Christ The Lord Is Risen Today

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

In his book book Building Social Capital, Muhammad Yunus tells the story of how he got the idea for the
first grameen bank.

After a privileged upbringing in what was then East Pakistan, Yunus was the head of the Economics
department at Chittagong University.  But the nation's economy had crumbled after East Pakistan won
its war for independence, only to be hit by catastrophic flooding.  Famine followed, and starving people
from the countryside flocked to cities to find jobs they hoped would help their families survive.

"I found it increasingly difficult to teach elegant theories of economics in the classroom while a terrible
famine was raging outside," Yunus wrote.  ". . . I felt the emptiness of traditional economic concepts in
the face of crushing hunger and poverty.  I realized I had to be with the distressed people of Jobra, the
neighboring village just outside of Chittagong University, and somehow find something to do for them..."
(p viii)

Talking to the residents of the Jobra shanties, Yunus found them still on the brink of starvation, although
they had found work and were working hard, working long hours.  The problem was that they were all
falling deeper into poverty, because they had to buy tools and materials to produce the bamboo furniture
and woven cloth they sold.

They had been forced to apply to predatory money-lenders who charged exorbitant interest on their loans.
The money-lenders also required borrowers to sell their products only to them . . . and the lenders always
drastically under-priced the people's products.  Borrowers' families had been forced to work, to try to keep
up with their increasing debt to the money-lender...from whom they had to borrow more money for more tools
and materials.

Yunus found entire families working all day long, every day, hopelessly trying to pay their still-increasing debt
to the money-lender.  One woman's family had fallen into economic slavery for an initial loan equivalent to
seven American cents.  When he totaled the debt of the 42 people he had interviewed, Yunus found their
cumulative debt to money-lenders amounted to $27 U.S.

Yunus told his poor friends he would help them get a loan from a bank.  The banks would charge a much more
reasonable interest-rate, he said: and with their continued hard work, they would soon be out of debt, and able
to sell their products at fair market-prices.

But Yunus was wrong.  When he took his poor friends to the banks, none would lend them a cent.  Even when
he, an esteemed academic in the local university, offered to personally guarantee the loan, no bank considered
his friends "credit-worthy" for even the very small sums that would free them from poverty.

"The more time you spend among poor people," Younus later wrote, "the more you become convinced that
poverty is not the result of any incapacity on the part of the poor.  Poverty is not created by poor people.  It is
created by the system we have built, the institutions we have designed, and the concepts we have formulated."
(p. xii)

Yunus finally paid his friends' debts from his own pocket.  And from that experience he began to formulate the
idea for grameen (Bangladeshi for "village") banks, by which the poor could help each other escape from poverty.

The idea for grameen banks has now spread throughout the world, saved millions from economic slavery, and
created millions of jobs.  Yunus and his idea have even been honored with the Nobel Peace Prize.

But reading this story as we prepared to celebrate Christ' resurrection, I was forcibly struck by the thought that
Jesus is the hero of the story.

I doubt Yunus is a Christian.  I don't know if anyone who benefitted from his idea is a Christian.  Doesn't matter.
The idea of grameen banks saved people from poverty and hopelessness: and ideas are spiritual events.  Don't
we really still think in the terms Romans did when they created the word "inspire"...that "into" man's thoughts a
"spirit" is breathed?

What spirit is it that inspires a man to free people enslaved by unrighteousness ?  What spirit inspires a man to
help the poor escape poverty and hopelessness ?  The only spirit like that which exists is the Spirit of Christ.

I don't know if Muhammad Yunus realizes his idea embodies Christ's Spirit.  I'm pretty sure some of my fellow
American Christians, who theoretically believe that Christ rules even in (what they call) the "secular" world, would
also be unable to see that He is the "Hero" of this story.  And there are some American Christians are so enslaved
to the enemy's false political ideas that they would even reject the Spirit's inspiration as "socialism."

Doesn't matter.  For those who have eyes to see, "Christ the Lord is risen today."  In this very day, Jesus is still
alive.  The same as He did 2000 years ago, He continually shows up in places, and ways, and people, where we
would never expect Him.

Hallelujah !!

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Eyes to See

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

In some translations, Jesus often follows His teachings and His miracles with an admonition to "whoever has eyes to see, let him see."  He chides even His disciples in Mark 18:8 that they "...have eyes but fail to see..."

Jesus wants His followers to see.  Some of his followers think that only happens in church, in "Christian" activities, or watching "Christian" movies and listening to "Christian" radio-stations

I've never bought that.  Tribal culturalism is not following Jesus.

I watched Masterpiece Theater’s “Les Miserables” last night.

I've never read the book, and never seen the musical.  I was curious what the story is about.  I was blown away.

For those with eyes to see, it’s a story about repentance, forgiveness, and God’s grace.

The thought occurred that for those with eyes to see, every story is.

For those with eyes to see, that’s what it means that Jesus is Lord.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/episodes/les-miserables-e1/

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Give to Moochers

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Jesus says to give to everyone who asks (Matthew 5:42, and Luke 6:30).

In other words, Jesus tells us to do the same as He does, and the same as His and our Father does.

But many people today take the opposite view: that when you give to people, you harm them.  Helping people, they say, makes them lazy and dependent on your charity, and robs them of their self-reliance and self-respect.  This opposite view is that it does needy people the most real good to not give to them.

We're probably not far from the mark if we think that argument sounds like the devil's rationalization.  His "thing," ever since his chat with Eve in the Garden of Eden, has always been to afirm the opposite of what God says.

But even if take it as nothing more than a current-useful "principle" of self-serving politicians, it doesn't seem that argument should ever persuade Christians.  At least not Christians practiced in choosing between what Jesus says, and what "the world" tells us.

The temptation to believe the politicians tempts Christians too, because we all know of, or have heard of, able-bodied people who live by "mooching" off of others, especially charitable others.  So we are all tempted to predicate our giving on whether we consider a person in need is "worthy"...or a moocher.

Let's be as straight on that score as Jesus is.  NO one...ourselves included...is "worthy" of the good God has lavished on us.  That's exactly why Jesus says we should give to every fellow-moocher who asks us for a little of what God has given our unworthy selves,

There are predatory people who fake neediness:  we can all agree on that.   Human beings are fallen creatures, some so fallen they will use other people to their own evil ends.   But they seem to be very few.  Muhammad Yunus, who started grameen ("community") banks to loan money to people so poor they were considered "uncredit-worthy" by the financial-system, writes that there is a 98% return on those loans.

Playing the percentages alone, it seems foolish to refuse to give to people in need because 2% of them would not repay you.

But for Christians, of course, our decision whether to obey Jesus or not doesn't really depend on the fact that other people are unworthy, or that some would take advantage of us.

If Jesus' command in the Sermon on the Mount to give to everyone isn't sufficient, we need to think about what our response to people in need says about ourselves.  Jesus' command to us in that same teaching was to "be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).

We are either people who believe and wish and do good regards other people; or we are people who distrust others, and believe their intentions are evil.

Every one of us makes our own decision which kind of person we will be.  And Jesus is very clear which kind of person is His follower.


                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Christian Sin

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

 ^"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in
him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the
father of lies."  (John 8:44)



Is it sin to deceive ?

Jesus said we show who our father is, by the deeds our hearts desire to do.  He said
deceivers show their hearts are set on doing the deeds of "the father of lies" (John 8:44).

Is it sin to be deceived ?

Of course it is.  How is anyone ever deceived, except by their own failure to love the truth.
The con-man understands perfectly how deceit works.  He operates by the evil wisdom that
"you can't cheat an honest man."

The ultimate of that reality is where Christians live.  Nobody is a Christian at all except
they love Jesus, Who said "I AM...The Truth" (John 14:6).  No one can claim to be a Christian
unless they are led by "the Spirit of Truth," sent by God to lead us into all Truth (John 16:13).

Is it sin then for Christians to be deceived ?  Is it sin that a Christian does not love Jesus ?
Is it sin that a Christian turns from following the Spirit ?

The good news for Christians is that God will forgive even those deep sins.

Even at this late hour, any Christian who will can confess their sin, turn away from their
sin, and be forgiven.

All you Christians who have been deceived, and foolish enough to follow liars, please
be radically honest to God about your horrible sin, while He is still pleased to forgive.

Amen !!