The Church: Good Neighbor and Bad

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The Church: Good Neighbor and Bad

By Tom Duley and Mike Harper,
Urban Ministries of the United Methodist Church
Birmingham, AL

There are times when the Church is the best neighbor you could possibly hope to have. At those times we are very neighborly—at those times we rise to the occasion. At those times we actually love our neighbors as we love ourselves. In those moments we remember that when Jesus told us to love our neighbors he wasn’t talking about the folks across the fence or down the street. We remember that he meant that every other person on this planet is our neighbor—everyone.

At those times we are indeed good neighbors . . . the best stepping-into situations that no one else wants any part of to alleviate human need and care for our neighbors in profound and sometimes heroic ways. And yet, with all of our hard work, with all of our preaching, with all of our outreach there is still a question that haunts us on a regular basis.

With all the good things the Church has done over the many centuries why is there still so much need in the world and why aren’t things getting substantially better?

As Pastors who work in a United Methodist mission agency in the inner city of Birmingham we can assure you that the situation is notgetting substantially better. This modest agency, located in the western end of Birmingham, has worked diligently for thirty-three years and;

still the phone calls come every single day asking for help to pay utilities and rent, more phone calls that we could ever respond to—in fact, we say “no” about 30 times for every occasion when we can say “yes”;
still the people come to get food from our Food Pantry and line up for the noon meal five days a week in our Community Kitchen (we served over 26,000 meals in 2008);
still there are houses of the poor disabled and elderly to be painted;
still there are children who suffer from poverty.

Thirty-three years of service and they still come. And that, of course, is just our story. A similar story could be told by the other helping agencies in our area.

With all of the good things the Church has done in recent years—and it has done a substantial amount—why isn’t the situation getting better in terms of alleviating human need? Clearly the responsibility to address this need also belongs to groups beyond the Church. But, the Church is the institution we know best, the place of our vocation, our calling, the place where we have given our life.

Why hasn’t the Church done better with this . . . and how might we do better in the future? The Church has quiet obviously been a good neighbor in many ways. The evidence of that goodness is easily demonstrated.

Our first example is the exceptional work the Church does in disaster relief. One of us had the privilege, for nine years, of coordinatingthe United Methodist disaster response effort across north Alabama. Many stories come to mind here but of particular significance was the way in which a broad variety of religious groups cooperated in significant ways to relieve human need during times of disaster.

Many of the larger denominations have an arrangement with the American Red Cross as to what element of disaster relief they pursue. For Southern Baptists, immediate feeding is the focus. The Catholics and Lutherans concentrate on case management for persons undergoing disasters. The Church of the Brethren focuses on the special needs of children in disaster. For our Seventh Day Adventist friends, the management of donated goods is the target. They also have a unique disaster response ministry. They have, pre-positioned, in large trucks all over the United States, clothing appropriate for all ages, by sex and size, “from underwear out” ready to pass along to those in need. Incredible!

The United Methodist piece of disaster work has always been long-term rebuilding efforts. You may remember the devastating F-5 tornadoes in the Birmingham area that struck in April 1998. These storms killed over 30 persons, injured many more, and destroyed substantial portions of several communities in western Alabama.

One of us administered a several hundred thousand dollar commitment from the United Methodist Committee on Relief which, along with many other groups, rebuilt hundreds of homes, many of them from the ground up. This extraordinary witness to God’s love came about with the use of hundreds of volunteers over a several month period.

It was a work of the spirit that rebuilt homes, restored lives, and brought hope to many who had lost a great deal. It was a great witness to the Church as good neighbor.

Second, working with those who are homeless is another area where the faith community’s response has been exemplary. In our city a “Conference on the Human Emergency” sponsored by Greater Birmingham Ministries was held in the mid-1980s. Out of this conference the Old Firehouse Shelter for Homeless Men was given birth and the groundwork was laid for what later became the First Light Shelter for Homeless Women. The United Methodist Church of the Reconciler in downtown Birmingham offers services, worship, and activism to the homeless community. The Birmingham Hospitality Network uses many of our churches to house homeless families on a temporary basis.

The work that continues in these places (and several others) is a model of compassion, efficiency, and the excellent use of volunteers. Hundreds of persons have broken the cycle of homelessness through these efforts and found employment, safe housing, and a new life through the patient work of staff and the broader faith community. Around our city and in many other cities the Church is mobilized to address the needs of homeless individuals and families.

It is an effort that we can take pride in and be grateful for as it continues to bring wholeness and healing to many of our neighbors. It is a great witness to the Church as good neighbor.

Third, the significant and thoughtful ways that the Church responds to family crises and death is without peer in terms of effectiveness, integrity, and graciousness. All churches relate to parishioners and others in times of serious illness and death. Our religious communities still do this with deep patience and great skill—we understand how to do this work, as we well should. The ways in which faith can bring stability and healing in these settings is self-evident. And it is one of the most needful and important things we do. This too, is a great witness to the Church as good neighbor.

The Church does many good things. Quite often, in sustained and effective ways, we are good neighbors. We know how to do these things and we do them with great compassion, effectiveness, and demonstrable results. We need to continue to provide these sorts of occasions for all within our influence to exercise their Christian discipleship in service to the world.

We could continue with other examples of how the Church is a good and faithful neighbor to many people in many places, at many times. We wish that we could tell you in all honesty that the Church is always and everywhere a good neighbor and that we always rise to the occasion and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We wish we could but we can’t.

The truth of the matter is that there are times when the Church is a bad neighbor—there are circumstances under which the Church fails miserably at loving our neighbors as ourselves. We would like to share with you three instances in which we think that the Church is a bad neighbor.

First, the Church is a bad neighbor when we practice radical exclusiveness rather than the radical inclusiveness of Jesus.

In the Church we are almost as deeply segregated as we ever were. We will grant that some progress toward inclusiveness has been made but the progress that’s been made is tiny compared to what we still have to do.

We are so deeply segregated that we still use segregation language when speaking about our churches. We talk about white churches, black churches, Asian churches, and Hispanic churches, as if it is a perfectly right and natural thing to do as followers of Jesus. Let us assure you that it is not.

There are virtually no poor people in our local churches. For all intents and purposes the church is a service provider to the middle, upper-middle, and upper classes. Poor people have no place, are not wanted, and in fact, our United Methodist history is to run away from them. Since 1984 the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church of which we are members, has closed over 30 local churches in the city of Birmingham. While we were doing that the demographics of the city were getting poorer and more African-American. It is no coincidence that those two things were happening at the same time.

Just as we have systematically excluded poor people from the Church we have also excluded gay, lesbian, and transgender people from the Church while at the same time vilifying them. The time has come for us to lose our hatred, fear, and prejudice toward gay, lesbian, and transgender people. The time has come for us to welcome them into the life and ministry of the Church.

Jesus got in trouble all the time because he welcomed everyone. He shared his life with them. He didn’t condemn them or run away from them. Call us crazy but we think that it is time for the Church to be neighbor as Jesus was neighbor—to get in trouble because we seek out and welcome everyone and because we make a place for everyone.

It is time for the church to reformulate our understanding of what it means to be Church. It is time for the Church to make following Jesus our highest priority.

Second, the Church is a bad neighbor when we love charity but we avoid justice.

Don’t get us wrong here. Even though the Church does a great deal of charity work, the Church must do even more. There are literally thousands of people in our city and around the world that rely on the charity of the Church to help them make it day to day. We need to make a greater commitment to charity; we need to share more of our money, more of our time, and more of our resources with those who are living at the margins. Charity always has been and always will be a central aspect of the Church’s ministry. But, charity without justice makes us a bad neighbor.

We must come to grips with the fact that God’s vision in Jesus Christ moves forward on the wings of God’s justice. God doesn’t just want us to minister to the homeless—God wants us to end homelessness; God doesn’t just want us to help our neighbors in times of disaster—God wants us to insure that our neighbors are adequately protected from natural disaster. God doesn’t just want us to feed the hungry—God wants us to end hunger. God doesn’t just want us to aid the oppressed—God wants us to end oppression.

The God of Jesus Christ calls for a politics and an economics that starts with a concern for what is good for the poorest and weakest among us. Unfortunately, that is diametrically opposed to the politics and economics that are practiced in our country right now. We live in a time when politics and economics start with a concern for what is good for the richest and most powerful among us and doesn’t move much further than that.

Perhaps William Sloan Coffin has said it best: “Had I but one wish for the Christian churches of America, I think it would be that they come to see the difference between charity and justice. Charity is a matter of personal attributes; justice a matter of public policy. Charity seeks to alleviate the effects of injustice; justice seeks to eliminate the causes of it. Charity in no way affects the status quo, while justice leads inevitably to political confrontation.”

The Church must get involved in public life; we must become familiar with public policy and the effects of that public policy on people’s lives, especially on the lives of the poor and marginalized. We must not shy away from politics but embrace it, think about it and talk about it because it is the political decisions that create the public policy that in turn affects people’s lives for good or for ill.

Jesus taught us that this is clearly a part of our responsibility as his followers. Jesus was killed because he refused to go along with the oppressive public policy of his day. He refused to go along with the purity codes, refused to go along with the corruption of the Temple, refused to bow down to the Romans, and he refused to be quiet about it. Jesus announced in Nazareth that his mission was a mission to bring good news to the poor and to free the oppressed. That mission got him killed—it is that mission that we have inherited.

It is time for the Church to reformulate our understanding of what it means to be the Church. It is time for the Church to make following Jesus our highest priority; to believe Jesus when he teaches us that our mission is a mission to bring good news to the poor and freedom to the oppressed. When we fully embrace the work of justice the Church will be neighbor as Jesus was neighbor.

Third, the church is a bad neighbor when we embrace and perpetrate violence while rejecting the non-violence of Jesus.

Violence in all of its forms does more to cause chaos in the human family and create human need than anything. When there is violence among individuals, human need results. When there is violence among families and other groups of people, human need results. And when there is violence among nations, untold human need results. Until the human family says no to violence there will always be untold suffering and human need.

What better people are there to lead the way out of violence and into non-violence than the Church? We can’t think of any other people better suited to do so. Jesus taught, lived, and died a life of non-violence. He had many opportunities and much encouragement to resort to violence to accomplish his mission. He never did.

Unfortunately, the Church ignores the life and teaching of Jesus on this point. The Church is just as entangled in the web of violence as any other institution in our society. Our children play violent video games, listen to music that glorifies violence, and watch violent TV programs and movies. And we think little about it.

The vast majority of Christians agree with our political leaders when they resort to violent solutions for local, national and international problems. We send our sons and daughters off to the military and to other institutions that are built on the use of force and violence, and think nothing of it.

And why were there not loud and consistent voices from our churches about the idea of pre-emptive war. Lord, have mercy—Christ, have mercy—Lord, have mercy.

Today, the Church is captive to fear rather than faith. Our captivity to fear leads us to think that violence is right whether we use it in retaliation for something done to us or in an effort to keep violence from being inflicted on us. The tolerance of violence, the use of violence, and the support of the use of violence are just as prevalent among Church folks as in the broader society.

It has not always been so. For the first three hundred years of the Church’s existence the Church was a totally non-violent movement. [See “Early Christian Opposition to War” in this issue] Those first Christians understood that Jesus was a teacher of non-violence and since they sought to pattern their lives after his life they chose non-violence as their way of life. It is time for 21^st-century Christians to rediscover what the early Church knew.

It is time for the Church to reformulate our understanding of what it means to be Church. It is time for the Church to make following Jesus our highest priority; to believe Jesus when he teaches that his way is the way of non-violent love rather than the way of violent domination. When we make a commitment to non-violent love the Church will be neighbor as Jesus was neighbor.

None of these challenges will be easy. In fact, each will be hard, counter-cultural work. Such change cannot be accomplished in one lifetime. Yet, remember the encouraging words of Reinhold Niebuhr: “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.”

It is a high calling and a great honor to be a follower of Jesus. It is also a difficult task with a great many challenges and adventures. At the very heart of what it means to follow Jesus is the command to “love your neighbor as yourself.” At times the Church rises to the occasion, sets self-interest aside and loves our neighbors as ourselves. Thanks be to God for those times. At other times the Church sets self-interest and fear squarely in the forefront and willingly cooperates with exclusion, oppression, and violence. God forgive us for those times.

God help us to make following Jesus the most important work of the Church. Remind us that the Church belongs to you and not us.