Daring to Un-Learn--October 28, 2020

 Daring to Un-Learn--October 28, 2020

"Happy are those who consider the poor;
     the LORD delivers them in the day of trouble.
The LORD protects them and keeps them alive;
     they are called happy in the land.
     You do not give them up to the will of their enemies.
The LORD sustains them on their sickbed;
     in their illness you heal all their infirmities." [Psalm 41:1-3]

There are folks who woke up hungry today.  And here I get fussy when we only have two kinds of lunch meat, or only one kind of cheese, in our fridge to make a sandwich.  Maybe I need to re-examine my priorities and make choices that will allow neighbors in my community to feed their kids, rather than finding myself in a drive-through line ordering a super-sized burger and fries.

There are folks who woke up afraid today.  Some are worried about their kids being safe at school, whether from sickness or a shooting.  Some are afraid of the world they will leave behind to their kids, and what kinds of disasters their descendants will have to face that we did not prepare them for or protect them from.  Some are afraid of being separated from their kids and wondering how or when they'll see them again.  Some are afraid of losing a job... or getting evicted... or the bank foreclosing on the farm... or any of a million other worries that keep them up at night.  And here I get bent out of shape about the mere inconvenience of having to go back for my mask when I leave it in the car by accident before going into Walmart.  Maybe I need to quit pretending I am suffering hardship and think for a moment about the countless fears I pretend do not exist around me.

There are folks who started their day heartbroken today. Some are grieving a death that has left fresh scars on their hearts today, others the end of a friendship.  Some are saying goodbyes to what is familiar, and others feel trapped in a familiar despair they can't climb out of.  And here I like to complain about whatever minor hassles or inconveniences I dealt with yesterday.  Maybe it is time to consider the needs of others before I cast myself as the martyr.

My guess is it's not just me, either.  We all have this tendency to think our own troubles need to be the center of attention, and that gives us the right to act in our own self-interest.  But honestly, the Scriptures keep turning our attention beyond ourselves and to consider the needs of the folks on the margins, the ones most at risk, the ones who are more vulnerable to the troubles of life than we are, and to act for their benefit first before our own.  In fact, the Bible has this unsettling way of connecting the way we treat those most on the margins with the way we treat God.  

From these words from the psalmist, who announces God's blessing for the ones who look out for the poor (or the Hebrew could be translated "the weak" as well), to the line from the Proverbs that giving to the needy is like lending to God, to Jesus' well-known declarations in the Sermon on the Mount that the poor, the hungry, and the grieving are specially cared for and blessed by God, the biblical writers keep turning us beyond our own little (and honestly, often rather petty) concerns to the needs of those who are most vulnerable.  Maybe we've never taken an honest look at it before, or noticed how deeply that idea is embedded in the Scriptures, but now is a good time to look... to notice... and to be changed.

What the Scriptures call for is nothing less than a rearrangement of our values, a reordering of our priorities, away from seeking merely what is "good for me" first and toward seeking what protects and supports those most in need around me--even if it may mean I am called to greater inconvenience, or hassle, or struggle, or sacrifice.  Yes, you read that correctly:  I am convinced that the Scriptures dare each of us to put the good of the most vulnerable, the poor, the weak, the sick, and the marginalized, before our own self-interest.  And taking that seriously will change an awful lot of how I live my life.

And honestly, I think it will mean nothing less than an un-learning of what we have come to expect as business as usual.  We have been taught to conduct our business in terms of what helps MY profits, to instruct our children to look out for their own interests first rather than the other kids', and to cast our ballots and support political parties based on what we think will help ME and MY interests most, with the thought that whoever has the most numbers at the end of the day is the most important and should get their way accordingly.  And the more I read the Scriptures, the more I am convinced that way of thinking and seeing the world is just plain dead wrong.

Let's pull at this thread a little bit: what if I didn't see every decision through the lens of, "How will this help me make more money?" or "How will this help increase the resale value of my home?" or even, "How will this increase MY happiness?" and instead asked, "What will my actions do for a kid who slept in a car last night?" or "How will my choices affect the family that's living on the fence line of a chemical plant?" or "How can I make life better for some farmer half a world away trying to feed their family and take care of the soil for the next hundred years?"  I know these are not our usual ways of thinking, but maybe that is part of the problem of modern life. We have settled for asking the wrong questions, and so it should come as no surprise that no matter what our responses to them, we get wrong answers.

I am reminded of Wendell Berry's absolutely glorious poem, "Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front," in which he suggests we ask a different set of questions to measure our choices.  Instead of asking what is immediately profitable or popular or fashionable or politically savvy, Berry says, "Ask yourself, Will this satisfy a woman satisfied to bear a child? Will this disturb the sleep of a woman near to giving birth?"  In other words, rather than the same old questions we so often use to measure our lives and direct our choices--questions like, "Which job will make me more money, regardless of what it does to my soul?" or "Which political party will help me and my narrow interests?"--Berry dares us to think about how our choices will affect those who raise the next generation who will come after us.  

I think something like this is the right set of questions to be asking.  And yet I know it is scary to learn a new set of questions.  We are used to the old ones.  We are used to evaluating our lives and seeing our world only in terms of "What will help me get richer, be happier, or hold onto my status?" And honestly, to have the Bible come along and say that the right questions are more like, "What will help the homeless mother care for her sick kid today?" and "What will be best for the planet you will hand to the neighbors of your great-great-grandchildren?" well, that just pulls the rug out from under us.

Well, good.  Maybe we need the rug pulled out from under us to get us to think in the right terms.  

Today is a day to start that change of thinking.  Today is a day to realign our values with what the writers of the Scriptures call us to. Today can be the beginning of the end of our old (and tired) selfishness that can only see as far as our own bank balances or our own job security but cannot consider someone whose needs are greater than our own or whose lifespan extends beyond our own.  Today can be the beginning of our attempt to consider the needs of the poor, the needy, the weak, the sick, and marginalized before our own narrow benefit--and to find that as we do, we are somehow more in tune with the ways of God... and thereby somehow made more alive.

Lord God, rearrange our priorities, our values, and our loves to look like yours--beyond our own profit, security, or illusions of happiness to the wholeness that comes from loving the neighbors you have sent into our lives.