This is a formal invitation.

Tonight is New Year’s Eve.  Andrea and I have been pondering this day, and what we would make of it for quite some time now.

Yesterday, Andrea looked online for somewhere we could go feed the hungry.  Turns out, there is NO WHERE in Atlanta tonight that is doing that.  Can you believe it?  Christmas Eve and Christmas Day people turn out in record numbers to ‘feed the homeless’.  Only one week later, there isn’t even an organization to volunteer with.

Tonight Andrea and I will be throwing a little party of our own.  In Luke Chapter 14, Jesus says, ” “When you put on a luncheon or a banquet,” he said, “don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.”

We are going to be making sandwiches and taking bottled waters downtown.  We think we know a place to find a good bunch of people who have nothing to eat, and maybe more importantly, nothing to celebrate for.  (I think we can give them both) We are welcoming anyone in Atlanta who wants to come with.  Leave a comment here, or twitter me, or something, and we will work out the details.

I have a feeling this is going to be an awesone New Years.  Wanna help?  Let me Know.

AND:
If you find yourself drinking and in a bad situation.  Don’t drive.  Call us.  We will not be drinking, so we can and will come get you.  The city of Atlanta has already passed it projected death toll this holiday season.  Let’s keep that down.  If you don’t have my number, again, leave a comment, or Twitter me or something and we can definitely figure out a way to keep you from behind the wheel, or from a car with someone who has been drinking.  Please.  Just make that phone call.

This is an open letter I found on Jesus Manifesto.  I am going to print this up and send it.. and  would ask you to do the same thing.. Even repost it on your own blog if you can.  It’s a pretty huge deal.  Here is the exact copy and paste from Jesus Manifesto

“Dear friends,

Please distribute this open letter to friends, government officials, and media for us. We have sent it to two blog posting sites for Obama, but we also found a mailing address for him. It would be fine to have a flurry of people sending this letter to him at

President Elect Barack Obama

PO Box 802799

Chicago, IL 60680-2799

Thanks, the CPT Iraq team

* * *

Dear Senator Obama, President Elect of the United States,

Since 2007 the US military has provided military intelligence and opened Iraqi air space to Turkish forces along the northern border of the Kurdish Regional Governorate for operations against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party). Because of these military incursions, thousands of civilian villagers have been displaced, many killed or wounded, and a great many endure inadequate and deplorable living situations.

Members of our organization, Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), an NGO with offices based in Chicago and Toronto, have been living and working in the Kurdish North of Iraq for over two years, and for four years before that, in Baghdad. We have had regular contact with the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and local Kurdish NGOs that have assisted these Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Our members have visited IDP tent camps and witnessed the hardships of those living there as well as visited mayors and security personnel of communities to which thousands of men, women and children have fled for refuge. In some areas we have been able to visit the remains of Muslim and Christian villages destroyed by the bombing and talk to villagers who still live there or come and go to care for crops or animals under the threat of random attacks. We have interviewed a twenty-seven-year old woman who lost her leg, families of persons who were killed in these bombings by Turkish military, and a man whose two brothers were taken from their villages and tortured by Turkish soldiers.

Testimonies of villagers and government officials have confirmed the destruction of civilian infrastructure such as homes, schools, mosques, churches, and hospitals. Turkish bombing has killed sheep and cows?animals many families depend on for their livelihood. The Turkish military has bombed bridges and planted landmines?as well as internationally prohibited weapons as cluster bombs?to prevent human movement in areas where civilians live. Explosions from bombs and rockets (some rockets and shelling also from the Iranian Military along the Iranian border) continue in villages still inhabited and are audible from some areas where IDPs now live.

These things have been verified by the 2008 KRG government report of the fact-finding committee mandated by the Council of Representatives Presidency Board. We also saw five of the numerous Turkish Military bases positioned within Iraqi territory, as far away from the Turkish border as eighteen miles. According to Kurdish officials, Turkey established these bases under an agreement between Turkey and KRG officials in 1996 during the Kurdish civil war, but refused to leave years ago when the agreement expired.

According to villagers still living in areas currently being bombed, and Iraqi Kurdish security officials, Turkish military at these bases watch their movement, strike during the time of planting and harvesting, anytime they observe displaced villagers returning to their homes, or if there is movement around their villages at night, and do not let Kurdish residents use their land adjoining the bases or hunt on the mountains nearby. They experience the Turkish presence as an oppressive occupation. They say Iraqi Kurdish officials have asked the Turkish military at the bases to leave, but feel helpless in enforcing this. For these reasons the people are afraid of the impending agreement between the Iraqi Central Government and Turkey.

According to an official from the Turkish foreign ministry (to Hurriyet daily news source on 18 November, 2008) describing the effects of this agreement, “If an operation which is deemed as crucial for Turkey is needed, then Turkey can present it as a ‘fait accompli.’” They see this as allowing Turkey to increase its occupation of the northern areas of Iraq, a fear put into perspective by the far more intense nature of Turkish military aggression there in the 1990’s.

As we talk to Kurdish people, we hear a call for the United States to abide by international law and the Fourth Geneva Agreements, standards to which it holds other countries: not to kill or injure civilians, and that an occupying power is responsible to protect and care for the civilians who are under its control.

On a larger scale, CPT has observed a dramatic change in the Kurdish population from unapologetic support for the U.S. military presence in Iraq to anger at the way in which the United States has treated one of its most loyal allies in the Middle East. Kurdish people, who have experienced the Anfal genocide under the Saddam Hussein regime now fear U.S. support will encourage Turkey to move even more aggressively against Kurdistan.

Therefore, we urge you to:

1. Reverse U.S. policies that aid Turkey’s attacks on Kurdish Iraqi civilian populations and put diplomatic pressure on Turkey to pursue diplomatic and peaceful solutions to the PKK/Turkey disputes.

2. Refuse to support new agreements that would expand the rights of Turkey’s military to send more troops or establish more bases northern Iraq and put pressure on Turkey to remove existing bases.

We would also invite you to come here and visit some of these villages and IDP camps and talk with the people. They are very welcoming and hospitable. We would be glad to introduce you to them and be of what assistance we can.

Sincerely,

Peggy Gish, Craig A. Kite, Chichun Yuan, Bob Holmes, Anne Montgomery, John Lynes

CPT

Suleimaniya, Iraq”

Do this.

I was talking to Andrea last week,  when I told her I think this time of year screws with everyone.  At work, all of a sudden every single request or issue is a matter of life or death.  I honestly think that people let the season consume their lives.  I can probably say I’m guilty of this too.  Getting out to the stores, moving around people, and all of a sudden there is this sense of urgency in my life.  I can’t be 2 minutes late for church, I have to leave immediately, I can’t sit still.  You know the feeling?

I don’t know that this is the best way to celebrate the marked date for the birth of Christ.  I mean becoming a mob of a country from October (only getting earlier every year) all the way to January 1st.  We’re getting lost in shopping, marketing campaigns, and campaigns to “keep Christ in Christmas.”  Shortly after joining that campaign, we tackle a middle aged lady for a Tickle-Me-Elmo, then we run to the line to pay, when that little man jumps in front of us, so we proceed to curse him out.  Then we go to our over-heated homes, and every time we write the word, we put quotations around Christ.

If we are going to start a ‘Keep the Christ in Christmas Campaign’, are we doing it the right way?  Is Christ upset that people want to call it X-mas, or if people want to say “Happy Holidays”?  Personally, I think Jesus probably wouldn’t mind too much.  I don’t remember him ever really getting upset for people not giving him enough credit.  I imagine his desire for us is to love. (And I’m fairly sure tackling that middle aged lady probably isn’t what he had in mind.. no?)  So, if you are part of a keep ‘Christ’ in Christmas campaign, ask yourself, are you living it, or are you merely putting quotes around it?

Remember, the reason we celebrate this time of year is because God sent his only son to save us from our sins.  Not to put lights up, fight for the best parking space, and get our kids the biggest best gift.  Jesus was born, so 30 some odd years later he could carry MY sins on a cross, all the way to the grave, not to insure his name be engraved all over cards, t-shirts, and Facebook Groups.

We are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside… but one day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that mean and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed.  True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a better.  It comes to see that a system that produces beggars needs to be repaved.  We are called to be the Good Samaritan, but after you lift so many people out of the ditch you start to ask, maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be repaved.

-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“A Time to Break the Silence” Sermon

The more I think about my life and my faith, I am more and more convinced that this isn’t what He meant.  The more I think that there is more to this than donating money to the Salvation Army.  I am not bashing these charities, they do great things, and I recognize that.  But, I wonder why we have set up these establishments to pacify the poor?

Dr. King put it so gracefully, “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a better.  It comes to see that a system that produces beggars needs to be repaved.”  The poor are sick and tired, the middle class is sick and tired, the rich are sick and tired.  So what are we doing right?  Working 50+ hours a week, to buy that new ring, and make the C-note?  To pay the gas, or to get the water turned back on?  To flip a quarter to a poor man to feel good about ourselves, and so the poor man might get something to drink?  The road is broken.  Who are we to rebuild?

What I’m saying is, change doesn’t start in the Oval Office. (Sorry B.O)  Change starts right here, with you and me.  What are we called to?  As Shane Claiborne put it, when we get to Heaven, I’m not so sure Jesus will say, ‘When I was hungry, you gave to a food kitchen, and they fed me, when I was naked, you gave to Salvation Army, and they clothed me.’

Do you get it?  What are we doing to the least of these?  Who are the Least of these?  Is our annual donation/tax write off good enough?  Does that fulfill your heart?  Not mine.  Old christian cultures used to say, if they didn’t have enough for even the poor to eat, everyone in the community would fast until they had enough food to go around.  How long would we be fasting?  Geez.  I don’t want to think about it.

What I do want to think about is the light of hope.  The light WE are called to shine on this world.  Not this country, but the entire world.  The Mexicans and the Somalians.  We have a responsibility to the least of His children.  What can we do?  Surely we can at least feed them and cloth them, right?

There’s a movement happening.  It’s a pretty big one, and I think we should all get on board.  I’m sure most of you know every year around this time everyone asks for a little more.  Every blog you go to, there is probably a link to some great cause.  And they ARE great causes.

I have been praying and thinking and praying and crying lately.  What is this all for?  Why come November, does 80% of America put their bill payments on hold, sell their 401k, or their soul, to get other people gifts.  Why for 6 months after Christmas, are people talking about the debt they’ve acrued from doing this?  Is this what Jesus would want?  Is this what the meaning of the Birth of Christ means to us?

I don’t think so.  It makes me very very sad.  There are people in this world who can’t drink fresh water.  When people bring baby formula to their villages, the kids are dying, because they are mixing the formula with some nasty, infested waters, and in turn, they are inadvertantly poisoning their babies.  We are inadvertantly poisoning our youth too.  With stuff.  With cable.  With ABC ‘Family’. (Don’t get me started) With RazRs and Digital Camera’s, and the internet.

What can we do this year, that will make it different?  Spend less.  When you are shopping, shop for a good cause.  Your child wants clothes?  How about shopping at “To Write Love on Her Arms“.  Or somewhere that is for a good cause.  That way your money can go two places.

There are 1 million and one things you can do to make this year a little easier, and bring hope to the world.  If you go here it will give you a great run down.  Basically the idea, and my prayer for this year is for everyone to “Worship Fully; Spend Less; Give More; and Love All”

Lord, touch our hearts this year.  Help us be your body.  Your hands, and feet, and to spread Your message of love and redemption.  It’s by your grace I am saved Lord, and I never want to forget.  Lord, this year, when I get offers for credit cards, give me the strength to turn them down.  Lord, this season is all about You and it is so easy to forget that.  Please help me remember.  Thank You for Your Gift.  Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Seriously, here is a two minute video. Please watch. Thank you!