Another a piece of my thesis for my DMin Project. Chapter 3, Part D, IIIa, we have to know the people for whom we provide food. Chapter 3 is my biblical and theological arguments.
How are we to find God? How are we to find Salvation? For Letty Russell it is clear that we find God and Salvation by being among the poor and disenfranchised. This is not because God is not with everyone—God surely is with everyone—but rather because God has a particular concern for those who are suffering. As discussed above, the story of the sheep and goats makes clear to us that Christ is seen in people who need things, and in people who are isolated from us. Russell emphasizes that it is not the good works of the poor that bring us close to Christ, anymore than it is any of our good works that bring us closer. It is instead simply being present with the poor (Russell 121).
To be present is not simply to be there to give things away. In fact the act of giving things away is often a barrier to truly being present. To be present is to get to know one another, to hear each other’s stories; to hear not just about today’s need for things, but rather to hear about a life that has both celebrations and sorrows. To be present is to, over time, have shared experiences, shared stories, a shared past, and eventually to imagine a shared future. When we truly know another person we can offer something more important than kindness or food, we can be their neighbor.
As Robert Lupton (Toxic Charity) implies there really is something toxic about our existing forms of Charity. His concern is that people become dependent on our giving but my concern is about how we know each other. Many food ministries have a “necessary story” for entrance. The person who needs the food must tell another person a story that “qualifies” them for the meal, or bag of food, to be given over. In a best case you must only state that you need the food, but in many situations the people in need must submit ID or address or even income information to prove your need. People who need food in fact are as wise as anyone who doesn’t need food, and thus follow those rules to develop a good story. In fact much of the requirement to get by with poverty in the United States is to have a good story.
But relationships are not built with good stories—relationships are built with real stories. If we are not creating ministries where we get to know people in need, get to know people in need over time, over struggles, over successes, where we get to know people in depth, then we are not actually looking for God, we are looking for our own duty to serve, or own guilt about our excess, or own need to have the power to serve others. If our goal is to know Christ in our service, if our goal is to grow in faith, if our goal is to be creating a welcome table, then our ministry must not be about me serving you, but instead must build relationships and create an us.
For our ministry to be about us--those of us with plenty and those of us without enough, together—our ministry must be guided by our eagerness to know the perspectives of those who are living at the margins. “Faithfulness to Christ calls us to be constantly open to those who are marginal in our own church communities and in the wider community and to ask critical question of faith and practice from the perspective of the margin” (Russell 25). The only way we who have enough can learn the perspective from the margin is to get to know the people who live there. For food ministries, that means we must learn get to know, and be in solidarity with, the people who come to get food.
Jesus died in solidarity with humankind. “Jesus freely decides to give his life in solidarity with those who are under the power of death” (Gutierrez Wells 92). It is in solidarity with those who are under the power of poverty, and thus the power of an early death, that Christians with plenty can be, in Gutierrez’ language, converted to solidarity with the poor (Gutierrez Wells 93). In my experience when we have plenty we can be removed from the threat of death, or at least face a sanitized picture of the threat of death. We struggle with finding meaning in life, but not with finding enough food or clothing or housing to prevent death. We are overwhelmed with busy-ness and exhaustion, but not with desperation to hang onto our lives. We plan how to avoid isolation and illness at eighty, but do not worry that the flu will put us out of work, and therefore unable to care for our families. We fear a death in a stark hospital room, but do not watch the slow degradation of our children’s lives as they have their significant meals not around the family table but at the school cafeteria, as they fail to get the education they need, as they fail to get the health care they need.
We can know these stories from the newspaper and from books, but that is not what builds solidarity. Solidarity grows from meeting individuals and getting to know them, and being part of their lives. We build community together, and as such we develop at the same time a spirituality together. “There is no aspect of human life that is unrelated to the following of Jesus. … A spirituality is not restricted to the so-called religious aspects of life: prayer and worship” (Gutierrez Wells 88). Indeed community becomes part of our spirituality. Our meals ministries become spiritual ministries because we are meeting, and knowing, and loving our neighbors.
“True love exists only among equals” (Gutierrez Wells 104). As we get to know each other we become more honest with each other—we who have plenty become more honest about our weaknesses and fears, we who have not enough become more honest about our gifts and strengths. Our stories become shared stories. Over time our love becomes more and more authentic. “Authentic love tries to start with the concrete needs of the other and not with the ‘duty’ of practicing love. Love is respectful of others and therefore feels obliged to base its action on an analysis of their situation and needs. Works in behalf of the neighbor are not done in order to channel idle energies or to give available personnel something to do; they are done because the other has needs and it is urgent that we attend to them” (Gutierrez Wells 108).
Food ministries can engage in authentic love, we do that by sitting down at the table with people in need and eating. Talking. Listening. Engaging with one another until we find that we are neighbors, and friends.
We find God in the food, and in each other. We find that salvation is in solidarity with one another.
Do you know of a food ministry where people really get to know each other? I'd love to hear about it!
Gutierrez, Gustavo, We Drink from Our Own Wells The Spiritual Journey of a People, Maryknoll NY: Orbis: 2003. Matthew J. O’Connell, Trans. 20th Anniversary Edition.
Lupton, Robert D. Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charity Hurt Those They Help (And How to Reverse It) HarperOne 2011 Kindle Edition.
Letty Russell, Church in the Round: Feminist Interpretation of the Church, Louisville KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993.
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