The tale of a Minnesotan, living in Maine, Traveling to Tampa for the UCC General Synod 2011

Sunday, July 3, 2011

mid meeting update

Well, we're taking a little break after about an hour of discussion. During this discussion, anyone present had voice and could speak for 2 min. After we come back, only those who are delegates (who will vote) or who are designated voice without vote (conference ministers fall under this category) will be able to speak.

As I thought would happen, the only thing resembling "dissent" had to do with the feeling that it's not enough. Well, is it ever? Jesus said there will be poor always when the woman came to annoint him. I read recently about how he was reffering to the Jewish system of charity, which includes as two of the most important kinds of charity as giving to and taking care of the poor and caring for the dead. So Jesus was saying, "look, I'm leaving you soon - there isn't much time left for you to provide this act of charity for me. So let her do this now, and CONTINUE the work of caring for the poor tomorrow. As Christians, I think we sometimes get too hopeful.

Did I just say that?

Yup. We think we can fix it all and if we give enough and work hard enough, we can bring a total end to all the violence and pain in the world. But the reality is that we will need to work for the poor and give ourhearts and work to them forever.

But that's just me... what do you think?!

1 comment:

  1. I was in the late Carol Bly's literature/ethics class (based on her book "The Bully Who Rules the World), and for some reason (I can never remember contexts anymore) she made a disparaging remark about Jesus's ethics when He said that. Bold as brass, I pointed out to her that Jesus's comment about the poor was not so much a dismissive or fatalistic description of circumstances, but it was a challenge. She stared at me (oh, could she stare!) and finally she said, "I'll have to think about that."

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