Standing in the Gap

Seems like I have ended up in court a lot lately. For anybody waiting for Jesus to bring His kingdom in all of its fullness, experiencing the justice system in the “kingdom” of America always creates some tension. What does it mean to seek civil justice in light of God’s gracious kingdom justice? What does it look like to live in the kingdom of God, with all of its cheek turning, enemy love, and free forgiveness, while at the same time living in civil society, with its need for retributive justice, accountability, and safety? These questions have haunted me every time I’ve encountered the court system, but answering them feels like it’s far above my pay grade. 

God’s People Everywhere 

Recently, though, God has used His people to embody some of the beginnings of an answer. Two months ago, several staff members went to support my friend “James” in his trial over probation violation. In that court appearance, I knew the defendant, a public defender who counseled the defender assigned to my friend, one of the prosecutors from the courtroom, and the judge. One of the letters we sent to the judge had pictures of one of the prosecutor’s children in James’s lap at an Advance Memphis Christmas party! And while the entire proceedings gave me more questions than answers, it quickly became clear that in different ways and different places, each of these friends of ours were trying to seek God’s kingdom in the middle of this big, messy situation. 

For Lack Of Knowledge A People Perish 

But what about us? As a friend of defendants in two recent cases, I had been wondering about where those of us outside of the legal profession fit into all of this. And then last week I heard the judge (who I didn’t know) asking “Derrick,” a friend of mine, questions about his failure to comply with his probation by driving without a license. 

Speak to me in English! Look at me when you’re talking, said the judge. But what he took for disrespect I knew was fear and Derrick’s lack of confidence in his own verbal abilities. 

Why didn’t you just go get a license like everyone else when you turned 16? You just never bothered to do that? said the judge. But I knew that Derrick’s mother had never owned a car nor had a license, and that in our neighborhood it is far from normal to get a license at that age. Almost nobody does it. 

So you were living with your mom and her boyfriend and your girlfriend when you missed your probation. And none of them could drive you to your probation meetings to keep you out of jail? You couldn’t get a ride from any of them? said the judge. “No,” I thought, “Derrick’s mom doesn’t have a car. They live in the poorest urban area in the state. Very few people have cars, and if they do they aren’t reliable.” So while Derrick was totally responsible for failing to get to his probation meetings, the judge seemed to have oversimplified what truly was a serious obstacle him. 

You see, even though I believe this judge was really trying to do his part, and even though he works with folks like Derrick every day, he doesn’t understand anything about what Derrick’s life is really like. What seems obvious to this judge isn’t obvious to Derrick, and the opportunities that this judge took for granted were never offered to him. 

Standing In The Gap 

And so that’s where we come in. This same judge asked me, “do you swear to tell the truth” as I took the stand to talk about all of the obstacles Derrick had overcome, about all the hard work he’d put in, and all he’d accomplished above and beyond what his neighbors, friends, and the system had expected of him. And in reflecting on that question about telling the truth, something has become clear to me. Part of what God means when He calls His people to stand in the gap on behalf of the poor and marginalized is this:  

He’s calling us to tell the other side of the story. He’s calling us to recognize the image-of-Godness which is every human being’s heritage but which so often gets lost in the shuffle of poverty, marginalization, and brokenness.

And the body of Christ is doing just that. Over the last several months, we’ve seen a tremendous outpouring of staff and volunteers trying to come alongside those who are in prison or facing prison. Two of our champions have visited “Richard,” a JFL grad who was recently incarcerated, almost weekly for months. Another volunteer took the stand after me and not only pledged his belief in Derrick, but pledged his commitment to help him succeed if he was released. Earlier this year, Kashara Taylor, a woman in our community was killed by a gun shot by her boyfriend, although it was reportedly an accident. One of our staff, who was extremely close to Kashara, has not only written letters of comfort to the shooter but has actually visited him in prison. Elsewhere, another champion, himself a lawyer, took the stand to testify on behalf of his friend “Rodney,” a participant in our GED program.

Actions That Demand Questions
And God is moving. The attorney in Derrick’s case sent me an email thanking us for being willing to testify and assuring me that the judge would have been unwilling to extend mercy if he didn’t believe that the Advance program really would help the defendant make different choices. Another attorney, the public defender who represented James, pulled us aside and said:

"I can’t thank y’all enough for being here. You can’t imagine how many teenage murderers I represent, and two years in I’ve never met a single family member. Your presence here makes all the difference."

Imagine the impact it must make on Richard’s life to be visited weekly during his prison stay by two men from an entirely different world. Imagine the impact on our Rodney and Derrick’s lives when their Champions take time off work to literally take the witness stand on their behalf. And imagine the real overflowing of God’s justice that occurs when judges, defenders, and prosecutors alike hear firsthand the other side of the defendant’s story, when they’re reminded that though a person may be a criminal, they are never just that. They are first and foremost image bearers of God, and although the decisions they have made may mean that they can and should lose some of their rights, neither human decision nor the highest court in the land can take away the dignity that is their heritage as an image bearer of the Almighty God.

When the body of Christ works together to relationally engage with the poor and marginalized, it not only opens our eyes to the numerous layers of justice and injustice we never knew existed, but it also strengthens our ability to seek God’s kingdom justice wherever we are. And whether you’re the judge or the defendant, it’s the Spirit of God working through the body of Christ that will most powerfully call each of us to seek first Jesus’ kingdom and His righteousness, allowing everything else to be added unto it.

Michael Rhodes
mrhodes@advancememphis.org

Paradigm Shift

Dear Friends:

In the past, I’ve felt burdened to ask for money to keep Advance funded. Unfortunately, I have been approaching funding incorrectly. I have viewed you, our supporters, as a means to an end, the end being Advance Memphis’ existence. In doing so, I had the wrong goal in mind. Friends, the end is, and always has been, God’s kingdom. Advance Memphis is just a platform.  

Over the past year, God has used Transformational Giving principles taught by Eric Foley and Dr. Larry Lloyd to change my heart and Advance Memphis’s methodology. These principles have helped me shift my vision away from a concern for ministry funds and towards a heart for each of us to carry out the work of the Lord while moving toward full maturity in Christ.

While Advance will always need money to operate, my focus is now on finding brothers and sisters who will join me in growing to maturity in Christ through Advances’ Biblical cause: ransoming the captives. There are certainly other biblical causes (works of mercy), and one way to explore these in a focused way is by reading Eric Foley’s The Whole Life Offering. At Advance Memphis, we’re focused on ransoming the captive: seeking to serve the community in 38126 by setting them free from what enslaves them--poverty and unemployment.

“Ransoming the captive means the expensive day-to-day function of redeeming, or buying back, individuals taken captive...It’s about mirroring the character of Christ to the world.” Eric Foley

In scripture, I’ve found that God invites us to join him in fighting for these causes. Isaiah 61:1 states, “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners."

My prayer is that our supporters will attach deeply to the work of “ransoming the captives” that is found in scripture, rather than to this organization called Advance Memphis.  Advance should simply be a tool for this to occur in ALL of our lives, whether paid staff, volunteers, employers, students, or tutors.

So let’s join each other in:

•     Searching scripture to see where God calls us to live out the mercy we've been shown.
•     Ask ourselves how God has ransomed us.
•     Ask ourselves how we can participate in ransoming the captive in Memphis. 

We want you to be involved in Advance’s mission not only financially, but also with your head, hands, and heart. Please forgive me when I fail to lead us all in this, and join us in becoming owners of this cause and growing to full maturity in Christ.

Sincerely,

Steve Nash

And They Have No Comforter

Photo credit: Gretchen Shaw

1 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: 
    I saw the tears of the oppressed— 
        and they have no comforter; 
    power was on the side of their oppressors— 
        and they have no comforter. 
    2 And I declared that the dead, 
        who had already died, 
    are happier than the living, 
        who are still alive. 
    3 But better than both 
        is the one who has never been born, 
    who has not seen the evil 
        that is done under the sun.
                        (Ecclesiastes 4:1-3, NIV)

This passage speaks to the utter despair and loneliness that many poor and oppressed persons experience. 

In verse 1, we are confronted with the fact that those who undergo the deepest forms of suffering and experience it the most frequently are also those who have the least support to cope with it. Their miseries are severe yet no one seems to notice, no one sees their hurt. We also learn that while the poor are the most common victims of injustice, they have no comforter because those who have the power to help are the ones benefiting the most from the broken systems that keep the poor in oppressive circumstances. History affirms this truth: the dominant culture in society has always been naive to the way things work against the lower classes. 

As unsettling as the description of verse 1 is, the author makes a more shocking statement in verse 2.  Here he states that those in the grave are better off than those who continue to exist with oppressive burdens. On the surface, this seems like an awful thing to say.  Doesn't the Bible teach the sanctity of every human life, no matter how lowly one may appear to be? However we interpret this verse, we cannot dismiss these words as being flippant (12:10); they are the result of seeing the anguish that is common to the poor.

The wise Teacher draws our attention to the fact that oppression and heartache are simply the facts of life for the poor. However, I don't think that this is the main point in the passage. The real evil that this passage draws our attention to is the unawareness and/or apathy of society’s mainstream toward the despair of the poor.  In other words, it’s bad enough that the poor are made to suffer so often, but it is far worse that they are suffering alone with no one to comfort them.  The writer states this truth in a matter-of-fact tone; we as believers should be scandalized by this reality. 

We have a High Priest who is able to sympathize with us because he sacrificed his comfort to identify with us in our struggles (Heb 4:15).  In addition to dying for our sins (something we cannot imitate) he also became “familiar with suffering (Is 53:3) and “carried our sorrows” (Is 53:4). 

• How are we doing at demonstrating the empathy of Christ?  
• Are we aware of all the heartache of our neighbors? 
• Do we mourn with those who mourn? 
• Or have we segregated ourselves and our families, pursuing comfort and safety to the extent that we have isolated ourselves with the poor out of sight and out of mind? 

“You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, 

and you listen to their cry” (Psalm 10:17). 

Andrew Vincent

avincent@advancememphis.org

Confronting Racism

Dear Friends:

I can do nothing but share what my dear brother in Christ, Ken Bennett, told me he heard in worship this past Sunday.  Please join me in rejoicing, repenting now and continually for our individual and institutional sin of racism and classism. Also, praise our Father in heaven for His proclaimed truth found in His word!

Remember the Lord almighty says:  “if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14,15  

Dearest Lord, please give each of us courage to examine our individual hearts, repent, and make changes that are more reflective of your Kingdom design for our individual lives and all institutions in our City and World!

Maranatha! Maranatha! Maranatha!

Steve Nash

Executive Director

Steve is referring to the sermon preached at Independent Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee, by Senior Pastor Richie Sessions on Sunday, May 13, 2012. 

TO LISTEN TO THE SERMON, CLICK HERE and choose the May 13 sermon. 

Kashara

Kashara Taylor at her Jobs for Life graduation, with her brother Keith. 

Advance lost a friend last night. Many staff members were close to Kashara; she was one of those students who grabbed onto every opportunity, determined to do her best. 

Please pray that staff will be able to minister to the hurting community, even as they are hurting and mourning. 

Please pray that our neighbors who are hurting and angry will have the opportunity to see Christ and that more violence will not come from this. 

A Message from Steve

Dear Friends,

I think Jonathan Edwards—back in 1732—expressed with perfect clarity a concept that the Church struggles with today:

"Where have we any command in the Bible laid down in stronger terms, and in a more peremptory urgent manner, than the command of giving to the poor?"

Recently, I listened to Tim Keller's sermon "Blessed are the Poor." You can listen to it here, and I would encourage you to make time for this message. In the sermon, Keller reflects on Jonathan Edwards' words on the poor (read here), as well as many of the hundreds of biblical references to the poor. In short, Keller agrees with Edwards, saying that one of the clearest things in all of scripture is the mandate to know the poor, become the poor, and love the poor. Keller goes as far as to say that we cannot remain "middle class in spirit," but must embrace poverty of spirit, something that happens in relationships of reconciliation with real people living in poverty over a long period of time.

"We may also observe how peremptorily this duty [giving to the poor] is here enjoined,
and how much it is insisted on." Jonathan Edwards

So it's clear that scripture says loving the poor is imperative--but do we really see it as imperative? Do we see it as an essential part of our personal identity as Christ followers? Or do we see it as an option? Do we see it as a personal mandate? Or do we see it as something that can be "outsourced" to a church committee or a para-church ministry like Advance? The truth is that none of the important kingdom activities that the church should do, whether soup kitchens, shelters, job training, tutoring, widow-support health care, justice ministries--or any other effort--can be effective without ongoing relational reconciliation between rich and poor. And as Keller argues, these relationships WILL INEVITABLY challenge and change our lives as well.

I was convicted of this recently when we interviewed a group of Advance Memphis graduates about the role of Advance in the community. We were gathering information to inform our strategic planning process, and we asked students, "What does the community need more of?" I was humbled to hear the answer from "Mary," a recent grad, aged 24: "Not more money or food. We need more people to spend time with us. Teach us. Teach us about God." Friends, Mary is a single mother of 5. Throughout Mary's childhood, her mother was addicted to crack and she had no relationship with her father until the very end of his life. Right now, Mary is living with a family member in Foote Homes. Her extended family is eating her food and leaving her kids hungry. She is working part time, studying for her GED, and raising 5 children. I asked myself, "DID THIS WOMAN REALLY SAY THAT THE GREATEST NEED WAS RELATIONSHIPS? She DID!" And I remembered again how we so often consider poverty solely in material terms, forgetting the importance of relationships of reconciliation for RICH and POOR alike!

How wide is the gap between you and your neighbor? Join me in praying
that God would close the gap a little more each day for all of us.

I often meet people who ask what we need at Advance—how they can help. My prayer is that I'll be bold enough to share our biggest need: the presence of Christians, loving, serving, and building relationships in the neighborhood. We need these relationships because social support is key to life change. We need these relationships because the gospel calls us to reconciliation between communities divided by race and economic class. And we need these relationships because theoretical solutions to poverty designed in board rooms rarely work, and neither do blank checks without accountability or understanding. We've got to stop DOING THINGS FOR poor neighborhoods and start DOING THINGS WITH our poor neighbors. Bob Lupton argues in his book Toxic Charity that anonymous aid, given without the wisdom and consent that comes from relationships with the targeted community, can do far more harm than good. As an example, Lupton describes the effect of aid on Haiti, as witnessed by Tim Schwartz, an anthropologist and long-time resident of the country.

What does it look like to DO WITH the poor instead of FOR? That's a big question, but if we're really working relationally with the poor, we'll not only be seeing financial generosity, justice in business and legal relationships, and education for poor neighbors...we'll be seeing Luke 14 parties!

Do you have the relationships in place for God's design for a Luke 14 party?

So is my friend Mary crazy to say there's more to economic healing than money? No! Toxic Charity powerfully reminds us that disconnected aid is not enough, while we see first hand the powerful life change in EVERYONE'S life when the gospel calls individuals and communities "to the other side of the tracks"—the Kingdom community.

What I didn't tell you is that my friend Mary has gone from zero income to $2,000 a month. She hasn't achieved this through a hand out, but rather through a whole host of educational initiatives, supportive relationships, and employment opportunities made possible by business partnerships. I wish you could see her pride and joy as she experiences some level of economic self-sufficiency. She remains grateful for her diminishing public assistance while being filled with the dignity God designed for us through work. She wants to keep growing and fulfill all her God given potential. And what does she say when she asks what would help her and her neighborhood? MORE relationships and MORE time with Christ-followers.

So I want to invite the Body of Christ to respond to God's imperative to engage with those who are unlike us. We cannot help the poor if we do not know them, and God tells us that through relationships with the poor we ourselves will be changed. Our lifestyles, economic classes, recreational activities, neighborhoods, workplaces, and yes, even our churches often segregate us from our poor neighbors. Please take a minute right now to look around wherever you are. I'm sure you see the segregation of the rich from the poor. Now consider: how can we respond to God's imperative and help shape a world that looks different?

Responding to God's imperative means we've got work to do. We need to ask why in the poorest city in the nation there are no poor people in our Sunday school class or on our block, and then DO SOMETHING about it. And we need to find places to engage in relationships of reconciliation with the poor neighborhoods right now, today. If you need help with that, we'd love to introduce you to some of our neighbors through a Champion small group, a GED tutoring session, or as an assistant in a computer class. We'll take everything we can get! What might happen if every Christian in our city was actively pursuing healing in their own lives and in the lives of their poor neighbors through personal relationships? We don't know. But we'd love to find out. Pray with us! Struggle with us! Learn with us!

Thanks for all your time reading this note. It's longer than usual, but I'm grateful for your time, and grateful for the staff, friends, and volunteers who helped me take this from a first draft to a finished letter...the body of Christ at work!

Steve Nash

P.S. As you consider all these things, join me in challenging yourself to make God's Kingdom our target; not a human kingdom with some room for God, but—truly—God's Kingdom.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

At the end of his long chapter on Christ’s resurrection and second coming in I Corinthians 15, Paul declares: “therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your work in the Lord is not in vain.” For most of us, though, the resurrection seems like little more than the epilogue to the story of the cross. What’s the connection between Christ’s resurrection and our work? How does the resurrection affect “our work?” What does it mean for us today to declare, as churches around the world will on Easter Sunday, “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.”?

Christ Has Died

At the cross, God-the-Son “made himself nothing,” became a “servant,” and obeyed the Father all the way to dying an excruciating death on the cross (Phi 2:6-8). The cross means that we are no longer estranged from God, but have been reconciled to the Father “by Christ’s physical body through death” so that we, though our sins condemn us, might appear before God as “holy in his sight” (Col 1:22). The cross means that sin itself has been crucified so that we no longer are slaves to sin (Rom 6:6). Jesus became our sin (2 Cor 5:21), bearing “our sins in his body on the cross” (1 Pet 2:24).

But the meaning of the cross goes even out beyond our individual reconciliation with God. Through the cross, God has reconciled himself to the whole world, and given us the mission of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18-19). All of the evil powers and principalities and every system of injustice has been “disarmed!” Jesus “made a public spectacle of [the powers and authorities], triumphing over them by the cross” (Col 2:15). The cross of Christ “destroys the Devil’s work” (1 Jn 3:8).

Though the Bible makes clear that Adam’s sin brought all of creation into sin and decay, releasing the power of the Devil into every corner of the cosmos, at the Cross Jesus has shattered the Enemy, has paid the price for our treason, has unmasked the injustice and oppression of a world which would crucify its own Creator, and reconciled the Triune God to the whole world.

Christ Is Risen

On the third day, the Father took the mangled, tortured, broken body of His Son and raised it up to new life. The point of the story isn’t that Jesus’ soul went to be with God, but rather that the broken body of Jesus was remade into something glorious and altogether new. Not only does Jesus pay for our sins at the cross, but he empowers us for new, resurrection life at Easter. As Paul writes, if Christ has not been raised, then we are still dead in our sins. But He has been raised! And that makes all the difference.

Scholars point out that in John, the Risen Jesus meets Mary in a garden on the first day of a new week; after dealing with all of the sin that had corrupted the old creation, at the resurrection Jesus becomes the “new Adam” on the first day of a new creation week. And so we know that we too, along with the whole creation, will be resurrected one day with Him. As Paul writes, “Christ has indeed been raised, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.” Moreover, Romans 8 tells us that the entire creation is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed at the resurrection so that the creation might share in the glory of God’s children! What happens to Jesus will happen to us . . . and to the entire created world.

Christ Will Come Again

In Acts, the disciples watched as Jesus ascended into heaven. Suddenly, two angels appear and ask them: “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” And so, along with the resurrection, the ascension reminds us that Jesus Christ is the Risen King who promises to return to us again in glory. Sin has been beaten, and a new day has dawned at Easter, and we wait faithfully for our King to come and complete the work in fullness.

What It Means For Us

Everything has changed! At the cross, Jesus unmasked, disarmed, and destroyed all the sin and death that hides in our hearts and that breaks out in violence, poverty, disease, and injustice. At the resurrection, Jesus has started a “new creation” project that begins in human hearts and pours out and overflows into a New Heaven and a New Earth. And just as our resurrected, vindicated Lord returned to the Father He will one day come again to reign as King over all Creation.

The reason Paul wraps up his teaching on the resurrection by declaring that our works are not in vain is that the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension are the Father’s grand YES to the world, His gracious promise that we will be resurrected like Christ, and His invitation to participate in the resurrection of the whole world. Without this YES, this promise to redeem all things along with the “first-fruits” of Christ’s own resurrection, jobs make no difference. Neighborhoods make no difference. Rocks, trees, birds, cities, careers, and homes make no difference. But Jesus Christ has become one of us, has suffered our death, and permanently secured our resurrection life in His resurrected world. Our lives in this world matter. The work we do anticipates the sure redemption of all things, and it is not in vain. Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again! And we’re called to live lives in the kingdom, for the King, by the power of the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, and who will raise us and the entire cosmos into new life when Jesus comes again in glory.

Michael Rhodes

michael@advancememphis.org