The Power of a Living God

During my teen years I had a deep crisis of faith and from time to time something happens in the church that makes me question me question my commitment to organized religion. However, today on the holiday of Corpus Christi I remember why I continue to believe and why I cannot stop working for transformation in the church and healing and justice in the world.

Last night we went to a serau. It is like an open mic in a circle where everyone gives whatever artistic expression they have to offer. It came at the end of a really long and powerful (see the blog on Instituto Alana) day that ended with a 20 kilometer (about 13 mi) three hour drive in record breaking traffic. It was literally record breaking with traffic backed up for 265 kilometers.

Anyway, the serau included folks from around Sao Paulo who are doing projects to build up their communities. As we went around sharing I felt led to sing the song "His Eye is On The Sparrow" which is a song I sang in my grandmother's church. I have been hesitant in the past to sing Christian songs as to not offend people. But last night I explained that the song has deep importance to me because when my grandmother, who has Alzheimer's, doesn't know where she is or who I am singing hymns always helps her to calm down. This song has also been what has been sustaining me when m
young people have been shot in the streets. Even though some folks didn't understand the words I think we all felt the power of the song. While singing it I could feel the strength of my anscestors who were able to have faith and keep working in the face of things more difficult than what I face.

For the past month or so I have been meditating on the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. One of the main lines of the prayer says - " Lord Make Us Instruments of Your Peace" and in the midst of everything happening on the streets of Boston I have been trying to really make that prayer my own.

We arrived at our destination this morning and as I walked to the front of the church and I looked up to see that across the the wall it read in Portugues "Lord Make Us Instruments of Your Peace" and I felt how small the world truly is.

After taking a moment to thank God I went downstairs for our meeting with Father Ticao and the members of Nossa Sao Paulo (Our Sao Paulo.) We heard about an amazing community organizing project where they pushed the mayor and city council to agree to be accountable for developing and implementing a series of community improvements based on a list of incides of progress that was developed by a coalition of organizations and individuals. There is also a law which they got passed which requires the municipal government to publish their progress on a list of concrete items like building a hospital in one region, a park in another community and the restoration of a library in another neighborhood. I am not doing them justice so I definately suggest that you check out their website www.nossasaopaulo.org.br

From that meeting we went to visit a multinao (got to check the spelling on that). It is a place where they are building houses for families. What was incredible about this housing development is that the people who will live in the houses come for 8 hours on weekends and holidays to build the houses. To see men and women who would probably have no chance to own a home doing the hard work to build their home and the home of their neighbors. This kind of collective work was a reminder of how my ancestors did things when we believed that we could do anything if we pooled our resources. The project we went to visit was being led by a woman who had already built her house in another project and she was helping these folks to build their houses. After seeing the project that is just starting we got to see a development that was done and you could see that it was a beacon of hope in that neighborhood. In the first picture you see two women standing with Father Ticao who are working to build homes and who will be living in that housing development. The second picture is of the housing development which has already been built. We were not really able to enter because we were running late and because they were in the middle of a collective clean up when we arrived.

After seeing these projects we went to lunch and I got the opportunity to talk to Father Ticao. He the kind of person who walks with a strong aura around him. He has a great sense of humor and a commitment to speaking truth that pushes oppressed people to stand for themselves and that exposes the hypocrisy of those in power.

At lunch with him I saw a vision of the kind of minister I want to be. You could tell there was not an issue he had not touched. He embodied the mission of Jesus to serve people. He was not just talking about Jesus but living it in such a way that he didn't need to talk about God because he was such a grounded person that his life says it all.

Over the past year we have watched the economic system fail in such a big way that people are questioning - "Isn't there something better than this?" Today I had renewed hope that despite what I see from televangelism, maybe the church could be an instution that plays an important role in building a new world.