" The Mustard Weed"

The mustard seed parable tells us about the Kingdom of God in that both start of extremely small and seemingly like nothing. But when the seed is nourished and spread (i.e. when an act of kindness is shown, or someone tells another person abou the Word)it begins to rapidly spread. The Kingdom of God is aggresive because the individuals who are a part of it are relentless in sharing it with other people through words or deeds even though they may not think it will make a large impact.

Executive Summary on Africa

The Millennium Development Project Document is a document put out by the United Nations to help improve the situations of disadvantaged and developing countries using and 8 goal plan. The project seeks to uplift the countries out of their plight through starting them on the path towards self-sufficiency, rather than having them be dependent on UN and foreign aid. Our main purpose is to assist by doing small, practical actions to reach attainable goals. Of the goals listed, the most pertinent to the intended purposes of our class are “Ensuring environmental stability/ Ending Hunger” “Combating Preventable Disease (i.e. malaria)”, clean water, and education. As a class it would be practical for us to raise money to send to organizations (such as the UN Millennium Development Project and Doctors Without Borders) that would directly give aid to the people we are striving to reach. The money we send we send could come from personal donations, car wash, bake sale, book sale fundraisers (etc.), donations given at liturgies, and several other types of small fundraisers. These are small practical ways to reach a small attainable goal to give support to the people most in need. The money given to Doctors Without Borders will help to ensure proper care and vaccinations to the general public in African countries who are dying daily from dehydration and preventable disease. The money given to the UN would help to cover a number of different issues such as disease prevention/treatment, the distribution of clean water and sufficient food. Another step we could take would be to send fertilizer, agricultural tools, mosquito nets, and other essential supplies (which don’t cost an extravagant amount of money). With these things, people can begin to be self sufficient and grow their own food for themselves and have surplus to sell and make a profit ( to go to other things like building schools and education).

Portfolio 2: What Should We Do?

After reading the online material I came up with a list of "actions" that we can do as a class to help the situation in Africa. One of the things that all the pieces listed was the need for safe drinking water, substancial food, and education. As a class we could raise money to supply a small village with the means to cultivate their own food. We could raise the money through personal donations, the donations at liturgies, and community fundaisers to send to the UN and other organizations that help worthy causes like this one. This way we could set an attainable goal. Another thing we could do is to write our politicians and put pressure on them to act on their promises. We as a class could call their offices and write letters delineating what we think they 're responsible to do as representatives. But perhaps the most important thing we can do to help them is to actually send supplies (i.e. fertilizer, mosquito nets, clean water) that would directly help the people on a day to day basis. As Mr. Sachs made it abundantly clear, we don't have to make drastic life changes to help those in need. Simply donating money frivously spent on EXTRA things we have and perhaps don't even appreciate, just to give to someone else can make all the difference.

Portfolio 2: Singer on

1) Is it our obligation to give to everyone, and make sure that everyone has everything we need?
2)shouldn't eveyone in the world work on having an equal share of all the things in the world
3)How much inequality should we tolerate?
4)

Portfolio 2: Good Samaritain Interpretation

In the story of the Good Samaritain, Jesus is criticizing the response of mankind to the essential question "Who is my neighbor". Mankind says that those who you identify with (through socioeconomic, ethnic, religious, racial definitions) are your neighbors, essentially those who you would assume would also help you. Jesus' solution is to step outside of yourself and help others because everyone is your nieghbor. In the example, the priest and the Levite both left the man on the side of the road, the one who was a social outcast had mercy on the man. Even though the man wasn't considered his neighbor in the manner most people interpret neighborhood, he had compassion on him perhaps because he was also down and out.

John the Baptist

John’s parents were told he would be instrument in restoring god’s people.When Mary visited Elizabeth, John leaped inside her womb, symbolically representing the parallels of John's message that would foreshadow, and Jesus' message that would follow.



John the Baptist represented hope for he people he spoke to. At the time people were extremely devastated by the political state of oppression that was being imposed by the militia that occupied their region. People saw John and after listening to him and felt a sense of expectancy. They wanted a force to come and liberate them from their suffering. When John told the people of Jesus, they projected their expectations on him. When John the Baptist cried out in the wilderness, it symbolized the crying out of thousands of people in the region who were in the wilderness of oppression as people who were left destitute by their government, who had also turned their backs on God. John paved the way for Jesus' mission by preaching the gospel of repentance.

Based on the pretext set by John the Baptist, it can be implied that Jesus' teachings will address the need of the people to restore their relationship with God and turn away from their former behavior. This open opposition to the government probably wet the people's appetite for a mass social change that they expected Jesus to bring about. Jesus' message, according to the one that John preached, would probably be one of a complete spiritual revolution.

Jesus' experience as a refugee

Jesus and his family were forced to take refuge in Egypt because Herod was executing all of the babies in the area. Jesus was probably stripped of his heritage, culture, community and some family members because he had to leave. His parents most likely lived in fear of being found by Herod. This fear, compounded by the socioeconomic status of a refugee was probably instrumental in Jesus' upbringing and his thougts during and after he was a refugee. Jesus and his family experienced at one point or another, desperation, isolationf from the rest of their society. They had no opportunity for social advancement since they were in one of the lowest brackets of the social heirarchy. When they returned to their country, most refugees couldv'e had a hostile attitude towards the government and perhaps felt the urge to rebel. v

Who's Your Momma

When I saw the statue of Mary, I saw her being portrayed as a nonconfrontational, meek, humble, innocent, motherly figure. She was dressed in very ornate clothing and her head was bowed down. Her hands were in a prayerful position, as though she were deep in thought and spiritual communication with God. She also seemed as though she could be in a place where she was removed from Earth and watching over something. I think that western society paints an incorrect portrait of Mary by painting her as subservient, meek, powerless and weak.

As we read the scriptures about Mary previous to the birth of Jesus, we can notice a few things. Mary was a very poor woman who lived in a bad area of the region. She was a woman, which made her a second class citizen in the eyes of the society in which she lived. Once it was made public that she was pregnant out of wedlock,she was looked upon as a nasty woman with no morals. She was also probably though of as crazy since she claimed that God had impregnated her. When she speaks at Elizabeth's house and rejoices at the news of her pregnancy, she gives thanks to God for blessing those who are poor, disadvantages, and oppressed. We see that Mary is a socially conscious woman who is aware of things going on around her.

God probably chose a woman like Mary to be the mother of Jesus because she was disadvantaged. He wanted to show his love and compassion for those who were at the bottom of the social hierarchy. God's mercy, love, grace and salvation extends not only to those who are rich, priveledged, male, and powerful, but he even cares about those whom society has forgotten. God has compassion for everyone. This is a main point that Jesus emphasizes in his teachings so it makes sense that God would chose Mary, a person who fits the description of a disadvantaged person who society has outcasts, as an instrument for the birth of His son.