues from a Christian perspective, always asking how we can influence the world for the better. What are the Christian principles that apply to our political decisions? (Suggested Retail: $16.99.)
	Worshiping with Charles Darwin celebrates modern science, including the often controversial theory of evolution. While some Christians fear this theory and try to keep their children from learning about it in public school, Bob Cornwall makes it a part of worship in the church. Learn how this embrace can benefit both the church and the community. (Suggested Retail: $9.99.)
	What guides and empowers the church as it strives to be a positive influence in the public sphere, as well as within its own walls?Unfettered Spirit: Spiritual Gifts for the New Great Awakening is not just another catalog of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It asks us what these gifts mean for our theology, our ministry, and all our actions. (Suggested Retail: $14.99.)

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Advent 2013 -- A New Chapter Begins

It is the first Sunday of Advent.  The cycle that is the church year begins once more.  We look forward to the coming of the promised one at Christmas, the one who brings into existence God's realm.  This Advent season is a time of preparation.  It reminds us that the realm of God is present but not fully revealed.  Therefore, we must be awake and ready, for we don't know the time or the season.  Consider the words from the Gospel reading for the day:

 42 Therefore, stay alert! You don’t know what day the Lord is coming. 43 But you understand that if the head of the house knew at what time the thief would come, he would keep alert and wouldn’t allow the thief to break into his house. 44 Therefore, you also should be prepared, because the Human One[c] will come at a time you don’t know. (Matthew 24:42-44 -- Common English Bible). 

This year the First Sunday of Advent has special significance for me.  It marks a new chapter in my ministry at Central Woodward Christian Church.  I return, as promised, from my three month Sabbatical Journey.  I believe it is auspicious for my return to coincide with the beginning of Advent.  We begin not only a new year together, but in many ways a new five year journey forward into the future of the ministry at Central Woodward.  The connection I make between my return and Advent is that we go forward not knowing exactly where all this will lead.  I return rejuvenated and with ideas to share.  I also know that while I've been away from the church, the congregation has been on its own journey forward.  Over the next several months we'll have opportunity to share our journeys, and to discern together where God is leading us.

The word we hear from Matthew's Gospel is a good reminder that we don't control the future.  We don't know when the Day of the Lord is coming.  And so we must be alert to what God is doing in our midst.  I do know this, however, that there is continuity between what God has done and what God will do, for God is not capricious.  The character of God is one of faithfulness and steadfastness in love.  In this we can find our anchor moving forward.    

A Sabbath Journey Ends

            On September 1, Cheryl and I attended worship at Rochester Church of Christ.  Thus began a three month sabbatical journey that I have entitled “Reclaiming a Founding Vision.”  Tomorrow morning I’ll be “back to work” at Central Woodward Christian Church.  I return rested and ready to take up the calling of serving as pastor of Central Woodward, along with my other responsibilities in the church and community.  I’ve been fortunate to have this opportunity, provided by the church, an opportunity that I encourage colleagues to take up themselves.  I return on the First Sunday of Advent, and while we’ll be sharing in a service of Hanging of the Greens tomorrow so that I don’t have major responsibilities, it is fitting that I return on the morn when the church starts a new liturgical year.  We begin with a sense of expectation that God is with us as we move into the future. 

            During this journey I have been pondering not only the future or the present, but the past as well.  I started out with the premise that the way forward requires a connection to the past.  So, I journeyed to England and spent time at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, exploring the letters and papers of an obscure English priest who ventured out of the Established Church and into the wilderness of the Nonjuring Church.  While in England I stepped back in time, visiting Stonehenge and the Roman Baths (at Bath).   I worshiped at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and St. Paul’s London. Touching base with my own Episcopal spiritual heritage while in England, I discovered that this Anglican part of me runs rather deep.

 

            Once home I continued the journey with a brief trip to Nashville, where I spent four days rummaging

through the letters and papers of Edgar DeWitt Jones, founding pastor of the congregation I now serve.  As with the England trip this was extremely enlightening.  I even sat behind the Jones desk at the Disciples of Christ Historical Society.  There is much to share about this experience and I shall do so in due time.

            When Cheryl and I traveled to Southern California in late October, I spent more time relaxing than researching.  I thought I might do some research, but really didn’t get around to it.  Instead, we saw friends and enjoyed being “back home” – both in Pasadena and in Santa Barbara.  While in Southern California, I did reconnect with two pieces of my personal journey.   First, on the day we landed, before we checked in at Fuller Theological Seminary, we stopped in at Angeles Temple, the mother church of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.  We spent several hours touring the church and the Heritage Center (formerly the parsonage).  This allowed me the opportunity to touch base with the Pentecostal portion of my journey.  For those who don’t know Aimee’s story, it is a rather intriguing one.   In a day when even liberal Protestants were looking for “manly men” (see the quote from Edward Scribner Ames on the mantle of the Disciples Divinity House, University of Chicago), Aimee was forging new paths for women in the church – as a preacher, church planter, evangelist, and religious broadcaster.   The next morning I took a short trip to St. Luke’s of the Mountain’s Episcopal Church in LaCrescenta.  Although I have no memory of this place, it was the place where I was baptized.  I had the opportunity to sit and contemplate the course of my spiritual journey, one that really started in this place.  The baptismal font from that era is no longer present, but in my imagination, I could reconnect with that moment in my life when my parents committed me to the life of the church.

            November was largely spent close to home – with my recent sojourn to the AAR-SBL Meeting in Baltimore being the sole excursion.  But even at home I was able to continue the journey through my reading and writing (I finished two articles for publication).   On most Sundays, I was in church somewhere.  Two Sundays were spent in English Cathedrals.  Besides these two Sundays, and the first week with my Church of Christ friends, I shared in worship at two Episcopal Churches, along with Disciples (Lompoc), Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Roman Catholic congregations (for some reason I’m missing a week!).  I didn’t get everywhere I’d hoped (I was hoping to get down to Little Rock Baptist Church, which resides in the former Central Woodward location in Detroit.

            I did a lot of reading.  I attended a couple of clergy education events – one at Central Woodward with Scott Seay of Christian Theological Seminary and a Region-wide Anti-Racism training event.  Besides that I attended several sessions of Brett’s Muslim-Christian Interaction class at Rochester College.   Besides that I took walks, did some yard work, tried to fix a leak in the skylight over Cheryl’s shower – not completely successful -- and just enjoyed not going to meetings for three months!   I had hoped to lose some weight along the way, but alas that didn’t happen!          

   

            So, what is the take-away from all of this?  I think it’s this – at least for me – I have come away with a great sense that the future of the faith is linked to its roots in the past.  As I finish up this adventure with God, I’ve been reading Margaret Bendroth’s The Spiritual Practice of Remembering, (Eerdmans, 2013).  She writes that the past plays an important role in creating our present realities.  “This is why we spend hours with therapists and counselors, hoping to distill some useful truth from an inventory of our life experiences. But the invisible power of the past is also true in human groups, and especially so in communities of faith.”  That is why, she writes:

Year after year, as new members join a church and children come of age in the Sunday school, they accept a certain understanding of ‘who we are’ and ‘why we are together’.  So much of this has to do with the circumstances of a church’s origins, often long buried but still real.  It makes a difference if a congregation was born out of angry controversy and schism, or as the result of a miraculous outpouring of the Holy Spirit. (p. 112).

The truth that is present in this book came to the fore during a session of the American Academy of Religion.  The topic was the “emergent church.”  Some of the conversation centered on the idea that the future of the church would be found in freedom from the constraints of tradition and institution.  While I believe that the church continually is emerging in new contexts, it doesn’t emerge ex nihilo.  It emerges from somewhere.  It might be a reaction or a natural trajectory, but there is a connection to that which came before it.

            So, as I move from my “time away” back into the ministry at Central Woodward, I am

more convinced than ever that our future has connections with our past – and not just the past of Central Woodward, but the entire story of the Christian faith – the “communion of the saints” that bears witness to God’s realm.  

Thanksgiving 2013: "So Far From Want" -- Sightings

I heard that on Thanksgiving the average American will eat 4500 calories during the Thanksgiving Meal. I can believe it. I probably did eat that much. For many of us, Thanksgiving is a time to enjoy the abundance that is ouirs. But for others around us, such is not the case. While some enjoy the bounty others go without. This is, in many ways, the message of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which the family and I saw on Thanksgiving Day.  I won't say more so as not to offer any spoilers, but if you've seen the movie or read the book you know what I'm talking about.  In this edition of Sightings, Jeanne Bishop, a Public Defender from Chicago, offers us a reminder that not all enjoy the bounty.  She reminds us of the true meaning of scarcity.  Pope Francis has been calling us to focus on those who hunger and thirst.  Thanksgiving might be a good time to take stock of our realities. Thanksgiving Day is over -- having been swallowed up by the encroachment of Black Friday (Thursday) -- but it is not too late to do some remembering.  Take a read and offer your thoughts.

Thanksgiving 2013: "So Far From Want" by JEANNE BISHOP Thursday | Nov 28 2013  stokkete / Photos.com When President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday of November as “a day of thanksgiving and praise” for the nation, he did so in the midst of war, 1863. He asked people to thank God for “bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come.” Lincoln’s proclamation included another, equally weighty request: that we repent and remember the bereft, that we “do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to [God’s] tender care all who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation….” That notion—that our celebrations of abundance should be coupled with mindfulness of need—goes back to the earliest American Thanksgiving in 1621.  One witness described that event in rich detail: colonists, Indians, “their greatest king Massasoit,” deer, fowl, harvest, three days of feasting.  He wrote that  “although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.” I thought about “want” the other day in the lockup at the courthouse where I work.  I am a public defender in Chicago, and I start each workday in the place behind the courtroom where prisoners are held. On this morning, the small, stuffy cell was crammed with people. They were all young men charged with burglaries. There had been a sweep of teenagers, most of them accused of breaking into homes and cars in Chicago’s suburbs. As I interviewed them, one by one, a pattern emerged. Almost all had come from perilous childhoods: neglect, abandonment, abuse. I asked one young man why he and his siblings had been taken away from their birth home. “My mom chose drugs over us,” he said simply. Most of the young men were living in group institutions, foster homes, or the apartments of overburdened relatives where the defining characteristics were poverty and the lack of any responsible adult who cared deeply for them. Another pattern emerged. All were in school, even involved in after-school sports. None had a criminal background. These were promising young men. I had to ask: how is it that a good kid like you is accused of stealing? One young man in foster care motioned to the clothes he was wearing—jogging pants with holes in the knees and a grimy t-shirt—and explained that by the time his foster mom paid the rent and food bills, there was no money left for clothes. Another dropped his head in his folded arms on the table, telling me how his aunt complained bitterly about the money he was costing her. She wanted him to help with expenses. Others had been part of a mentoring program; their mentor allegedly exploited them by recruiting them to do the crimes. Scarcity. Want. My city is full of such children. When they were brought into the courtroom for their hearings, the judge set bonds too high for the young men to post. They knew what that meant. They were going to jail. After the last hearing, I heard wailing from the lockup. I went to check, and saw this sight: a cell full of teenaged boys, sobbing and wiping away tears. Two boys, perhaps strangers until that moment, clutched each other’s heads with their hands and held tight as they cried. It was a gesture of comfort in despair. These boys had no money for clothes or bail, but they had this: the impulse to care, to help. The image of those boys, led by a thousand failures to that moment, should move us to a Thanksgiving repentance. Amid bounty, what do we owe to children unguided and uncared for? Amid scarcity, how do we celebrate abundance? To be so far from want that we wish others to be partakers of our plenty—that is something for which to give thanks. References: Strauss, Valerie. “Lincoln’s historic Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863.” The Washington Post, November 21, 2012. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/21/lincolns-historic-thanksgiving-proclamation-of-1863/. Illinois Historical Archives. “Mourt’s Relation, or Journal of the Plantation at Plymouth.” http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/mourt1.html. Photo Credit: stokkete / Photos.com Author, Jeanne Bishop, is an attorney with the Office of the Cook County Public Defender, an adjunct professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law and a member of the Marty Center Advisory Board. Ms. Bishop is a regular contributor on religion for The Huffington Post and has written for, among other publications, the CNN Belief Blog, Sojourners, and The Christian Century. Editor, Myriam Renaud, is a Ph.D. Candidate in Theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She was a 2012-13 Junior Fellow in the Marty Center. Share Tweet +1 Forward to Friend Sightings Home Page | Submission Guidelines | Reprint Policy