August 8, 2010 | 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.

That All May Live

Victoria G. Curtiss
Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Psalm 50:1–8, 22–23
Isaiah 1:1, 10–20

There is violence . . . toward the poor,
Violence that refuses to forgive,
And we are a mix of victim and perpetrator. . . .
No wonder there is fear,
reams of despair, and acres of weeping!
And we feebly watch for you and wait.
Teach us how to weep while we wait,
And how to hope while we weep,
And how to care while we hope.

Walter Brueggemann
Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth

During the tragic oil spill in the Gulf, President Obama was criticized for not showing enough anger about the spill’s destructiveness and how ineffective and delayed were the attempts to stop it. Some of that criticism no doubt spews from political partisanship, which too often attacks presidents at every turn. But it also reveals that when something or someone we care about is hurt or destroyed, we get angry to the degree that we care.

The prophet Isaiah proclaims that God is furious. It is as if God were to say to us, “I hate your worship. Your prayers make me sick. I will not listen to them. I loathe your music. Your sermons are a sacrilege. Who asked you for your offerings? Your Holy Communion stinks. I want none of it.”

We might dismiss this as coming from the “angry God of the Old Testament” rather than the “loving God of the New Testament.” But that is a false distinction about God and about the Bible. In both the Old and the New Testaments, God renders divine justice and divine mercy. God deeply desires nothing more than a world in which we love one another and God and care for God’s creation. God invests in us, promises support, holds us accountable, and experiences disappointment. It is to be expected that when human sin destroys what God loves, God would be angry.

In Isaiah, the sin that angers God is familiar. The affluent and politically powerful people were accumulating more and more property, building larger and more beautiful houses, wearing precious jewelry and fine clothes, enjoying wine and feasting on good food to the sound of melodious instruments—enjoying a prosperous life. They were full of pride and glorified the work of their own hands (Isaiah 2-4, 5:8–11). But they did nothing to aid the poor and needy. Isaiah denounces their greed and their exploitation of the poor and the oppressed. He describes their hands lifted up in prayer as “full of blood.” Their animal sacrifices mean nothing to God when they are so callous about their neighbors in need.

All this, regrettably, is still true for us. No matter how beautiful the architecture, how stirring the music, or how thought-provoking the sermons, what we do on Sundays inside our sanctuary offends God if we are not advocating and caring for the poor outside the sanctuary. God says to us, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean.” Here is what matters to me, God says, that you “cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”

Those most vulnerable in our city are the poor who live in neighborhoods fraught with violence. Already this year, thirty-four children in the Chicago Public Schools have been killed and many others wounded. In the space of two months, three Chicago police officers were fatally shot. Our city has nearly three times the rate of murder as the City of New York. To rescue the oppressed and defend the poor requires that we work for and with people in neighborhoods where their everyday reality is living amid gangs and violence.

One of those neighborhoods is a mile to the west, Cabrini-Green, where Fourth Church has done outreach for many years. Through Chicago Lights Tutoring, Summer Day, Near North Magnet Cluster, and now the Urban Farm, we seek to enrich the lives of young people.

Our Urban Farm has an advisory council with co-chairs, one a member of Fourth Church and one a resident of the neighborhood, named Deborah Hope. Each advisory council meeting includes a time to hear about the state of the neighborhood. Deborah shared some news at the last meeting, but not as much as she might have. She didn’t share that within the last year fourteen members of her extended family have been killed by being beaten, shot, or stabbed. Fourteen. She didn’t tell how when someone is killed, often the families don’t come to identify the body because they can’t afford a funeral. Their loved ones are taken and buried in unmarked graves. The funeral is often a gathering at the site of the shooting. Children are retraumatized when they walk past the site where a person was shot. Six- and seven-year-olds’ conversations show they don’t think they are going to live very long, and they wonder if it’s safer to join a gang or not join a gang. Deborah believes it is crucial that children at a very young age are taught what to do with their anger besides pick up a bat or gun.

Friday’s Chicago Tribune had an article about how the state’s budget crisis is hurting antiviolence programs in our city. One such program is the Youth Service Project in Humboldt Park. A fifteen-year-old boy in the summer camp program said, “If we didn’t have this program, I would be scared what would happen to me.” A twelve-year-old girl added, “We feel safe here.” The Executive Director, Kenny Martin-Ocasio, said, “When these kids have no place to go, the potential that they will be recruited for gang activity or become victims of gang activity is higher.” Last week, youth in this program talked about “their fears of being shot while walking down the wrong street or talking to the wrong person” and “how easy it would be to slip into a gang out of a desire to feel popular, to belong.” With the state reducing funding to such antiviolence programs, Senator William Delgados stated, “This takes the temperature up. We are creating a new pool of prisoners” (“Kids Antiviolence Programs Running out of Ammunition,” Chicago Tribune, 9 August 2010).

A group of high school boys who are apprentices in the Midtown Educational Center’s journalism program recently talked with some staff of the Tribune about life on the streets: how the boys navigate their neighborhoods to get to class safely; how they distance themselves from intraschool skirmishes and gang conflicts; how to behave, who to cultivate, and who to avoid in order to maintain relative safety in public. Most tellingly, the young men said they don’t count on adults, especially police, to protect them. They dodge daily perils as best they can (“A War out Here” Chicago Tribune, 19 July 2010).

Two weeks ago in Pullman, thirteen year-old Robert Freeman Jr. was brutally killed near his home. When gunshots were heard, one mother ran to get her son, who was two blocks away. As they got home, she told him, “You’re going to be alright.” His response was, “That’s what you said before.” Robert was the fourth teen shot in the area in a week. Parents alone cannot keep their children safe or make it all right.

And God says, “Seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”

Our Mission Committee has chosen gun violence as a focus for our church’s advocacy efforts. They sought guidance from a noted activist for children and youth, Father Michael Pfleger, who has served St. Sabina Catholic Church on the South Side for thirty years. He has adopted two sons and was foster father to a third boy, who was killed by stray gunfire in 1998.

Father Pfleger spoke at Fourth Church and said to us, “The greatest institution that has failed is the church.” Faith communities need to be the conscience of our society. We cannot tolerate the violence around us as normal. We must not let killing be something we get used to. Just shaking our heads and saying “Isn’t it tragic” is not enough. We need to stop merely quoting the African proverb that says “It takes a village to raise a child.” We need to be that village. Care for children. Strengthen our neighborhoods. Build relationships with one another, so we look after the elderly woman who lives across the street and the teenager who lives next door. Parents need to be parents and not let TV or the streets raise their children. Police officers need to be “Officer Friendly,” and legislators need to prevent easy access to guns. Youth programs need to be multiplied. Education needs a different funding base in the state of Illinois, so youth from poorer areas are getting quality schooling. Employment opportunities need to be available for young people, or they lose their hope in the future. Father Pfleger said, “I’m tired of burying children. I’m tired of trying to convince parents whose children have been killed not to kill themselves. . . . Our children are starving for love, education, and purpose in their lives. When you lose hope and faith, when you lose your dreams and any sense that you are of value, you don’t care about anyone.” Gangs become attractive as a place to belong and feel valued. Father Pfleger challenged us with a vision: “The faith communities need to be a bigger gang than the ones on the street.”

We have a new firearms ordinance in Chicago. Mayor Daley has called violence the “most immediate and pressing challenge” facing our city (“Daley on Crime Fears: Ask Weis,” Chicago Tribune, 3 August 2010).

Governor Quinn has announced the formation of an antiviolence commission and said he would veto legislation that allowed people to carry concealed handguns or permitted the sale and possession of semiautomatic assault-style weapons (“Quinn Picks up Endorsement of Gun-Control Group,” Chicago Tribune, 3 August 2010). But it takes a large effort by many citizens to make a change.

Father Pfleger took four busloads of people from his African American neighborhood to Springfield to lobby for statewide gun control and support of youth programs. The response from many downstate legislators was, “We don’t have this problem in our communities. This is your problem in Chicago.” His parishioners were hurt and disappointed that their children’s welfare was not seen as a matter of concern for everyone. One Illinois legislator told Father Pfleger, “We’re not going to deal with this as long as it is just blacks and browns making noise. When six busloads of white people come, then we will pay attention.”

It’s tragic that the voices of poor, minority persons are not heeded. And it is a call to action for us, who are mostly white and middle class. The Mission Advocacy Committee has decided to organize people from the North Side to hold a rally in Chicago in mid-October and later to go to Springfield to break faith communities’ silence about gun violence and the need to protect and improve the lives of our young people. I hope you will join them. I will.

There are additional ways you can make a difference. Be a mentor through our Tutoring program. Research shows that the age, race, and gender of the mentor are not important. What is important is that a caring adult is there consistently each week for that child. Bill Milliken, the founder of Communities in Schools, said, “It’s relationships . . . that change children. . . . Young people thrive when adults care about them on a one-to-one level and when they also have a sense of belonging to a caring community.” Kathy Flaa, one of our members, began tutoring a second-grade girl last year. In the beginning, the student would come and not do anything. She wouldn’t say what her homework was. She wouldn’t open her books. She would just put her head down on the desk. Kathy tried a variety of things, but the girl didn’t respond. Finally Kathy had a heart-to-heart talk with her. She told her that the only reason she came each week was because she cared about her. She wanted her to do well in school and have a good life. Kathy explained she didn’t get paid to do this. It was only because she wanted to, for the student’s sake. The next week, and every week that followed, the girl was quite engaged in learning.

Students in Tutoring and Summer Day tell us that they feel safe and valued here. Last year, one eighth grader wrote, “The Chicago Lights Tutoring program means a lot to me. [This is my sixth year with Tutoring] because I love my tutor, the staff, and some students here for everything and letting me be part of the program. I know the staff loves me, especially Anne (she really is crazy about me).” That’s what it looks like for the church to become a bigger gang than the ones on the street.

You can give money to support programs that employ youth or provide scholarships. Most of the students we work with have never considered college an option for themselves. Two weeks ago, thirty of the forty-five youth employed at the Chicago Lights Urban Farm visited Roosevelt University, a visit arranged by the Farm Program Director, Natasha Holbert. They had a tour of the campus and saw what a classroom looks like as well as a dorm. They ate a delicious catered meal at which two deans and the president of the university spoke to them. The president encouraged them to attend college because it would change their lives. One student began calculating how much it would cost each month to go to college and felt it was impossible. But you could help change that.

Other people and organizations are inviting Fourth Church to join their efforts. The father of Darien Albert, the teenager who was beaten to death last year, has founded a project called Safe Passage. They are enlisting adult volunteers to escort children to and from school to protect them, including in the Cabrini neighborhood. A group called Cabrini Mothers in Power hopes we will join them in resolving the problem of no full-day programs in early childhood development or day care in Cabrini, where there are hundreds of preschool children. People are looking to our church, to us, for help.

So does God. We are called to embody the commandment of Jesus Christ to love our neighbors as ourselves. Let there be no gap between our praise of God in worship and our practice of faith in the world. As we extend our hands to God in prayer, let us also extend our hands to our most vulnerable sisters and brothers. May our worship and our work be pleasing in God’s sight.