Signs of Hope - World AIDS Day

“Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?”

These questions were posed by the Prophet Jeremiah in the 7th century B.C.E. in light of the experience of the Israelites who found themselves in exile and pain in the city of Babylon. The region of Gilead was known for producing a healing balm. This balm was known for its medicinal powers. When people were hurting, they would seek out the balm in Gilead, for it was like no other in its ability to facilitate healing. The balm in Gilead was considered to be a miracle cure, and if it couldn’t heal one’s wounds, there was perhaps nothing that would.

The pain of the people in the city of that day leads us to reflect upon those who suffer in our cities today. Nationwide, 45 million people are believed to be living without health insurance. In Baltimore it is estimated that one out of every four persons does not have health insurance. Nearly 10,000 of those are children.

Robert Franklin, the president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, in his most recent book points to what he refers to as Crisis in the Village. For Franklin, the challenges facing many communities today are contradictory to the very nature of the foundations upon which communities have historically been shaped. Franklin, himself a product of the South-side of Chicago near the Robert Taylor Homes, which before its demolition was the largest public housing project in the world, points out that much of the crisis in the proverbial village today is evident in the lives of those who suffer.

Monday, December 1, 2008 marks the 21st World AIDS Day. World AIDS Day was established by the World Health Organization in 1988 to raise awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It is estimated that more than 25 million people have died from AIDS, with more than 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS today.

In Baltimore, there has been an increase in the prevalent cases of HIV and AIDS in every year since 1986, with over 16,000 reported cases at the end of 2007. Some hope may be found in the fact that deaths of persons with AIDS has continued to decrease – from over 200 in 1996 to less than 100 reported deaths in 2007.

The ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic points to the critical need for expanded access to healthcare, particularly in our cities. In 2004, the Global AIDS Fund was established by the United Methodist Church to provide education, advocacy, and funding support for ministries working toward an AIDS-free world. Establishing constructive approaches to improving the health of persons across the globe – particularly among the poor - has been adopted as one of the priorities of the United Methodist Church for the next several years. Signs of hope can be found in those urban churches and institutions that seek to provide education, advocacy, and resources for those among us that continue to suffer daily.

Signs of Hope - The Tree of Life

This past weekend, several dozen people gathered just outside Baltimore at the United Methodist Board of Child Care to share in the dedication of the Tree of Life. The tree was a gift to the Board of Child Care from supporters who wanted to honor the dedication of persons who have offered their time, talent and money to support the work of the Board over many years. Those who spoke at the dedication service shared stories of the generosity of many persons whose names appeared on the leaves of the Tree of Life, and how their gifts, and those of many others have, and continue to make a real difference in the lives of children and families in Baltimore, Washington, DC and beyond.

As I shared in the dedication service, I was reminded of an old story about an unusual tree that grew outside of a desert city:

It was an ancient tree, a landmark, as matter of fact. It seemed to have been touched by the finger of God, for it bore fruit perpetually. Despite its old age, its limbs were constantly laden with fruit. Hundreds of passersby refreshed themselves from the tree, as it never failed to give freely of its fruit.

But then a greedy merchant purchased the property on which the tree grew. He saw hundreds of travelers picking fruit from his tree, so he built a high fence around it. Travelers pleaded and pleaded with the new owner, “Please, share the fruit with us.”

The miserly merchant scoffed, “I bought this tree with my money. It’s my tree, and my fruit.”

And then an astonishing thing happened – suddenly, the ancient tree died! What could have happened? The law of giving expresses this immutable principle: when giving stops, bearing fruit ceases, and death inevitably follows.

The Tree of Life – as it will stand, and as others’ names will be added in the days to come- will serve as a testament of the fruitfulness of those who offer a part of themselves so that others might experience possibility. It will serve as a hopeful sign of the life-giving power of sharing so that others might have a more hopeful future.

Signs of Hope - Encounters, Conversation and Vision

The conversations began as what I like to refer to as “by-the-way” discussions while we were away for 12 days in April and May of this year. Sherman, Larry and I were together for the United Methodist Church’s General Conference in Ft. Worth, Texas, and the conversations began as questions as to how United Methodist men in the Baltimore region and across the Baltimore-Washington Conference could become actively involved in supporting Hope for the City, our conference’s strategic plan for ministry in Baltimore. The conversations were holy in that as we began to vision together, concrete possibilities for mission and ministry in Baltimore, and ways that men could make an immediate and significant impact and witness as to the presence of Christ in their lives and in the city, started to emerge. During our twelve days of holy conversation, we agreed that a great place to start was in assisting with clean-up efforts at Mt. Auburn Cemetery on the southwest edge of the city. Mt. Auburn Cemetery was founded in 1872, and is one of the first cemeteries owned and operated by African Americans in Baltimore. It is the burial site for numerous individuals central to the Civil Rights movement regionally and nationally, and although it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, in recent years the cemetery has been in need of significant clean-up and improvement. As a result of our conversations in Texas, since the middle of May, Methodist men from across the region have gathered on at least two Saturdays each month to assist with clean-up efforts. Through the persistence of these men and many others, there are signs of hope at Mt. Auburn. On one recent Saturday, we encountered the grave site of Bishop William Alfred Carroll Hughes and his family. We learned that Bishop Hughes was the first bishop elected after the Methodist merger of 1939. For some time, his grave site could not be seen. But due to the clean-up efforts at the cemetery, we can now see where one of the bishops of the church and his family is buried. This is a sign of hope. I’ve learned that hope often begins with encounter, conversation and vision.

Signs of Hope - Thanksgiving and Blessing

Recently, I have had a chance to preach on several occasions about thanksgiving and blessing, and how even in the midst of the hard times and scarcity that we now face, we as Christians are called to share our blessings with others. The fire this week at the Bea Gaddy Family Center in Baltimore again brought to light the tremendous needs of many in the city, and the ongoing need to address poverty, homelessness and hunger. For over two decades, the Bea Gaddy Family Center has served the poor of the city, with Ms. Gaddy playing a pivotal role in these efforts until her death in 2001. In the wake of the fire at the Gaddy Center, what has been most heartening is the generosity of many individuals, businesses, and organizations that have come forward to offer support to ensure that the Gaddy Center’s efforts in housing the homeless and feeding the hungry on Thanksgiving and throughout the year will continue. Thanksgiving affords each of us the opportunity to reflect upon the blessings in our lives, and to share from our blessings. Signs of hope in the city can be found the in many churches across the city that open their doors throughout the year and share the blessings of God. Carpenter’s Kitchen at Mt. Vernon Place UMC, Lydia’s Kitchen at Sharp Street Memorial UMC, and Manna House at Lovely Lane UMC, are three shining examples of such generosity, and point to the blessing of sharing with others the blessings of God in our lives.

Signs of Hope at Charge Conference

Wow! What a witness! On last Sunday, nine churches gathered at John Wesley United Methodist Church in West Baltimore for a time of charge conferencing. The primary purpose of our gathering was for each of the churches to give reports on the state of their church and to make projections for the coming year. A part of our time was set apart for persons to share stories of how God has been at work in the life of their church. As the stories were being shared, it became evident that God really is at work in the churches, and that lives are really being transformed. We heard powerful stories of God at work in worship, faith development, and in ministries that connect persons both within and beyond the local churches. Eight of the 9 congregations at the conference have recently completed five months of training to become United Methodist Communities of Shalom. Persons shared hopes and dreams of how these new Shalom Zone will transform their churches and communities. One church shared about an emerging and growing discipleship ministry where over fifty persons gather for a monthly training session. This time of sharing is what some would call a “Kairos” moment, when God was evident, and opportunities for God to use each of our gifts were clearly apparent. What were really being shared were signs of hope all around us.

Education and Hope for the City

Today’s cities face any number of issues that present very real challenges to the prospect of the realization of authentic community. Cities like Baltimore face ongoing issues with high rates of poverty and high school dropout, increases in violent crime rates, issues related to urban health, unemployment, under-employment, and drug addiction, among many others. Notice that in 2007, there were at least 278 murders in Baltimore. Although the murder rate in the city has decreased, it remains high.

Developing constructive approaches to educating the young of the city presents perhaps some of the most critical opportunities for turning the tide on the blight now evident in much of urban life. Why is the education of the young important?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German Protestant theologian, executed for opposing Hitler’s holocaust, said that the test of the morality of a society is how it treats its children.

I believe that Frederick Douglas’s statement from more than century and a half ago sheds additional light on the critical importance of properly educating today’s urban young. Douglas intimated that “literacy unfits a child for slavery.” I believe that education today, unfits our children for poverty, addiction and imprisonment.

The 2005 “Equality Index,” published by the National Urban League sheds light on the challenges urban education. It points to significant disparities among urban and suburban educational systems in several areas, including the quality of education (including teacher quality and credentialing), as well as educational attainment/achievement.[1]

It is important that we give constructive attention to how children in urban areas are being educated because – as Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund points out - urban children face the higher likelihood of being abused and neglected, born into poverty, born without health insurance, killed by a firearm, or born to a teenage mother.

Despite the challenges, signs of hope for the city can be found. Substantive discussions have begun among several educational, government, community church leaders in Baltimore to identify ways to begin to more comprehensively address the educational challenges facing many children in the city of Baltimore. A number of churches and their members have chosen to get involved with schools in their communities through the Baltimore Public Schools’, “Great Kids, Great Schools” Initiative. The Northwood-Appold United Methodist Church currently houses the Northwood-Appold Community Academy, a pubic charter school that, in its fourth year of operation, educates over 250 children.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once intimated that everybody can be great because everybody can serve. Let us all seek to be great by seeking to serve and educate our children.

[1] National Urban League, The State of Black America-2006: The Opportunity Compact (New York: National Urban League, 2006), p. 133 f.

The Presidential Election and Signs of Hope

One of the interesting quotes that I read leading up to this year’s presidential election was from Dr. Michael Christensen, the National Director of Communities of Shalom of the United Methodist Church. Michael pointed out that “Jesus was a community developer and Pontius Pilate was a governor.” This was in response to the public criticisms that were then being directed at then-Senator Barak Obama (now President-Elect) by Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for Vice President. Obama’s qualifications for president were being questioned because of his choice – after graduating from Columbia University and Harvard Law School (and serving as editor of the Harvard Law Review) – to return to Chicago’s south side to work as a community developer. The political discourse as to what makes one more qualified and ready for the presidency of the United States – being the governor of Alaska or being a community developer in Chicago – did point to the critical choices that some have made to provide service and leadership in our cities, often in exchange for apparent career mobility and professional prestige. It was not lost on all, however, that Senator Obama was a highly qualified presidential candidate who rose from an impoverished upbringing to become a person of exemplary achievement as a student at two Ivy League institutions and who chose to enter public service as a community organizer and legislator because of a commitment to facilitating change at the grassroots. It’s interesting that the 44th president cut his leadership teeth not in a board room, but on the streets of the south side of the third largest city in America, that he chose not to go to Wall Street, but to serve on “Main Street” with law credentials in hand. These are, in this writer’s estimation, signs of hope for the city. For leaders – from the White House to any house – to have breathed the breath of the city, to have heard the siren sounds of the city, and to have witnessed the human mosaic that is the city – serve as signs that the days ahead will be days of hope and possibility.