Find Me on Substack

Hi Friends,

It has been eight years since I hauled trash here in St. Paul, and I loved blogging about it here.

Although I may still post here from time to time, I have begun posting on Substack. You can find weekly (at least) reflections connected to themes and texts I work with as a pastor at Zion Community Commons and Lutheran Church. It is free to subscribe, with a donation option.

Thanks for being a great audience! See you over here: Invite to subscribe on Substack 

Rev. Dr. (former) Garbageman John Marboe

P.S. Here is the text from the latest post, to give an idea:

And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
   and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
   from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
   he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
   and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
   and sent the rich away empty.

(Song of Mary according to Luke 1)

If I were to ask, "What is the meaning of Christmas?" there would surely be different answers, but I bet Mary's perspective would be rare among them. 

According to Yeshua's mother, Christmas is about "scattering the proud, bringing down the powerful, and lifting up the lowly." Christmas is for feeding the hungry, and "sending the rich away empty."

Christmas is best understood standing in the low places in life. The place from which young Mary, newly (and scandalously) pregnant, sang, and into which Yeshua was born. Where he lived. Perhaps this is where you are standing right now. 

It is as much about being clear and engaged with our darkness as it is about the light that also shines in it. 

Mary's revolutionary song does not describe (in mass scale) what happened in her day to see, nor does it seem to be happening in ours. Yet it is nonetheless true. Divine love is manifest in the lifting of the lowly and the feeding of the hungry--standing with the oppressed against oppression. Divine love has no regard for fleeting riches and power, in which there is no abiding life or light and which does not bring "good news for the poor."

As was said of her child, "In him was life, and that life is the light in everyone. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it." (John 1)

That light has come, and continues to come, into the lowliest of persons and circumstances. Indeed, the light is there. For there God dwells. And there we are called to stand together.

My friend Craig worked for a time with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. He tells the story of a wealthy couple who visited, offering to donate large sums, even a helicopter to aid her work. She asked them one thing: to go and spend one hour in a house for the dying. To sit with one person in their final moments. It was a condition for receiving their charity. They could not do it. They excused themselves, being "too much in a hurry."

Who missed the "Christmas gift" there? The Sisters of Charity only missed out on a large gift of monetary aid, but the couple missed out on the gift of transformation in the divine light.

Mary sang in faith and in hope. That change would certainly come, in the light of her child, and the light of divine love willing to shine in everyone. In you and in me. 

May you be in a place to be lifted up this Christmas. And may you receive the gift of lifting others.

Ending Hunger?

I hauled garbage for years. I saw in garbage cans the story of our food system. Poor neighborhoods discarding containers and scraps of highly processed, low nutrition, easily available, junkfood. I offer you this article I wrote that was published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Sunday, February 23. Here is the online edition:

https://www.twincities.com/2025/02/25/john-marboe-a-grant-for-good-food-for-good-people-gone/

This is just our story at Zion Community Commons, one among many.  We received a grant from the U. S. Department of Agriculture to purchase locally grown and produced, highly nutritious food, to distribute to people in need. It was a win, win, win. Local farmers receive an investment, local economies are strengthened, and people who cant afford top quality food receive it. Recently the funds we were promised were "frozen." Since the story was published, we have been notified that our funding has been reinstated due to a court ordered injunction. I will believe it when I see it. Regardless, the new leadership of the USDA has announced that there will be no such Local Food Purchasing Assistance grants going forward.

Which brings me to my point. We are all captive to a food system that is fundamentally unjust. All of our food has become monetized and capitalized. For profit. Bottom line.

The food system we now have benefits those at the top of the "food chain." Workers, employees and farmers receive the least benefit from this system. In 2023, Walmart, the largest-by-far grocery chain in the U.S. donated about two billion dollars (in tax deductible donations of food and money) to Feeding America, the largest network of food banks in the country, whose CEO makes over $1 million a year. Meanwhile, Walmart's employees received over six billion dollars in government assistance because they are paid so little. Seem right?

Which brings me to my other point. Large food charities feed the unjust system, even as they deliver free food to people who need it. Why? Because they depend on the largess of those who benefit from the wealth gathered by the current food system. Consider: Second Harvest Heartland, the largest food charity in the upper Midwest, pays its CEO over $700,000 per year to "End Hunger In Minnesota", and to "help those living paycheck to paycheck." Their largest donors, apart from State funds (you and me), are Target and Cargill, both of whose executives sit on Second Harvest's board of directors, along with executives from General Mills, Post, Land-O-Lakes, Cub/UNFI, Schwan's, and UnitedHealthcare.  

There is a reciprocal relationship between "big food" and "big charity." It does not serve the poor, nor the small community action initiatives, like ours, that seek something more just and equitable, beyond charity. The number of food shelf visits in Minnesota has increased by roughly 20% in each of the last three years. In 2024 that's more than 9 million visits.

We cannot government-aid, nor charity our way out of this crisis of extreme inequity. We need, instead, local communities, local economies, mutual aid, solidarity, and a re-imagination around how we are in this world together. It is small. It is granular. It is neighborhoods. It is realization that we are in this life together. It is love your neighbor as yourself.

If you would like to participate in this work by donation, here is a link: Zion Food and Wellness Program 

And/or, show up and partake in a vegan meal and Open Market Thursdays, 5-7pm or Tuesdays 11am-8pm, get your groceries and a meal, pay what you would at a store, and you are directly benefiting a sustainable mutual-aid program that is accessible to everyone, regardless of ability to pay. 1697 Lafond Ave. St. Paul, MN 55104. Enter green door on Aldine St.