Service toward kinship - The wisdom of Father Gregory Boyle

I woke up this morning ready to run.  As I scanned the available podcasts for the 40+ minutes of my run, I decided to listen to Krista Tippett's interview "On Being" with Father Greg Boyle from the summer of 2012.

Find it here (or free at the iTunes store):
http://www.onbeing.org/blog/jesuit-priest-takes-la-gang-members-and-provides-jobs-and-hope-homeboy-industries/4766

Boyle is a Jesuit priest who has run a remarkable operation called HomeBoy Industries, a collection of businesses and social services that provide resources for people affected by the reality of gangs in Los Angeles, since the early 1990s.  He has written a well-received book called Tattoos on the Heart, a book that has deeply affected my friend and pastor, Ruth Boven, who regular quotes from it in her sermons at Neland Church.

So while I was out on my run listening to the podcast interview from last summer at the Chautauqua Institute, I heard remarkable statements from Father G, including, "anything worth doing is worth failing at," and something to the effect that "service must lead to kinship."  So imagine my surprise when I opened my liturgy this morning at Neland Church and found that Pastor Ruth was preaching this morning, and her topic was from Amos, the prophet, on "Just Worship."  And one of her main sources for the sermon was from an interview Krista Tippett did with Father Greg Boyle on "The Calling of Delight: Gangs, Service, Kinship."  More than a coincidence, I think.

The passage in Amos that Pastor Ruth focused her sermon on was from chapter 5:18-24, subtitled "The Day of the Lord." In this little passage, something strange happens - we are warned that this "Day of the Lord" that Christians think they are waiting for might not be so awesome and wonderful as they think.   It might be like while we are running away from a lion, we meet a bear instead.  And Amos tells us that our religious festivals and activities are not the point, not at all, especially if we don't get the main point, which is to "Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like an ever-flowing stream!"  I have heard it suggested that our translation of "righteousness" in the New Testament should actually usually be "justice," so I would be interested in a language scholar's explanation of the two different words here.  In any case, Amos seems to be saying quite clearly that worship of God is meaningless, and even offensive, if it isn't accompanied by careful thought and action toward justice.  This will be hard, and require sacrifice.

 Perhaps the most interesting point of both Pastor Ruth's sermon on Just Worship, and Greg Boyle's interview with Krista Tippett revolves around the question of the relationship that develops in the act of service - something Boyle refers to as "kinship."  If we can't name people who are poor when we are asked to think of people in our close circle of family and friends, then our circles are probably too small.  This is a deeply challenging and disturbing suggestion to me, and I hope, to you.  Fits with the idea that a good sermon (church, Christian life etc)  will "comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable."