SERVICE & ADVOCACY

I've been a blogging slacker...there's plenty happening and plenty I've meant to blog about, so I'll start laying it out there piece by piece...here is an introduction to the idea of Service & Advocacy we are going through in our current season of the Jesus Dojo...more to follow



THE VOW OF SERVICE

As apprentices of Jesus, we are given the privilege and responsibility of becoming agents of healing. We work for the restoration of Creation on in cooperation with the agenda of the Creator. We give our bodies and minds, our whole selves, to a life of service.

We are told that Jesus emptied himself. He humbled himself. He gave himself away in order to serve. Beyond teaching this way, He modeled it. His patterns of living,
and eventually the cross, remind us of the sacrifice of a servant, one who gave up his life for the benefit of others. Jesus is the ultimate picture of unselfishness. He is the Suffering Servant, the Great Advocate for all mankind. We seek to pattern our lives after His by serving in the ways that make sense in our times and places.

With healing hands, Jesus embraced people rejected or forgotten by society. As a sign of the kingdom of love Jesus touched those shunned because of infectious diseases. He put his hands on the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf to heal them. He welcomed and held little children in his arms, even while his disciples looked on disapprovingly. He also made himself vulnerable to people in the streets, allowing them to touch him-- like one woman who had been bleeding for many years who reached for his clothes and was cured, or another woman who worked as a prostitute who, weeping, touched his feet, washing them with her tears. He invited the poor and oppressed into a community of hope.

We love God by loving the people around us. We enter into the struggle of those who are hungry, thirsty, lonely, naked or in prison. Through these acts we serve Jesus himself. Day by day, minute by minute, we make the decision to welcome Jesus instead of turning him away.

While we will enter into specific projects or acts of service, we remind ourselves that our whole lives are to be full of love that fills the holes of despair around us. We seek to first be healers within our families and our communities. We begin the struggle first as sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, friends, neighbors and co-workers, and we continue this work to the ends of the earth.



THE PRACTICE OF ADVOCACY

Jesus modeled the ancient command and practice of advocacy: “Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. (Isaiah 1:17) He recognized that human suffering is related to systems of power and inequity and thus advocated on behalf of the weak. He confronted the dominance of civil and religious authorities and their oppressive control over the poor and simple. And he taught his followers to live subversively under foreign occupation—paying taxes and carrying the packs of Roman soldiers, but honoring another kingdom and king. And Jesus warned adults that they would be held responsible if their choices lead children into sin. The struggle for justice ultimately led to his persecution and death. Through his example Jesus invites us to be healers through the practice of advocacy.

Immigrants and poor people struggle to make ends meet and often don’t have the language, skills or confidence to advocate for themselves. The wealthy and educated advocate freely on their own behalf, even hiring lawyers and politicians to preserve their status and safety. For instance, the affluent neighborhoods in San Francisco have disproportionately more services and police presence that the poorest neighborhoods with greater needs. Our neighbors need us to speak for them so their voice can be heard.

Living in a time of increasing mobility and international trade, the call to justice is both local and global. A friend who works with Latin gang members in our neighborhood discovered that the young men dealing heroin on our street corners are from a city in Honduras where a U.S. company opened a factory that tainted their water supply and destroyed the local economy. What appeared to be a neighborhood problem was related to corporate power and greed. Our friend works to help these young men discover a better way of life, but also meets with government officials to address corporate responsibility.