Recently I was asked, “Since you live a vow of poverty what do you give up for Lent?” I prefer to redefine “voluntary poverty” as a vow for mutual sustainability.” writes Clarence Rivers Sims
JOURNAL OF AN ALIEN STREET PRIEST
The final hope of human beings is not heaven, but participation in God’s restoration of all things. — Gordon Zerbe
We are in the season of Lent, and Christians are talking about what they are giving up. One friend gives up chocolate, another 7UP. Recently I was asked, “Since you live a vow of poverty what do you give up for Lent?”
I prefer to redefine “voluntary poverty” as a vow for mutual sustainability. “Mutual Sustainability” I define as living a life in which all creation is a gift from God, given to our care to nurture. In working with others we acknowledge that these gifts belong to all of us, therefore we should share the gifts with all. From the Gospel it is a call and a challenge for all humans to work toward a new world order, where poverty can be overcome, and eventually, eliminated. The message of God’s reign – centered on the key values of love, justice, peace, and liberation
– is the ultimate answer to the predicament of the poor in the world and the deprivation wrought on creation itself by human exploitation. This vision includes the earth itself; nothing is excluded, since inclusive relationships are a pr! econdition of Jesus for the New Reign of God. John O’Donohue says it eloquently:
So the challenge for me this Lent is to seek to live out this vow of mutual sustainability more fully, and to fast in the words of Isaiah 58:
This is the kind of fast I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I am interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, “Here I am.” (Isa. 58:4-11, The Message)
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Do all the good you can,
by all the means you can,
in all the ways you can,
in all the places you can,
at all the times you can,
to all the people you can,
as long as you can.
— John Wesley
Father C. River Sims
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San Francisco, CA 94109
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