Last month a raccoon died in
Toronto, Canada.
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).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
#Awordtothewise
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P O Box
132
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