On the Theology of Accompaniment

I recently received a message from  Milissa May, a student at Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary asking for some thoughts on this topic as she is writing a thesis on the theology of accompaniment in the Lutheran Church. So I asked my old friend and colleague, Pedro Veliz, from Lima, Peru for some of his thoughts on the theme of accompaniment

Some years ago I worked with Pedro in the Andean Regional Office of Lutheran World Relief when we were developing a methodology of working with the poor that we called accompaniment. After that experience I wrote the book "Partners with the Poor" published by Friendship press in 1993.

Here is a brief message from Pedro: (my translation with a few edits for clarity)

Dear Jerry,

Thanks for lifting up the theme of accompaniment. I wonder if  the younger generation has had little exposure to the word "accompaniment". (Years ago) when I first heard of its significance (from early colleagues in LWR) I understood it as a different kind of practice of helping the needy.

We (wanted to) help others by respecting their dignity as human beings so we looked for ways to be in solidarity, not just sharing what is left over or in order to feel good; rather it was out of a desire to see that others would live better, in a way that they deserved, a way that everyone deserves to live a better life.

My commitment as a Christian believer transformed this practice into a vocation, first looking at how to do accompaniment, but then I started to ask "Why?" and "What for?"  Such questions are not frequently asked by professionals today.

Then I found in St Luke 24:13-35 Jesus' model of accompaniment - showing patience, teaching, sensitivity, solidarity, love and respect. (This is the post-resurrection story of Jesus walking alongside the two men on the Emmaus road)

Today in my daily experience as a Lutheran Christian my feeling is that accompaniment is an ethical expression of the practice of service. I am studying the Sermon on the Mont, the longest of the sermons of Jesus, which gives us this ethical framework of accompaniment - the most integrated vision of service that God offers through his Son Jesus Christ.

I hope to write more about this to you soon. There are other questions and issues that will better explain this experience that I have had through many years of work with the church. 

Un abrazo fraterno en Cristo Jesús - A fraternal embrace in Christ Jesus.

Pedro Veliz,

Lutheran World Relief,

Andean Regional Office,

Lima, Peru

Memories of War and Peace

Memories of long ago are easily ignited these days through email listings and blog postings spawning a flurry of emails from people we have not heard from or about for 20 or 30 years. Such is the case now as a former colleague in Vietnam Christian Service sent a message that Paul Longacre, one of our Mennonite colleagues and leaders during those years  is dying from chronic lymphocytic leukemia and has decided not to continue with hospitalizations and ongoing treatments.  So he's set things up with hospice.

Viet Nam Christian Service existed between 1966-76, and Judy and I served

Lutheran World Relief as part of that team between 1966-68.

 Many of us started our lives of service in that war zone so many years ago are now reminiscing with Paul about his good a faithful service as he faces his final journey in this life.  It also is cause to reflect on our own good or not so faithful journeys of service to the poor and victims of war and oppression.

Paul and his first wife, Doris Janzen Longacre ("More With Less Cookbook"), greeted many of us very green volunteers and staff when we were deployed to Vietnam -  at the center she hosted as our first home and language center in Saigon. And Paul served as administrator of Mennonite Central Committee and Vietnam Christian Service programs in Vietnam and later in Akron., PA.

The Passing of Another Peace Activist

 

I didn't personally know John Spragens, Jr. -  but we did know a lot of his contemporaries who were peace activists during the Vietnam war and long after. He is another one who was on a "life-long journey of faith and service"..

He worked in the Delta of Vietnam as a Conscientious Objector with International Voluntary Services in the late 60's, and again was in Vietnam in 1974 as a photo-journalist. He later worked with the Indochina Resource Center in DC and in Berkeley.

Last November he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died last Sunday morning. Our friend Earl Martin sent  this link with a poem and song that touched my heart. The song stemmed from an early morning dream of John's and says lots about his life.

http://www.seedboatgallery.com/spragens/oolong/

A Lenten Reflection from India…

My good friend and long-time colleague Greg Rake works with the poor in India. He and his wife, Ines, are good models of the "life-long journey" of faith and service.  I asked Greg to write a reflection for Lent from his perspective in India. Here are his words of wisdom which I commend to your reading.

Advent and Lent have always been my favorite times in the liturgical calendar.  Both have usually included some ritual such as the advent wreath and special Lenten services.  Over the years, Lent has also included an opportunity for “giving up something” to help us in discipline, denial and the hope of adding something to our lives.  It also provides additional time to consider what else we could do to follow Jesus.

My recent years have been spent living and working in India.  This wasn’t a career path that we chose; our commitment was to living and working out our faith where God calls us.  In this case, it was something we never would have planned for or dreamed of doing.  After working for almost 40 years in Latin America, I was wondering what surprises this new adventure would bring to our faith and commitment to living out the gospel.

IT’S ALMOST TIME FOR SPRING TRAINING

I asked my friend and current pastor at Christ Episcopal Church in Sheridan, Montana to write something in anticipation of the fast arriving Lenten season - Ash Wednesday is less than two weeks off.  Bruce is a very thoughtful and pastoral (i.e. caring) person. For those interested in thinking a bit about preparing yourselves for Lent, I commend this piece. 

 

Ash Wednesday comes once a year, just like every other holy day in the church calendar. The first day of Lent, however, usually feels more like Tax Day than Christmas because it opens the season when Christians are meant to get serious about dealing with the power of sin in our lives—and who enjoys doing that? We’re more comfortable identifying our neighbors’ moral flaws than our own. Ash Wednesday is the traditional time for us to undertake an annual examination of conscience, something AA calls a “fearless moral inventory,” a thoughtful gaze into the mirror of personal objectivity as we study the aspects of our life that need to be amended. But an examination of conscience only works if we know what we should be looking for and how to deal with it when we find it.

We might consider our Ash Wednesday discipline as comparable to a periodic medical examination. I spent years of my young life outdoors in the sun and was over fifty before I learned that I’m susceptible to skin-cancer. Now I wear long sleeves year-round and go annually to a dermatologist for a thorough going-over. I’ve learned from these checkups that not every mole or blemish should be regarded with alarm. Most, in fact, are harmless—even the ones that are new or scary-looking. By the same token, some pre-cancerous lesions don’t appear as serious as they truly are. A similar rule applies when we undertake an examination of conscience. Some things that look bad at first glance are actually harmless, while others we easily might pass over are potentially lethal. That’s why it’s helpful to ask a pastor or spiritual director, or maybe just a mature Christian friend, to sit down with us once a year around the beginning of Lent to help us with our spiritual self-examination.    

Some thoughts on being a Disciple

One of the texts this week is from Matthew 16:13-19 where Jesus asks his disciples the question, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

The question he asks get me to wondering and asking "What if..."   questions.  "What if I was meeting Jesus for the first time?"  and what if He asked me, "Who do you say that I am?"

He began by asking them to tell him what the grapevine was saying about Him: "Who do people say that I am?" The disciples came back with several answers: "John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others Jeremiah."

Then like the good teacher he was, Jesus moved on: He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" He wanted to hear their personal opinions and what they were picking up from his teachings and example.  Peter was the first to put into words what the other disciples might have been thinking: "You are the Christ."

Now this is a bit difficult to get our minds around, but this is the first time that it is recorded that a human being confesses Jesus as the Christ - which is the Greek word for the Hebrew word Messiah. 

In the Gospel  of Mark about this dialogue we have the  famous 'Messianic secret' passage. He charged them to tell no one about Him.  He regularly tells the disciples and others to be silent about his identity .

 (The passion was in the future....Who he was and the type of Messiah he was to be had yet to be defined.)

The reason Jesus was having this dialogue was to help the disciples come to understand who he was and what it would mean to be a disciple.  Shortly after this question and answer exchange in Mark he pointed to what it means to follow Him: 

“If any want to become my follower  (disciple), then let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”  

So what does it mean to be a disciple?

In Appreciation of Compassionate People

There is a sense in which the writing of my book was in the making for decades. During those years I made journal entries and notes about encounters with people and situations of need and sometimes overwhelming challenges along the path of life. I also reflected on and valued my colleagues and co-workers.  I felt the need for supporting relationships as I tried to accompany others and they accompanied me. Often the colleagues with whom I worked best had opposite personality traits to mine.  Those were relationships of both short and long duration.