"Here I Am"

I’ve been visiting a lot of websites lately, mostly ones that are seeking to address social ills of one form or another, social/charitable organizations. There are 1.6 million registered charities in this country, and the one thing they have in common, virtually universally, is a “Donate” button on the home page. Whether or not the organization is doing good work, they all need to raise money to survive. And raise money they do, and quite well too: Americans gave nearly $300 billion (with a “B”) in 2011. How much of that gets to the charities’ intended benefactors varies dramatically, depending on how much a charity spends on administration and fundraising.

Our dollar donations make us feel good, lull us into believing that we have done some social good by them. Once, when I asked a leader in my church what we were doing in the social justice arena, she replied, “Last year we donated $8,000 to Heifer, Intl.” I was saddened and offended. We make donations individually, in our faith communities, and by corporations. We assume that the world will be made a better by others to whom we have delegated and donated. And, it’s a convenient way to avoid face-to-face confrontation with injustice and misery.

I must have missed the place in the gospel where Jesus said (red letter!), “I was a stranger and you donated to a 501(c)(3) hoping that help would trickle down to me.” No, the signature of Jesus’ ministry was a personal ministry. He cared deeply about all humanity, and he comforted, healed, and cared for people into whose eyes he could look. He created profound relationships, founded in God’s love and care for all. And he said to us, “Go and do likewise.” In other words, we are to follow, to imitate him, incarnate him, so that we may know the intimacy of love, friendship and community.

Yes, money is handy. As a common denominator, it makes an economy hum. At the same time, it depersonalizes us as human beings. It relieves us from accountability. It softens our faith. I would go so far as to suggest that it blocks the personal transformation that comes from confronting suffering and making a deep personal commitment to “love our neighbors.” For example, we go to Publix to buy tomatoes; they’re $3.99/lb., expensive, but we buy them because they are fresh and sweet and ruby red. We take them home and serve them to our family, making everyone happy. Yet, what secrets that transaction hides! It hides the fact that, of the $3.99 price, less than two cents…TWO CENTS…goes to the laborer who picked it, who slaves in the fields fifteen hours a day, seven days a week for less-than-poverty wages, who suffers from the most abhorrent working conditions, who lives in squalor in overcrowded 40-year-old mobile homes, whose diet is barely adequate to sustain life, who will do the work that we Americans who eat the tomatoes won’t. Those dollars hide the fact that Publix, a corporation whose purpose is to earn profits for its owners, firmly declines to support fair wages and working conditions for the workers (which would cost Publix a penny a pound). After all, that might decrease profits!

American Christianity has been accused by many of being “soft,” and one of the reasons is that too many of us are “Sunday Christians,” people with busy lives who believe that a life of faith consists of attending weekly worship and putting something in the offering plate. Skimpy in number are Christians who look at the world in both anger and hope, who will make a commitment to be personally involved in justice and mercy, who will be passionate for change until change comes, who will resurrect a radical Christianity and join in partnership with others to bring God’s justice and Kingdom to reality. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us, discipleship is costly. Who among us will stand with the prophets and say “Here I am.” Will YOU respond to the misery and injustice of the world personally?

Rev. John Ransom is Pastor of Living Faith Community Church in Dunedin (www.livingfaithdunedin.org), host of the Emerging Spirit talk show series, and founder of Christians Passionate for Justice (coming soon).