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Friday, December 28, 2007
At year-end, many news organizations compile their top 10 stories of the year. After a full year of the Daily Digest, here are my choices.
1. Faith & Politics. In a significant indication of how the conversation on faith and politics has changed in the U.S., expressions of religious faith played a central part in a year of presidential campaigning by candidates from both parties.
2. Region in crisis. The U.S. troop surge in Iraq reduced violence but has not led to political stability; tensions and military attacks grew between Turkey and the Kurds; the nuclear cat and mouse game continued with Iran; the Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan; and instability grew in Pakistan—culminating this week with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
3. Israel-Palestine. As the internal Palestinian struggle between Hamas and Fatah continued and the violence between Israel and Hamas in Gaza intensified, the Bush administration convened an international peace conference. The president plans his first trip to the region in January.
4. Democratic Congress. Democrats assumed control of Congress in January with the first woman speaker of the House in U.S. history, but presidential vetoes and Republican opposition prevented the passage of most major legislation, including troop withdrawals from Iraq and children’s health insurance. Congress did pass legislation increasing the minimum wage, expanding college aid, and reforming lobby and ethics rules.
5. Global warming. Awareness of the threat of global warming continued to grow in response to news coverage of the largest melting of the polar ice cap in history and Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change winning the Nobel Peace Prize. At a climate change treaty meeting in Bali, the U.S. refused to join other nations in pledging cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. On the religious front, the National Association of Evangelicals rebuffed James Dobson’s attempt to silence their concern for global warming.
6. Darfur. Another year has gone by, the violence and death continue, and the United Nations still cannot secure an adequate peacekeeping force on the ground.
7. Death penalty. The Supreme Court’s decision to hear a case involving the constitutionality of lethal injections led to a de facto nationwide moratorium on executions, while New Jersey became the first state to abolish capital punishment.
8. Immigration. Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation. This resulted in more raids, with state and local governments passing and enforcing repressive legislation and the growth of a church-based new sanctuary movement.
9. Guns. The U.S.’s love affair with guns continued despite mass shootings at Virginia Tech University (32 dead), an Omaha, Nebraska shopping mall (eight dead), the New Life Church in Colorado Springs and Youth With a Mission in Arvada, Colorado (four dead). All three gunmen also died. If recent trends continue, approximately 10,000 others were also murdered with firearms this year.
10. Muslim-Christian dialogue. One-hundred-thirty-eight Muslim clerics and scholars sent an open letter to the leaders of Christian churches, “A Common Word Between Us and You,” proposing common ground on the shared values of loving God and loving neighbor. Hundreds of Christian leaders and scholars responded by welcoming the initiative.
Other stories of note included an uprising in Burma/Myanmar led by Buddhist monks; a growing mortgage crisis in the U.S.; the passing of Jerry Falwell; a growing split in the Anglican communion; new prime ministers in the U.K. (Gordon Brown) and Australia (Kevin Rudd). The Supreme Court upheld a ban on partial ban abortions; the “Jena 6” case highlighted continued racial injustice; “Scooter” Libby was convicted of lying to a grand jury; Karl Rove and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned; the steroid scandal in Major League Baseball went public, the collapse of a bridge in the Twin Cities highlighted growing problems with America’s infrastructure; controversy over torture and wiretapping continued; and North Korea closed and began disabling its only nuclear reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium.
For two views of the top 10 religious news stories of the year, see the Religious Newswriters Association and Christianity Today.
As we enter the New Year, continue to pray for our world as you read the news, remembering theologian Karl Barth’s advice “to take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.”
Duane Shank is the senior policy advisor for Sojourners - in addition to being our resident news digester.
Monday, December 24, 2007
We first published this reflection by Jim Wallis in 2002. It has since become our Christmas tradition, kind of our own Charlie Brown Christmas special, if you will. With the ongoing conflicts raging during each passing year, it remains tragically relevant.
 Silent Night, by Stanley Weintraub, is the story of Christmas Eve, 1914, on the World War I battlefield in Flanders. As the German, British, and French troops facing each other were settling in for the night, a young German soldier began to sing "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht." Others joined in. When they had finished, the British and French responded with other Christmas carols.
Eventually, the men from both sides left their trenches and met in the middle. They shook hands, exchanged gifts, and shared pictures of their families. Informal soccer games began in what had been "no-man's-land." And a joint service was held to bury the dead of both sides.
The generals, of course, were not pleased with these events. Men who have come to know each other's names and seen each other's families are much less likely to want to kill each other. War seems to require a nameless, faceless enemy.
So, following that magical night the men on both sides spent a few days simply firing aimlessly into the sky. Then the war was back in earnest and continued for three more bloody years. Yet the story of that Christmas Eve lingered - a night when the angels really did sing of peace on earth.
Folksinger John McCutcheon wrote a song about that night in Belgium, titled "Christmas in the Trenches," from the viewpoint of a young British solder. Several poignant verses are:
"The next they sang was "Stille Nacht," "Tis 'Silent Night'," says I.
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky
"There's someone coming towards us!" the front line sentry cried
All sights were fixed on one lone figure coming from their side
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shone on that plain so bright
As he bravely strode unarmed into the night.
Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's land
With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave 'em hell.
We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of their own
Young Sanders played his squeeze box and they had a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men.
Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
With sad farewells we each began to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night
"Whose family have I fixed within my sights?"
'Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung
For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone for evermore."
My prayer for the new year is for a nation and world where people can come out of their trenches and together sing their hopes for peace. We here at Sojourners will carry on that mission, and we invite you to continue on the journey with us.
Blessings to you and your families.
Friday, December 21, 2007
 When I got an invite to the premiere of the IMAX screening for I am Legend, I went to the theater expecting an evening of frothy fun and engaging eye candy - pure escapism at its best. While the sight of zombies up close and personal almost caused me to jump out of my seat a few times, I was more shocked to discover that this action-packed thriller struck an unexpected spiritual nerve.
In a nutshell, I am Legend presents the story of Robert Neville (Will Smith), a brilliant military virologist who was unable to contain a terrible man-made virus. For reasons we don't quite understand, as Neville has become immune to this deadly disease, he remains the last human survivor in New York City, and perhaps the rest of the world.
His days are spent driving around a desolate and deserted Manhattan as he tries in vain for a cure, as well as any sign that he is not alone. This search for meaning in a world destroyed my man's own hand somehow elevated this film from the other flicks that employ the latest in special effects to demonstrate in graphic detail the myriad of ways our planet could meet its final demise.
Even though Neville insists he does not believe in God, the film takes on a Judeo-Christian twist around the third act when Neville becomes faced with a decision that requires an act of sacrificial love. For me to say anymore will destroy the movie-going experience for anyone who intends to catch this flick. While die hard sci-fi fans may decry how the final act unfolds, I left the theater with hope in my heart, a sensation I seldom experience while watching zombies in action.
Even though Neville keeps his body in top physical shape, his soul starts to deteriorate under the pressures of living a solitary life where he is all alone. This demise of the self brought to mind the documentary Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton that I had seen the previous day. What struck me about Merton's journey was that even though he spent much of his time living in solitude, the Trappist monks living in the Abbey of Gethesmani provided the support that enabled him to live in community while being isolated.
Also, this week, I got the opportunity to observe Justin Fatica conduct a retreat for 7th and 8th graders at St. Gabriel's School in East Elmhurst, Queens. Yes, this self-proclaimed minister's style of full frontal evangelism in a Catholic setting does stir up some understandable controversy. The newly released HBO documentary, Hard as Nails, touches on some of the joys and pitfalls of this type of hard core street ministry to troubled teens. But what struck me by watching Fatica in action was that the core of his message comforts these abandoned adolescents by letting them know that they are not alone. They are guided by God.
MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. - Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude.
Becky Garrison explores ministries that reach those for whom church is not in their vocabulary in her new book, Rising from the Ashes: Rethinking Church (Seabury Books, 2007).
Teach me, Lord, to sing of your mercies. Turn my soul into a garden, where the flowers dance in the gentle breeze, praising you with their beauty. Let my soul be filled with beautiful virutes; let me be inspired by your Holy Spirit; let me praise you always.
Teresa of Avila
Complete Works
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How the oppressor has ceased!
How his insolence has ceased!
The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
that struck down the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrelenting persecution.
The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.
Isaiah 14:4-7
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Thursday, December 20, 2007
 When I first landed in El Salvador, all I knew about the tiny Central American country was its war. What I found was lush mountain ranges, volcanoes, and air heavy with grief. It was 2003, and I was there to produce a documentary for a public radio series titled Despues de las Guerras/Centra America: After the Wars about the violence suffered by women during and after the 12-year civil war that ended in 1992 with a death toll of 75,000 mostly innocent civilians.
I returned to El Salvador in 2006 for six months on a Knight Fellowship with the International Center for Journalists. The violence, once largely relegated to gang controlled areas, had spread across the country. Impunity was rampant. Voices of dissent were marginalized. Rights curtailed in the interest of security. The first forceful voices I heard came from the pulpit, from Jesuits denouncing the violence and its profiteers.
I had the opportunity to interview Jesuit theologian Jon Sobrino. (See Goodness Revealed: An interview with liberation theologian Jon Sobrino in the January 2008 issue of Sojourners.) Just a few months earlier, the Vatican had publicized a written notification that branded his some of his writing as "erroneous and dangerous."
Sobrino admonished the church for drifting away from the reality of its flock. The U.S. and Europe, he said, are merely "anecdotes," their imperial gaze a perversion of the mission of Jesus on this earth. He challenged the assumption that wealthy nations can exploit poor nations and return later with a promise to save them.
Sobrino's book Where is God?: Earthquake, Terrorism, Barbarity, and Hope draws a compelling connection between the tragedy inflicted on New York by terrorists, El Salvador when a tremendous earthquake strikes, and in Afghanistan when a world superpower seeks vengeance.
Another important work that sets liberation theology in a current context is the anthology published in Sobrino's defense after the Vatican's sanction titled Getting the Poor Down From the Cross: Christology of Liberation. It contains the arguments for the tenets of liberation theology by some of the world's leading theologians, the primacy of the world's poor, and the duty of the Church to "walk with them."
In the epilogue, Sobrino writes, "If a Christology animates the poor of this world, victims of terrible sins - including ones committed by so-called believers - to maintain their faith in God and in his Christ, and to have dignity and hope, then this Christology will have its limitations of course, but I do not consider it to be dangerous in the world of the poor, but rather something positive. However, it is possible that it will be seen - and it has been seen - as dangerous in other worlds."
Michelle García recently completed a Knight Fellowship with the International Center for Journalists in El Salvador. Previously she wrote for The Washington Post from its New York bureau. She is based in New York.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
The year of 1968 was very significant in my life, and a decisive one for the nation. It was the year when the hopes borne by the social movements of the 1950's and 60's were dashed by the assassinations of, first, Martin Luther King Jr., and then Robert F. Kennedy.
If Robert Kennedy had lived to become president on the inside (as he surely would have) and Martin Luther King Jr. had lived to lead a movement from the outside, the U.S. and the world might be very different today. But the most hopeful political leader of his time and the most important movement leader of the century were both struck down, and 1968 was the turning point when everything began to go wrong in America. I remember my feelings at the time vividly. King had been the leader of the movements that had captured my imagination and commitment as a young activist; and Kennedy was the only politician who won my political trust. I was getting ready to take a break from college to work on his presidential campaign when he was killed.
Ever since 1968, the door has been closed to real social change in the U.S. Since 1968, we have been wandering in the wilderness. The coming New Year - 2008 - marks 40 years of that wandering, a passage of time I have been pondering as we enter into it.
I taught my last class for the fall semester at Harvard this week. The title of the course was "Faith and Politics: Should They Mix and How?" In the midst of a final class discussion of the central role faith is playing in this election season, a student abruptly asked me a personal question: "How many times have you been arrested?" I thought for a moment and replied, "Twenty two times." I told them that's what happens when social movements confront closed political doors. I said I was willing to do civil disobedience again, if it was called for, but that I was now hoping there might be a significant paradigm shift about to occur. I explained how social change seems to most readily occur when social movements push against open doors. Real social progress seems to require that combination - strong social movements and open political doors.
I believe we may be approaching just such a time. I have written before that we now have open political doors to the fundamental issues of social justice both in London, with the election of Gordon Brown, and in Australia, with the recent election of Kevin Rudd. Both understand the power of social movements and seem to be inviting them to push against the reluctance of political power to make real changes. In the U.S.'s election season this time, the operative word is now "change." The Democratic frontrunners are now mostly debating how real change can best occur, not whether it should. And the Republicans are distancing themselves from their own president, who has led the nation to a place that both alienates and embarrasses most U.S. citizens of both parties. The wrong direction didn't begin with George W. Bush, but he has certainly demonstrated how absolutely wrong the direction of the U.S. now is.
The people of the U.S. are very unhappy with the direction our nation has taken, and the polling about that is consistent. There will definitely be a snap back after the extreme and disastrous policies of the Bush administration. The Democrats hope the snap back will result in their victory; the Republicans hope they can still retain power by offering a change in direction themselves. But we must hope and work for a snap back that goes much further than either a Democratic or Republican victory. Indeed, whoever your favorite candidate is, he or she will not be able to really change the biggest and most significant issues at stake in the U.S. and the world without a social movement that pushes them to make those changes. Remember that Lyndon Johnson did not become a civil rights leader until Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks made him one. It was a social movement pressing on an open door.
That will be the vision and strategy of Sojourners in this crucial year of 2008 and beyond. We are in the business of building movments, not winning elections. This election is vitally important and we will be working hard to put the most important issues on the agenda. But we are already looking past the election to the kind of organizing and movement building that will have to be done. And the good news is that we see that movement already growing, more that I ever have since the fateful year of 1968.
Everywhere I go, something is happening. My new book, out on Jan. 22, profiles an emerging spiritual movement with a social agenda. It's called The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America. The book charts how "great awakenings" in the past have featured a "revival" of faith that also changes society. It describes how we may well be on the verge of another such movement to make dramatic change on issues like poverty, pandemic diseases, climate change, human rights, and war and peace.
During my work on the book this year, the writing, praying, and vocational discernment got all nicely tangled up together. The "book tour," which will take us to many cities in early 2008, may feel more like a series of mini-revivals, and, this spring, we will begin a series of "justice revivals" that will last for many days in cities around the country over the next few years.
The dramatic changes occurring in many of our faith communities and constituencies, the energy and commitment of a new generation, and the openness of politics for change may indicate the beginning of a new and more hopeful period in the life of this country and the world. It may even be that after 40 years, we might finally be ready to come out of the wilderness. That is my hope and prayer as we enter the New Year of 2008. But it is a hope and prayer that will require, from all of us, the work of faith.
During Advent, as I kindle the wreath candles that mark the journey to the Bethlehem stable, I return to particular writers that I love and certain music that I can't seem to get through the seasons without. I have Advent habits.
For instance, I often re-read W.H. Auden's For the Time Being. In one portion King Herod weighs the threat to publiic order posed by the birth of the Christ child. Is the collatoral damage of murdering the male children justified in order to maintain security and social stability? If this Messiah survives, ponders Herod, then:
Reason will be replaced by revelation … Justice will be replaced by pity as the cardinal virtue, and all fear of retribution will vanish … The new aristocracy will consist exclusively of hermits, bums, and permanent invalids. The rough diamond, the consumptive whore, the bandit who is good to his mother, the epileptic girl who has a way with animals will be the heroes and heroines of the new age, when the general, the statesman, and the philosopher have become the butt of every farce and satire.
I listen to the San Antonio Vocal Art Ensemble's Guadalupe: Virgen de los Indios CD. The ancient Nahua Indian hyms welcoming the Christ child and extolling the virtues of Mary are haunting - interweaving complex indigenous harmonies gleaned from 400-year-old deerskin musical scores:
The world guards the memory of the life that He gave in the earth, and there in the heavens the presence of Your glory is felt. The vision of happiness, then, exists in the memory of this earth.
It's also an opportunity to keep company with the Bible's holy ones. Episcopal priest Margaret Guenther writes movingly about Anna and Simeon in the December issue of Sojourners. And Ade Bethune's silk screen Icon of the Mother of God reminds me that the saints are keeping watch over me – even in Advent's terrifying darkness.
Rose Marie Berger, a Sojourners associate editor, is a Catholic peace activist and poet.
Too many people come into community to find something, to belong to a dynamic group, to find a life which approaches the ideal. If we come into community without knowing that the reason we come is to discover the mystery of forgiveness, we will soon be disappointed.
Jean Vanier
Community and Growth
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Tuesday, December 18, 2007
There's no denying it. Immigration has become, and will continue to be, a hot-button issue in the presidential season. The question that remains is – what kind of conversation will we have around immigration? We're not off to such a good start. Thus far, the debate has looked more like a shouting match defined by scapegoating and xenophobia. One clear result has been a feeling among Hispanics across the country, not just undocumented immigrants, that their lives are more difficult, due to the failure of immigration reform and the increasing attention to the issue.
This cannot be the right kind of conversation. How, then, can we begin to change it?
Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform hosted a teleconference yesterday as part of an ongoing effort to do just that. The New York Times Politics Blog, The Caucus, highlighted the diversity of the speakers, calling for moral leadership on an issue that clearly affects us all:
A Catholic bishop, inner-city Baptist minister, megachurch pastor, and Latino religious activist convened on a conference call sponsored by the Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform on Friday to say that the 2008 candidates' actions aren't very akin to W.W.J.D. (What would Jesus do?)
The Christian organization agrees that immigration is a top priority this election cycle, but it wants candidates to approach the nation's illegal immigration issue from a moral perspective. It wants to see policies proposed that are based on preserving a decent life for those folks instead of what's most likely to win votes.
And in promoting legislation based on good Christian values, the religious leaders said it's imperative to steer clear of spiteful campaigning.
"It is clear that the hard work of crafting legislation and statutes that lead us toward a path of earned citizenship and effective enforcement remains a priority for all Americans," said Rev. Derrick Harkins, senior pastor at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington. "It is just as clear that hateful, inflammatory, and destructive speech serves no purpose. No matter where one stands on the political spectrum regarding this issue, as Christians, we never possess the option to speak or act in a way that lessens the worth of any human being."
"Unfortunately, our presidential candidates are allowing themselves to be co-opted into the divisiveness of the debate," said Bishop Thomas Wenski, adding that he doesn't yet see a leader emerging from the pack.
"Mr. Romney has bet his presidential run on the issue," said Rev. Luis Cortes Jr., president of Latino poverty relief organization Esperanza. That's led Mr. Huckabee to take "a step to the right." Rev. Cortes also worried that the country's rising anti-immigrant sentiment, fueled in part by talk radio, is creating an increase in hate crimes against Hispanics.
"This issue isn't going away; and it won't go away with a few 'Let's just make the border stronger' comments," said Rev. Joel Hunter, senior pastor of the Northland parish in Longwood, Fla.
And in the spirit of Christmas, Bishop Wenski pointed out that after the baby Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph took him and fled the oppressive reign of King Herod: "Certainly, they didn't have visas to cross into Egypt."
Patty Kupfer is the Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform campaign coordinator at Sojourners.
Until very recently, I had no idea how hard it is for some of our friends just to find somewhere to lay themselves down to sleep at night. I knew that inner-city families moved around a lot, but I didn't realize how much heartache and humiliation goes before and after most of those moves, both for the families and for the neighborhoods they come and go from in search of better space.
Part of the problem is low incomes, of course, which leave almost everyone around here one minor setback way from missing rent. But beyond that, there are often rats and roaches and bedbugs to contend with, along with those normal, everyday conflicts with neighbors that, in this environment, can quickly become unacceptably dangerous. There are broken pipes and broken heaters and, as often as not, broken promises from landlords who live in a very different world.
Of course, the broken promises go both ways. Every day we see neighbors say and do things that would rattle almost any property owner; and we have learned the hard way not to immediately take any story of mistreatment at face value. Still, there is no denying that lots of money – much of it taxpayers' money – flows through neighborhoods like ours into the pockets of people who care too little about those they are supposed to shelter.
Last week our friend Helen and I spent the better part of three days driving all over town tracking down birth certificates, proofs of custody, income statements, and police background checks, hoping to qualify her for a HUD-subsidized apartment near enough that her grandson David could stay at his school and that both of them could stay in our fellowship. Helen's recently deceased mother had been paying the rent for all of them with her Social Security, but all they have now is the paycheck from Helen's part-time home health care job and David's food stamps.
Without my car, my computer, my money at certain offices, and my white male privilege at others, the whole endeavor would have been utterly impossible for Helen - who is herself in need of some home health care. Even with my help, we needed a few kind folks to bend a few silly rules in our favor. By the time we got everything squared away, I was worn out and cranky. Being poor is an awful lot of work.
Thank God there is a whole bunch of us here, living together and loving our neighbors as a team. While Helen and I were jumping through HUD hoops, Karen and Donna were tracking down furniture for her and three other families in the fellowship whose living spaces are nearly empty, and our newest partner, Mark Leeman, was tracking down donors who want to invest in some rental properties we can fix up and manage right, right here in the neighborhood.
We know we can't house everyone, but the more we see what's going on around us, the more bound and determined we are to take care of the handful of neighbors we feel God has given to be our closest friends. After all, there is no way to build the kind of close-knit community we keep dreaming of without first making sure that all of us are safe and sound.
 Bart Campolo is a veteran urban minister and activist who speaks, writes, and blogs www.bartcampolo.com about grace, faith, loving relationships and social justice. Bart is the leader of The Walnut Hills Fellowship www.thewalnuthillsfellowship.org in inner-city Cincinnati. He is also founder of Mission Year www.missionyear.org, which recruits committed young adults to live and work among the poor in inner-city neighborhoods across the USA, and executive director of EAPE, which develops and supports innovative, cost-effective mission projects around the world.
 So I don't know whether to laugh or cry about the latest progressive addition to the classic nativity scene: the separation wall.
Either way, I love it.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out Christian Peacemaker Teams' "No Way to the Inn" campaign. Or, to purchase your own little shocker, check out the UK-based charity, Amos Trust, online where you can purchase "A nativity set with a difference ... poignant, ironic, and made in Bethlehem. Available in two sizes." Just imagine what a great conversation starter such a display could be:
Uncle Al: "What is that wall doing separating Jesus from the wise men?"
You: "Well, this year, the wise men were denied security permits."
For more talking points, read my synopsis from last year. Join the campaign and tell us how it goes. Who knew Christmas could be so educational?!
(And sorry I waited so long to post this – since I last visited the site, Amos Trust has sold out of both nativity set sizes and are currently waiting for further supplies to come in from Bethlehem. And I learned they don't ship to the U.S. But you can still download a free " Bethlehem Pack" for prayers, reflections, and songs about Bethlehem.)
 Deanna Murshed is director of integrated marketing for Sojourners.
Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
Acts 4:32-35
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Gradually, the deep ambiguity of human life was turned from a burdensome into a freeing mystery. Freed from my energetic desire to constantly “get it” and “keep it together,” I could genuinely allow God to work in and through my abjections, not to make them better or neaten them up, but to allow me to be more compassionate, to judge others less, to serve them better.
Wendy M. Wright
The Rising
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