The Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5:1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

The Beatitudes

2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Salt and Light

13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

This is a photo from Right Sharing of World Resources partner Logeho Friends Women’s group of Kenya, East Africa.  They have several group entrepreneurial projects in the works.  The list includes the production of maize, beans, fish, kerosene, and firewood.  We hold these women and their families in the Light.  Would you join us?

Aiming for Sweet Success

The Salem District of Tamil Nadu, south India is rich with hills.  The area is known by surrounding communities for it’s mangoes, steel and a large dam called the Mettur Dam.  (Pictured left.) 

The area is familiar to us, Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR), because we have partnered with a women’s self-help group there called Rural People’s Development Society, to encourage micro-enterprise development.

If you follow the sound of bees buzzing, you may happen upon the honey-saturated boxes of twenty-five women who have benefitted from RSWR microcredit to begin their new ventures.  Bee-keeping was one of the entrepreneurial activities these women chose to create better economic resources for themselves and their families.  
 

The women were trained by area Beekeeper, Mr. Vijayan, who instructed them about proper care of the bees while maintaining safety for themselves.  (See below.)

The group has already identified 15 more women to whom they would like to revolve their loan, to keep empowerment aflight.

To learn about this and other RSWR projects, visit our website.

“Giving Up Half Of Our Possessions Made Our Family Whole”

Stirred by economic injustice in the world, this Atlanta family felt convicted to sell their large home and through downsizing, give the proceeds to those in need.  (In this case, it wound up benefitting 30 villages in Ghana.)

Click here to read the article. 

Security, protection from scarcity and a temptation toward pride is so hard-wired in our systems, it is difficult to look very hard to see where we may be off.  

The father and daughter of this family wrote a book about their experiences called “The Power of Half” which encourages readers to consider where there is excess in their lives—excess that could be making an impact.  And it isn’t just about money.

Father and co-author Kevin Salwen writes:

…The more we’ve examined this abundant life the more we realize that everyone has more than enough of something. Spend 6 hours a week on Facebook? Cut it in half and now you have a new 3-hour resource to sing in a nursing home or clean a neighborhood park. Eat out four times a week? Cut that in half and share what you save with the local soup kitchen…A life of abundance, not scarcity.

It’s an interesting challenge.  In this case, it’s powerful to imagine the far-reaching and ongoing result from this one family.  Granted, they are wealthier than many, but still, through the charity they donated to, dozens of villages in Ghana have been provided with education, job training and basic infrastructure needs.

Have you had an experience where something caused you take stock of your life in a way that you hadn’t before?  Did you give in a way that was different than usual?  What was the result?

Send your stories to media@rswr.org.  

Watch an interview with the Salwen’s.

Lead Us Not Into Excess, Share the Abundance

Wess Daniels is a Quaker pastor and writer from Camas, WA.  He was asked recently to reflect on the meaning of abundance.  Below is his response.

Abundance surrounds us. It fills our closets, drawers, backpacks and our garbage cans. And for many of us who are connected to a wide variety of privileges our abundance often translates into waste.

A friend of mine recently made a documentary called Dive! It poignantly addresses the connection between garbage and hunger, excess and waste. The film tracks a number of young white urbanites who have a new found joy in ‘rescuing’ food from the dumpster. This joy is challenged as they become aware of other, less privileged folks, also coming to the dumpsters for food.  The majority of the film dives into the connection between what lays as waste in our dumpsters and the great disparity and hunger both in our own society and around the world.

The film was documented during the growing global food crisis of 2008 and covers well the impact that this had on many low-income families in the US. The contrast between the amount of food found in dumpsters like Trader Joe’s in Los Angeles and the growing lack of food at LA food banks shocked the filmmakers. Filmmaker Jeremy Seifert notes, “In the physical act of jumping in a dumpster and eating waste something happens, the reality strikes you of what is taking place.”

And the reality is stark. Every year 96 billion pounds of food are thrown away in America, 11 million pounds a day, and a good majority of that food is fresh or days away from its expiration date. Recovering just some of this would make a huge difference. “The Department of Agriculture estimated in 1996 that recovering just 5 percent of the food that is wasted could feed four million people a day; recovering 25 percent would feed 20 million people. Today we recover less than 2.5 percent” (Dive Website).

The problem is not so much that we don’t have enough, but that some people have too much. Abundance is not the main issue at stake here, the abundance of the few is.

We live in a society of trash and are okay with this as long as it is our own excess we are throwing out. We forget that many in America (let alone other places in the world)

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