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I've been reading together two stories from the Bible—one from the Old, one from the New Testament. In the first story, the Lord brings to an end a siege so terrible that mothers agree together to eat their own children. In the second story, the Lord begins steering the repentance of John the Baptist toward a more radical revolution by answering the question of the Pharisees as to why he and his disciples do not fast. It's difficult for me to grasp together the meaning of the three answers that Jesus gives, and perhaps they don't all mean exactly the same thing. He first says that one does not fast while the bridegroom is with you. This is his most direct response, but it leaves open the question of just who the bridegroom is and what kind of effect his presence has; apparently one does not fast in his presence, but this merely begs the question the Pharisees asked in the first place. Why not? His second and third answers are not as directly addressed to the question of fasting per se, but address the new kind of logic that Jesus' ministry to sinners presents. In closely parallel statements he says that one does not put new (un-shrunken) patches on old cloth, or new wine into old wineskins. The latter of these two images is often used to describe the work of the Spirit in a person's life—but I would like to focus on the patchwork imagery. |
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The basic imagery is clear enough: if you sew un-shrunken cloth to old, shrunken cloth, when the whole garment is laundered the newly shrunken cloth with bunch up, weakening the seam. Maybe I can easily relate to this image because much of the work I do—spiritually and materially—is a kind of patchwork. Like Paul's language of the 'new man,' Jesus' image of new wineskins is more encouraging for those of us in need of making a fresh start; but we should not forget that Jesus also uses images of reparation—even poverty—to describe the effect of his presence. Now, the siege-induced poverty described in II Kings was so severe even undesirable meets were sold at for a king's ransom. But, if the Israelites' need for salvation was absolute, the Lord's dealings with them through the prophets tended to be situational: personal and local—a kind of patchwork. Why, only just the previous verse of the same chapter had reveled in the salvific triumph that the Arameans no longer sent raiding parties into Israel—and in the very next verse it says that 'some time later' they mustered their entire army and marched on Samaria, the Israeli capital. In the previous incident the Lord had delivered a band of raiders into the Israelites' hands, but the Lord had spoken through Elisha that to slaughter them would only be to escalate the violence. Instead, they offered them a feast and sent them home with changed hearts. |
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But human resolution is fickle, and in the gap between two verses their hearts had again hardened into hatred. I can relate to this very well because of the fickleness in my own resolutions to change my attitude. The effects of sin are so clearly demonstrated in this story that the Hebrew king cries out, 'This trouble is from the Lord! Why should I continue to hope in him?' and makes plans to murder Elisha. But the Lord has other plans and speaks through Elisha of miraculous blessing for the whole city. Not only would food prices drop drastically, they would sell again in the very gateways which where currently locked tight against the siege. In the night the Lord caused the Arameans to hear the sound of horses and chariots so that they fled in terror—abandoning their tents and their horses and donkeys tethered. When the Israelites discovered such the next morning, the Lord used the very provisions of the invading army to fee them. Jesus suggests the same kind of redemption when he exercises care not to use just any piece of cloth to mend whatever kind of tear. The principle of Jesus' patchwork ministry is the right solution to the right problem. We don't all have the same problems, and we don't usually know what our real problems are; the patience of Jesus the seamstress is first to identify the problem and then to find a solution appropriate to the situation. |
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I try to use this principle in my work of staff development with our mission workers. One of our major challenges is to develop working plans toward financial stability. Our workers do not receive a lot of money, and some of them are in very drastic financial situations; my work is to help them to move out of debt and into higher levels of responsibility. There are a number of things we do to be of assistance: we give interest free loans when necessary and possible; we offer savings bonuses for a certain amount of monthly savings; of late I have also been offering personal loans with unique conditions: 2) and pay the loan back to themselves as well as to me The loan contract is complete when they have the same amount in savings as they originally took out in loan. This is a new effort and—while it has been greeted with a lot of enthusiasm—time will tell how successful it will be. Not surprisingly, our workers with the most critical needs are the ones with large families. They are also the ones that it is the most difficult to help because their situations are more confusing. One of our careworkers is pregnant with her seventh child and has not yet been able to take advantage of a savings bonus. |
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(The way our savings bonuses work is that if you save one hundred pesos ($2) in a month, Deborah and I will match it from our personal funds. This is both a new practice and a real challenge to most of our workers. Our hope is that if we begin small—emphasizing the discipline of saving—the little seed can grow to greater things.) But this mother of seven, and the sole source of income for her family, has not yet been able to save even that minimal amount in a month. Our secretary and I had a meeting this week to pray that the Lord would show us how to help her be able to take advantage of this opportunity. The principle that I shared was that the problem itself needs to become part of the solution. The problem is that she is constantly in debt. She had just reminded me that she still owes me personal money from an earlier loan. And I believe that the Lord gave showed us a great solution, just suited for her. She is to pay the loan back at the rate of one hundred pesos a month (a gentle rate that she feels she can handle in addition to the other debt and bills she has to pay), but the money is not to go to me; it will go into her savings until she reaches the minimum balance to receive a savings bonus. Then the bonus will go to paying off the loan. In this way she will not bear the burden of repaying the loan by herself AND it will set her on the road toward a lifestyle of financial responsibility. The Lord is using her problems themselves to work toward her healing—the right solution to the right problem. We have many such problems; please pray that the Lord will give us creative solutions. Please also pray for our workers, that they would continue to grow in faith and discipline. Love. Darren |
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Missionaries with HELP International Ministries, Inc. Send Canadian Funds designated to: Box 476 Milk River, Alberta T0K 1M0 Canada Send American Funds designated to: 220 West Martin Street Martinsburg, WV 25401 U.S.A
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