Signs of God's Coming...

When I read Shane Claiborne's book, Irresistible Revolution, I was struck with a line in which he notes that God's Kingdom enters in in the places that the empire has abandoned. For Shane, it was Philly (photo above). For me, it was New Haven.

It's not that people in government--local, state, national--don't WANT to help folks living in these places... if you asked them, if you showed them a YouTube video documenting the difficulties of life in these communities and said "won't you help?" they would almost without exception say "yes."

But when it comes to the sausage-making process that is political apportionments, when it comes to making decisions about taxpayer dollars, when it comes to the 11th hour and the give-and-take of policy-making, abandoned communities are not represented. There are no paid lobbyists for the children of North Philadelphia, or the boarded-up West Rock projects in New Haven (see photo). The children who live there are so far out of sight, they can be nothing else but out of mind. The abandoned places of empire, however, are the first places where the Kingdom of God takes hold.

A long time ago, back in the days when churches like mine still sent workers into the "mission fields," Marble sent workers to rural Kentucky. The relationship was lost over the years, and our work of compassion and justice has largely focused on urban needs--on communities in our own backyard. But just this past year, we have reconnected to our Kentucky roots thanks to one of our members who is from Kentucky and whose father lives and works there. We are pledging support this year to the Food Bank in Owsley County, Kentucky, and praying for the work of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship there. In resurrecting this relationship, I'm hopeful that we can see the connection between East New York and Owsley County, between the Bronx and Appalachia: the Kingdom of God is born in the abandoned places of empire.

As we watch and wait in Advent for the Kingdom to come, it's helpful if we have clues about where to watch... and what we might be looking for...