The Sacrament of the Good Samaritan

Paper title: Theological Options for an Understanding of Engagement with the Poor and the Marginalised as a Sacrament in The Salvation Army
Author/researcher: Jason Davies-Kildea
Country of origin: Australia
Publication/completion date: August, 2004
Length: 24 pages
Keywords:The Salvation Army, sacraments
Abstract:

This essay will consider whether it is possible to construct an understanding of engagement with the poor and the marginalised as a sacrament. In order to guide the theological options which will form the basis for that understanding, it will first be necessary to establish a working definition of sacrament. From this point, it becomes feasible to begin to unpack how a particular idea of sacrament might be understood in relation to the specific ecclesial position of The Salvation Army and its engagement in mission with the poor.

This essay is not intended to be a comprehensive ‘sacramental theology’. Instead, it will explore the concept of sacrament as a key to understanding the interaction between God and humanity in the midst of mission. It is hoped that the results of this exploration may give Salvationists a useful framework for understanding their own denomination’s engagement in mission from a theological point of view. In addition, recognition of the sacramental character of The Salvation Army’s mission may be valuable to ecumenical dialogue in which the Army have sometimes been seen as sacramentally ‘poor’ or ‘deficient’.

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Who can afford to save the poor?

                                                                                                                                                                                                          … asks Wayne Rumsby

First of all by poor I mean under-resourced. Truly all of us experience moments of poverty in our lives. However, for most people I know poverty is only momentary, because they are able to bring other resources to bare.

Most times these other resources are friends who willingly step into the gap in order to save us. The poor I’m referring to are people who have nobody behind them with outstretched arms, willing to catch them as the fall. In some cases, they are like the prodigal son who have wasted their resources. Sadly, many of the poor are part of a generational experience, and there seems to be no place to return to. 

Downtown Toronto maybe one of the few places on the planet that has not suffered the recent recession. Everywhere you look there are new shiny towers reaching for the sky. Every piece of land is being developed and re-developed. The prices of these condos makes you wonder how this will work out, one thing is for sure, there won’t be room for those who make $20k or less. 

The city has recently undertaken a project that they call the Revitalization of Regent Park housing project, which itself was pitched as a revitalization project just after the second world war. It will be beautiful, truly revitalized, but perhaps not for those who live there now. It has been marketed as a mixed housing project but the reality is that very few people who live there now will be able to survive the process and benefit from the changes. Overall the city will be revitalized, but the under-resourced, the poor will simply be swept aside. 

Eleven years ago my wife and I bought a house in South Riverdale in response to God’s calling to move closer to those who live on or near the street. Over the past decade all of this progress has driven the value of our home upwards. This is good news for us, but it’s not such good news for those who can’t scratch together a down payment of $50,000 or more. The raw truth is that the kind of money that street pastors can attract is never enough to impress the lenders. We’ve recently taken steps to reduce our footprint and our budget by sharing our home with another family. They are also involved in urban ministry. They don’t own a home, and the prospect of being able to own one is remote, so we will share our resources and try to make this work. 

The question remains, who can afford to reach the city’s most under-resourced who live on or near the street? They can’t afford to live here and we can barely afford to either. Furthermore, we can’t afford the space and materials to support these folks whose poverty often includes being chronically under-productive.

The return on investment isn’t very attractive. We can lead them to Jesus but then what? We, the Church, need to ask ourselves, how much should we spend on saving a soul? Sometimes we can do it pretty economically by inviting people to a big stadium and simply delivering the gospel. If that works, it represents one end of the spectrum, at the other end are those who have been raped and beaten and left for dead.

The costs for saving them are truly staggering, Jesus knew that.

Writer: Wayne Rumsby is at least a fourth generation follower of Jesus Christ. In his late 30’s Wayne responded to an invitation to visit an inner city mission in the heart of Toronto. At the time he was working as a graphic designer. It wasn’t long before he left his job in the fast paced ad business, in the glass towers, to become a full time missionary on the streets and in the alleys. The focus of his mission was to help the marginalized discover God through meaningful work. For most of the past decade Wayne was helping people discover who God had created them to be, by teaching them to make beautiful furniture in a woodworking shop. Today Wayne and his wife Linda are working with the team at 614 Regent Park with the very same vision, helping people discover who God has created them to be, and more.  

Does Power Corrupt?

            “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  Lord Acton 1887

“Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it”  William Pitt 1770

One of the unfortunate byproducts of any society of humans is that power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

In my media career I have had both the fortune and misfortune of dealing on an intimate basis with the powerful of many kinds - politicians, celebrities, popstars, movie stars, sporting heroes. I have seen firsthand the power (either perceived or real) corrupting over and over again.

It is rare to find an organisation which has not been effected by the powerful ones who seek to “settle old scores”, crush innovative non-conformists with a wet blanket of conservatism, take personal credit for the toil of others, unfairly practise nepotism, impede the advancement of outstanding young people and bully more junior staff, send nay-sayers to “Coventry” (or “Back of Beyond” as we say in Australia) or other equally cruel, selfish, non-edifying acts of destructive indulgence.

The less powerful victims, their families and colleagues suffer. So too ultimately does the organisation. A lack of true accountability or undeserved position goes hand-in-hand with this type of megalomania. If it’s not kept in check the almost inevitable corruption follows. It’s part of the nature of fallen man I suppose. 

Of course, as members of the Christian community we are immune from this insidiousness right??? In a perfect world where everyone was perfectly in sync with their Creator, surrended to and guided by the Holy Spirit there would be no pathetic powerplays, self-seeking egos or foolish pride getting in the way. But unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world.

Our hierachical structure sometimes elevates people to positions of power that are beyond the level that an individual can adequately handle things, without letting themselves get in the way. Don’t get me wrong; some of our leaders are brilliant, inspiring, spirit-filled visionaries. They lead “from the front”, with a prophetic drive but with their feet firmly on the ground. Unfortunately there are others who fall short.

Jesus put the religious leaders well and truly “in their place”, I trust he’ll continue to do so, but we also need to do our part. We need to have an attitude of zero tolerance to any abuse of power by leaders.

Let’s pray earnestly for our leaders and support them in such a way that they don’t need the corruptive practices of the flesh to somehow edify their work.

Postmodern Parables #2

postmodern parables: Kick-Ass, takin‘ names, and the Good Samaritan

…a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do
I need to do to get eternal life?” He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law?
How do you interpret it?” He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all
your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence-and that you love your
neighbor as well as you do yourself.” “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and
you’ll live.” Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define
‘neighbor’?” Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling
from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took
his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest
was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to
the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the
injured man. A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the
man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting
and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an
inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any
more, put it on my bill-I’ll pay you on my way back.’ “What do you think?
Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?” “The one
who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, “Go and
do the same.”

Luke 10: 25-37, The Message          

The film Kick-Ass, based on the graphic novel of the same name, was released in theatres on Friday, April 16, 2010. Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) it stars Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Chloe Moretz, Nicolas Cage, and Lyndsy Fonseca.

The film tells the story of comic-book geek/fanboy Dave Lizewski who takes his hobby to new levels when he decides to create an alter-ego, fight crime, and no longer stand by and watch as others suffer. Dave assembles a suit and mask, a website and email account to hear from people who need help, and he becomes the superhero Kick-Ass. The catch is that he has no superpowers; none whatsoever. He was not bitten by a spider. He’s not from another planet. He’s not a mutant. He doesn’t even have the financial resources of Bruce Wayne (Batman) or Tony Stark (Iron Man) to create and design weapons and suits that facilitate superpowers. Kick-Ass joins forces with other wannabe superheroes Hit Girl, Big Daddy, and Red Mist to fight crime and take names in New York City.

Warning! The film is violent. There are scenes of sexuality. There are scenes of drug use. There is coarse language throughout the film. It’s rated 18A in Canada, which means persons under the age of 18 require a guardian to attend a screening.

Watching the film there were some elements and scenes I felt were too much; there were times I was uncomfortable. However, I couldn’t help but think about the story of the Good Samaritan and the spirit and goal of Dave’s journey.

Dave has been a “nobody” his whole life. He’s been picked on and mugged. Nothing seems to be going right. He sees crime and injustice all around him. He decides it’s time to take a stand. He decides its time someone do something. Dave does. He takes matters into his own hands. He puts others first and puts himself in harm’s way for their benefit.

The Good Samaritan did the same thing. He saw the result of crime. He saw injustice. He put another man first with the risk of being in harm’s way. The religious people in Christ’s story were useless. They walked by. They saw the result of crime and injustice and did nothing. They were either too busy or too worried about being defiled to stoop down and help another human being in need.

The famous theme and line from Spiderman is: “With great power comes great responsibility.” At one point it in Kick-Ass Dave says to the audience, rephrasing the line: “With no power comes no responsibility… but that’s not true.”

It’s not true. Members of society have a responsibility to each other, whether they like it or not. People do not always enter these societal contracts, but they’re there. People of God and the Church are especially called to serve and put others first. From Gensis to Revelation we are commanded to take care of people, to represent our triune God to the world, to be, what James calls, “doers of the Word.”

Our best example of this was the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. He was there for people from all walks of life. He served and loved people from all walks of life. He put others first, so much so that he gave his life. Christ truly put himself in harm’s way, the ultimate harm’s way, for the benefit of others, for suffering humanity.

Dave/Kick-Ass had no powers. The Good Samaritan had no powers. Yet they both took on the responsibility to put others before themselves. They both served and ministered to others.

I was about to write that we don’t have any powers, yet we should take on the responsibility to put others first, but I would have been wrong. We have a greater source of power than being bitten by a radioactive spider could produce. We have a greater source of power than all the financial resources in the world could produce. We have our triune God - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The power that created the world is at our disposal.

The power that conquered sin, death, and the grave is at our disposal.

The power that has inspired, guided, and filled the Church since the first Day of Pentecost is at our disposal.

Will we take on the same responsibility to which Dave and the Good Samaritan felt called? Will we put others first? Will we “go and do the same?”

Writer: Mark Braye and his wife Nancy are officers in Essex, Ontario, Canada. They have two children, pictured above, Hannah and Micah. The four of them love to play and watch Sesame Street.