[Dialogue written and presented for Community United Methodist Church of Naperville, IL for vocational discernment service on July 21, 2013. Also posted at Red Poppy Fields.]
Joe: This is Kacie. She is southern girl from just north of
Nashville, Tennessee.
Kacie: This is Joe, He is a Pensyltucky boy from the mountains
of central Pennsylvania.
Joe: Kacie knows just about every country song on the radio and
about every Nicholas Sparks-inspired movie in the theater.
Kacie: Joe is not afraid of camping in the mountains where
there are hundreds of bears, plus he is a big sports fan, maybe not the Chicago
bears but definitely a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.
Joe: Kacie is an artist. She is very visual, very tactile. She
sees scenes of color and texture and transforms ordinary things into works of
art.
Kacie: Joe is very intellectual. He uses big words, mainly
because his head is always stuck in a book. It’s a beautiful site to see him so
concentrated on his reading. He reads books by authors like Paul Tillich and
Alice Walker.
Joe: Kacie is also very passionate about justice for women.
Kacie: Joe is also very passionate about justice for workers.
Joe: And so it makes perfect sense—
Kacie: That we met in—
Both: Washington, D.C. at Ecumenical Advocacy Days.
Kacie: I feel that we both have a call to advocacy, which means
joining with the voices of the poor, the weak and the marginalized to make
change in our nation and world by speaking stories of truth in our communities
to our local, state and national leaders.
Joe: We’ve both had strong religious experiences where we felt
transformed by God—what John Wesley would call “justifying grace”—but we also
continue to feel the Spirit move us toward acts of mercy and justice for people
around us. Wesley called that part “social holiness.”
Kacie: One of the biggest issues we advocate for is poverty and
food justice. We both help with a student and homeless ministry in the South Loop
of Chicago. We have a community meal with students and people from the streets,
make sandwiches together and walk the streets with our friends to pass out the
sandwiches.
Joe: There’s this one community off Lower Michigan where about a
half dozen homeless people usually sleep. Someone wrote a Bible verse on the
wall there. We always drop off a couple of sandwiches for the folks there. Last
week, they were all gone and the Bible verse had been painted over. We figure
that the city had evicted them for the Taste of Chicago and a movie someone was
filming.
Kacie: This is community, and we feel like we are part of
the community. We are all equal, and deserve equal treatment in our society. We
go to our local, state and national leaders to remind them about our friends on
the street. These are the stories of truth that make up our society.
Joe: Jesus and his followers also spent much of their ministry
among the sick, the poor, the socially marginalized. As two followers of Jesus
Christ in 21st century
Chicago, we continue to practice ministry with our friends and neighbors—Black,
white, Latino—
Kacie: Gay, lesbian, transgender—
Joe: Native born and immigrant—
Kacie: Rich and poor.
Joe: We are all one in Jesus Christ.
Kacie: Last week I completed my internship with Bread for
the World, a national organization that works with churches to end hunger
through advocacy. I am using this training to start a sewing ministry for
homeless women.
Joe: And I’m in seminary, making my way through the process of
becoming a United Methodist pastor. I’m finding ways to incorporate God’s call
for justice in acts of preaching, teaching, and service.
Kacie: One thing I’ve done in response to my call to justice is
write letters to my congressional representatives. I was able to do this
through Bread for the World’s offering of letters program. I invite you,
too, to write a letter to your member of congress on issues dealing with food
justice or just an issue you are very passionate about, especially if you cannot
travel to DC or Springfield. Get a group of friends together and write an abundance
of letters. This is definitely a way to raise your voice and speak for justice.
Joe: If you’d prefer a more direct action route for justice, I
encourage you join with me and my friends at IIRON, a regional community
organizing network. We’ve set up shanty-towns in Federal Plaza, had flash-mobs
at the Apple store, and occupied abandoned properties to show how too much
money is going to excessively wealthy corporations at the expense of our
friends and neighbors.
Kacie: Even though Joe loves brown and his Carhartt jacket—
Joe: And Kacie loves pink and lace.
Kacie: Joe is very talkative,
Joe: Kacie is a bit more introverted.
Both: We both have a place at the Lord’s table with—
Joe: Peace
Kacie: Love
Both: and justice.
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| Kacie Greer and Joe Hopkins outside of Sen. Mark Kirk's office in Washington, D.C. They are now engaged and plan to marry in June of 2014. |
