Thankful? Pick a Cause and Serve

One of the things I love about being part of a church family is the freedom it gives us to be the giving people we were people God made us to be...and that, deep down, we want to be.

Recently, I talked about some of the service to others in which the modestly-sized congregation of which I'm a part is involved. I listed...

• collecting coats for the homeless gathering food and toiletries for the needy
• providing snacks for children at our local Boys and Girls Clubs
• collecting the items for and then assembling duffel bags for children taken into foster care in our community
• providing care packages for the elderly in our local nursing homes
• sending Christmas shoe boxes filled with toys, toiletries, and practical gifts to children in far-off countries
• enabling World Vision to provide clean drinking water, milk cows, farming help, education, and Biblical instruction to the village of Sinankosi Moyo, the Zimbabwean girl we sponsor sending money to the victims of disasters from New Orleans to Indonesia
• making our building facilities available to all sorts of groups, from the Clermont County Counseling Center to cheerleading teams, among others

When I shared all of this during the course of a discussion I was having recently with another blogger, someone who apparently thought that I was inhumane, he said, "Okay. You may be a good person."

NO, I'M NOT A GOOD PERSON. As Jesus once told someone trying to butter Him up by calling Him "good," a designation that Jesus deserved but the other guy didn't really mean: "No one is good but God alone" (Mark 10:18).

Me, I'm just a recovering sinner grateful for forgiveness and new life. I recognize that I'm just part of the human family. Freed from worry over what my fate is, I'm also freed to care for others as I want them to care for me, free to see the Jesus--the presence of God--in every other person who lives on this planet.

That's why I'm so excited about Thanksgiving Eve this year. Each year, the people of our congregation get together with two other area churches on the night before Thanksgiving.

We thank God for all His blessings.

We pray for peace and plenty for those who lack these things in their lives.

We share in the Eucharist, Holy Communion, through which we Lutherans believe the living presence of Christ enters us.

We look at God's Word and sing God's praises.

And, we make an offering. While a portion of our usual offerings--in money, volunteer hours, and material goods--go to all sorts of important ministries all through the year, this offering goes 100% to efforts to relieve the pain and suffering so many on our planet endure.

This year, our offerings will go to the World Hunger Appeal of our denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In a world of plenty, no human being should ever go hungry. The World Hunger Appeal, part of one of the most efficient and effective charitable networks in the world, not only relieves the hungry in emergency situations, but also helps those who must rely on their own crops and water supplies to get the most out of the land they farm.

Of course, we Lutherans don't have a monopoly on relieving the agonies of hunger, poverty, and disease. Below, I've given links to several organizations with outstanding reputations to which I hope, during this Thanksgiving season, everyone who reads this blog will consider giving.

For Christians, the reason for doing this will be manifest: We're grateful for the love God has given to us in Jesus Christ, grateful that God makes us His children, not because we're good, but because God is good.

Christianity is not about hanging around this planet until we die, heedless of the world's needs. One of our number, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as many have heard or read me say before, was once asked why he risked his life in the fight against apartheid--ultimately successful--in his South African homeland. This is what Tutu said:

There is nothing the government can do to me that will stop me from being involved in what I believe God wants me to do. I do not do it because I like doing it. I do it because I am under what I believe to be the influence of God's hand. I cannot help it. When I see injustice, I cannot keep quiet, for, as Jeremiah says, when I try to keep quiet, God's Word burns like a fire in my breast.

Karl Marx was completely wrong, at least as it relates to faith in Jesus Christ. He said that "religion is the opiate of the people," an anesthetic that keeps believers so focused on the hereafter that they do nothing about now. What he didn't seem to realize is that when people know that their forever is guaranteed by the One Who decimated the power of sin and death over their lives and that they live with God forever, they can invest their whole selves in caring about now--and about all the people who inhabit the planet they share with them They're not afraid that in sharing more they'll really have less!

So, I'm plunking my little stone into the cyberpond, praying for a ripple. Whether you're Christian, atheist, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Mormon, whatever, consider the following:
You and your church, family, or organization adopting a cause or an agency committed to relieving the suffering in your community or world.

• Do it in November, the month we Americans anyway, celebrate Thanksgiving
• Do it to express gratitude for the simple, awesome gift of life
• If you're a Christian, do it to thank God for the gift of new and everlasting life we have through Christ
• Allow your "adoption" to take any form you choose--volunteer hours, financial donations, material supplies
• Be ready to love it!

In our modestly-sized congregation in June, we set a goal. In addition to the hours people volunteer in the church, we would also set a congregational goal of 500 outside-of-church volunteer hours in the community. So far, these wonderful people have turned in 407 hours!

We're not counting up the hours to "get in good with God." Getting in good with God is pure gift, offered, we believe, through Jesus Christ. No, we do it to keep service present before us as a central value and a goal. You know what they say: "If you don't know where you're going, you'll probably end up somewhere else." Our congregation has made service in Jesus' Name where we're going...and it's a wonderful thing.

Now, some of those organizations you might want to adopt:
The ONE Campaign
ELCA World Hunger Appeal
ELCA Disaster Response
Habitat for Humanity
The Boys and Girls Clubs of America
The Boys and Girls Club of Clermont County (Ohio)
World Vision
Samaritan's Purse (Operation Christmas Child...Christmas shoeboxes)
The Salvation Army
Catholic Relief Services
Lutheran World Relief

Those are just a few ideas to get you started. Pick one of them or another one of your own choice, ask a few friends to join with you in adopting that organization, and then change the world.

[More on servanthood here.]

[UPDATE: The blogger who told me, "Okay. You may be a good person," was Harry Shearer. And no, Harry, I'm still not a good person...just a forgiven one. See here and also here.]