At the Gate: A look at accompaniment in Acts 3:1-10

Henry Martinez

Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. (Acts 3:4-6)

In the follow up to his gospel, Luke goes to great lengths to show how the Holy Spirit is given to the apostles and what this gift means for their ministry and the life of the early believers. Implicit in the purpose of Acts, so it seems, is the apostles’ faithful witness to the person of Jesus and God’s gift of the Holy Spirit that enables their activity and mission. The ministry of Jesus is left in their hands. In other words, you can smell this healing story coming from a mile away. At the risk of simplifying the matter, the arc of a healing story can be understood as follows: problem—solution—proof.

The problem is realized as the scene opens on a man who is carried to church (I’m contextualizing here) by some faithful friends every day. As worshipers file past, the man at the gate collects whatever alms they can spare. The people go in to become the worshiping body, the man stays at the gate. Enter Peter and John.

After a stare from each of them (I wonder how awkward that was), the Spirit moves Peter and John to do something more than give money. If they did have silver or gold, Luke probably would have told us they gave that as well. The healing/solution works well for Luke’s purposes, but it leaves us with a question: “If we’ve been given the Holy Spirit, why can’t it be this easy for us?” Why aren’t lives healed or made new with a simple command? Why isn’t poverty solved with a job? Why isn’t more food, money, or help enough? The man walks – leaps for joy even – and praises God, but in a way he is getting ready for healing of another kind.

The final step of the healing is the proof, which we read in verse 10: “and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple…” This confirms the healing act of the apostles, but I almost wish Luke, the author of the gospel story where the dinner host orders the servant to invite the poor, crippled, blind and lame (Luke 14:21) would have emphasized the other drama that unfolds here. Something like: “and he recognized them as the ones who passed him by at the gate of the temple as they went on to pray.”

The healing story is the introduction to another chapter not written in the book of Acts. It is a chapter that begins as the crowd disperses from Solomon’s Portico and the man walks away for the first time. Just as he has to learn what it is like to walk, he also has to confront his feelings that come from knowing what it is like to be passed by your whole life. Meanwhile, the rest of the community has to come to terms with the likelihood that their response to the man’s previous condition affects any relationship with him from here on out. The man and the community have to learn how to walk together in a new relationship, one that requires a different kind of healing, though nonetheless guided by the spirit.

In one way it looks like Peter and John just went in and fixed the man (and this isn’t Luke’s fault). But in another way we begin to see that God’s healing spirit is also needed as we stumble through the relationships we have with one another. Only by the work of the spirit are we able to recognize the barriers in our midst that before looked as innocent as gates.

Henry Martinez is an education associate with ELCA World Hunger.

Upstate New York Flooding- Lutheran Congregations Unite to Repair Church

Megan Brandsrud

kitchen floor removal - POP volunteers

In June 2013, central New York was impacted by flooding. Trinity Lutheran Church, an ELCA congregation in Herkimer County, suffered severe damage. Through the efforts of Patsy Glista, the Lutheran Disaster Response Coordinator for Upstate New York, and several congregations from the Central Crossroads Conference of Upstate NY Synod, work has been well underway to clean out damage in Trinity and rebuild. Lutheran Disaster Response – U.S. invested in the recovery of this area by giving $25,000 for flood relief efforts.

Below, Pastor Ann Zimmerman shares updates on work being done at Trinity Lutheran Church and the story of other Lutheran congregations helping Trinity rebuild. Whenever Lutherans come together to respond in times of need, Lutheran Disaster Response is in action in its purest form.

“As I reflect on this last year, it has been challenging to say the least. Our village community of Herkimer was affected by localized creek flooding in June 2013. Never before had flood waters come down German St and engulf the church like an island. The water seeped into the foundation and an underground spring that was dormant for decades bubbled water for three weeks after the flooding ended. Our three Faith Formation rooms, nursery, fellowship hall, storage areas and kitchen were heavily damaged.

We knew that this would take some time to recover and rebuild. Calls were quickly made to Patsy Glista, Lutheran Disaster Response Coordinator for Upstate New York Synod and Jeff Spann, ELCA Building Consultant for their advice. Their prompt response started us on the road to recovery. Even though we never had standing water from prior heavy rains, we noted that there was water seeping behind the walls, causing mold and mildew in all of the ground level rooms. The sheetrock on all of the walls had to be cut up four feet on interior walls and six feet on exterior walls. The kitchen was gutted and appliances removed. The wooden flooring in the kitchen was removed, as well as the carpet in the fellowship hall. Next came the planning, visioning and rebuilding phase so Trinity could move “Forward in Faith.”

Initial cost estimates were more than $100,000, and our congregation, with a very small endowment fund and just meeting the mission needs of the budget, knew that this could be a time of trial and tribulation. Praise God from whom all blessings flow… just as the Good News of the Gospel is spread person to person, so was word of our flood issues. Other Lutheran and ecumenical congregations sent funds totaling more than $11,000. Our own congregation held a quick building fund match and raised more than $10,000 in two months. Donations from individuals who heard of our plight gave more than $8,000 from their abundance, and we received three grants totaling almost $5,000. We are well on our way to recovery.

God’s Work, Our Hands has a new meaning, as so many folks have rallied to help us in our time of need. Work teams from Lutheran churches in Clay, Liverpool, Syracuse, Utica and Clifton Park have come through our doors and many folks more than once. We still have a way to go, but we know that God is with us. We give thanks and are grateful to so many folks who share from the blessings God has given them. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. (Isaiah 43:2) Thanks be to God!”

Rev. Ann Zimmerman

Trinity Lutheran Church

Review of Robert Lupton’s Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help

Ryan P. Cumming January 9, 2014

Robert D. Lupton, Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help. New York: HarperOne, 2012.

Recently, a friend who does ministry in an urban area expressed his frustration with “mission trips”. “These groups call us all the time and they want to come down and do projects that don’t help us. We try to tell them about what we’re doing and how they can help, but they don’t listen. They just want to paint walls or pick up trash. Even worse, they tell us that we’re doing it wrong.”

Toxic Charity captures this divide in writing that is perceptive and prophetic, even if not always persuasive. Lupton tells of the church in Mexico that was painted six times by six groups one summer, the gift-giving program that left the fathers of children feeling emasculated and inadequate, and the tile floor in a Cuban seminary that was inexpertly laid by novice volunteers as skilled local laborers were left without work.

Lupton’s criticisms of the billion-dollar charity industry are important, and we should listen to them. His suggestions for transforming ministries are also thought-provoking, as is the “oath for compassionate service” he describes in later chapters. Its principles, in fact, coincide with the ELCA’s method of accompaniment and are vitally important for authentic and effective service.

Because of these high points, it is easy to mutter “amen” while reading. Lupton does a great job pointing out the problems of some forms of direct service of the poor. But for a church that also does public advocacy, his book has some remarkable shortcomings.

One criticism is that Lupton moves uncritically between uplifting the capacity and creativity of the poor and degrading them as lazy and dishonest. “Most [panhandlers] are scammers,” he states (45). Most poor people in the United States “assume that their subsistence is guaranteed” and so lack any kind of work ethic, he claims (121). I won’t dignify his words with the verb “argues” because Lupton doesn’t argue his points; he simply states them. I would be concerned that statements like this, when coupled with his criticisms of charity, would motivate more people to avoid service work in the first place than to engage in the community development he suggests.

His approach to the role of government is particularly troubling, again, given the lack of evidence he marshalls to defend his claims. “As a country,” he writes, “we understand that welfare creates unhealthy dependency [and] erodes the work ethic” (22). This indictment continues in his evaluation of international aid (given to the same people who, according to his own account, have the stronger work ethic that should make such aid effective).

The difficulty here is not his rejection or support of foreign aid or welfare. There are arguments to be made on both sides of the debate. The problem is that the only apparent research Lupton draws on is Dambisa Moyo’s controversial 2009 book Dead Aid. Outside of this, Lupton appears to draw on his own experience, which I admit is extensive, but this does not make for a well-defended argument. And this is vitally necessary when making statements about both the poor and government’s relationship to them that are far from self-evident.

For example, Lupton claims that “all our efforts to eliminate poverty have succeeded only in creating a permanent underclass, dismantling their family structures, and eroding their ethic of work” (3). Such a premise neglects the arguments that such programs have been woefully underfunded since the 1970s and so may be said to have been set up to fail. There may be structural and systemic reasons why poverty remains a problem. What is more, to blame poverty-elimination efforts for the “breakdown” of the family is a leap that requires defense and explanation. Such statements are common in political rhetoric, but if they are to influence churches (as Lupton desires) there at least should be some evidence demonstrating their truth.

That said, I still cautiously recommend the book. Clearly, Lupton touches a nerve when it comes to how the “haves” respond to the “have-nots.” And the similarities between his recommendations and the ELCA’s model of accompaniment create points of entry for talking and thinking about how we live faithfully in the midst of a complex world, where even our highest ideals fall short. Perhaps it may also be an occasion for drawing out some of these complexities in ways that Lupton ignores.

If your congregation or group is looking to do service on the frontlines or planning a mission trip, I strongly recommend Lupton’s book. But if your group is dealing with public policy issues or advocacy, I would suggest also looking at Sasha Abramsky’s The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives (reviewed here last month) or David Beckmann and Arthur Simon’s Grace at the Table: Ending Hunger in God’s World to balance Lupton’s claims.

Winter Storm Atlas: A Rancher’s Perspective

Megan Brandsrud

On Oct. 4, Winter Storm Atlas hit western South Dakota after days of temperatures in the 70s. The storm delivered freezing rain followed by up to four feet of snow accumulation. Although South Dakota is no stranger to winter weather, this storm was unexpected and out of character for the time of the year.

More than 22,000 homes and business were without power for several days. Ranchers in the region were particularly impacted by the storm, as they emerged from the storm to find many of their cattle had not survived.

The cattle had not yet grown their winter coats and ranchers didn’t have enough warning to be able to move their herds to protected winter pastures. The freezing rain, heavy snow and 70-mile-per-hour winds proved deadly for tens of thousands of cattle. In the fall, ranchers sell their calves to market. Many of the ranchers had not yet sold their calves when the storm hit. The calves are gone, and so are the cows that were pregnant with next year’s calves. It can take a rancher up to 20 years to fully develop his or her herd. Winter Storm Atlas caused ranchers to lose the cows they had been raising for many years, and they suffered a severe financial loss.

Working with Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota, Lutheran Disaster Response – U. S. has committed $150,000 to assist in spiritual and emotional care for those impacted by Winter Storm Atlas, with a promise of more funds as needed. Thanks to your undesignated gifts, Lutheran Disaster Response – U.S. was able to respond when the need arose.

Several weeks have passed since Winter Storm Atlas hit western South Dakota. Below is a brief testimony and video from Janet Jorgensen, a rancher who was affected by the storm. Her story describes the impact of the storm and the generosity her community received afterward.

“People may wonder why this happened. No one will ever know the reason, but we must remember that God is in control and is our strength. The parishioners of Indian Creek Lutheran Church – Meadow, SD and the folks in “West River” South Dakota are the recipients of love in many forms, whether prayers, livestock or donations. People’s hearts are so generous. Indian Creek Lutheran Church is appreciative and is grateful to those who have given of themselves and their gifts.

This video was created to give the viewer insight to a ranch family’s life. The ranchers tend to their livestock to prevent illness and to provide good nutrition and shelter, which reflects good stewardship for the land and animals. It is with hopes that my journal and photos plus Kelly Hayworth’s artistic gift will enhance the viewers’ understanding.

Although the Mega Blizzard caused a large loss, we need to keep the proper perspective. We lost no family member and that is what counts. God was a part of our lives and will continue to be.”

Sacrifice

As many of us enjoy an extended holiday weekend and approach Memorial Day, the word sacrifice is a crucial part of why this weekend, this holiday, this day of remembrance is so important. I think of many people I’ve never known and will never meet fighting wars overseas, fighting for what they believe in and for the ideals upon which this country was founded. Though many do not agree with our administration’s and past administrations’ choices, one thing most people seem to agree on is the importance of showing our support to those who do battle—literally—in the name of our shared freedom and the countless ideals and privileges we sometimes take for granted while going about our busy days.

I especially think of my grandfather who was a waist gunner in World War II—a generation whose very existence called for the selflessness of sacrifice and service to the neighbor. Though we are generations removed from that period of our history, many veterans from that and wars since walk among us.

We honor all our veterans and current enlisted servicemen and servicewomen with our own sacrifice. That which we choose to do without or give to others so that a different group of people whom we may never meet can have something to eat. We give of ourselves, our worldly possessions, and whatever means we have to boldly denounce the pervasive and destructive reality of hunger and poverty affecting a billion people in God’s world.

Let us further honor those who sacrifice themselves for others and for what they believe in by sacrificing something of our own so that people with little to eat might have a chance for a better life.

–Aaron Cooper is writer-editor for ELCA World Hunger

Hunger Network Supports Brothers and Sisters in Haiti, Other Countries during Disasters

Disaster strikes. Then what? Pray, donate money, help people. Do what you can as you follow the story in the media. Haiti. Chile. Malawi. Name the disaster of the month as we approach hurricane season and are called to respond at a moment’s notice when our brothers and sisters are in need, usually around the world but sometimes in our own backyards.

Photo by Paul Jeffrey, ACT International

When devastation engulfed Haiti on January 12, organizations around the world clamored to touch down on Haitian soil let alone begin instituting any kind of aid that would respect the hurting local infrastructure and Haitian people. But the ELCA was already there, already in Haiti working with and through Lutherans to build better communities and improve lives.

ELCA World Hunger has been on the ground in Haiti for many years, providing millions of dollars and supporting many programs through local work of The Lutheran World Federation (LWF). It’s because of this work on the ground and relationships with the LWF and partner organizations like Action by Churches Together (ACT) that the ELCA is able to take your gifts and translate them quickly into food, water, clothing and shelter for people who need it now more than ever.

Gifts to ELCA World Hunger and ELCA Disaster Response are providing water. A water purification system with pipes, filters and pumps transported from freezing-cold Norway to scorching-hot Haiti is providing 10,000 homeless Haitians with clean drinking water. The ACT Alliance brought in desperately needed special water and sanitation facilities. The “water factory” is based in the Belair neighborhood of Port-au-Prince and provided the first clean water many people had access to after the earthquake.

Long before the spotlights cast themselves on the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and long after they will have faded, the ELCA has worked, is working, and will continue to work on the ground in Haiti for justice and stability.

The ELCA is present in many countries throughout the world, working through companion churches and with international partner organizations to provide the daily relief and development work that can, in a moment’s notice, support a readied infrastructure of support when disaster strikes already poverty-filled areas.

–Aaron Cooper is writer-editor for ELCA World Hunger

Lutherans Combat Malaria

According to the World Health Organization, in 2008 there were 247 million cases of malaria and nearly one million deaths—mostly among African children. In Africa, a child dies every 45 seconds of malaria, and the disease accounts for 20 percent of all childhood deaths there.

April 25 is World Malaria Day. On this day devoted to addressing one of the most widespread fatal diseases of our time, we know that bed nets are one of several important tools to combat this disease. Bed nets are important and the most publicized form of prevention, but that’s one of many aspects of combating this far-reaching epidemic. It’s also about education, safe drinking water, and a global cooperation of people and organizations working together with affected communities to halt this disease.

The ELCA is part of an inter-Lutheran effort to combat malaria: the Lutheran Malaria Initiative. As this work gains momentum, consider what you can do to support it. Learn how youth are getting involved.

Like hunger, whether you understand malaria on an academic level or by virtue of experience with the disease, a communal gut reaction is needed to the widespread devastation this epidemic continues to cause. As one of the body of Christ suffers, so do we all. As one of the body of Christ has AIDS or malaria, so do we all.

Those who have the ability to act have the responsibility to act. Whether malaria, AIDS, hunger, and countless other justice issues in the world that disproportionately affect people living in poverty, let us step forward boldly as a public church whose witness is visible in endless acts of human connection and meaningful systems of change.

-Aaron Cooper is writer-editor for ELCA World Hunger

Lipi’s Chickens

A woman in Cambodia raises chickens through a project supported by ELCA World Hunger. Credit: Rachel Cook/LWF.

This Easter season, as we give thanks for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and a chance to be born anew, let us recommit ourselves to God’s call for us to love and serve our neighbors both near and far.

One of our global neighbors whom we support through ELCA World Hunger lives in Bangladesh. And because of a custom many of us take part in at Easter—painting Easter eggs—I am reminded of her story, which will appear in the summer issue of LifeLines newsletter due out in late April. Here’s a sneak preview:

“Lipi Bergum lives in Bangladesh in a small hut with her husband, two children and elderly mother-in-law. With no land of their own, Lipi’s family used to get by on what meager pay her husband—a day laborer for nearby farmers—could earn. They often struggled, especially in the rainy season.

During the rainy season in northwest Bangladesh, when rice fields traditionally lie dormant, there is no work or wages for farm laborers. Day laborers and their families are often reduced to begging or worse—going hungry. For a long time, that was the reality Lipi and her family faced.

That changed when Lipi joined a local Farmer Field School run by RDRS, a long-established rural development organization supported by ELCA World Hunger. RDRS understood her situation and gave her some ideas. Before long, with the help of a microloan, Lipi built a little shed on the family’s homestead and began raising a flock of 200 chickens to generate income.”

Lipi’s chickens yield countless eggs, and because of these chickens Lipi and her family no longer go hungry during the rainy season. When you or the children in your life collected those Easter baskets, reflect on the importance of eggs not only for nourishment but for the life-saving difference chickens and eggs make in other parts of the world.

If you didn’t get around to buying that special Easter gift for someone you care about, consider giving 10 chicks for $10 or another truly meaningful gift and putting a special gift notice in someone’s post-Easter card or upcoming birthday or special-occasion card.

Hallelujah! He is risen! He is risen indeed, hallelujah!

-Aaron Cooper is writer-editor for ELCA World Hunger

March 24-April 6, 2010–Easter Morning

There is no Faith Lens this week, however, you might ponder this artistic reflection on the holiest of mysteries intersecting the mundane.

"Easter Morning," James B Janknegt

“Be still and know that I am God”

Today, my daughter will be welcomed into the kingdom of God at her baptism. She will set out on her own faith journey and one day discern her vocation. What will she be? What will she do? At almost five months, there are many years ahead before these become conscious decisions bound by a series of choices. Today is only the beginning.

Those of us who strive for justice in an often unjust world are at a different point in our vocations with countless life decisions already under the belt and hopefully many more to come. Do we ever stop and take stock of our own journey, that which we Christians embark upon often in infancy? How are we doing?

Let this be a reminder that as the stories of suffering in a seemingly peaceless world fill our collective inboxes and occupy our troubled concern, as we profess our own hunger while working to help those who are truly hungry, may we remember the time when we first set along our own faithful journies. May we remember that in the face of daunting tasks like ending world hunger or fighting for those with no voice, God calls us to renewal constantly, effortlessly, and steadfastly…to be still.

God calls TO us when our minds are focused elsewhere. And we remember that we are cleansed in our own baptisms, whether by our faith or by our human ability to start anew.

“Be still and know that I am God.”

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