Session 2 — Psalm 121

“My help comes from the Lord.” —Psalm 121:2

Just over two years ago, after decades of working, Susan became disabled. “I was newly poor and relatively terrified,” she wrote. “With literally everything stripped from the budget except a roof over our heads and very modest transportation, the monthly budget showed a balance of negative $5. The meaning of food insecurity became abundantly clear.”

Late in life, Susan had adopted three boys. Her circumstances made her worry nonstop about their futures and how she would keep the promises she had made to them.

The psalm for this week in Lent opens with a similar worry and prayer. “I lift up my eyes to the hills,” writes the psalmist. “From where will my help come?” (verse 1).

One of the more frustrating responses people offer to stories of food insecurity in the United States is that one can easily figure out where to go during hard times. No matter how often the stories are shared, no matter how persistent rates of food insecurity are, one still hears:

“Can’t you just get welfare?” (No — it doesn’t exist in the ways you think it does and hasn’t since the mid-1990s.)

“You can get food stamps, can’t you?” (Sure, but these average only $175 a month and for certain age groups are available for only three months.)

Unfortunately, the reality for many food-insecure families and individuals in the U.S. is that public programs are often difficult to access, and many people lack social support systems that can help them when something goes wrong. Even if programs and support systems are available and accessible, being food insecure or living in poverty carry stigmas, much like the ones we discussed in the last session of this study. This can make it hard to know where to turn and to find the confidence necessary to make that turn once we arrive at it.

For Susan, coming from a middle-class background meant having to face the stigma of food insecurity head-on. She remembers watching a food distribution at the West View Hub (“the Hub”), a community center serving neighbors in Pittsburgh. “I still had the haughty air of someone who recently belonged to the middle class, so rather than inquire, I watched.” After some time, a person from the Hub started to talk with her. The Hub was distributing milk and eggs, and there was a long line of clients. Susan had planned to observe only, but a volunteer invited her to find a place in the line, and she went home with food and money to spare for the week. For her, the change was immediate. “All of a sudden I went from negative $5 to plus $45 for the month,” she wrote. “I could breathe.”

The food pantry is just one part of the Hub, which is supported by an ELCA World Hunger grant through Berkeley Hills Lutheran Church, an early partner in the work. In addition to food, the Hub provides a local library, internet access and other support the community needs. More importantly, the Hub fosters new relationships among neighbors. “The food pantry [was] just the beginning,” explained Susan. “We found a home there. We found family there.”

Through ELCA World Hunger, our church is committed to supporting transformative, integrated and holistic ministries that address 10 the root causes of hunger. To put it more simply, these ministries break down barriers within communities and work with other partners to address the multiple needs people face. If we are serious about our church ending hunger, each of these steps will be important, yet we also need to remember that the most important ministry is being present.

God’s invitation for us to build a just world where all are fed comes out of our own experience as people saved by grace. As told in Holy Scripture, the entire history of the people of God is the story of God being present with the people, especially when they felt alone. Look at Psalm 121:1-4:

I lift up my eyes to the hills — from where will my help come?
My help comes from [you,] Lord, who made heaven and earth.
[You] will not let your foot be moved; [those] who keep you will not slumber.
[They] who keep Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. (vs. 1-4).

Reading this psalm, indeed reading all the Bible, we might sum up the character of God in a single phrase: relentless presence. God is relentlessly present with the people. From the Garden of Eden to Egypt to the wilderness, God is present.

From Israel to Judah to exile to return, God is present. The spirituality of the Lenten season — indeed, a key purpose of Lenten fasting — is to remind us of our dependence on God. We remember in these 40 days our need for God’s grace, God’s provision and God’s help in the moments when we can’t help ourselves. Yet we also remember that the good news of grace is the good news that God will be relentlessly present with us “always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

That is part of what makes the work of the West View Hub so important and so transformative for neighbors such as Susan. Being present, listening to our neighbors’ needs and offering words of welcome and hope are what it means to be saved by a relentlessly present God.

This season, we are called to remember our times of need when God showed up and to remember our calling to do the same. As church, we respond to hunger for many reasons. Sometimes our compassion pulls us to meet the needs of our neighbors. Other times we may feel a sense of responsibility to care for the people God places in our midst. At all times, though, we do this work because we are set free by grace to be relentlessly present in our own communities, so that every time a neighbor, friend or stranger wonders, “From where will my help come?” the people of God will reply, “Here.”

Here — you are welcome.
Here — you will be fed.
Here — we will meet our needs together.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

How has the church been present for you in times of distress?

How might your personal ministry or the ministry of your congregation change if you focused on being relentlessly present with and among your neighbors?

Where is God calling you to be relentlessly present this season?

Sesión 2 — Salmo 121

“Mi ayuda proviene del Señor”. —Salmo 121:2

Hace poco más de dos años, después de décadas de haber estado trabajando, Susan quedó discapacitada. Ella escribió: “Acababa de convertirme en una persona pobre, y estaba relativamente aterrorizada”. Después de que literalmente todo fue extraído del presupuesto, excepto un techo sobre nuestras cabezas y un transporte muy modesto, el presupuesto mensual mostró un saldo negativo de $ 5. El significado de la inseguridad alimentaria se volvió muy claro”.

Algo tarde en su vida, Susan había adoptado tres niños. Sus circunstancias la hacían preocuparse incesantemente por el futuro de ellos y de cómo iba a cumplir las promesas que les había hecho.

El salmo de esta semana de Cuaresma comienza con una preocupación y una oración similares. “A las montañas levanto mis ojos”; escribe el salmista. “¿De dónde ha de venir mi ayuda?” (versículo 1).

Una de las respuestas más frustrantes que la gente ofrece a las historias de inseguridad alimentaria en los Estados Unidos es que uno puede averiguar fácilmente a dónde ir en tiempos difíciles. No importa cuán a menudo se compartan las historias, no importa cuán persistentes sean los índices de inseguridad alimentaria, uno todavía oye:

“¿No puedes simplemente recibir asistencia social?” (No —no existe en la forma en que crees que existe y no ha existido desde mediados de la década de 1990).

“Puedes obtener cupones de alimentos, ¿no?” (Claro, pero el promedio de estos es solamente $ 175 al mes, y para ciertos grupos de edad solo están disponibles por tres meses).

Desafortunadamente, la realidad para muchas familias e individuos que sufren de inseguridad alimentaria en los Estados Unidos es que a menudo es difícil tener acceso a los programas públicos, y muchas personas carecen de sistemas de apoyo social que puedan ayudarlas cuando algo sale mal. Incluso cuando hay programas y sistemas de apoyo disponibles y accesibles, el tener inseguridad alimentaria o vivir en la pobreza lleva consigo estigmas, muy parecidos a los que discutimos en la sesión anterior de este estudio. Esto crea la posibilidad de que sea difícil saber a dónde acudir y encontrar la confianza necesaria para hacer ese giro una vez que lleguemos a este.

Susan venía de un ambiente de clase media, y esto significaba que tenía que encarar de frente el estigma de la inseguridad alimentaria. Ella recuerda que vio una distribución de alimentos en el West View Hub (“el Hub”), un centro comunitario que sirve a los vecinos en Pittsburgh. “Todavía tenía el aire altivo de alguien que hace poco había pertenecido a la clase media, así que, en lugar de preguntar, observé”. Después de un tiempo, una persona del Hub comenzó a hablar con ella. El Hub estaba distribuyendo leche y huevos, y había una larga fila de clientes. Susan había planeado observar solamente, pero un voluntario la invitó a ponerse en la fila, y se fue a casa con comida y dinero de sobra para la semana. Para ella, el cambio fue inmediato. “De repente pasé de menos $ 5 a más de $ 45 para el mes”, escribió ella. “Podía respirar”.

La despensa de alimentos es solo una parte del Hub, el cual cuenta con el apoyo de una beca de ELCA World Hunger a través de la Iglesia Luterana Berkeley Hills, una de las primeras socias en la obra. Además de alimentos, el Hub ofrece una biblioteca local, acceso a Internet y otro tipo de apoyo que la comunidad necesita. Más importante aún, el Hub fomenta nuevas relaciones entre los vecinos. “La despensa de alimentos [fue] solo el comienzo”, explicó Susan. “Allí encontramos un hogar. Allí encontramos familia”.

A través de ELCA World Hunger, nuestra iglesia se compromete a apoyar ministerios transformadores, integrados y holísticos que abordan 10 causas fundamentales del hambre. Para decirlo de manera más simple, estos ministerios rompen las barreras dentro de las comunidades y trabajan con otros socios para abordar las múltiples necesidades que enfrentan las personas. Si tomamos en serio el que nuestra iglesia acabe con el hambre, cada uno de estos pasos será importante, pero también debemos recordar que el ministerio más importante es estar presente.

La invitación que Dios nos hace a construir un mundo justo en el que todos sean alimentados proviene de nuestra propia experiencia como personas salvadas por gracia. Como se narra en las Sagradas Escrituras, toda la historia del pueblo de Dios es la historia de Dios que estaba presente con el pueblo, especialmente cuando se sentían solos. Mire el Salmo 121:1-4:

A las montañas levanto mis ojos; ¿de dónde ha de venir mi ayuda?
Mi ayuda proviene del Señor, creador del cielo y de la tierra.
No permitirá que tu pie resbale; jamás duerme el que te cuida.
Jamás duerme ni se adormece el que cuida de Israel (versículos 1-4).

Leyendo este salmo —de hecho, leyendo toda la Biblia —podríamos resumir el carácter de Dios en una sola frase: presencia continua. Dios está continuamente presente con la gente. Desde el Jardín del Edén hasta Egipto y el desierto, Dios está presente.

Desde Israel hasta Judá, desde el exilio hasta el retorno, Dios está presente. La espiritualidad de la temporada de Cuaresma —de hecho, un propósito clave del ayuno cuaresmal —es recordarnos nuestra dependencia de Dios. En estos 40 días recordamos nuestra necesidad de la gracia de Dios, la provisión de Dios y la ayuda de Dios en los momentos en que no podemos ayudarnos a nosotros mismos. Sin embargo, también recordamos que las buenas nuevas de la gracia son las buenas nuevas de que Dios estará continuamente presente con nosotros “siempre, hasta el fin del mundo” (Mateo 28:20).

Eso es parte de lo que hace que el trabajo del West View Hub sea tan importante y transformador para vecinos como Susan. Estar presentes, escuchar las necesidades de nuestro prójimo y ofrecer palabras de bienvenida y esperanza es lo que significa ser salvado por un Dios continuamente presente.

Esta temporada somos llamados a recordar nuestros momentos de necesidad en los que Dios apareció y a recordar nuestro llamado a hacer lo mismo. Como iglesia respondemos al hambre por muchas razones. A veces nuestra compasión nos impulsa a satisfacer las necesidades de nuestros vecinos. Otras veces podemos tener un sentido de responsabilidad de cuidar a las personas que Dios pone en medio de nosotros. Sin embargo, en todo momento hacemos este trabajo porque somos liberados por gracia para estar continuamente presentes en nuestras propias comunidades, de modo que cada vez que un vecino, amigo o desconocido se pregunte: “¿de dónde vendrá mi ayuda?”, el pueblo de Dios responderá: “de aquí”.

Aquí — usted es bienvenido.
Aquí — usted será alimentado.
Aquí — satisfaremos nuestras necesidades juntos.

PREGUNTAS DE REFLEXIÓN

¿Cómo ha estado presente la iglesia para usted en tiempos de angustia?

¿Cómo podría cambiar su ministerio personal o el ministerio de su congregación si se concentrara en estar continuamente presente con sus vecinos y entre ellos?

¿Dónde lo(a) está llamando Dios a estar continuamente presente esta temporada?

Session 1 — Psalm 32

“You are a hiding place for me.” —Psalm 32:7

 

Psalm 32 is a fitting way to begin the season of Lent. The season has most commonly been understood through the centuries as a time of fasting and preparation for Easter, a time when new Christians were often baptized. As early as the second century, theologian Irenaeus of Lyons wrote of a time of penance and prayer leading up to Holy Week when Christians and those seeking baptism should fast for a period of 40 days or 40 hours (the translation is unclear) while reflecting on their sin and their need for God’s grace.

The psalm for this week draws us into the emotional and spiritual experience of repentance and forgiveness. “Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,” the psalmist writes, “whose sin is covered” (verse 1). The verses describe the internal turmoil with vivid and visceral language, such as “groaning” (verse 3). The “heavy” hand of God bears down on the psalmist, sapping their strength to keep going (verse 4). When they experience forgiveness, it is like being “surround[ed]” by gladness and finding a comforting, secure “hiding place” (verse 7).

That experience of shame and isolation lies at the heart of what sin really is and how it impacts us. The psalmist, for example, suffers in “silence,” while their body “wastes away” from the effects of what we might today call depression (verse 3). So often, we understand sin as simply disobedience. We view God as a law-giving judge who demands our compliance with specific rules. Repentance and forgiveness, then, are concerned with our confession of what we did wrong and our promise to do better next time.

The psalm, though, offers a deeper understanding of the dynamic between sin and forgiveness and between us and God. Here, sin is a visceral and painful experience of being locked out of relationships, of feeling that we cannot become our full selves. Forgiveness goes beyond merely the acceptance of an apology for wrongdoing and points toward God’s desire for true reconciliation and wholeness. The psalm recognizes how, on this side of the full reign of God, life can wound us and leave us yearning for words of welcome, comfort and love.

What the psalmist describes is the experience of stigma. The word comes from a Greek term meaning “mark” or “puncture,” which seems apt when one considers how deeply being stigmatized can cut. To be stigmatized is to be made to feel ashamed or broken because of something we have done or, more often, for who we are. This is one reason why food pantries and other hunger ministries are often underutilized by the people who need them. To be hungry, all too often, is to be stigmatized for circumstances beyond one’s control, so neighbors commonly try to deal with hunger or food insecurity on their own. The social and emotional costs of stigma are simply too high.

This stigma is reinforced often in the ways we talk about hunger. Language such as “the hungry” or “the poor” makes it seem as if a person’s whole identity is nothing more than the challenges they face. People dispensing angry rhetoric about “freeloading” or calls for “self-sufficiency” ignore the hard work people do to avoid or escape hunger or poverty — and our lack of control over the systems or events that may drive us into them.

The psalmist takes comfort in knowing that, with God, there is no stigma. In God the only “mark” we carry is being God’s children. This faith motivates the robust hunger ministries that accompany neighbors every day. Food pantries and other feeding programs may provide food, but perhaps the most important part of all our ministries may be building a community that reinforces God’s love of all rather than society’s stigmatizing of some.

The ministry of Christ the King Deaf Church in West Chester, Penn., is a testament to this faith. Christ the King provides a place of welcome, worship and fellowship for neighbors who are deaf or who have hearing limitations. Through DeafCAN!, Christ the King’s community human services program, the church reaches across six counties and into the lives of over 250 individuals and their families every year. Recognizing that inaccessibility in many communities can create significant communication barriers for people who need help to meet their basic needs, DeafCAN! provides support for deaf neighbors who are hungry, homeless, imprisoned or ill. It is the only program in Pennsylvania to provide dedicated service for immigrants and refugees who are deaf or have hearing limitations; the state of Pennsylvania used the DeafCAN! Sensory Service Provider (SSP) program as a model for its own.

Learn more about the DeafCAN! Sensory Service Provider (SSP) program by watching the video below.

With a Domestic Hunger Grant from ELCA World Hunger, DeafCAN! was able to purchase personal protective equipment so that the SSP program could continue safely. The leaders of the program are also looking ahead to establishing the first transitional housing facility for deaf people recently released from prison and, potentially, for others in need of stable housing. Through its work with deaf immigrants and refugees, DeafCAN! has also created new opportunities for support, especially through teaching English and American Sign Language classes and citizenship classes. The eastern Pennsylvania chapter of DeafCAN! performed two plays showcasing the life stories of the actors themselves in 2021.

This work is critical to confronting the stigmatization caused by prejudice and discrimination against people based on their abilities. As DeafCAN! puts it, “Being deaf can cut one off from much that the rest of us take for granted: social services, church, neighbors . . . and most cruelly, cut off from their own families.” Stigmatization and exclusion are core drivers behind the higher rates of hunger and poverty that people living with disabilities face in the United States. The inaccessibility of resources, even within many churches, makes it more difficult for all neighbors to get the support they need to thrive.

In contrast to these systems, institutions and communities set up to exclude them, Christ the King Deaf Church provides opportunities for people who are deaf to participate and lead. In fact, the Rev. Beth Lockard, co-founder of Christ the King Deaf Church along with her husband, is currently pastor of the church, and more than half the staff is deaf. Through DeafCAN!, the church and its ministry bear witness to the important role faith communities can play in ending stigma and fostering authentic hope for neighbors made vulnerable by the sins of discrimination, marginalization and stigmatization.

For generations — and too often today — people living with disabilities encounter people of faith who try to link their disability to sin, claiming, like Jesus’ disciples in John 9, that disability results from disobedience to God. Or, well-intentioned people of faith offer to pray that God will “heal” their disability, without asking first whether a neighbor who is disabled desires or even needs such “healing.” Far more important is healing the systems and communities that exclude neighbors based on their abilities. The ministry of Christ the King Deaf Church and the words of Psalm 32 teach us that God’s healing penetrates more deeply, healing the wounds caused not by the sins we commit but by the sin that is pressed upon us, the stigmatization that, perhaps like a heavy hand, “dries up” our strength (vs. 4) and pushes us to remain silent (vs. 3). The Psalm is a reminder of the sin that pervades our communities, separating us from God and one another, and leaving so many of us feeling alone.

The call to return to God during Lent – to prepare, to fast and to repent – is twofold. On the one hand, it is a way to remind ourselves that being made to feel ashamed, burdened, excluded or “cut off” is not part of God’s plan for us. On the other hand, it also opens us to recognize the many ways that we, the church, have failed to be the loving, welcoming, affirming presence God calls us to be in the world. The ministry of Christ the King Deaf Church and DeafCAN! is not a specialized, localized ministry; it is the ministry to which God calls the whole people of God – ending not just physical hunger, but the emotional, mental and spiritual hunger from which we yearn for release.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

How does Psalm 37 shape or reshape your understanding of sin?

Think of a time when you experienced someone stigmatizing or stereotyping you. How did this make you feel?

How does or how can your faith inform your encounters with people (even strangers) who are experiencing hunger and homelessness?

Consider your own context. How does your congregation, school or workplace provide a welcoming environment to people of diverse abilities? What could you be doing better, and what action steps could you take toward that end between now and Easter?

Sesión 1 — Salmo 32

“Tú eres mi refugio” —Salmo 32:7

El Salmo 32 es una manera apropiada de iniciar la temporada de Cuaresma. A lo largo de los siglos, esta temporada ha sido entendida más comúnmente como un tiempo de ayuno y preparación para la Pascua de Resurrección, una época en que a menudo se bautizaba a los nuevos cristianos. Ya en el siglo II, el teólogo Ireneo de Lyon había escrito sobre un tiempo de penitencia y oración que conduce a la Semana Santa y en el cual los cristianos y aquellos que desean ser bautizados deben ayunar por un período de 40 días o 40 horas (la traducción no es clara) a la vez que reflexionan sobre su pecado y su necesidad de la gracia de Dios.

El salmo de esta semana nos lleva a la experiencia emocional y espiritual del arrepentimiento y el perdón. “Dichoso a quien se le perdonan sus transgresiones”, escribe el salmista, “a quien se le borran sus pecados” (versículo 1). Los versículos describen la perturbación interna con un lenguaje vívido y visceral, como “gemir” (versículo 3). La mano de Dios “pesaba” sobre el salmista, debilitando su fuerza para seguir adelante (versículo 4). Cuando experimentan el perdón, es como estar “rodeados” de alegría y encontrar un “refugio” reconfortante y seguro (versículo 7).

Esa experiencia de vergüenza y aislamiento yace en el meollo de lo que realmente es el pecado y cómo nos afecta. El salmista, por ejemplo, sufre en “silencio”, mientras que su cuerpo “se consume” por los efectos de lo que hoy podríamos llamar depresión (versículo 3). Con demasiada frecuencia consideramos que el pecado es simplemente desobediencia. Vemos a Dios como un juez que da la ley y exige nuestro cumplimiento de reglas específicas. El arrepentimiento y el perdón, entonces, tienen que ver con nuestra confesión de lo que hicimos mal y nuestra promesa de hacer mejor las cosas la próxima vez.

Sin embargo, el salmo ofrece una comprensión más profunda de la dinámica entre el pecado y el perdón y entre Dios y nosotros. El pecado aquí es una experiencia visceral y dolorosa de ser excluido de relaciones, de sentir que no podemos llegar a ser completos.  El perdón va más allá de la mera aceptación de una disculpa por haber hecho el mal y apunta hacia el deseo de Dios de una verdadera reconciliación y plenitud. El salmo reconoce que, en este lado del reino pleno de Dios, la vida puede herirnos y dejarnos anhelando palabras de acogida, consuelo y amor.

Lo que el salmista describe es la experiencia del estigma. Esta palabra proviene de un término griego que significa “marca” o “punción”, que parece apropiado cuando consideramos lo profundo que ser estigmatizados puede cortarnos. Ser estigmatizado es sentirse avergonzado o estropeado por algo que hemos hecho o, más frecuentemente, por lo que somos.  Esta es una de las razones por las que las despensas de alimentos y otros ministerios de alivio del hambre a menudo son subutilizados por las personas que los necesitan. Con demasiada frecuencia, el tener hambre es ser estigmatizado por circunstancias fuera del control de la persona, por lo que comúnmente el prójimo trata de lidiar por su cuenta con el hambre o la inseguridad alimentaria. Los costos sociales y emocionales del estigma son simplemente demasiado altos.

Este estigma se refuerza a menudo en nuestras formas de hablar sobre el hambre. Palabras como “los hambrientos” o “los pobres” hacen que parezca que toda la identidad de una persona no es más que las dificultades que enfrenta. Las personas que dispensan una retórica enfadada sobre el “oportunismo” o llamados a la “autosuficiencia” ignoran el arduo trabajo que las hacen personas para evitar o escapar del hambre o la pobreza —y nuestra falta de control sobre los sistemas o eventos que pueden arrastrarnos a estas.

El salmista se consuela al saber que, con Dios, no hay estigma. En Dios, la única “marca” que llevamos es ser hijos de Dios. Esta fe motiva los robustos ministerios del hambre que acompañan al prójimo todos los días. Las despensas de alimentos y otros programas de alimentación pueden proporcionar alimentos, pero quizás la parte más importante de todos nuestros ministerios puede ser construir una comunidad que refuerce el amor de Dios por todos, en lugar de la estigmatización de algunos por parte de la sociedad.

El ministerio de Christ the King Deaf Church [Iglesia Cristo Rey para sordos] en West Chester, Pensilvania, es un testimonio de esta fe. Christ the King proporciona un lugar de acogida, adoración y compañerismo a los vecinos sordos o que tienen limitaciones auditivas. Por medio de DeafCAN!, el programa comunitario de servicios humanos de Christ the King, la iglesia llega a seis condados y a las vidas de más de 250 personas y sus familias cada año. Reconociendo que la inaccesibilidad en muchas comunidades puede crear barreras de comunicación significativas para las personas que necesitan ayuda en satisfacer sus necesidades básicas, DeafCAN! brinda apoyo a vecinos sordos que tienen hambre, no tienen hogar, están encarcelados o enfermos. Es el único programa en Pensilvania que brinda servicios dedicados a inmigrantes y refugiados sordos o con limitaciones auditivas; el estado de Pensilvania usó el Programa de Provisión de Servicios Sensoriales (SSP, por sus siglas en inglés) DeafCAN! como modelo para su propio programa.

Con una Beca Doméstica contra el Hambre de ELCA World Hunger [Hambre Mundial de la ELCA], DeafCAN! pudo comprar equipo de protección personal para que el programa SSP pudiera continuar de manera segura. Los líderes del programa también están mirando hacia el futuro con el fin de establecer la primera instalación de vivienda de transición para personas sordas recién liberadas de prisión y, potencialmente, para otras que necesitan una vivienda estable. Mediante su trabajo con inmigrantes y refugiados sordos, DeafCAN! también ha creado nuevas oportunidades de apoyo, especialmente a través de la enseñanza de inglés y del lenguaje de señas americano, y clases de ciudadanía. En 2021, el capítulo del este de Pensilvania de DeafCAN! realizó dos obras teatrales que muestran las historias de la vida de los propios actores.

Este trabajo es fundamental para enfrentar la estigmatización causada por los prejuicios y la discriminación contra las personas en función de sus capacidades. Como dice DeafCAN!, “ser sordo puede separarlo a uno de mucho de lo que el resto de nosotros damos por sentado: servicios sociales, iglesia, vecinos. . . y lo más cruel, separarlo a uno de su propia familia”. La estigmatización y la exclusión son los principales impulsores de las tasas más altas de hambre y pobreza que enfrentan las personas que viven con discapacidades en los Estados Unidos. La inaccesibilidad de los recursos, incluso dentro de muchas iglesias, hace que sea más difícil para todos los vecinos obtener el apoyo que necesitan para prosperar.

En contraste con estos sistemas, instituciones y comunidades establecidas para excluirlas, Christ the King Deaf Church ofrece oportunidades para que las personas sordas participen y lideren. De hecho, la Rvda. Beth Lockard, cofundadora de Christ the King Deaf Church junto con su esposo, es actualmente pastora de la iglesia, y más de la mitad del personal son sordos. Por medio de DeafCAN!, la iglesia y su ministerio da testimonio del importante papel que las comunidades de fe pueden jugar en acabar con el estigma y fomentar una auténtica esperanza en el prójimo que ha sido hecho vulnerable por los pecados de discriminación, marginación y estigmatización.

Durante generaciones —y con demasiada frecuencia hoy—, las personas que viven con discapacidades se encuentran con personas religiosas que intentan ligar su discapacidad con el pecado, afirmando, igual que los discípulos de Jesús en Juan 9, que la discapacidad es el resultado de la desobediencia a Dios. O personas de fe bien intencionadas ofrecen orar para que Dios “sane” su discapacidad, sin preguntar primero si un prójimo que está discapacitado desea o incluso necesita tal “curación”. Mucho más importante es sanar los sistemas y las comunidades que excluyen al prójimo en función de sus capacidades. El ministerio de Christ the King Deaf Church [Iglesia Cristo Rey para sordos] y las palabras del Salmo 32 nos enseñan que la curación de Dios penetra más profundamente, curando las heridas causadas, no por los pecados que cometemos, sino por el pecado que se nos impone, la estigmatización que, tal vez como una mano pesada, “seca” nuestras fuerzas (versículo 4) y nos empuja a permanecer en silencio (versículo 3). El Salmo es un recordatorio del pecado que impregna nuestras comunidades, separándonos de Dios y unos de otros, y dejando a muchos de nosotros sintiéndonos solos.

El llamado a volver a Dios durante la Cuaresma —a prepararse, ayunar y arrepentirse— es doble. Por un lado, es una manera de recordarnos a nosotros mismos que sentirnos avergonzados, agobiados, excluidos o “separados” no es parte del plan de Dios para nosotros. Por otro lado, también nos abre a reconocer las muchas maneras en que nosotros, la iglesia, hemos fallado en ser la presencia amorosa, acogedora y afirmativa que Dios nos llama a ser en el mundo. El ministerio de Christ the King Deaf Church y DeafCAN! no es un ministerio especializado y localizado; es el ministerio al cual Dios llama a todo el pueblo de Dios —acabar, no solo con el hambre física, sino también con el hambre emocional, mental y espiritual de la cual anhelamos la liberación.

PREGUNTAS DE REFLEXIÓN

¿Cómo moldea o remodela el Salmo 37 su comprensión del pecado?

Piense en un momento en el que experimentó que alguien lo(a) estigmatizaba o estereotipaba. ¿Cómo lo(a) hizo sentir esto?

¿Cómo orienta o puede orientar su fe sus encuentros con personas (incluso desconocidos) que están experimentando hambre y falta de vivienda?

Considere su propio contexto. ¿Cómo proporciona su congregación, escuela o lugar de trabajo un ambiente acogedor para personas de diversas capacidades? ¿Qué podría estar haciendo mejor, y qué pasos de acción podría dar hacia ese fin entre este momento y la Pascua de Resurrección?

Dear friends,

Welcome to the season of Lent and to ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of Giving!

These 40 days are a season to reflect and remember, to look forward and ahead. During Lent we journey with the Hebrews in the exodus, through the temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness and to the foot of the cross on Good Friday. We remember our dependence on God and one another and reflect on the many ways we have fallen short of what God calls us to be.

These are not easy times for many of us. We know the challenges our world faces. Yet the season of Lent reminds us that God is not yet through with us or our world. Amid our own dependence on God, we know by faith that God is even now at work, drawing us
toward the resurrection and restoration of the world. ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of Giving invites us to be part of that
work and to bear witness to it with partners, companions, friends and neighbors.

In the sessions that follow, we will continue our journey through the psalms that began with ELCA World Hunger’s Advent study. We
will read the familiar lines of Psalm 23 and encounter the psalmist’s plaintive cries in Psalm 130. We will share the joy of Psalm 32 and
the promise of rest and security in Psalm 121. In these ancient hymns, we will encounter our spiritual ancestors, whose faith sustained them through trials and tribulations, and be inspired for the work that lies ahead of us today.

Join us this season — on your own, in a small group or with your congregation — as we encounter the psalms anew and unite in our
efforts to end hunger. Visit elca.org/40days to download or order a suite of resources to equip you on the journey.

In peace,

Ryan P. Cumming, Ph.D.
Program Director, Hunger Education

 

ELCA World Hunger is excited to announce the addition of a new staff member, Everdith Landrau. Read more about her below! 

Hi everyone, my name is Everdith Landrau, also known as Evie, and I am delighted to join the ELCA World Hunger as Director of Networking and Engagement.  I am a native of San Juan, Puerto Rio by way of Manhattan (Spanish Harlem), New York.  I am an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament with the Presbyterian Church, (USA).  My grandmother fostered the love of service early on in my childhood.  Growing up in an urban setting both in Puerto Rico and Spanish Harlem exposed me to the many struggles of hunger, food insecurity and poverty in Black and Latinex communities.

My service to the Church has taken different forms, including ecumenism, inter-faith relations, faith formation, youth and young adult ministry, art/healing movement, and food justice and advocacy.  As an ecumenical leader with my local congregation and the World Council of Churches, I collaborated in various justice service programmatic projects and critical theological reflection.  My doctoral research was focused on the health disparities of African American women in Charlotte, NC.  I researched the realities of how health disparities, hunger, food insecurity, and entrenched institutional racism prevents the flourishing of many Black and Brown communities in the South and the United States.

Much of my passion for prophetic justice has been nurtured by mentors, my spiritual formation alongside Black and Brown siblings and immigrant communities.  I have been honored to be a pastor in North Carolina while participating in community engagement and networking between diverse communities.  In many of our churches, we addressed hunger through soup kitchens, food pantries and intentional advocacy projects with local officials and nonprofit organizations.  I believe in the power of building resilient communities and creating brave spaces of dialogue, action and prayer.

In my free time, I enjoy exercising, creating handmade jewelry, dancing, and playing with my three-year-old daughter, Aluna.

The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in decades. Through the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), ELCA World Hunger is working in the Kakuma region in Kenya alongside the local government to help build the capacity of families to respond to and withstand worsening droughts in the region. LWF initiatives include training in climate-smart farming practices, building and repairing water wells, managing the water supply, promoting hygiene and more.

The stories below reflect the impact of our work together to end hunger through ELCA World Hunger.

Kojo

Kojo is a mother who lives in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya. The stresses of drought facing the Horn of Africa, compounded by the global food crisis, have had a big impact on Kojo and her three kids.

“We did not have fresh food, and at the time no one in the whole village practiced farming,” Kojo said. “It was difficult to get food. The children survived on one meal a day, and there wasn’t enough for everyone.”

Things improved for Kojo when she attended trainings, supported in part by ELCA World Hunger, to learn about “net-house” farming. This method of farming, employing net-enclosed structures, is cost-effective and allows Kojo to cultivate crops year-round, regardless of harsh climate conditions such as drought.

With the skills and tools to practice this method of agriculture, Kojo now has a sustainable source of food. “My life has really changed,” Kojo says.

I am able to provide food for my family, and I sell some of the produce to my neighbors. In turn I am able to buy things like soap and sugar. I feel better, my children are in good health, and I get some money from selling my farm products.

Equipping mothers such as Kojo to support their families goes even further than the fresh food on the table. Ensuring economic stability keeps kids in school, improves their health, relieves social pressure on those who have migrated to the area and prevents children from having to enter the labor market.

As the drought in Kenya and the rest of the Horn of Africa intensifies, the work ELCA World Hunger supports becomes all the more critical. Kojo is eager to expand her net-house farming for greater success as the effects of climate change deepen. “I hope we can plant more varieties of drought-resistant crops and establish another net house for even greater returns,” Kojo shares. “This way we will be able to generate more income for our families and uplift our community.”

The persistent drought is causing an uptick in migration in the Horn of Africa, and our partners such as LWF in Kakuma Refugee Camp are receiving more requests for services — especially education and agricultural training.

“I am really grateful for the support,” Kojo said. “This will go a long way in ensuring sustainability in food production in our communities.”

James and Esther

James and Esther work hard to shield their 12 children from the stinging effects of the current drought in the Horn of Africa, its worst in four decades. Every day, as the children play joyfully outside the family home, James and Esther wonder if they will be able to pull together one meal for the family.

“What do you do in an environment where everything has dried up?” James said.

“Part of our way of dealing with this biting hunger has been to survive on a single meal a day or supplement our diet with wild fruits. Sadly, the fruit trees that once lined the riverbanks have also dried up.”

Esther has noticed how mothers struggle to nourish their children: “Being a mother of 12, I know the pain of watching children cry for food and water. Thankfully, we now have a nearby well maintained by LWF.” The well has significantly eased the burden of obtaining water, so families have more to drink and cook with. “Women in this village are relieved that they no longer have to endure the five-hour walks to fetch water at a seasonal river,” Esther explained.

 

ELCA World Hunger at work in the Horn of Africa

Up until recently, we were celebrating improvements in the work to end hunger, but decades of progress have been undone by the lingering effects of COVID-19, the rise in violent conflict and the intensifying effects of climate change. The commitment to local, sustainable and adaptive farming is essential in reclaiming that progress.

ELCA World Hunger funds programs around the world that accompany people facing hunger and poverty. In more than 60 countries, including the United States, we walk alongside companions who are hard at work providing food, health care, agricultural training, safe water, education, livelihood support and more.

The Horn of Africa drought is only one example of the emerging and urgent needs facing ELCA World Hunger partners. We are well-positioned and ready to respond to these needs and many more as our partners and companions request financial support.

ELCA World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response have always been intricately connected, but in recent months global events have reminded us again just how vital the work of God through these shared ministries is for communities around the world.

The depth of the humanitarian and refugee crisis in Ukraine and across Europe will require a yearslong response. Incredible generosity to Lutheran Disaster Response in the wake of the Eastern European crisis and to ELCA World Hunger over the last 18 months has enabled us to temporarily expand our work in impacted regions. Because of our donors, we are better-equipped and better-resourced to support our global neighbors as they face great challenges.

As the world yearns for an end to this terrible conflict and its far-reaching consequences, in this issue of “LifeLines” we lift up stories of hope, of new opportunity and of God at work even amid tragedy and instability. We know that the effects of the war in Ukraine are far-reaching, which makes the relationships our church has with local communities around the world so important.

In this issue, you will read about a project of our companion church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in The Gambia. The church is working with women such as Anna, a caretaker of a cashew farm in The Gambia, whose story is shared in this issue, to create new opportunities for food security without reliable imports from Ukraine.

You’ll also read about Rosita in Guatemala, who at just 11 years old made the difficult journey with her father to try to migrate to the United States. In Tacoma, Wash., rapid gentrification is forcing longtime residents out of their neighborhood, but Peace Lutheran Church is seeking justice by enabling those neighbors to afford to stay or return.

We look back at the work made possible by gifts to Lutheran Disaster Response and the efforts of our companions and partners in the five years since the devastating 2017 hurricane season. And we look ahead to the work that remains in response to civil unrest, famine and drought in the Horn of Africa.

The world faces some incredibly complex challenges in the days ahead, but we know that God stirs up wellsprings of hope that inspire generosity and tireless efforts for peace, justice and a future filled with good things. We thank our donors for being a sign of hope through their support of ELCA World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response.

Our garden at home has finally started yielding its bounty, which means we have more tomatoes than we know what to do with and are engaged in constant battle with rabbits to preserve our harvest. Now is the season when we get to enjoy the fruits of our time spent planting and preparing the soil, with fresh bites from the garden in every meal. It’s a reminder of the growing season and of nature’s wonders.

The fresh veggies making their way from my yard to my plate has had me thinking more about community gardens recently, especially with the rising costs of food making harvests more important for many of us. Interestingly, though, it was not my own garden or food prices that made me look into the history of gardens in the United States. It was, of all things, a comic book.

Most people who know me know that I am obsessed with comics, especially propaganda comics from World War II and early 1950s horror comics that drew the ire of parents and the federal government alike. I recently picked up a copy of this little gem from 1943:

World’s Finest Comics is pretty unremarkable, except for its run of war-themed covers in the early 1940s. Issue #11 here features Superman, Batman and Robin working away in a “victory garden.” (Oh, how nice it would be to have the super-speed of Superman or the ingenuity of Batman to take care of weeding and tilling, right?) Victory gardens, as they were called, were home gardens that the US government encouraged people to start during the war, ostensibly to increase food production at home when so much produce had to be sent to troops overseas, though their significance went far deeper, as we will learn below.

Many people trace community gardens today back to these victory gardens. But the community gardening movement actually started much further back, and the government was not as “super”-supportive of victory gardens as Superman and Batman were – at least early on.

The 1890s – Community Gardens Begin

According to Smithsonian Gardens, part of the Smithsonian Institution, community gardens trace their roots back to Detroit, Michigan, in the 1890s. The economic depression of 1893 hit the city hard, particularly affecting its largely immigrant population. Worried about food shortages and high unemployment, Detroit’s progressive Mayor Hazen Pingree started a public works program for jobs and then encouraged the city to use vacant lots to grow vegetables for the coming winter. “Pingree’s Potato Patches,” as they were called were called, were effective and popular.

Mayor Pingree had another motive besides providing food. The depression had increased economic inequality in the city, and the response of Detroit’s wealthy citizens was to provide charity to address the deep challenges faced by the workers most impacted. Rather than addressing the problems, charity drives fostered a system of patronage, leaving low-income Detroiters dependent on small amounts of help from rich benefactors. Pingree’s gardens were steps toward a more equitable solution, providing spaces for Detroiters facing hunger and poverty to exercise agency. It was a movement for both food security and economic justice. As the Detroit Free Press wrote in 1935, “Pingree’s potato patches broke the back of hunger. They were nationally acclaimed and copied. They revealed a city of boundless energy and industry unwilling to live on doles (the meager charity of the wealthy).”

 

Turn of the Century and World War I

Pingree’s model was copied in many major cities. As the depression eased, schools turned to gardens both to supplement nutrition and to help an increasingly urban population of children connect back to nature and learn responsibility and the value of work. Perhaps the most famous advocate for the school garden movement was Fannie Griscom Parsons, a tireless leader whose work led to the creation of gardens and farms for children throughout New York City in the first two decades of the 20^th Century. Parsons famously wrote,

I did not start a garden simply to grow a few vegetables and flowers. The garden was used as a means to teach [children] in their work some necessary civic virtues; private care of public property, economy, honesty, application, concentration, self-government, civic pride, justice, the dignity of labor, and the love of nature by opening to their minds the little we know of her mysteries, more wonderful than any fairy tale.

With World War I, the gardening movement gained a lot of ground and new support, this time from the US War Gardening Commission. With this fervor, the Commission reported that by 1917, there were more than 3.5 million war gardens across the country, helping supply needed fruits and vegetables during the lean years of the war.

As should be clear by now, though, the gardens were about more than just food. The war gardens of World War I became a symbol of community agency and renewal, especially for African American residents, whose urban neighborhoods were neglected by governments after the war. Drawing on their horticultural skills and passion for beautifying their communities, African American gardeners in Detroit, Philadelphia and other cities scaled up their post-war efforts, even holding contests for residents with the best gardens. These gardens became an important lifeline during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

World War II – Victory Gardens

The World War I gardens planted the seed (ahem) for the victory gardens of World War II. By this point in agricultural history in the US, the government was more reluctant to support gardens. As the Smithsonian notes, most officials thought that large-scale agriculture was more effective. What ultimately convinced the government to promote victory gardens, though, wasn’t a compelling argument about production. Rather, it was the awareness after decades of use that gardens play a powerful role in bringing communities together, improving relationships between neighbors and strengthening morale.

The gardens ended up proving effective in both areas, though. They strengthened communities and they provided an abundance of food – as much as 40 percent of vegetables grown in the US by 1944.

Hidden Depths

The brightly-colored produce, however, hid some gnarled roots, and Superman, Batman and Robin’s smiling faces on the cover of World’s Finest Comics #11 belied deep injustices when it came to gardens and farms in the United States in the 1940s.

As World War II began, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the removal and internment of Japanese Americans. While in public press, the order was motivated by fear of spies (a belief that had no basis in reality), the internment campaign had more sinister roots. Japanese Americans, especially in California, had drawn on their deep agricultural knowledge to build successful farming businesses upon their arrival in the US. It was these farms, and the valuable land that Japanese Americans owned, that drove some to call for internment.

Indeed, one of the first documented lobbying efforts to remove Japanese Americans from the West Coast came from none other than the Salinas Valley Vegetable Grower-Shipper Association, which sent a lobbyist to Washington, DC, to argue for forced removal of Japanese American farmers.

By 1942, with Japanese Americans interned and their land under government supervision, white farmers began seizing control of their farms, and the managing secretary of the Western Growers Protective Association reported “considerable profits were realized” by member growers “because of the Japanese removal.”

While incarcerated at the internment camps, many Japanese Americans continued using their skills, however, and developed camp gardens. Despite the desolate landscape of many of the camps, internees used their wisdom, creativity and tenacity to start thousands of thriving gardens. These gardens helped to supplement their diet, but perhaps more importantly, the gardens served as a symbol of resistance against internment, an attempt to hold on to community and traditions and to refuse the dehumanization of internment.

Gardens that had once been indicators of successful business and wealth for immigrant families now, through acts of protest against the injustice of internment, were revealed as symbols of courage, strength and resilience.

Sowing and Reaping

Still today, community gardens carry these multiple layers of meaning. On the one hand, they provide fresh, healthy food. But on a much deeper level, as researchers Rina Ghose and Margaret Pettygrove report, community gardens are spaces where community is formed and citizenship is fostered. They are a protest against powers that control food, land and jobs. And they can be spaces that bear witness to new kinds of communities, new kinds of relationships and new understandings of the economy.

Martin Luther once wrote that farming is an act that imitates God’s creation of the world. By digging into the soil, planting and nurturing crops, we are imitating God’s hands-on approach to making the world. But the long history of gardens in the United States – from immigrants tending “Pingree’s Potato Patches” to investments in gardens for under-served urban children to beautification of segregated neighborhoods and the witness of camp gardens – points to an expanded understanding of how this work imitates God’s creative endeavors.

Yes, we are gifted with the opportunity to witness the Creator God in action as crops take root, but on a deeper level, the community that is nurtured and grown at the garden testifies to the ongoing work of God as the redeemer of the world, reconciling us to one another and building a just world where all are fed.

We aren’t superheroes, but we don’t need to be. The world does not need superheroes as much as it needs neighbors willing to work together, to participate in the restoration of just relationships and communities, asserting together that our neighborhoods are worth investing in and that each and every one of us can play a part. As we’ve learned time and again, gardens can be sacred spaces where neighbors build relationships with one another, assert their pride and dignity, and create a bountiful harvest for the community to enjoy. The hard work of tilling, planting, weeding and watering yields far more than vegetables. It can nourish the growth of communities in profound, life-giving ways.

As we harvest from gardens this season and get ready for planting next spring, this history begs the questions: what are we really sowing? And what new wonders might neighbors working together for the transformation of the landscape and the community reap?

 

If you are interested in starting your own community garden, or finding new ways to expand the garden your community has, check out ELCA World Hunger’s Community Gardens How-To Guide, available in English and Spanish! You can order hard copies from the ELCA World Hunger resources page too!

 

Ryan P. Cumming, Ph.D., is the program director of hunger education for ELCA World Hunger.

A New Resource on Housing!

The United States faces a looming crisis in housing, the second in barely more than a decade. The job losses and other economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have many of us facing an increased risk of eviction and foreclosure; at the same time, there is a marked shortage of available housing within reach for most Americans. The problems of homelessness and housing insecurity are ongoing and growing. Solving them means developing sustainable solutions for the long term, rather than temporary fixes for a current crisis. This church has a clear imperative to help those of us experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. The church also has a big opportunity to make a difference.

This new resource from ELCA World Hunger will help you get started in learning about homelessness and affordable housing, advocating on issues connected to homelessness and affordable housing, and even building affordable housing!

Download “Housing: A Practical Guide for Learning, Advocating and Building” from https://www.elca.org/Resources/ELCA-World-Hunger#New. Check out other resources from ELCA World Hunger on the same page and at https://www.elca.org/Resources/ELCA-World-Hunger#HungerEd!

Who Is This Resource For?

This resource is for congregations concerned about homelessness and affordable housing. For congregations new to this work, this resource will provide step-by-step guidance on how to build awareness and capacity around the root causes of homelessness, how to become an advocate for affordable housing and people experiencing homelessness, and, finally, how to build affordable housing. For congregations already involved in this work, the resources in this guide can help with congregation and community education, training new volunteers, and refining your current project.

About This Resource

This resource contains three sections: “Learn,” “Advocate” and “Build.”

The “Learn” section contains activities and information to educate congregations and groups about the complex issues of housing and homelessness. If your group is just getting started, use the information and activities in this section to learn more about a wide variety of topics: common myths about homelessness, effective responses to housing insecurity, and the historical impact of the discriminatory practice of redlining. This section also introduces common terms used to describe housing insecurity and homelessness.

The “Advocate” section contains information and activities to help participants become effective housing and homelessness advocates. It includes helpful information on the roots of Lutheran advocacy, housing policy, insights from leaders and more.

The “Build” section contains a guide on how to build affordable housing, with helpful information about choosing a team, forming a nonprofit, funding a project and more. There are also checklists of the tasks necessary to create a successful affordable housing project.

Learn More

Interested in learning more about affordable housing, homelessness and learning from some of ELCA World Hunger partners about this important work? Check out the latest Hunger at the Crossroads webinar on Hunger and Housing here: https://vimeo.com/726168452

Get Connected

If you use “Housing: A Practical Guide for Learning, Advocating and Building” or have questions about how to use the guide, get in touch with us at hunger@elca.org.

Note: the housing guide is having some issues with sizing in peoples’ browser windows. If you have this issue, try downloading the resource to your personal device!

Welcome to “More than Food,” the podcast of ELCA World Hunger’s Global Farm Challenge!

Find out more information below about the Global Farm Challenge and how you and your group can become involved. Links to the podcast episodes are also below.

What is the Global Farm Challenge?

The Global Farm Challenge is a youth-centered, whole-church effort to raise awareness and gifts to support the work of ELCA World Hunger with farming communities around the world. ELCA World Hunger works through congregations, companion churches and partners to accompany smallholder farmers around the world. This work includes adapting to climate change and sustainable farming practices. But it also includes helping farmers learn new techniques for increasing yields and decreasing costs, build collectives for shared power and gain access to land, seeds and tools. By joining the Global Farm Challenge, you can be an important part of supporting this work!

Why the Global Farm Challenge?

We know that the world produces more than enough food to feed everyone person. But hunger is on the rise, and the very people who produce the world’s food – farmers and farmworkers – face higher levels of hunger and poverty. They are vulnerable to climate change-related disasters, health risks and laws and policies that lock them out of access to land or financing they need to expand their farms.

With the war in Ukraine causing global food shortages and rising prices making it harder for vulnerable families to feed themselves, meeting immediate needs now and building resilience for the future are critical steps. The Global Farm Challenge, by empowering ELCA World Hunger to accompany farmers around the world, is a key way we can all be part of God’s work toward a just world where all are fed.

What is “More than Food”?

“More than Food” is a podcast designed to go along with the “Global Farm Challenge To-Go Card Game,” a game your group can play anywhere – even on the road! In the game, players follow stories of smallholder farmers and farmworkers and learn about the challenges and opportunities farmers face. Each of the stories in the game is based on real stories of neighbors involved in the projects supported by ELCA World Hunger and the Global Farm Challenge. In the podcast, we will dive into these stories and learn more about the projects and the communities involved.

You can share this podcast on your congregation’s website or social media, listen to episodes as part of a group study or play episodes in the car while you travel to a service site this summer.

Play the game, talk about your experiences and hear about our neighbors’ experiences as you consider supporting ELCA World Hunger’s Global Farm Challenge!

Join us in learning more about the many ways God is at work through us and our neighbors!

 

Episode 1 – In this episode, learn more about the Global Farm Challenge and how to get involved.

Transcript: Ep 1 Introducing More than Food Transcript

Episode 2 – In this episode, Brooke and Ryan talk about why justice is at the very foundation of faith and why it is so important to think about ending hunger as “more than food.”

Episode 3 – In this episode, Ryan talks with Franklin Ishida, the director for the Asia and Pacific regions for the ELCA, about growing pumpkins – and a whole lot more – through a project in Cambodia. This project is one of the stories featured in the Global Farm Challenge To-Go Card Game.

Transcript: Episode 3 – Pumpkins and Cambodia Transcript

Episode 4 – In this episode, we hear from Giovana Oaxaca, the ELCA’s program director for migration policy, who shares some of the ways ELCA World Hunger supports farm workers in the US. This work part of the story of citrus fruit in the Global Farm Challenge To-Go Card Game.

Transcript: More than Food Episode 4 – US Farmworkers Transcript

ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of Giving

Lent 2022

In English and en Espanol

Week 5: A Way in the Wilderness

“Do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19)

Read

• Isaiah 43:16-21
• Psalm 126
• Philippians 3:4b-14
• John 12:1-8

Reflect

Each of the sessions of this Lenten study has been grounded in a verse from this week’s readings:

I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert (Isaiah 43:19).

From the first-fruits offering of Deuteronomy to the teaching of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, our reflections have pointed to how God continues to “make a way in the wilderness” and calls us to be part of that journey for ourselves and our neighbors. The Scripture readings this season remind us of the promise of new life in Canaan for our ancestors and new life in Christ for us all.

We have imagined a world without hunger, heard of God’s abundant provision of manna and seen the ways the church has worked tirelessly, in the past and today, to end hunger.

Now we reach the culmination of this movement toward the fulfillment of God’s promise, wherein Jesus announces: “You will always have the poor among you” (John 12:8 NIV).

It’s not the most encouraging verse in the Bible.

How often have people twisted these words into an excuse for passivity or a sneering retort to proclamations of hope that hunger and poverty can, one day, end? Along with its partner in 2 Thessalonians (“Anyone unwilling to work should not eat”), it’s one of the “hard passages” for people of faith eager to inspire others to respond to hunger and poverty. These troublesome verses are often used to support restrictive, counterintuitive policies and practices that inhibit real progress against hunger and poverty. Why try harder to end hunger and poverty if even Jesus says poverty isn’t going away?

The passage yields more when we dig a little deeper. Jesus may actually be referring to an earlier part of the Bible here, and in that earlier verse the words are no statement of fact but a challenge to the people of God. The verse appears in a section of Deuteronomy about the Jubilee Year, a time every seven years when debts were forgiven. That earlier passage sheds new light on the verse from John:

Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land” (Deuteronomy 15:11).

Far from resigning us to poverty in the world, the verse challenges followers of Christ. In his commentary on Deuteronomy, Martin Luther writes, “‘The poor you always have with you,’ just as you will have all other evils. But constant care should be taken that, since these evils are always in evidence, they are always opposed.”

For Luther, to “always have the poor among you” meant to be confronted always by God’s call to respond to human suffering and oppose the evil that creates it. This is not resignation but activation of the people of God in the service of the neighbor.

What’s more, we may find in Jesus’ words a lesson for our identity as church together. “You will always have the poor among you.” If we are truly the
people of God, then we are called to be in community with neighbors who have been marginalized, excluded, oppressed and impoverished by the world’s injustice.

As church, our calling is not merely to minister to our neighbors but to bear witness to the “new thing” God is doing in our world, a new community God is making possible. This is not easy work. Confronting hunger and poverty alongside our neighbors means facing the dangerous realities that impact our neighbors.

In Palestine, Defense of Children International–Palestine (DCIP), supported by ELCA World Hunger, works with children and families to protect their rights and give them the care and support they need. Settlement expansion in the West Bank and increased military presence in daily life put children at risk of negative encounters with Israeli forces. Children detained for
violating the often-discriminatory laws of Israeli occupation risk abuse from both Israeli and Palestinian forces. Despite significant legal reform in recent years, DCIP has found that practices have yet to fully align with domestic or international legal frameworks for juvenile justice and that children are paying the price, navigating a military legal system that fails to meet the minimum international standards, particularly for juveniles.

DCIP provides both legal and social support for children accused of crimes, and it works with their families, many of whom live in poverty, to improve their situations emotionally, socially and financially through vocational training, the support of social workers and more. This support is critical to addressing the root causes of hunger and poverty in Palestine.

Responding to hunger means accompanying neighbors as they confront the systems of injustice that create hunger. It means facing harsh realities with realistic perspectives. This is not the false “realism” that twists Jesus’ words in the Gospel but the realistic acknowledgement that we face our own journey in the wilderness before we reach the fullness of God’s promise. Friends, we have a long way to go.

And yet … and yet …

As we have seen throughout our Lenten journey, we are not going it alone. God is with us along the way, inspiring hope and courage and revealing Godself in the neighbors we encounter along the way. We know that this Lenten journey is not the end. The season’s fasting, praying and selfreflecting spiritual disciplines prepare us for the road ahead, the road that leads to the cross — and beyond, to a new community God makes possible.

This is not an easy road to travel. But we know that, even amid the challenges ahead, the “new thing” God is doing “springs forth,” that God is even now working to “make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19).

Do you not perceive it?

Ask

1. What does it mean for the church to “always have the poor” with us? How might we rethink Jesus’ words in light of the study session for this week?
2. In what ways does your congregation act as a neighbor toward people in need in your community?
3. Why is the church called to work for justice in the world? What might the work of DCI-Palestine teach us about being the people of God?
4. How can the church inspire hope when the promised future can seem so far away?
5. Where is God calling you and your congregation to be today? How can or will you be part of the “new thing” God is calling forth?

Pray

God of the poor widow, the lost sheep, and the wandering Aramean,
God of the hungry, the thirsty, and the stranger,
God of the naked, the ill, and the imprisoned,

We confess before you that the church has not always been where
you have called us to be. We have failed to seek your face in our
neighbors in need. We have allowed despair to bind our hands and
feet. Change us, O God. Free us to act with hope and courage.

Open our hearts to perceive your presence in and among our
neighbors. Inflame us with holy passion for the work you invite us
to in the world. Breathe new life into your church, that we may be
the people you call us to be in the world you call into being:

A church of the poor widow, the lost sheep and the wandering Aramean.
A church of the hungry, the thirsty and the stranger.
A church of the naked, the ill and the imprisoned.

Do a “new thing” with us and through us, that we may be a
community of hope, comfort and welcome — a living sign of the
way we are making in the wilderness. Amen.

 

SEMANA 5: Un camino en el desierto

“¿No se dan cuenta?” (Isaías 43:19).
Lecturas: Isaías 43:16-21, Salmo 126, Filipenses 3:4b-14, Juan 12:1-8

Cada una de las sesiones de este estudio de Cuaresma se ha basado en un versículo de las lecturas de esta semana:

¡Voy a hacer algo nuevo! Ya está sucediendo, ¿no se dan cuenta? Estoy abriendo un camino en el desierto, y ríos en lugares desolados (Isaías 43:19).

Desde la ofrenda de primicias de Deuteronomio, hasta la enseñanza de Jesús en el Evangelio de Lucas, nuestras reflexiones han señalado cómo Dios continúa “abriendo un camino en el desierto” y nos llama a ser parte de esa jornada para nosotros y nuestro prójimo. Las lecturas bíblicas de esta temporada nos recuerdan la promesa de una nueva vida en Canaán para nuestros antepasados y una nueva vida en Cristo para todos nosotros.

Hemos imaginado un mundo sin hambre, hemos oído hablar de la abundante provisión que Dios hizo de maná, y hemos visto las formas en que la iglesia ha trabajado incansablemente, en el pasado y en la actualidad, para acabar con el hambre.

Ahora llegamos a la culminación de este movimiento hacia el cumplimiento de la promesa de Dios, en la que Jesús anuncia: “A los pobres siempre los tendrán con ustedes” (Juan 12:8 NVI).

Este no es el versículo más alentador de la Biblia.

¿Cuántas veces la gente ha tergiversado estas palabras en una excusa para la pasividad o una réplica burlona a las proclamas de esperanza de que el hambre y la pobreza pueden, algún día, terminar? Junto con su versículo compañero en 2 Tesalonicenses (“El que no quiera trabajar, que tampoco coma”), es uno de los “pasajes difíciles” para las personas de fe ansiosas por inspirar a otros a responder al hambre y la pobreza. Estos versículos problemáticos a menudo se usan para apoyar políticas y prácticas restrictivas y contraintuitivas que inhiben el progreso real contra el hambre y la pobreza. ¿Por qué esforzarse más para acabar con el hambre y la pobreza si incluso Jesús dice que la pobreza no va a desaparecer?

El pasaje brinda más cuando cavamos un poco más profundo. En realidad, Jesús podría estar refiriéndose aquí a una parte anterior de la Biblia, y en ese versículo anterior las palabras no son una declaración de hechos, sino un desafío al pueblo de Dios. El versículo aparece en una sección de Deuteronomio sobre el año del jubileo, un tiempo cada siete años en que las deudas eran perdonadas. Ese pasaje anterior arroja nueva luz sobre el versículo de Juan:

Gente pobre en esta tierra, siempre la habrá; por eso te ordeno que seas generoso con tus hermanos hebreos y con los pobres y necesitados de tu tierra” (Deuteronomio 15:11).

Lejos de resignarnos a la pobreza en el mundo, el versículo desafía a los seguidores de Cristo. En su comentario sobre Deuteronomio, Martín Lutero escribe: “‘El pobre siempre lo tienen con ustedes’, así como tendrán todos los demás males. Pero se debe tener el cuidado constante de que, dado que estos males siempre son evidentes, siempre se les presente oposición”.

Para Lutero, “a los pobres siempre los tendrán con ustedes” significaba ser siempre confrontado por el llamado de Dios a responder al sufrimiento humano y oponerse al mal que lo causa. Esto no es resignación sino activación del pueblo de Dios al servicio del prójimo.

Lo que es más, en las palabras de Jesús podemos encontrar una lección para nuestra identidad como iglesia juntos. “A los pobres siempre los tendrán con ustedes”. Si realmente somos el pueblo de Dios, entonces estamos llamados a estar en comunidad con los vecinos que han sido marginados, excluidos, oprimidos y empobrecidos por la injusticia del mundo.

Como iglesia, nuestro llamado no es simplemente ministrar a nuestro prójimo, sino dar testimonio de “algo nuevo” que Dios está haciendo en nuestro mundo, una nueva comunidad que Dios está haciendo posible. Este no es un trabajo fácil. Enfrentar el hambre y la pobreza junto a nuestro prójimo significa enfrentar las peligrosas realidades que afectan a nuestros vecinos.

En Palestina, Defense of Children International–Palestine (DCIP) [Defensa Internacional para los Niños de Palestina], con el apoyo de ELCA World Hunger, trabaja con niños y familias para proteger sus derechos y brindarles la atención y el apoyo que necesitan. La expansión de los asentamientos en la Ribera Occidental y el aumento de la presencia militar en la vida cotidiana ponen a los niños en riesgo de encuentros negativos con las fuerzas israelíes. Los niños detenidos por violar las leyes a menudo discriminatorias de la ocupación israelí corren el riesgo de sufrir abusos tanto por parte de las fuerzas israelíes como de las palestinas. A pesar de la importante reforma legal de los últimos años, el DCIP ha descubierto que las prácticas aún no se han alineado plenamente con los marcos jurídicos nacionales o internacionales para la justicia de menores, y que los niños están pagando el precio, navegando por un sistema legal militar que no cumple con las mínimas normas internacionales, particularmente para los menores.

DCIP da apoyo legal y social a los niños acusados de delitos y trabaja con sus familias —muchas de las cuales viven en la pobreza— para mejorar emocional, social y financieramente sus situaciones a través de la capacitación vocacional, el apoyo de los trabajadores sociales y más. Este apoyo es fundamental para atacar las causas profundas del hambre y la pobreza en Palestina.

Responder al hambre significa acompañar a los vecinos mientras enfrentan los sistemas de injusticia que crean hambre. Significa hacer frente a realidades duras con perspectivas realistas. Este no es el falso “realismo” que tergiversa las palabras de Jesús en el Evangelio, sino el reconocimiento realista de que enfrentamos nuestra propia jornada en el desierto antes de alcanzar la plenitud de la promesa de Dios.  Amigos, nos queda un largo camino por recorrer.

Y sin embargo… y sin embargo…

Como hemos visto a lo largo de nuestra jornada cuaresmal, no vamos solos. Dios está con nosotros en el camino, inspirando esperanza y valentía y revelándose a sí mismo en los vecinos que encontramos en el camino. Sabemos que esta jornada cuaresmal no es el fin. Las disciplinas espirituales de ayuno, oración y autorreflexión de la temporada nos preparan para el camino por delante, el camino que conduce a la cruz; y más allá, a una nueva comunidad que Dios hace posible.

No es un camino fácil de recorrer. Pero sabemos que, incluso en medio de los desafíos que tenemos por delante, el “algo nuevo” que Dios está haciendo “brota”, que Dios incluso ahora está trabajando para “abrir un camino en el desierto y ríos en lugares desolados” (Isaías 43:19).

¿No se dan cuenta?

Preguntas para la reflexión

1. ¿Qué significa para la iglesia que “a los pobres siempre los tendremos con nosotros”? ¿Cómo podríamos replantearnos las palabras de Jesús a la luz de la sesión de estudio de esta semana?
2. ¿De qué maneras actúa su congregación como el prójimo de las personas necesitadas en su comunidad?
3. ¿Por qué está llamada la iglesia a trabajar por la justicia en el mundo? ¿Qué podría enseñarnos la obra de DCI-Palestina en lo que respecta a ser el pueblo de Dios?
4. ¿Cómo puede la iglesia inspirar esperanza cuando el futuro prometido puede parecer tan lejano?
5. ¿Dónde está llamando Dios a su congregación y a usted a estar hoy? ¿Cómo puede ser o será parte del “algo nuevo” del que Dios está hablando?

Oración

Dios de la viuda pobre, de la oveja perdida y del arameo errante, Dios del hambriento, el sediento y el extranjero, Dios del desnudo, el enfermo y el encarcelado:

Confesamos ante ti que la iglesia no siempre ha estado donde nos has llamado a estar. No hemos podido buscar tu rostro en nuestros vecinos necesitados. Hemos permitido que la desesperación nos ate las manos y los pies. Cámbianos, oh Dios. Libéranos para actuar con esperanza y valentía.

Abre nuestros corazones para percibir tu presencia en nuestros vecinos y entre ellos. Enciéndenos con santa pasión por el trabajo al que nos invitas en el mundo. Sopla nueva vida a tu iglesia, para que podamos ser las personas que nos llamas a ser en el mundo que llamas a ser:

Una iglesia de la viuda pobre, la oveja perdida y el arameo errante. Una iglesia del hambriento, el sediento y el extranjero.

Una iglesia del desnudo, el enfermo y el encarcelado. Haz “algo nuevo” con nosotros y a través de nosotros, para que podamos ser una comunidad de esperanza, consuelo y bienvenida; una señal viva del camino que estás abriendo en el desierto. Amén.