REMEMBER THE RACCOON

Last month a raccoon died in Toronto, Canada. 

It made the news.

It wasn’t a toxic raccoon, a pet raccoon, or a raccoon from a move, or the beloved attraction at a local zoo.  Just a regular raccoon.  Around 9 A.M., Someone discovered the creature’s body on a sidewalk.  They called the city of Toronto, and someone there said they’d send someone from Animal Services to remove the thing.  No one came.  All day and into the night people passed by the dead raccoon. 

They took pictures. 

They tweeted about it.

They made phone calls.

They ranted about the city’s lack of response.

People spent time and real money creating a mock memorial.

 

You know what no one did?

No one scooped the dead raccoon up off the street.

A shovel, a trash bag, and 2 minutes to toss it in a dumpster.  10 minutes to bury it in a backyard.  The photo-shopping, printing, and matting on the framed picture definitely took longer than that.

But, this  is who we are.  We are a series of cities filled with people who can launch a website in under an hour but can’t move a dead raccoon.  We can choreograph a flash mob singing “Uptown Funk” in Grand Central Station, but we can’t move a dead raccoon.  We want freedom and privacy, but we need the combined resources of a major metropolitan municipal government to move a dead raccoon.

We are so pitiful.

We’re like Jesus’ disciples in Luke 9.   Jesus and His disciples had retreated to a deserted area to debrief and relax after their first evangelistic mission, but the crowds found them and Jesus, moved by their needs, spent the day preaching and healing people.  By the end of the day, Jesus and the disciples were looking out at 5,000+ exhausted and hungry people scattered over the countryside.

The disciples accurately discerned the problem in their makeshift community, and they collectively advised Jesus to outsource the solution. 

This was the city’s problem. A charity should handle this.  Perhaps there was an NGO or local non-profit that could address the problem.  Better yet, these people should go and seek relief in the private sector.

“Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.” (Luke 9: 12)

Get them together, Jesus. Educate them on their problem.  And send them to somebody else for help.

In Matthew’s account, Jesus responded, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” (Matthew 14: 16)

Dude, you see the raccoon lying there. Move it.

The disciples counted their treasury and polled the 5,000+ population for support.  They came up waaay short (Mark 6: 37).  But they pooled what woefully insufficient resources they had gathered and brought it to Jesus. (Luke 9: 13b)

They organized the people into smaller groups and got to work (Luke 9: 14).  Miraculously, with God’s blessing, it worked.  The needs were met, and the disciples each had lunch for the next day. 

So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. (Luke 9: 17)

It took the government of Toronto 14 hours to send a city employee to remove the dead raccoon. It didn’t take 14 hours, but it took 14 hours.

Our government has the capacity to solve your communities’ unemployment, crime, education, infrastructure, obesity, and litter problems. 

But will they?  And if they do, how long will it take?

Probably longer than it would take you and me to do incredible work with insufficient resources. 

Jesus started Christianity with a core group of 4 failed fishermen, a tax agent who quit his job, a couple of frustrated militants (zealots), a pessimist, and a few others who were so un-remarkable that the four gospel writers can barely keep their names straight.

What amazing things could you or I do with Jesus’ blessing our inadequate resources and un-remarkable congregations?

Let’s find out.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

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#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

WHY IS JESUS HOMELESS?

In Malachi chapter 3, God told His people:

⁹     You are cursed with a curse,

     For you have robbed Me,

     Even this whole nation.

¹⁰     Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,

     That there may be food in My house,

     And try Me now in this,”

     Says the Lord of hosts,

     “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven

     And pour out for you such blessing

     That there will not be room enough to receive it.

Wait.  Wait. Before you rehearse the same clichéd and selfish response, read it again.  Only this time, listen to what God actually said. 

WHY did God say He wants the tithe?

That there may be food in My house

Food for whom?  For you? 

Dude, you ain’t hungry.

Food for whom?  For God?

God already said: 

Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?  Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High.  (Psalm 50: 13, 14)

So who’s the food in God’s house for? 

It’s for those people who don’t have food:  the needy.

This prosperity passage isn’t primarily about how to get money from God.  It’s about the church’s obligation to be a house of ministry and outreach to the least of these.  That’s the kind of house God wants.

Build the temple, build God a house, the Lord commanded in Haggai 1: 7-9.  But build Him a house in which He feels comfortable.     

Build God a house in which Jesus has what we all expect to find at home:  food, clothing, shelter, and company.

And how do we provide food, clothing, shelter, and company to God in His house?

Read Matthew chapter 25. 

^37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? ^38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? ^39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ ^40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’  

The church is supposed to be a storehouse out of which God’s people help the needy and the lost.  The church--- a church is NOT supposed to be a showcase for our own aspirations to affluence.

We talk and sing about a Jesus who was not found with the rich and great in palaces or in the grandest temples.

But, we expend our energy and treasure building personal palaces and the grandest churches we can or cannot afford.

We lament how few people find Jesus when we preach and worship in those expensive places.

But we talk about and sing about how Jesus WAS FOUND with the poor and the sick, the lowly and the sinners, NOT among the rich and powerful and self-righteous.

So, maybe it would be easier to for them to find Jesus where we are if we built more homeless shelters instead of larger sanctuaries.

Maybe Jesus would be found in our fellowship halls if we used them to feed the hungry instead of ourselves.

Maybe the reason people can’t find Jesus in the churches we build is that we didn’t really erect them for God.  

We bought the places for us.

Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head because the houses we’ve built in His name are places where He doesn’t feel welcome.

The reason so many churches can’t cover their overhead is that we’ve built houses in Jesus' name but left Jesus outside and homeless, and God has gotten tired of paying for houses in which He doesn’t feel welcome.

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” (Luke 9: 58)

So if we want God to

open for you the windows of heaven

And pour out for you such blessing

That there will not be room enough to receive it.

Then we should repurpose our buildings to make Jesus feel more comfortable in all of his homeless, hungry, needy, incarcerated, sick, and impoverished glory.

Then Jesus would come on in; and the lost would be able to find Him where we are.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church (5220 Myron Massey Boulevard) in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to  

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 29: 15. "What Do You Call It?"

Proverbs 29: 15     The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

Proverbs 29: 15.  If my son got sick and I didn’t take him to the doctor, or get him medicine, or do anything to comfort and care for him with whatever resources I have, then you’d cry, “Neglect.”  If left to himself my child drank what looked like medicine but was in fact poison, you’d condemn me for abuse or even a degree of murder; and you’d be right.

If I ate every day before I came home but my daughter was malnourished, and I never brought or prepared anything for her to eat, you’d call it neglect.  If left to herself she tried to cook a rotten, maggoty piece of meat and it made her too sick to get out of the house that was burning down from the grease fire she started because I never taught her to use a stove----- you’d call me a horrible parent and cry that I was responsible for the tragedy; and you’d be right.

We and our children live in a spiritually sick society.  Day after day media, peers, and unclean spiritual forces do all they can to infect our children. 

What should we call it, when parents ignores the symptoms of a child with a  sin-sick soul? 

What should we call it when parents offer no spiritual balm to the child who is feverish from the attacks of enemies trying to destroy him/her from the inside?

What words are appropriate or the “Christian” parent who says, “I don’t want to tell my children what to believe,” and so leaves his/her children unguided to drink whatever poison on world’s shelf looks like maybe it will ease their souls’ pain?

Isn’t that also NEGLECT?

Isn’t that also CHILD ABUSE?

We and our children live in a morally rotten world.  Our babies are hungry for truth.  They are starved for something real in this world of costumes and contrivances. 

So what is the correct description of parents who know this hunger from their own lives but who does nothing to give nourishing truth to the minds and hearts of their children?

What are the right terms for parents who leave their children to consume whatever filth and rottenness the culture leaves behind?

What is it when parents never teach their children how to process the garbage that media, human predators, and the devil’s forces want to feed them?

It is MORAL NEGLECT.  It is SPIRITUAL CHILD ABUSE.  It’s contributing to the delinquency of a generation; and parents are guilty.

No parents want to believe that “My children are that bad,” but they are.

No parents wants to think “It’s my fault,” but it is.

Yes, children have their own minds and they choose for themselves what to do; but children only choose from the options that their parents make available.  They don’t eat at home if we don’t bring groceries home.

They don’t read if we don’t bring home books.

They don’t get better if we don’t get them medicine and medical care.

They don’t live godly if we don’t bring prayer and the Bible and an example of godliness home with us.

If we don’t what we should do, then when they do wrong we are also guilty, and we ought to be ashamed.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a pastor, writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Call me at 334-288-0577
Email me at atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 29: 15. "What Do You Call It?"

Proverbs 29: 15     The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

Proverbs 29: 15.  If my son got sick and I didn’t take him to the doctor, or get him medicine, or do anything to comfort and care for him with whatever resources I have, then you’d cry, “Neglect.”  If left to himself my child drank what looked like medicine but was in fact poison, you’d condemn me for abuse or even a degree of murder; and you’d be right.

If I ate every day before I came home but my daughter was malnourished, and I never brought or prepared anything for her to eat, you’d call it neglect.  If left to herself she tried to cook a rotten, maggoty piece of meat and it made her too sick to get out of the house that was burning down from the grease fire she started because I never taught her to use a stove----- you’d call me a horrible parent and cry that I was responsible for the tragedy; and you’d be right.

We and our children live in a spiritually sick society.  Day after day media, peers, and unclean spiritual forces do all they can to infect our children. 

What should we call it, when parents ignores the symptoms of a child with a  sin-sick soul? 

What should we call it when parents offer no spiritual balm to the child who is feverish from the attacks of enemies trying to destroy him/her from the inside?

What words are appropriate or the “Christian” parent who says, “I don’t want to tell my children what to believe,” and so leaves his/her children unguided to drink whatever poison on world’s shelf looks like maybe it will ease their souls’ pain?

Isn’t that also NEGLECT?

Isn’t that also CHILD ABUSE?

We and our children live in a morally rotten world.  Our babies are hungry for truth.  They are starved for something real in this world of costumes and contrivances. 

So what is the correct description of parents who know this hunger from their own lives but who does nothing to give nourishing truth to the minds and hearts of their children?

What are the right terms for parents who leave their children to consume whatever filth and rottenness the culture leaves behind?

What is it when parents never teach their children how to process the garbage that media, human predators, and the devil’s forces want to feed them?

It is MORAL NEGLECT.  It is SPIRITUAL CHILD ABUSE.  It’s contributing to the delinquency of a generation; and parents are guilty.

No parents want to believe that “My children are that bad,” but they are.

No parents wants to think “It’s my fault,” but it is.

Yes, children have their own minds and they choose for themselves what to do; but children only choose from the options that their parents make available.  They don’t eat at home if we don’t bring groceries home.

They don’t read if we don’t bring home books.

They don’t get better if we don’t get them medicine and medical care.

They don’t live godly if we don’t bring prayer and the Bible and an example of godliness home with us.

If we don’t what we should do, then when they do wrong we are also guilty, and we ought to be ashamed.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a pastor, writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Call me at 334-288-0577
Email me at atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.