Richard Burchfield
About Mission Year
Mission Year is a year long urban ministry program focused on Christian service and discipleship. We take teams of young people, place them in an area of need, and help them to serve people and create community. We are committed to the command of Jesus to “love God and love people,” by placing the needs of our neighbors first and developing committed disciples of Christ with a heart for the poor. Learn more about our first year program…
Richard Burchfield's Blog
Why Sabbath? / Apr 10, 10:29 AM
The more often I participate in my own Sabbath, the more I understand the need for it, and the more I wonder how I got through 22 years without ever having a set Sabbath. 6 days of work, 1 day to rest. Sounds pretty easy, inviting even, so why is that something we have lost?
God set the example, he worked 6 days on the earth and its inhabitants, and he rested the 7th, which always strikes me as strange, I mean he’s God; couldn’t he work for a million days and never need rest? Does he even need rest? Maybe he rested because he knows that we have to have it. Psalm 103:14 – for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust, and there David is talking about how God’s love is justice and how he set things right for our sins, but I stop and wonder at his sovereignty. That he sets our example, and then requires something of us.
Sabbath was a huge deal in the biblical era, God talks of it in Genesis, He talks with Moses about it in Exodus: giving it as one of his 10 commands (being as detailed as not to let your servants work, or the livestock) and then again he reaffirms the covenant with Israel by commanding that they observe the Sabbath as a celebration of their covenant, and its punishable by death if you disregard what God says. Having a Sabbath was law. It’s what you did.
Jesus came and in Matthew 12 the disciples were gathering head of grain, to eat, and the Pharisees came to him, telling him that what his disciples were doing was unlawful, and basically grouping him in with the illegal activity. And as we seem to do throughout history, of course we perverted what God commands, and he sets the Pharisees straight saying it is lawful to do good on Sabbath. That even in our rest, we shouldn’t ignore the basic necessities of our neighbors. In his sovereign wisdom, he understood the need for rest and the call to help, and which is more important. But he also sought times of rest and solitude, and left the needs for tomorrow.
I’m not the expert or even close about Sabbath, but I know one thing for sure, I need rest. I crave it. This spring break couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. My body needs to slow down, I need to process through several different emotions, I need to gain clarity for my future, I need to slow down, and catch back up to God. See, I think that’s one of the redeeming things about Sabbath, removing us from our word, that we can often think will fall apart without us, and forces us to slow down, and listen to what God is saying to us, to what he’s been saying the last 6 or so days. I’m not saying that you can’t hear or commune with God throughout the week, but there is something special about setting out a day to do no work. A day to be connected with God, our creator who knows that we need the rest, because he knows how we were formed, that we are dust.
I need the rest, and I welcome it as well. I am thankful for God’s sovereignty.
Dad,
Give us all a chance to be quiet. Give us all a opportunity to rest our bodies and minds and souls. Be our comfort and our refuge and our strength. Regenerate us in You. Thank you for who you are and for what you do. Thank you for being exactly what we need.
Sincerely,
Your kids:)
Jesus, you're crazy / Jan 20, 11:30 AM
FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY!
In Florida, an atheist created a case against the upcoming Passover holy day. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians, Jews and observances of their holy days. The argument was that it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized days.
The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, “Case dismissed!”
The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, “Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur, and Hanukkah, yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays.”
The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, “But you do. Your client, counsel, is woefully ignorant.”
The lawyer said, “Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists.” The judge said, “The calendar says April 1st is April Fools Day. Psalm 14:1 states, ‘The fool says in his heart, there is no God.’ Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned.”
You got to love a Judge that knows his scripture!
So, firstly, this was an email sent to a team member of mine, Ashleigh, who when she read it, showed it to me. Secondly, if you think this story was funny, or witty, or okay…then I’m certain that you will not agree with, edify, or promote this blog (just saying my disclaimer).
This story, this mindset is grossly popular in the typical American body of believers today, we have become a group of people that are known more for what we stand against, what we hate, rather than what defend, who we defend, and who we love. There are pages upon pages of articles, innumerable books written, and organizations formed to project this message of who God doesn’t accept, and what He won’t tolerate. People have and are making a living, feeding their families from the money donated to such organizations…its ridiculous, and sickening.
Being overly critical, and judging is at the forefront of what we do as a body of believers, and it has respectively made us ineffective and is slowly, but certainly, destroying us. And we let it; we participate in, willingly, because it takes the focus off of us. That’s the real goal, the real problem. If we had every really felt the love and acceptance of Christ, we wouldn’t destroy each other.
It makes me sick to think of the times that I’ve taken apart in destroying a person, the times that I’ve participated in judging and condemning what a person is doing, never showing them the love and acceptance of my God.
So, before I open my mouth now, my goal is to accept and love people. If they walk away, completely the same as when we met, but felt loved and accepted, then I did what Jesus asks. I’ve done what he did. Show me where he made the woman caught in adultery and brought to Him to be stoned, show me where he made her confess, made her repent openly, made her apologize. Or in the story of the Prodigal Son, show me where in that story, Jesus spoke of how the son had to fall on his face before the father and confess what he’s done, show me where the father sent him away and told him that when he’s gotten himself together, then there would be help for him. Show me these things. Show me Jesus acting this way.
He didn’t, he incredibly followed the law, and yet spoke compassion and trust into that woman’s life, he met her there, and forgave her sins, gave her a foundation, and sent her on her way, all without her apology to him, all without her telling him she would stop being an adulterous woman. He accepted her, no questions asked.
That father saw his son from a long way off, being he was looking for him, and ran to him, full of blinding love, and before he could get his rehearsed speech of confession and sorrow out, the father brought him into the feast he had waiting for his son’s arrival. He celebrated his child seeing his wrong, and without hesitation, he was back, no questions or shame needed.
It’s that God, who is blind with his love and acceptance of us, that we live for. He is what we live for. And it’s THAT God that can step in a change a person, NOT us and certainly not the way we’ve tried to do it for the past couple hundred years.
The thing I can’t get over is how crazy God seems to be. He risked everything for us. He is love. It’s that crazy love that changes our heart. Knowing that God, our God, our Dad, can scarcely bear to be without us is what motivates me to tell you who he is, and who he accepts.
To close, I want to make one thing clear, in accepting others, in no way am I an advocate for sin or for a person’s “right” to sin. I don’t accept sin, but I won’t condemn it either, that’s not my job. I accept you. PERIOD.
lovewins
follow the leader?? psh, that's for 5 year olds / Jan 12, 10:26 AM
I would love to be able to tell you that I’ve come home and had the best first week back ever; that I enjoyed being back in AL but that I’m back and on track. That I have this whole thing down pat now, and I am kicking butt and taking names with the things that I’ve struggled with.
But I can’t.
Or, I could, but it would be a lie. And, I could lie to you, but lying doesn’t look good on me.
I can, however, sit here confidently, typing to you, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing to let you know that when I am lead by my emotions, I am lead straight into disaster. I’m more certain of that now than ever before in my life.
The times in my life that I’ve made a decision or wouldn’t make one, the times when I’ve spoken up or chosen not to, that I’ve regretted have been things that I’ve either done or not done based solely on my emotion at the time. I seem to make these drastic decisions at the worst possible time. I’ve done it for as long as I can remember. It’s been one of the more difficult parts of being here in DE with Mission Year, with living with 5 people, having a boss, working with idiots…or even people smarter than me. Okay, especially with people smarter than me.
I say all of this to help lead you into my past week. It was one filled with overwhelming emotions that I have struggled with all week not to let control me. There were things, problems that I left here when I went back to AL and they met me at the front door when I got back. The amazing thing is that problems never just go away, they have to be talked about, dealt with, confronted, and then they can begin to be worked through. This past week has played on my weaknesses, and as difficult as it’s been, I’m sure that I’ll be better for it. Again, I would love to tell you that I conquered these things over the week, but I didn’t. They’ve made me question things, made me act differently than I wanted, made me respond or not in ways that I’m not proud of, but I’m committed to working on letting my emotions lead me.
This blog wasn’t going to be a long one, and it definitely doesn’t address some huge social injustice or solve even my own struggles, but it does get things out of my brain and onto paper. So, thanks for reading and I hope that you’re lead by something greater than emotion.
keep your quarter, I need change / Nov 18, 12:17 PM
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to see what it means to be homeless for a day. I was given an opportunity to leave my money, my house, my warmth, my food, my comfort and trade those in for ratty clothes and a day and half of extreme poverty.
We started with a few rules (go here but not here, these are the boundaries, you’ll have a partner that you pick, you have to spend at least one hour by yourself), a video called The Homeless Home Movie and a sack dinner of a peanut butter and jelly sammich and chips. The group of us then went to a very old church to spend the night with the understanding that we could only bring three things with us from the M.Y. office to the church we would be staying the night in (i.e. toothbrush or pillow or blanket or backpack or toothpaste…whatever we brought was one of the three of our items). I brought a jacket, my pillow, and my blanket with me for the coming night. We got to the church to sleep, walked in to no lights, no heat, no way to get around the church, and no real feeling of security. That has to be the worst night of sleep I have ever had in my life, and to think that homeless have to sleep that way or on the street or on a bench is beyond my ability. I woke up every 20 minutes or so freezing and pulling the person beside me closer in efforts to get warm enough to fall asleep again [thank you Aaron and Chris].
We wake up to the promise of jelly donuts and orange juice but it was really another PBandJ sammich and a few more regulations for the day, given a token for the subway and told to meet back at Love Park at 5pm that afternoon and that lunch was on us to find. Keep in mind that right now, I have on pants that are probably 8 or 9 inches too long for me, too big, and a shirt that smells like something died on top of it, jacked up hair, and probably smelling pretty rough, and riding the subway to center city Philadelphia to walk around homeless for the day. Our first encounter with a homeless individual told us his story:
His name is Tyrone and he had been “wrongly” diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2003 and hasn’t been able to get a job since then. He told us (us being Aaron and me) that the doctors had given him a “knock out” drug one night when he became unruly and he awoke to a man in the hospital doing something physical to him that he didn’t like and got mad and hit him or shoved him and they got in an altercation, was kicked out of the hospital and has been homeless ever since. He sued the hospital and won over 13,000 or so, but couldn’t receive the payment because the court determined him to be “too hard to contact” and wouldn’t make him a payee.
Long story short: I’m pretty confident that after talking with him for an hour and a half that the diagnosis wasn’t a wrong one. However, he can’t get a job and that directly means that he can’t eat.
After spending time with Tyrone, Aaron and I decided to try our hand at pan-handling to try and earn some money for some grub for lunch. We sat on a corner of an intensely busy street for about 2 hours. We got some cardboard for a sign that said NO MONEY, NEED FOOD and a cup we found on the street to beg for some change. It took me several people to pass by and very many “almost did it” tries to finally work up the courage to ask someone for some change. I felt the immediate shame that a person feels when they have to beg for something. I worked up the nerve and finally asked a person that walked by if he could “spare some change for us to eat” and that person just continued to walk like I had never said a thing. Naïve me thought that I hadn’t spoken loud enough for them to hear, so the next person that walked by I decided to talk louder to be certain that I was heard. Surprisingly enough, that person pretended not to hear me either, and person after person for the next hour or so would pretend that I wasn’t a human, that I hadn’t just asked them for something, but that I was invisible. And with every person that passed and acted like I wasn’t even there, I got upset. EVERY PERSON. Every person that ignored me that day sent out a clear message to me:
“You are beneath me; I can’t even look at you. You don’t matter and if you don’t eat then I could not care less. You are no longer a person.”
The message affected my thoughts, my actions, my heart, my fears, my awareness, it affected me way down deep in my soul. I stopped being able to look at people in the face, but instead had to look down at the street or at the curb or over somewhere so I didn’t make eye contact. We saw a large group of people wearing red tee shirts that said, “GOD IS…” on the front and “LOVE” on the back that were in Love Park and asked every single one of them for change with a resounding response of no, we don’t have any money on us at all. With every person that passed and ignored me I became more and more aware of the times that I had done the same, the times when I tried to avoid these people, when I ignored and while they weren’t often, they were certainly there. We continued to sit and ask and watch how people would cross the street so they didn’t have to pass us, or how they would squeeze through a space way to small for most so that they could avoid our requests. For 2 hours we watched people hear us, see us, and decide that they didn’t want to be bothered by us or our questions, and commit to the idea that Aaron and I were both just worthless. After we decided to quit, we passed a Wendy’s Restaurant full of red tee shirts that say “GOD IS” sitting in the window, eating huge cheeseburgers with a lot of french fries and really big drinks. It’s amazing that Wendy’s would give them these things, seeing how they could’ve have bought them with no money.
Later that day, we met another man, Lester, that had been robbed of his money and credit card and needed to get home [somewhere in east PA] and needed a train ticket that cost somewhere around 27 or so dollars. He told us about the people in Philly being jerks and not helping or even acknowledging his presence (something we could identify with) and how if he didn’t get some help soon, he was going to start robbing people himself. We had earned around 3 dollars and decided to get him some food. We learned that he hadn’t eaten in 2 days, so Aaron and I decided that it was more important that he eat than if we eat, which he REFUSED.
“Three dollars gets three double cheeseburgers at McDonalds. There are three of us, and that means that all of us are going to eat today. I’m hungry, you’re hungry, let’s go eat.”
Amazing, this man who hadn’t eaten in way too long was concerned about us. He was adamant about the three of us eating together. And we did, he then went on his way and so did we. We walked down to the library to get out of the rain. [It had started to rain while we were pan-handling and we tried to find places to go but couldn’t] We got to the library soaking wet and tired and hungry (one cheeseburger doesn’t do much when you haven’t eaten a real meal in 24 hours), got to the bathroom and tried to dry our clothes with the hands dryer in the bathroom, got done there and decided to try and find some more guys to talk to. That’s when we met Ronnie.
Ronnie was a man that was on the streets of Philly intentionally to learn as much about anything he could. He told us that he plans to be off the streets by January of 2009 and that he’s already got an apartment lined up and he is currently working at a body shop somewhere in Philly. [I REALLY hope that all of that is true]
I didn’t spend a lot of time with Ronnie; I met a man named Mike who I spent some time with. Mike had lost his wife about a year ago and has been homeless ever since
Mike had a job; he met a girl, and married her. They both were into drugs and stayed that way for 20 years. Mike told me that one day he woke up and came to his senses and asked himself why he still was doing drugs at 45, and decided to quit. He and his wife quit doing drugs together and he has been clean for 6 years. Well, like I said, about a year ago his wife got sick and after 4 or 5 days in bed, Mike called the ambulance to come and take his wife to the hospital. Before they got her out the door, she had died. Since then he began to drink. He drank his way out of a home, out of a job, and out of many homeless shelters. He paid for a week in a hotel the Friday I met him, and got himself kicked out on Monday for fighting while he was drunk. It was a sad thing, but it could happen to anyone. It could happen to me.
Mike and Ronnie kind of took us in and showed us the ropes, they made sure we got food [and my god, with them did we eat 5 meals], and made sure that we got into warm, dry places. They accepted us without even knowing who we were, why we were out there, or what we were doing. Of course, we told them what we were doing, but they didn’t care, they accepted us wholly.
Let’s look at this:
None the people on the street knew me, and none of the homeless people knew me.
People from the street couldn’t even look at me or acknowledge me, but my homeless friends accepted me as I was.
The people on the street couldn’t or wouldn’t spare a penny to help me eat, but the homeless made sure that I ate like a king.
The people on the street stared at me from McDonalds or Duncan Donuts while they were warm, to then walk out with their umbrellas to shield them from the rain, but my homeless friend made sure that I was warm, and dry. They showed me how to get and stay warm and dry.
All of this ends with a revelation:
I found where Jesus lives, He lives on the streets. He helped feed me, He helped keep me warm, and He helped me find my value in community and not in shame. I saw Jesus that day. He was nowhere near people in suit and ties but instead in people with long beards and rugged clothes.
That’s a lesson I needed. I am grateful for my time acting as a homeless person.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask
Love wins
-bubby
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Beans and Rice / Oct 17, 03:35 PM
I walk in the door after my morning site Thursday morning, so ready to eat lunch. As I’m walking into the kitchen, I remember that there is a bowl full of rice and beans left over from the night before, so not only I don’t have to cook, but beans and rice are my new favorite meal now that I’m a herbivore. I heat em up, and get all the essentials: salsa, sour cream, cheese, hot sauce, diced tomatoes, and tortilla shells. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited for my meal. I sit down, so ready to eat, and bless my food.
My prayer told God that I was thankful for my day so far, that I’d gotten things accomplished for U.P. and that they were little things, monotonous things that I’m doing that is helping this ministry do what it does. It moved to thanking him for my food, food that was exactly what I wanted [even though it was beans and rice] and how I’m unbelievably grateful that I’m His son, and everything that affords me. The privilege, the prestige, the honor…all of which I don’t deserve. Then this overwhelming feeling of being a beloved son of The Most High hit me. I resonated with the love, but couldn’t forget the feeling of privilege I had felt.
We’re reading a new book called Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph D. It discussed a new definition of the word racism: “It’s a system of advantage based on race”. People commonly interchange the words racism and prejudice when they don’t have the same definition. Prejudice is a judgment based solely on race, sex, class, sexual orientation, hair color, etc whereas Racism is being defined as an actual system of a dominant race having privilege over other races based solely on the color of their skin. When I read this and a few other things I won’t go into, I grew so frustrated at the idea I threw the book across the room and stormed to the kitchen saying this woman was full of crap and she can only write a book full of crap because that’s all she knows [and If you know me, then you know that I said all these things with much more passion and in extremely different words]. Looking back now, I know that the reason I got so upset was because as soon as I read it, I knew that she was correct with what she was saying, that I had benefited from my skin color, and even worse, there was nothing I could do that change that. How do you make someone give equal treatment to everyone??
Policeman 1:
A few nights ago, Jason and I[he’s a white male, me too…duh] had to go and find a Wachovia ATM to get our living expense for the month and while we were out, at night, downtown, we were pulled over by a Wilmington City Policeman. He stopped for a busted tail light [which it was]. He asked for Jason’s ID because he was driving, asked us what we were doing, and for the registration and insurance for the van. When we handed him the registration and insurance with Urban Promise’s info on them, he asked us again who we were, where I was from (he had Jason’s ID), and what U.P. was and where they were located. We told him and he just told us to be careful and to get home ASAP and to get the tail light fixed or at least but some red tape over it so we didn’t get pulled over again.
Policeman 2:
Chris and Jeff [Chris= white/Jeff= black, both males] were on their way from camp to meet us at the U.P. office for tutoring on Tuesday night when they were followed by two policemen. They were eventually pulled over after being followed for about 7 or 8 blocks. The policemen approached the car with hands on guns, and asked Jeff, the driver, and Chris, the passenger, for their ID, and asked if they knew where they were, what part of town they were in, a part of town that sold drugs. [Just in case you’re just tuning in, we came here to help people that need help, not people who think they have it all figured out hence…drug infested neighborhoods]. Of course they replied they knew where they were and that they were attempting to come to the U.P. office for tutoring. Before they could get too much out, the policeman cut him off telling him that he didn’t care. When they returned they told Jeff that the reason they pulled him over was for the crack in his windshield in the bottom left corner. They recall feeling like the policemen were looking for something but couldn’t find anything to keep them with. They were extremely rude and at the end of the ordeal, Jeff asked for the badge numbers of the policemen and the name of their chief. They fought with Chris and Jeff about giving them their numbers and after a few moments going back and forth, they did. Jeff told the policeman at his window that he hopes that he handles his next interaction in a more respectful way and that he’ll be praying for their safety and wisdom. They policeman tells him that if he has a complaint then call the office and speeds off.
First, let me tell you that all the information in the second police interaction was second hand information because I wasn’t there. However, hearing the story from Chris and Jeff and different times and them saying the exact same thing gives it a little more validity.
This is why I threw my book across the room. How do I change that? How can I force the policemen of Wilmington to treat blacks like people? How can I force them to treat me like I’m a drug dealer?
Think of it like this:
The escalators at airports that are on the ground that move you from one really long stretch of terminal A to the end of terminal B are racism. Some people get on them and walk in the direction of the escalators, these people are actively defending their privilege of being white, they see nothing wrong with draining every bit of benefit that they can out of racism, probably because they think they’re not prejudice and that makes it okay. Some people just stand on the escalators, these people being ones that can see racism for what it is, but not caring enough to take a stand, however still benefiting from racists actions. Let me point out that both people end at the same place, terminal B. Some people get on the escalator, realizing that they are going the wrong way and decide that they must walk the other way to get where they need to be. These people don’t prevent the escalator from moving forward, but they certainly aren’t going to terminal B. Consequently, if enough people realize that the escalator is moving the wrong way and start walking against it, then the airport has no choice but to alter the course of the escalator.
In saying that, I don’t want you to misconstrue what I’m saying. The goal isn’t to change the dominant race from white to black. The goal is to achieve a society that doesn’t have a dominant. A place that everyone has an equal chance at an apartment, at car or mortgage, or at shopping without being followed, or being able to drive down a street and not be pulled over because of skin color.
I’ll end with this:
The Tower of Babel
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Together we can do anything. God said it, not some self help or antiracism book. He split us up, but He never said to alienate one another based on skin color. THE GOAL IS EQUALITY AND WE CAN DO IT.
lovewins
bubby
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