Opening Prayer
We thank and praise you gracious God for the gift of community. Open our eyes, Lord, so that we may see the various communities around us. Help us to see within those communities the various good qualities, as well as those that need improvement. Show us how you intend communities to be, and push us to be active change agents, working for restored relationships among all your people, no matter our incomes or work status. Amen.
The World As God Intends
Read, reflect, and then answer the questions at the end of Scripture passages.
Deuteronomy 15:4-11 (with emphasis on verses 4,5 and 11) Verses 4 and 5: “There will, however, be no one in need among you…if only you will obey the Lord your God by diligently observing this entire commandment.”
Verse 11: “ Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’ ”
What do we learn from these passages about community as God intends? How should people live in community? Who should be part of the community?
Context: God, through Moses, is giving people the laws by which they are to live. Included are the Ten Commandments, but they are all part of a much broader conversation that God is having with the people about how they are to live. The commands fall into one of two categories: 1) Right relationship with God (not worshipping idols, revering and recognizing God as their only God, loving God); and 2) Right relationships among people (care for widows, orphans and immigrants—those considered most vulnerable in society, canceling debts every seven years, freeing debtor slaves, etc).
Matthew 4:18-21 (Calling first disciples); Matthew 10:2-4 (List of Jesus disciples)
Who were the disciples? What do we know about them and the different settings they came from? Note that the community of disciples included a tax collector, a Roman government official. It also included a zealot, a rebel or revolutionary committed to overthrowing the Roman government. Under most circumstances, these two people would be mortal enemies. What does it say that Jesus asked them to be part of the same community?
Analyze Current Reality
Based on the group, do #1 and #2 OR #2 and #3. Time constraints will make it difficult to do all three.
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Local Reality
Divide into small groups or work individually. Draw a “map” representing your community. This need not look like a street map of your city or neighborhood, since it is meant to be a representation of how you see your community. Include the various institutions, services and people you consider part of your community.
What did you include? Who did you include? What gifts and challenges do various people bring to your community? Are there places within your community (or communities nearby) you feel you cannot go? Why or why not? Who would feel welcome in your community? Are there people that your community intentionally or unintentionally works to include or to exclude? Are you included or excluded? How does that occur?
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General Reality—High Poverty Communities
Many anti-poverty programs in our country focus on individuals or their families. However, Chapter 3 of the Hunger Report points out that poverty is about place as much as it is about people. Within high poverty neighborhoods or counties, one problem begets another, and all are interrelated. Underfunded and underperforming schools fail to prepare students for work or higher education. Lack of access to grocery stores means that people shop primarily at convenience stores carrying snacks and drinks with little nutritional value.
How is poverty a failure of “community” in the broad sense of that word?
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Another Reality—Hopeful Communities
Divide again into groups. Each group should take one of the Boxes from the Hunger Report and read it together. [Boxes: a) Seeds of Hope in Perry County, p. 99; b) The Harlem Children’s Zone, p. 102; c) Community Food Security in New Orleans, p. 109.] What is being done to offer hope, create wholeness and build true community? What lessons can we learn from this story to address poverty in other communities? Do these lessons have policy implications?
Reflection and Sharing on Restoring Relationship
How might your lifestyle choices and activities perpetuate or contribute to concentrated poverty or income-segregated communities? What lifestyle choices or gifts do you bring that contribute to hopeful communities?
What choices can you make to mend broken relationships and strengthen what is right? What can you do to work toward wholeness in communities?
Act
Based on your reflections, how might God be calling you individually or your group to act? Consider inspiring others with your story.
Consider inspiring others with your story. Bread for the World is collecting stories of what individuals and groups are doing to grow the movement to end hunger. Please visit www.bread.org/hungerreport and share the action(s) you took.
Closing Prayer
How do you believe communities are healed? Consider sharing this with others in your group during this prayer.
Prayer:
God of right relationships, you have sent your Spirit upon us to bring good news to poor people and communities.
Help us to work faithfully for a vision that…
Help us to work faithfully for a vision that…
Help us to work faithfully for a vision that…
Guide us to seek first your kingdom. Equip us to live out your commands for justice and righteousness, and fill us with love for you and our neighbors. Help us to envision a world in which no one among us is in need. Amen.
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