Home

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Feminism

Viewpoints

Quarterly Newsletter

Letters to the Editor

Mission

The Persecuted Church

Ecumenical Connections

How You Can Help

The VOW Budget

Contact VOW
 

 Caring for the Needy Ones
A Review of Horizons
November/ December 2007
"Women and Children"
by
Viola Larson

In the early history of the United States one young Presbyterian missionary, full of compassion, humility and love for his Lord, literally gave his life away, dying at age twenty-nine as he was about the task of leading many Native Americans to Jesus Christ. Of his Native American congregation he wrote, “I know of no assembly of Christians, where there seems to be so much of the presence of God, where brotherly love so much prevails, and where I should take so much delight in the public worship of God in general, as in my own congregation.” David Brainerd ministered in the early eighteenth century among various tribes, including the Delaware, along the East coast and in Pennsylvania.  

Today, in the Presbyterian Church (USA) there are signs that fervent concern for missions is once again returning. Likewise multi-cultural churches are encouraged and they are an important means of renewing the church because of the ardent faith of many Christian ethnic groups. Included among those Presbyterians who are concerned with both missions and multi-cultural churches, the editors of Horizons magazine have produced a new issue that is strong on the kind of missions Presbyterians should and can support. In many ways, with some amount of caution, this issue can be commended to Presbyterian readers.

The Arkansas Rice Depot and a little boy’s prayer

Some women, mothers, wonderfully care for their children. Some women wonderfully tend other children, reaching out to the needy ones in their community and beyond. Using such images of tenderness, care and concern, the editors of Horizons, the Presbyterian Women’s magazine, focus on women and children in their latest edition.

The article, “A Miracle in Progress,” by Anna H. Bedford, in this Nov/Dec issue of Presbyterian Women’s Horizons, sparkles with goodness.

The author tells the story of the Arkansas Rice Depot, a faith – based  “food distribution program” in Little Rock, and the teachers, nurses and school administrators who care for children in motherly ways. One particular woman, a school nurse, together with the Arkansas Rice Depot devised a plan to give poor students backpacks filled with nourishing food for those times when they would be alone and generally caring for themselves. The program also includes providing such children with soap, combs and towels.

One of the special parts of this article is a side story written by Laura Rhea, CEO of the Arkansas Rice Depot. She tells the story of a little boy whose mother was alone and destitute. After all the thanksgiving dinners at the Arkansas Rice Depot had been given away someone brought a late gift of all that was needed for thanksgiving including the turkey. It was given to the little boy’s family. The author writes:

The counselor came by and picked up the boxes that contained everything to cook a Thanksgiving turkey dinner, complete with pumpkin pie. When she delivered the boxes, the little boy started jumping up and down with excitement! She asked, “What is in the box that causes you such joy?” He said, “Last night, I prayed for a turkey!”

Finding out what others really need

Another important article in this issue is “Together in Congo,” by Cheri Harper. This is the story of Harper’s visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and her experience, with several other visiting women, in a clinic in the village of Tshikaji. Harper had the wonderful experience of visiting two new mothers and giving them gifts of a layette from Presbyterian Women in the States. She writes:

In that moment, as I got to hold that tiny Congolese baby and look into the eyes of its mother, I was able to communicate the message that in Christ, God has made us all members of one household. Because of what Christ has done, we are all children of God, all sisters and brothers with one another. (18)

One of the very important points of the article is to emphasize that Presbyterian Women have a new way of looking at mission. They intend to make sure they give what is truly needed to those to whom they minister. For instance, while many Presbyterian Women have sent rolled bandages for mission use, the women in this area of the Congo instead need sheets. Harper explains that in some cases the Congolese women have even sewed the bandages together to make sheets.

Caring for storm tossed people

Another very heart – warming article is “Project Homecoming,” by Lisa Lani Easterling. This article, about the rebuilding of homes in the New Orleans area, focuses on the work being done by the combined ministries of Project Homecoming, Hosanna Industries and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.

A side article provides information for volunteering. The description includes the kinds of workers needed, as well as the various goods that can be purchased and the amount of money each item costs.

These articles are clearly about service in the name of Jesus Christ. Since we are made new in Jesus Christ we are called to live out our faith in service to others. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph 2:10).” “Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds (Titus 2:13-14).”

The grace of Jesus Christ to the needy

The above articles are practical examples of living out the Christian faith. There are other articles in this issue that tend to blend theological and religious issues with the practicality of Christian living. One of the main articles is about Mary the mother of Jesus. It is, of course, also about Jesus.

The article is “There’s Something About Mary,” by Kathleen Long Bostrom.  Many are interested in and writing about Mary the mother of Jesus. It is an important topic for a Christian woman’s magazine. Still I was troubled by some of the author’s comments, such as:

Others question her [Mary’s] premarital sexual status with opinions on both sides of the debate—was she or was she not?

No matter the differing theological opinions, one thing is agreed: there was something about Mary—some reason God chose this unknown, young woman to be the mother of the Only Begotten Son, the Beloved, the Messiah and Savior of the world. However you choose to describe Mary’s role in the whole, incarnational entanglement, Christians believe that God chose Mary to be mother, mom, ma, mama. (8)

I believe the basic underlying theme of this article causes some problems. To repeat the quote by Bostrom, “there was something about Mary—some reason God chose this unknown, young woman to be the mother of the Only Begotten Son …” This thought sets the whole article on edge.

We are told in Ephesians that we were chosen in Christ “before the foundation of the world. (1:4)” So believers are all chosen by the Lord. But on what basis?  Certainly not because of our own goodness or some useful quality that God sees in us, but out of God’s love for us. “But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).” Also in Deuteronomy God tells the Israelites that he has chosen them because of his love for them. (Deut 4:37; 7:7) We are all needy, but we have been favored by the love of Christ.

So God chooses, and then by the Holy Spirit and his holy word, shapes and molds and forms us into the image of his Son. (Romans 8:29) So it is not simply that Mary was shaping Jesus, in a greater way Jesus was molding and shaping Mary. And the story must ultimately be about Jesus and his work in our lives. The story is after all about the great mercy and favor God has granted to Mary, and she says so in her wonderful Magnificat. “For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is his name (Luke 1:49).”

The story Bostrom tells ends with Jesus on the cross providing another son, the apostle John, to care for his mother. And then he dies. The author ends her account with the words:

You raised a fine son, Mary. God sure knew what God was doing when he picked you to be Jesus’ mom. Nobody can argue that. (10)

But God ends the story differently. The risen Jesus appears to his disciples over a forty – day period before returning to his Father. At one point he tells them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. (Luke 24:46-48)” A despairing Mary found joy in her son as the risen Lord.

Is a snow flake a Mandala?

This issue of Horizons as usual features an additional “Bible Study Resource.” This one focuses on the art work in the Horizons Bible Study, “Above and Beyond: Hearing God’s Calling Jonah and Ruth.” The artist for the Bible study is Fiona King. Her pictures are beautiful. They are circular and filled with pictures from the two Bible stories, for instance sheaves of grain and fish.

The Editors of Horizons have called King’s art mandalas because they are circular and filled with pictures. The author of this particular Bible study resource also names flowers and snowflakes mandalas. And focusing on mandalas, she has done something a bit different.

The author has given the readers a mandala to color and a blank one to fill in while meditating on the Bible story including a question about the story. Her instructions are specific. The instructions for coloring the mandala are, “Mandalas usually move from the center to the outer edges. Keep this in mind as you develop your color scheme.”

For drawing in the blank one the author suggests that mandalas can be used as tools for “reflection and prayer,” then she writes:

Express your thoughts and feelings about this question creatively through your mandala. Start by placing your pen or pencil in the center of the circle. Take up to twenty minutes to draw shapes within the mandala. Try not to lift your pen or pencil from the paper, but simply let it travel around the circle.

Using objects such as mandalas, in this way, is far different from seeing the beautiful pictures that King has drawn, or seeing and delighting in snowflakes or shells or flowers, which, in this resource, are equated with mandalas. 

The author has pointed out that the mandala has its roots in “Eastern religious traditions.”

And it is important for Presbyterian women using this kind of tool to know that mandalas are deeply rooted in esoteric Tantra, a practice named the thunderbolt vehicle. It is a Hindu and Buddhist technique for quickly reaching enlightenment. In Eastern mandalas there are often gods or goddesses at the center of a mandala. In the more Western version, the usually unnamed and often un-pictured Self with a capital “S” is at the center.

Susanne F. Fincher, using Jungian concepts, explains, “The mandalas you draw or color communicate information between the Self and your ego.” Fincher describes this Self as “a spark of the life force that dwells everywhere in all things.”1 

So if one starts in the center of a true mandala working outward, one either starts with the pantheism of the East, manifested in the many gods and goddesses, or one starts with the Self, which also turns out to be somewhat pantheistic.

The question the person drawing the mandala is supposed to be asking herself is “what would the church and the world look like if Christians learned the lessons God is trying to teach Jonah?  As Carol M. Bechtel, author of the Bible study, puts it, “What would life look like if we left it up to God to decide who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’?” Well, should we really look for that answer by drawing inside of a mandala seeking an inner revelation, or do we find that answer in the pages of Scripture?