{"id":3297,"date":"2014-01-23T16:46:09","date_gmt":"2014-01-23T22:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/?p=3297"},"modified":"2015-10-05T16:47:08","modified_gmt":"2015-10-05T22:47:08","slug":"contracts-covenants-and-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/contracts-covenants-and-charity\/","title":{"rendered":"Contracts, Covenants and Charity"},"content":{"rendered":"
Ryan Cumming<\/div>\n
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\u200b<\/p>\n

Much ink has been spilled critiquing the difference between the simplistic act of donating to the poor and the more complex ministry of accompanying those in poverty.\u00a0 On the one hand, it seems a good thing to put coins in a panhandler’s cup, or donate toys to a gift drive, or pack meals to be shipped overseas.\u00a0 In fact, all of this has a long history within the religious tradition of almsgiving.\u00a0\u00a0 On the other hand, a whole cadre of activists and advocates have called these acts paternalistic and tried to pull (or push) well-intentioned Christians into a ministry that is marked by interpersonal relationships rather than one-sided giving of time or treasure.<\/p>\n

Bishop Wayne Miller (Metro Chicago Synod) attempted this in 2011<\/a>, when he described a continuum of ways that the church encounters the poor.\u00a0 At one end is pity, which essentially views people in poverty as objects of sympathy or derision.\u00a0 At the other end is identification, in which we identify so closely with people in poverty that we experience their suffering as our own and seek to end it.\u00a0 Somewhere in the middle, we move from mere pity or charity to the beginnings of actual relationships with people in poverty, a move Bishop Miller urges the church to make.<\/p>\n

But, really, who has time or energy for that?\u00a0 When our good intentions have brought us to the crossroads of service, we seem left with two choices: charity or relationships.\u00a0 Too often, Bishop Miller and Robert Lupton (whose Toxic Charity<\/em> wasreviewed here earlier this month<\/a>) remind us, we choose the former, since we don’t have the time or desire to form a relationship.<\/p>\n

I will press Bishop Miller a bit here, though I agree with him otherwise.\u00a0 A relationship isn’t formed somewhere near the middle of the continuum; every interaction with the neighbor forms a relationship<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 The question isn’t, “Should I put money in the panhandler’s cup, or should I form a relationship with her?”\u00a0 The question is, “What kind<\/em> of relationship am I forming in this action?\u00a0 How will this act shape how I view my neighbor and how my neighbor views me?”\u00a0 The point to consider here is not whether<\/em> to form a relationship but what quality of relationship the church is forming<\/em> in its service.<\/p>\n

That the church is in the business of forming authentic relationships with people in poverty and working to end their suffering is central to who we are as people of God.\u00a0 There are those who disagree, claiming that active service and advocacy make the church too worldly, that the church should teach the word and sacraments and focus only on spiritual matters.<\/p>\n

To put it bluntly, they are wrong.\u00a0 The Law, the prophets and the Gospel reveal that there is no greater evidence of alienation from God than unrepentant alienation from the neighbor.\u00a0 The two cannot be separated.<\/p>\n

Many Lutherans are familiar with Martin Luther’s famous paradox in Freedom of the Christian<\/em>: Christians are perfectly free, subject to none; Christians are perfect servants, subject to all.\u00a0 Understanding this contradiction requires understanding what salvation means for Lutherans.\u00a0 We believe that sin, in its most basic form, means being “curved inward,” so focused on our own needs and our own goodness that we can’t be there for other people.\u00a0 By grace, God has justified us; we don’t need to be so insular.\u00a0 We are “curved outward” by God’s saving action, freed to be there for the neighbor.<\/p>\n

After all the theology, soteriology, Christology, harmatiology, and so on \u2013 after all those lofty doctrines and tenets, one thing is left: the neighbor<\/strong>.\u00a0 We are saved for the sake of the neighbor. \u00a0Or, more appropriately, we are reconciled to God that we may be reconciled to the neighbor.\u00a0 To be in relationship with God is to be in relationship with the neighbor.\u00a0 To serve God is to serve the neighbor.\u00a0 We take joy in God by taking joy in the neighbor.\u00a0 We express hope in God by sharing in hope with the neighbor.\u00a0 We commune with God by communing with the neighbor.\u00a0 We neglect one relationship only at the cost of the other.<\/p>\n

We learn what it means to be in relationships by looking closely at God’s relationship with us.\u00a0 The most basic shape this takes is the form of the covenant.\u00a0 Christian ethicist Stewart Herman contrasts covenants with contracts<\/a>, another powerful image of human relationship.\u00a0 He notes that in a contract, we demand certain kinds of behavior from other people and leave room for penalties if the contract is violated.\u00a0 Once the contract term is ended, both parties walk away, hopefully satisfied.\u00a0 A contract is marked by calculated trust, protection against risk and impermanence.<\/p>\n

A covenant, on the other hand, goes far beyond demanding specific behaviors.\u00a0 In a covenant, the hope is that each party learns to value the other.\u00a0 Rather than being forced or compelled to fulfill a contract, in a covenant, each party takes the risk of trusting the other and becomes vulnerable to the other.\u00a0 Rather than ending with a term, both covenant partners move toward a future of togetherness in which the relationship doesn’t end but is deepened and fulfilled.<\/p>\n

God doesn’t force Israel to be faithful; God moves among the Israelites, accompanying them despite their unfaithfulness, and invites them to be part of this relationship.\u00a0 The people are called not merely to follow the Law but to “love God.”\u00a0 God doesn’t merely do things for them; God loves them and claims them (Jeremiah 30:22), in a move that Bishop Miller’s “identification” recalls.\u00a0 More than this, according to Herman, God and Israel are vulnerable to each other.\u00a0 God needs Israel to fulfill God’s plan; Israel needs God to bring the plan to full flower.\u00a0 They depend on one another.<\/p>\n

So much charity seems like a contract.\u00a0 Those with resources share them with the expectation that those who receive charity will be deserving and grateful.\u00a0 One party receives resources, the other receives the rewarding feeling of having done some good.\u00a0 Not only is this often based on distrust (“How do we know they are really poor and not scammers?” so many ask), but in some ways it depends on there being a steady supply of people in poverty to serve as contract partners.\u00a0 Otherwise, how would people with resources feel the satisfaction of charity?<\/p>\n

Seeing ministry as a covenant, though, means moving toward a future together.\u00a0 It means taking a risk, not only that we might be “scammed” \u2013 that’s the small risk \u2013 but that we might be called to change how we see the world and how we live within it.\u00a0 It means recognizing our vulnerability to each other.\u00a0 It means people with resources seeing themselves as equally needy and recognizing that God meets those needs through the neighbor. \u00a0It means moving together toward a new future, one in which the suffering of poverty is ended and not merely “addressed.”<\/p>\n

Above all else, it means recognizing that God has called us and claimed us for the sake of our relationship with one another.\u00a0 In a shared world of interdependence, we will be in relationship with each other.\u00a0 What has been given to us is to determine whether that relationship is a mutual, life-affirming covenant or a one-sided, termed contract.\u00a0 To which are we called as people of faith?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryan Cumming \u200b Much ink has been spilled critiquing the difference between the simplistic act of donating to the poor and the more complex ministry of accompanying those in poverty.\u00a0 On the one hand, it seems a good thing to put coins in a panhandler’s cup, or donate toys to a gift drive, or pack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nContracts, Covenants and Charity - ELCA World Hunger<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/contracts-covenants-and-charity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Contracts, Covenants and Charity - ELCA World Hunger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ryan Cumming \u200b Much ink has been spilled critiquing the difference between the simplistic act of donating to the poor and the more complex ministry of accompanying those in poverty.\u00a0 On the one hand, it seems a good thing to put coins in a panhandler’s cup, or donate toys to a gift drive, or pack […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/contracts-covenants-and-charity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ELCA World Hunger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-23T22:46:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-10-05T22:47:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ryan P. 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