(Before you press play, please note that if you’re easily offended, you will probably be offended by this video–you were warned.)
Sarah Silverman, the tremendously sarcastic provocateur has once again given us something profound to ponder as we continually stare at and shed tears but ultimately refuse to respond to the issue of extreme poverty and world hunger. Our refusal, I hope/believe, isn’t so much because we’re a heartless people but rather because of the enormity of the problem standing in front of us. The shear magnitude is enough to render us completely useless as we sit totally overwhelmed by the shadow it casts over us. With that said, I think she’s on to something… let’s sell the Vatican! It’s the perfect solution, isn’t it? It’s really rather useless in the grand scheme of things, so incredibly ornate and enormous in size that it puts everything else around it to shame. It’s the perfect solution to an instant gratification, someone-else-should-take-care-of-the-problem-because-I-have-enough-problems-of-my-own society that we’ve become.
And although therein lies the greatest problem, our “someone else will/should do it” mentality, there is also a large sliver of truth that we should pay careful attention to… as well as a big question for us to ask: Why hasn’t the church taken a greater responsibility in contributing to the end of this problem? Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of what the church has accomplished, the amazing acts of generosity that have gone on all around the world as communities have stepped up to make a difference with what they have, but this is more the exception rather than the rule. And even though I don’t think the point of Silverman’s genius is to get the church to do something, I think we should take it that way.
The shear magnitude of the epidemic of extreme poverty is so great that the “exception churches” won’t be able to make a sizable dent in the near future. That is why the entire church must begin to come together to eradicate poverty together. This should be a movement of unification, of churches far and wide coming together with the single mission to do something like never before. And through this, the greatest act of love, people will know that we are His disciples. But it all starts with unity… of one church coming together with another church, and working with a third and a fourth until a movement is birthed and villages, towns, cities, metropolises, regions, and countries are pulled from the depths of economic despair and senseless deaths from the ravages of extreme poverty are a thing of the past.
So, any churches want to partner with IKON to start something new?
Related posts:
- the church is not the hope of the world?
- waiting on the world to change.
- New ways to connect with people in a 2.0 world.
- changing the world one loan at a time
- Are we really the “greatest” nation in the world?
freaking love it.
So you are proposing that churches sell their building for world poverty? (having been home church that wouldn’t bother me) I didn’t realize Ikon owned their building. I think it is a great & novel idea but I don’t think you’ll get too many churches to do it.
Pixie,
No, we don’t have a building and I’m not advocating that everyone sell their building… although I wouldn’t be against that either. We rent space in the city.
What I am advocating is churches partnering together to do something about extreme poverty in their midst… whether their neighborhood, their city, their village and continuing to multiply that endeavor by partnering with more and more churches to do the same. I think that begins to make things possible because then the issue doesn’t seem so daunting because your community is working alongside another community to do what before seemed impossible alone!
Sure itd work, id like to see her sell everything she owns as well tho.