A disturbing question entered into my mind the other day I was wrestling with the severity of Amos' prophecy of the summer fruit basket and it is this: Why do so many white ministers leave seminary called to serve the poor only to abandon that call to be paid by the wealthy?
I posted my question to twitter and had two wonderful and very different conversations, of course neither really were able to fully answer the question. It is a hard question for me because I am deeply a part of this question. When I was exploring my call in seminary I constantly heard people say, "Invoke change but make sure you get paid." Over the past 7 years since beginning and ending seminary I have watched others I went to school with proclaim a very challenging gospel that railed against the wealthy and remembered the poor. Several went on to be missionaries for a few years advocating for the end of abusive power structures and an end to modern-day slavery. Several also went out and began working directly with the poor in real meaningful ways. As time went on and funding disappeared things changed.
When the funding disappeared for several missionaries they cried foul (rightfully so) and tearfully packed their bags and left a place they believed whole heartedly called to serve. Eventually they found their way back to America, accepted a position at an upper-middle class church, bought home, a car, a motorcycle, kayaks, and a whole host of other "American" ideals while still railing against the power structures.
Why didn't they stay?
I know there is are numerous reasons and I understand those reasons while understanding those reasons to be complicated; however the question comes to mind, "Why not stay? Why not become just like the people who you were helping, to live as they do, to work as they do, to really be a part of their lives? Why come back embracing the lifestyle you once called immoral? Why not stay?"
I do not believe having money or belongings is a crime or damns a soul to hell, yet the scriptures speak very honestly and harshly to those who have and those who have attained by unjust means. The hard truth is we are all participants in an unjust system. Sometimes we practice the justice of the kingdom of heaven but we, especially us white ministers, are all guilty of buying into the dreams and aspirations of the promises in an unjust system.
I write this as I prepare to go on vacation and participate in the unjust system of cruise travel and my heart is heavy and my soul is searching. Is it better to just not go or is better to go and extend every mercy and grace and hospitality I can to those who working?
I am deeply a part of the question I am asking. And I am asking it on my brand new Surface RT from my comfortable chair in my comfortable office.
Amos and Jesus are preaching right at me.
In response to my question someone asked, "Are we to abandon the wealthy? Are we all called to be poor" I honestly do not know. The scriptures, specifically Jesus, speaks to the selling of our possessions and giving the money to the poor because our wealth will prohibit us from fully following him. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of needle than it is for the rich to enter the kingdom. Are we called to be poor?
During my trip to Argentina several years ago we made a visit to the really wealthy side of Buenos Aires and visited with a local church start. The church start was done by a group of people from the poor side of town where we were staying. When the Argentine economy collapsed these people did not rejoice in the suffering of the rich, instead they saw a hurting people. In their vision, in their eyes, these were people who longed placed their treasures on earth and needed to know of a better way, a better place to store their treasures, and needed to know there were better treasures. The poor went to the wealthy and cared for them in the midst of economic turmoil. When the economy went into recession in America we cut jobs and funding to protect what was ours. There is a deep theological difference between churches in Argentina and churches in America.
In the church in America I read article after article from wealthy pastors and professors urging for young ministers to abandon their paying jobs in order to plant more churches and embrace a life of poverty and the possibility of being unemployed in a year or two, yet I do not see those wealthy pastors or professors giving up theirs to do the same. I have read post after post from white ministers clamoring for justice yet we proclaim such ideals from the security and power of our wealth. I have read post after post urging me to focus on my future and plan for my eventual retirement. These readings and suggestions have begun to not sit will within me and my question tears at my heart because of the encouraging to fill up my cup with as much as I can so I can lay back like the man with the good crop, eat, drink, and be merry.
I know not all ministers are called in the same way or to the same specifics but we are called to wrestle with what the scriptures say and with how our participation and comfortable acceptance of the benefits of the system which creates unjust laws and unjust markets. We are called to wrestle with the idea that Amos may just be preaching to us and not our congregation. Even then I am aware of how we can turn that inward search for humility into an outward expression of self-righteousness.
Henri Nouwen writes:
"Once we have become poor, we can be a good host. It is indeed the paradox of hospitality that poverty makes a good host. Poverty is the inner disposition that allows us to take away our defenses and converts our enemies into friends. We can perceive the stranger as an enemy only as long as we have something to defend. But when we say, "Please enter--my house is your house, my joy is your joy, my sadness is your sadness, and my life is your life," we have nothing to defend, since we have nothing to lose but all to give.
Turning the other cheek means showing our enemies that they can be our enemies only while supposing that we are anxiously clinging to our private property, whatever it is: our knowledge, our good name, our land, our money, or the many objects we have collected around us. But who will be our robbers when everything they want to steal from us becomes our gift to them? Who can lie to us when only the truth will serve them well? Who wants to sneak into our back door when our front door is wide open?" (Nouwen, Henri. Show Me the Way: Daily Lenten Readings pg. 31-32).
I believe Nouwen explores Jesus words, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth" in a deep meaning, along with Clarence Jordan who suggests Jesus was poor because he didn't want wealth. They are expressing how Jesus saw the utter futility of striving for something that was nothing, in the final analysis, but worm food. (Jordan, Clarence. "Was Jesus Really Poor?" The Substance of Faith and Other Cotton Patch Sermons pg. 85-86). It is indeed the exploration of the role of the minister as one who is a servant.
Maybe this is the long way of answering my question to myself.
I know I have asked this question before and have struggled with the answer. I believe Amos and Jesus are teaching us something, teaching me something specific and until I actually ever come to understand what that is, I guess the three of us will stay engaged in a very opinionated, heated conversation. They will stay the teacher and I the student.
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