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Children and Family
Urban Ministries
1548 Eighth Street
P.O. Box 41125
Des Moines, IA 50311
(515) 282-3242
Email info@cfum.org
Opening Up
Mark 8.31-38"Opening Up"
Carmen Lampe Zeitler
Offered March 16, 2003
Polk City UMC
A hymn-poem from Kathy Galloway of Scotland:
Do not retreat into your private world,
That place of safety, sheltered from the storm,
Where you may tend your garden, seek your soul,
And rest with loved ones where the fire burns warm.
To tend a garden is a precious thing,
But dearer still the one where all may roam,
The weeds of poison, poverty, and war,
Demand your care, who call the earth your home.
To seek your soul is a precious thing,
But you will never find it on your own,
Only among the clamor, threat and pain
Of other people's need will love be known.
To rest with loved ones is a precious thing,
But peace of mind exacts a higher cost,
Your children will not rest and play in quiet,
While they still hear the crying of the lost.
Do not retreat into your private world,
There are more ways than firesides to keep warm.
There is no shelter from the rage of life,
So meet its eye and dance within the storm.
Peter is bound and determined to keep Jesus safe and secure and respectable and acceptable, contained; and Peter with him. It's hard work, we know it; I know it anyway, because I've done it too. At times in my life I've tried to keep Jesus from getting in too deep, from alienating people, and mostly I've tried to keep Jesus from taking me with him into the deep, into the hostility. It's hard work. Because Jesus insists over and over and over again, certainly in today's gospel reading, that it is into the suffering, into the alienation, into the hostility, following him will take us. The result will be turning worlds upside down, the world we live in and the worlds that live in us. Much will be lost: some ideas we have fiercely defended, some boundaries we have protected, some sacred notions we have held dear; perhaps any shadow of the life we've known will be lost. Clearly, Jesus says, walking Jesus' way is no easy saunter.
But Jesus also says clearly: for all that is lost, infinitely more will be gained: our true selves, our best lives, and God's wildest dreams for us and for all the world. To be a part of that, to help make it happen all we have to do is open up to the realities, to the possibilities.
I am privileged to work every day in a place where the realities and the possibilities are before us. You are partners in that place. Children and Family Urban Ministries is the United Methodist witness to the wild dreams of God for us and for all in the neighborhoods of the near north side of Des Moines. CFUM rents space at and operates out of Trinity United Methodist Church at 8th and College in Des Moines.
The neighborhood around Trinity is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse in Des Moines, and one of the most economically disadvantaged as well. There is a connection. If you are a person of color in this country the odds that you will be poor are much greater than if you are white. That's called racism. It is one of the realities.
Most of the programs of Children and Family Urban Ministries benefit children and families who are among the increasing number of the working poor in our country. Somewhere we got the idea, and organized religion has endorsed it to a large degree, that it is okay for the CEO of a hotel chain to make $23 million a year and a housekeeper in that hotel chain to make $7.00 an hour, not anywhere near a living wage for backbreaking work. But that is one of the realities, we can call it classism.
Poverty is a reality among our neighbors on the near north side. The statistics show that 43% of those living on the near north side live in poverty... that's if you go by Federal government income guidelines of $18,000 for a family of four (takes twice that to live decently according to most studies). Household poverty is a growing threat to the well-being of families and children in our very wealthy nation. One in every five children lives in poverty. Replacing welfare with below-poverty wages has not decreased poverty among children. The very strong economy of the last several years failed to prevent or lessen significantly poverty among children, and with the downturn in the economy, and the economic impact of the build up of military resources in recent months, poverty among children will most certainly be on the rise in the immediate future. Poverty is a growing reality.
The realities, if grim, can also be compelling. They can move you. But what keeps me going back every day, working in partnership with you in CFUM are the possibilities.
The possibility that children like Quentin and Houston will keep their bone-deep goodness and generosity. Quentin is in kindergarten, Houston in the first grade. They are two children who are kindness and generosity personified. They smile easily, compliment often, have the most natural of manners, pay close attention to the people around them, even their siblings get a long with them. They are both wise and aware beyond their age. They are sheer delight in the Breakfast Club before school program and The Haven after school program they attend.
The possibility that children like Lupita will continue to fill the world with color, and her own particular light. Lupita draws pictures almost every day at Breakfast Club and during her free time at The Haven. Always in the picture is a glorious and detailed sun with big eyelashes and painted lips smiling up in the corner of the page. Almost always in the other corner of the page is a blooming plant complete with soil and glorious flower. Whatever the rest of the picture portrays it will be done in the brightest colors, the greatest of detail. The pictures are always given as gifts to others.
The possibility that children like Bradley and Lucinda might always see the needs of the more vulnerable. They are the older siblings of Lucas and Jasmine. They watch out for them amidst the 70 or so children at the Breakfast Club every morning: making sure they get their coats hung up, nametags on, breakfast eaten, also that no one messes with them, they have something to do, they get their coats back on and zipped up before they go out the door. They are enormously attentive to the needs of the littlest ones.
The possibility that Daniel and LaRue will continue to find what they need and go after it. One recent morning at The Breakfast Club, Daniel asked if I would twirl the big jump rope so that he and LaRue could jump. I said I would but that I needed to excuse myself just for a minute to use the restroom. Knowing that sometimes I get distracted beyond the minute I promise, when I came out of the restroom I found one end of the long purple jump rope just outside the door. At the other end, down the hallway a bit, were Daniel and LaRue, waiting patiently but insistently.
I could literally tell stories all day about the enormous possibilities in the lives of children we know. In their involvement with CFUM, we see their strengths and gifts, the potential for great things for us and for them if the strengths and gifts are nurtured and encouraged. And we see the very real threat that the realities - poverty, racism, classism - are to those possibilities.
As those who would follow Jesus in this time and place, we have hard work before us. It can be the hard work of trying to keep Jesus safe, secure, respectable, acceptable, contained, and us with him. And oh-so-much will be lost. Or we can be about the hard work of opening up ourselves and our worlds, the world we live in and the worlds that live in us, to the realities and possibilities. And oh-so-much will be gained: even our true selves, our best lives, and even God's wildest dreams for us and for all the world.
Do not retreat into your private world,
There are more ways than firesides to keep warm.
There is no shelter from the rage of life,
So meet its eye and dance within the storm.
Or as another has said, If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their lives will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.