Today the KC Star issued the second part of series on Kansas City's killing fields, zip code 64130.  Murders in this zip code far out-pace the rest of the city and state including St. Louis - I mean really out-pace.

The Star suggests racial isolation is the cause - all the way back to the 1920s.  Social systems break down... angry wild crime takes over as the terrible remedy.  I am glad they are stating the problem, bringing it to our attention.  It is front page news.  Of course, The Star like most media and politics is rooted in "the myth of progress" that says 'through education, technology and science we will soon be rid of such social ills.'  This is a old modernist myth.  You can always sniff out the myth of progress because the timber of the news is always "surely this shouldn't be happening in this ultra modern day and age!"  Yet it does.  This myth has no solid ideas about how to deal with evil (real and philosophical).

In to this fray walks the unwelcome way of Jesus who tells the rich (Christians especially) they must give up, sacrifice, surrender and submit to the cross (via crux) if we want to birth the kingdom of heaven in our midst.  No one is very excited about this.  But Lakeland is. 

Here's what we are doing these days about our inner city zip codes:  we mow lawns.  It may not sound like much - but it is.  Each Saturday all summer long Lakeland is responsible for the upkeep of nine inner city lots.  The Star points to "tall weeds" as the sign that 64130 is dead and deadly.  So this is a call to action, to continued action.  We don't own the lots, The Hope Center does.  But we stuck our hand up and now we are committed.  I love to go.  Yes, it is so inconvenient.  It is a bit dangerous (I don't know how it is "a bit" but it feels that way as long as nothing bad happens to us - I mean, you either get mugged, beaten, shot or killed; none of those sound like 'a bit dangerous'.) 

Henri Nouwen said the poor and oppressed in our ghettos are purposefully kept there.  Those in power (us) unknowingly NEED the inner city to maintain our power and privilege.  The inner city is like a funeral home or a morgue.  We keep the 'dead' there. That way we are not defiled.  Rule of the jungle: keep the sick ones away from the lion pride, drive them off, protect the healthy thriving ones.  This is why we are NOT shocked to read about another murdrer in 64130, but we are outraged when someone is murdered in suburbia - it is just 'not right'.   But Jesus came to be with sick, broken and dead sinners like us.  Jesus measures the health of a nation by who is in solidarity with the oppressed - not those who are well-off.  So we mow lawns.  We mow them for the immediate benefit - the weeds get cut.  We mow them symbolically - it tells us and everyone that evil is not really in charge ultimately.  We mow them spiritually - we reorient our souls around the heart of Jesus, we submit to Jesus and follow no matter where it leads.  This causes us to struggle and wrestle with our own comforts and affections, our own values and self-securities.  That's good soul work! 

Come mow with us.  You and I need it much more than the inner city does. 

Here's your moment of mowing Zen...