Between Mother Teresa and Bill Gates
Today's Lenten Meditation from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:
The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, "Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place." But he said to them, "You give them something to
eat." They said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish-unless we are to
go and buy food for all these people." For there were about five thousand men.
And he said to his disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of about fifty
each." They did so and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and
the two fish, Jesus looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave
them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled.
What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.--Luke 9:12-17
It is a daunting challenge when Jesus tells you to do something--as is the case with the disciples, tired and exhausted at the end of a long day.
"You give them something to eat," Jesus told them.
When I was a seminarian, I remember being jubilant upon meeting Mother Teresa in Calcutta, in India. When I returned to my seminary, I conveyed my enthusiasm to one of my professors back in the United States. He quickly deflated my idealism when he told me that he would
prefer the work of a rich Christian individual (someone like Bill Gates) who could affect systemic change for poor people rather than the work of a Mother Teresa who simply helps individuals in an ad hoc manner.
As I look back on that touchtone experience, I am all the more grateful to be an Episcopalian who thinks beyond our either/or mentality of Mother Teresa or Bill Gates. We need them both.
Making a significant difference in bettering the world is not a matter of choosing between the work of Mother Teresa or Bill Gates; rather, it is about garnering an imagination capable of seeing beyond the limited ways and means we set for ourselves. In other words, without the extraordinary example of Mother Teresa, my seminary professor would have lacked his subsequent vision for a Christian Bill Gates. One could not exist without the other. I imagine the
exhausted disciples had the same problem with Jesus' command: " You give them something to eat." The disciples in their limitations needed Jesus' command to help them move into miracles.
Let us pray,
O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, "Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place." But he said to them, "You give them something to
eat." They said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish-unless we are to
go and buy food for all these people." For there were about five thousand men.
And he said to his disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of about fifty
each." They did so and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and
the two fish, Jesus looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave
them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled.
What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.--Luke 9:12-17
It is a daunting challenge when Jesus tells you to do something--as is the case with the disciples, tired and exhausted at the end of a long day.
"You give them something to eat," Jesus told them.
When I was a seminarian, I remember being jubilant upon meeting Mother Teresa in Calcutta, in India. When I returned to my seminary, I conveyed my enthusiasm to one of my professors back in the United States. He quickly deflated my idealism when he told me that he would
prefer the work of a rich Christian individual (someone like Bill Gates) who could affect systemic change for poor people rather than the work of a Mother Teresa who simply helps individuals in an ad hoc manner.
As I look back on that touchtone experience, I am all the more grateful to be an Episcopalian who thinks beyond our either/or mentality of Mother Teresa or Bill Gates. We need them both.
Making a significant difference in bettering the world is not a matter of choosing between the work of Mother Teresa or Bill Gates; rather, it is about garnering an imagination capable of seeing beyond the limited ways and means we set for ourselves. In other words, without the extraordinary example of Mother Teresa, my seminary professor would have lacked his subsequent vision for a Christian Bill Gates. One could not exist without the other. I imagine the
exhausted disciples had the same problem with Jesus' command: " You give them something to eat." The disciples in their limitations needed Jesus' command to help them move into miracles.
Let us pray,
O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
posted by Don+ @ 9:47 AM
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