Walter Rauschenbusch, author of Monday’s poem, was born October 4, 1861, in Rochester, New York, to a Lutheran-missionary-turned-German-Baptist. In 1885 he became pastor of the Second German Baptist Church in New York City, located at the edge of a depressed area known as Hell’s Kitchen. Here the young pastor confronted unemployment, poverty, malnutrition, disease, and crime. “Oh, the children’s funerals! they gripped my heart,” he later wrote. “That was one of the things I always went away thinking about—why did the children have to die?” He immersed himself in the literature of social reform and began to participate in social action groups. Though his friends urged him to give up his social work for “Christian work,” he believed his social work was Christ’s work. His book, Christianity and the Social Crisis, gave his ideas a larger audience. He wrote, “For eleven years I was pastor among the working people on the West Side of New York City. … I have never ceased to feel that I owe help to the plain people who were my friends. If this book in some far-off way helps to ease the pressure that bears them down and increases the forces that bear them up, I shall meet the Master of my life with better confidence.” His understanding of the kingdom of God continues to appeal to those who want to combine evangelical passion with social justice, men like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Desmond Tutu.
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It is for us to see the Kingdom of God as always coming,
always pressing in on the present, always big with possibility,
and always inviting immediate action.
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Prayer is not just a way to ask for divine intervention,
but a means to align our hearts and minds with God’s justice and compassion.
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The Christian message is not one of condemnation,
but of redemption and transformation;
there is always hope for renewal and reconciliation.
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We are called to be ambassadors of God’s love and grace,
extending forgiveness and compassion to all,
even those who may seem undeserving.
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The essence of Christianity is love in action; it is not enough to simply believe,
we must follow in the footsteps of Jesus and love our neighbors as ourselves.
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“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did
for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine,
you did for me.’
Matthew 25:40 NIV
Good reminder