There is a parable that I remember hearing long ago. The first scene opens with several people sitting around a table with a large pot of delicious soup set before them. The aroma alone is tantalizing. However, the only way they can reach this pot of soup is with the long handled spooned utensils that they have been given. They are able to reach into this pot to retrieve the soup, but the problem begins when they attempt to feed themselves with these enormous instruments. It is impossible. Because of their inability to find a solution to this problem they become weak, frail and malnourished.
The next scene is similar to the first. Again, there are several people sitting around a table with the same tantalizing pot of soup and the long handled spoons. However, these individuals have discovered a way to eat of this soup. They have discovered that instead of trying to feed themselves, if they feed the person sitting across from them they are able to enjoy the soup. Because of this group’s willingness to feed their neighbor they are not frail or malnourished, but rather they are well-feed.
This parable is usually told to describe the difference between heaven and hell. Hell is described as the first scene, where the individuals are interested in only meeting their own needs. Because of their self-love and greed they lack what they need. On the other hand, the second scene is described as heaven. These individuals have learned to work the system. They have learned that if they meet their brothers’ needs, their needs will also be met. I love this parable. Yes, it does paint a different kind of picture of heaven and hell, but more specifically, I think that it paints a better picture of what community should look like. These opposite...
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...1: 15 gives an account of Jesus asking Peter three times a simple question, “do you love me?” Three times, Peter answered, “Yes!” and three times, Jesus replied, “Feed my sheep.” The third time Jesus asked Peter this question, scripture says that Peter became grieved. I can imagine that Peter was grieved because he knew that Jesus, who is all-knowing, knew the answer to this question that he repeatedly asked. The point that Jesus was trying to convey to Peter was that, if you love me take care of my flock, the greater community among you.
In addition, if we are to function interdependently as a community of believers we must use our long handled spoons to reach across to our brothers and sisters who are need and feed them. It is when we come to the realization that in loving men, we show our ultimate love of God that we truly began to function as a community.
... a dinner meal can become a luxury. Soup kitchens sometimes become overcrowded and unable to serve everyone in need. As a result, malnutrition is not uncommon among these underprivileged families.
Though many unpleasant events arose on Connor’s journey, perhaps one of the most significant was working at the Little Princes orphanage. The orphanage was technologically advanced in comparison to the majority Nepali housing, however it still lacked resources and space. The orphanage was deficit in essential items like food, water and clothing. On the night of Connor’s arrival, he learns that “Dal Bhat is eaten by about 90 percent of the Nepalese people, twice a day” (Grennan 11). It soon became evident that the vast majority of Katmandu’s residents were unable to afford more than two meals daily. Additionally, the extreme level of poverty in Nepal only allowed for civilians to eat an incredibly primitive meal, Dal Bhat, which consisted of rice and lentils. This meal provided inadequate nutritional value and lacked the variety of ingredients essential to maintaining good health. Due to deficit resources, the orphanage is undoubte...
The Australian philosopher Peter Singer, believes that when we refuse to help end world hunger, we become murders. He believes that it is are moral obligation as Americans who live comfortable lives, to help “the worlds poor” (Singer 1). It is wrong to continue to live a luxuries life, when we know that others are fighting for the mere chance to survive. In Peter Singer’s “The Singer Solution to World Poverty,” he compares us Americans to two fictitious characters Dora and Bob, due to the fact that we as Dora and Bob chose luxuries over the chance to help people suffering from life-threatening poverty.
Corrymeela is a dispersed Christian community of reconciliation. There are 180 members, Catholic and Protestant, who commit themselves to search together for the path of peace, as they discover what it means to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
In the essay “Spare Change”, the author, Teresa Zsuaffa, illustrates how the wealthy don’t treat people facing poverty with kindness and generosity, but in turn pass demeaning glares and degrading gestures, when not busy avoiding eye contact. She does so by writing an emotional experience, using imagery and personification whenever possible to get to the reader’s heart. Quite similarly, Nick Saul writes, in the essay “The Hunger Game”, about how the wealthy and people of social and political power such as “[the community’s] elected representatives” (Saul, 2013, p. 357) leave the problem of hunger on the shoulders of the foodbanks because they believe “feeding the hungry is already checked off [the government’s] collective to-do list” (Saul,
Families and adults who themselves do not go without meals believe hunger is a personal trouble, and not a consequence of society’s structural issues. This is because of the lack of a sociological imagination. According to Mills, a sociological imagination is the “vivid awareness of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society” (71). In laymen’s terms, it is the ability to see how a seemingly personal trouble is often a larger public issue. Imagine a teenager who sits next to a f...
There are many policy issues that affect families in today’s society. Hunger is a hidden epidemic and one major issue that American’s still face. It is hard to believe that in this vast, ever growing country, families are still starving. As stated in the book Growing Up Empty, hunger is running wild through urban, rural, and even suburban communities. This paper will explore the differing perspectives of the concerned camp, sanguine camp, and impatient camp. In addition, each camps view, policy agenda, and values that underlie their argument on hunger will be discussed.
As the two travel along, they start to run out of food. They find bits and pieces to eat as they go, but not enough to make last a long time. Until, however, they find an abundance of food in an abandoned house (McCarthy 138).
allow such terrible things to occur as they do in today's world: The starving in
Parables are told to reveal the truths about the kingdom of God. To be revealed in a manner in which only those who truly care will come to know. By doing so Jesus was able to separate the audience into two groups, the righteous and the wicked. The wicked would take the story at face value; never truly caring to search for the truth or understand the true meaning behind the parable. The righteous may not have understood what was being said but because they truly cared they stuck around to ask what Jesus meant and to have the meaning explained to them.
Boucher, Douglas M. The Paradox of Plenty: Hunger in a Bountiful World. Oakland, California: Food First Books, 1999.
looking at the bigger picture is an evident theme. He explores reasons as to why there is food
Christology: A Global Introduction Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen is associate professor of systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary and holds a teaching post at the University of Helsinki and Iso Kirja College in Finland. He is the author of Christology: A Global introduction, Pneumatology: The Holy Spirit in Ecumenical, International, and Introduction to Ecclesiology: Ecumenical, Historical, and Global Perspectives (Back Cover). Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen presents the latest, comprehensive introduction to the various opinions about Christology from around the world.
I heard a professor once say the greatest thing a pastor can give his church is to love his wife, I have thought a lot about this and I agree. Jesus told us to love God and secondly to love our neighbor. Who would be considered our greatest neighbor? I believe that would be your spouse, there is no greater neighbor than that of your spouse. The means the second greatest thing to do in life is love your spouse. God first, then spouse second. It is our greatest ministry here on the earth, our marriage. Love God, then our spouses, then our children as the next closest “neighbor” to ourselves. After our children, third place goes to our distant relatives and/or close friends after that who are our neighbors becomes lessened however we are all still called to love all people as our “neighbors”. To me, it’s like concentric circles around our lives, those closer in the circle are greater “neighbors”. This is just common sense. Jesus spent the most time, ministering to or loving those that were the closest to Him. Even within the twelve He had an inner circle of three that Jesus clearly minister to more. We are called to love those closest to us and it works its way out like Jesus’ life. In His life, when a person broke into his circle, and got His attention, he responded, cared, loved and ministered to them, we are called to be the same. Love God and love our
Every morning when I wake up the first thought in my mind is usually: FOOD! I often lie in bed for a few extra minutes, planning out what I am going to eat for breakfast. Seldom as I go through this routine do I stop to think about those who are less fortunate than me. I often take for granted that everyone wakes up and eats breakfast. But this is far from true, not everyone shares the luxuries that we have in the United States. Some people wake up and wonder if they will eat at all that day, let alone eat breakfast. Why? Because food, like many other things, is unequally distributed throughout the world.