Saturday, October 16, 2010

Bread from Heaven, Bread for the World

Today I'm going to tell you how to vote. I voted yesterday, so I speak from experience.

First, pray.

Then, inform yourself about the issues, candidates, and ballot measures.

Pray some more.

Guided as always by sacred Scripture, Christian tradition, and your God-given reason, make your choices.

Then, go to the polls.

Or, if you have an absentee ballot, get that out. Read all the instructions.

You're going to need a pencil - or a pen will do.

Mark your ballot.

Here's how you vote: take your pencil (or pen) and fill in the gap in the arrow next to your selection.

Then, put your ballot in an envelope and drop it off at the library, or mail it in.

Then, keep on praying.


Everything we do as Christians begins and ends in prayer. This counts with what we do at home, at work, at play, and at the polls.

Voting is one way we can play our part as citizens - as Christians involved in the world - and I commend you for it.

There are other ways you can influence public policy.

Let me tell you part of the story of Art Simon and Bread for the World, the Christian citizens' lobby on behalf of the hungry. It began in Art's parish on the Lower East Side in Manhattan, a neighborhood of tenement housing full of poor, and hungry, folks.

Like many congregations, the one Art served was involved in direct assistance to the poor in its neighborhood, and contributed to relief and development work overseas. But Art could see that something more was needed - and something could be done about it.

At that time our government policies on hunger were - a start, but not nearly enough, and sometimes misguided. For Christians, God's care for the poor is a basic reality - and a call for all of us to be involved in.

Out of Christian conviction, based in Biblical faith, a group of people began to form an organization, a citizens' lobby on hunger based on Christian motivation. They were, from the start, nonideological and nonpartisan.

"We assumed that neither political party has a lock on the truth."

Do I hear an AMEN?

And so they made a beginning. There were people to invite and questions to answer.


Why should an organization on world hunger deal with political and economic issues? Precisely because we want to show the link between hunger and poverty, between hunger and injustice. People are usually hungry because they are terribly poor. Enabling hungry people to feed themselves means dealing with the root causes of hunger. That requires us to help shape government policies, for U.S. policies often vitally affect the world's hungry. BFW wants to organize citizen participation from within the churches on their behalf.

Arthur Simon, The Rising of Bread for the World, (Paulist Press, Mahway, N.J., 2010) p. 78.



When I first heard of Bread for the World I was in college. Older Christians - age 20 or so - were signing people up to fast for a day. We donated what the food service would have spent on our dining hall food for that days' cafeteria meals - and we were, somehow, glad to give up, for a day, the priveledge of eating them.

A couple of years later I heard a sermon that raised a lot of questions. In fact, that's all it was - 20 minutes of questions.

Dom Helder Camara had traveled all the way up from Brazil to speak at the closing service of the Concerts for the Hungry at Grace, the Episcopal cathedral in San Francisco.

He asked us: Are you aware of hunger? Are you aware of hunger in your own country, city, neighborhood?

And in answer to the question, how about moving to Brazil to work with the poorest of the poor? he said something that stuck with me. Here it is.

As an American citizen you are one of the most powerful people in the world. You may not feel powerful yourself - you may feel poor - but because you are citizens of the United States, you can have immense influence around the world.

You can do it, right now where you are. You can vote - and you can influence public policy. You can join your voice with others on behalf of the poor and hungry. You can work together, support a common effort, and make a difference.

You can make God's kingdom of peace and of mercy and justice come alive in the lives of people around the world.

Be persistent. Be persistent in calling for justice, like the persistent widow.

Be part of the solution.

And - keep praying.

JRL+

God our sustainer, we ask you to pour your powerful Spirit into all who are empty this day: Fill the hearts of persons who are troubled. Fill the minds of men and women who are confused. Fill the stomachs of your children who are hungry. Fill the souls of people who are feeling lost. Fill the lives of all who need you, but do not know you. May your Spirit fill us all to overflowing, dear Lord, and may we be inspired to share our abundance with others, so that there will be no more empty hearts and minds, stomachs and souls. We pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ, who fills lives with your endless grace. Amen.




www.bread.org

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