Which one is it, Jesus?
I can remember walking into a pastors’ prayer meeting, holding a copy of the Bible and another book, The End of Poverty, by Jeffrey Sachs. I have to admit that I was equally excited about reading them both (though the one of poverty was on top that day!) Another pastor wandered over, gave me a bit of a condescending look, and said, “You know, Jesus said the poor would always be with us.” I got the message - “don’t get too excited about the social justice bit…” I know this because he did not stick around to talk about it.
Could that be the kind of Jesus we have - telling us not to try too hard because the poor will always be here, so get used to it buddy. Sounds a bit depressing to me. Especially since you can go back to the gospels and see at the announcement of his birth (the song of Mary) and see God’s heart for the poor, you can find it in His message (the beatitudes), and you can find it in who he associated with on the streets. God loves those who are poor, and in fact aligns Himself with them. If you really want to get pressed, start reading Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren. (It gets good more in the middle for me…)
Now, I spent a good amount of time in Deuteronomy 15 today, praying through it, considering it. You should read it for yourself… but in it God flips you around like a rubix cube (do they still make these things?) He says that if you follow Him and His commands, you won’t have poor in the land, while at the same time He tells us indeed the poor will always be with us. So, which one is it? Well, to me I think His thought that the poor will always be with us is more like a call to move in compassion toward them. He specifically says for us not to “close our hand” toward those who are in need. So I would suggest that there is a plan, a loving strategy, to move toward those in need and work side by side with them for their welfare.
You know His first message, tied to Isaiah 61, was that He came to bring “the favorable year of the Lord.” This is tied to the idea of “jubilee,” which in turn is connected to forgiving debts and equalizing the financial playing field.
The Uffizi Mission will continue to work hand in hand with Jesus in bringing the favorable year of the Lord, and determining what that means in a 21st century culture. New things are in the works - partnering with new churches, developing a commission to understand and meet the needs of the poor through the Turner Foundation. Please join us of course. Jesus invites you in.
I want to consider the top three issues in Santa Barbara, specifically related to the poor. If you have thoughts on what those are, please leave a comment - or comment on other things.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
[…] Mark D. Roberts wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAnother pastor wandered over, gave me a bit of a condescending look, and said, “You know, Jesus said the poor would always be with us.” I got the message - “don’t get too excited about the social justice bit…” I know this because he did … […]
May 14th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Here are my thoughts on poverty. Here’s the shocker…I am completely and fully in support of insisting that our government takes care of the basic needs of the people — for example, health care, which is one of the number one things driving people to poverty. I believe as Christians and Americans we should insist that we - us - the tax payers - each and everyone one of us - insist that people have basic healthcare and housing. I do not fully subscribe to any political party, because I cannot find one that matches up to Jesus’ instructions to us. We should be insisting that our government - the government of a people that overwhelmingly claim to be Christian - no matter which side of the aisle - start taking care of their neighbors!
One way to end the tyranny of the health care system which leads and leaves many people to poverty is to insist on loving our neighbors as ourselves and making sure as a nation as christians that we systematically care for our neighbors and then we in the church can fill in the gaps because there will always be gaps. Right now, there are not gaps, there are oceans and abysses. But, at this point, help for the poor is for the lucky ones. And, the lucky ones are being helped by christian organizations. But, so many are out in the streets because they cannot get medications properly for mental illnesses and physical illnesses that they need to survive in this world.
I have a college education, got sick, lost my job and we lost everything, except we were lucky. We could properly read and understand all the red tape of getting welfare and had an address and phone number for things to be sent to us. I cannot believe that Christians are not standing up in churches and the streets insisting that we care for ALL of our neighbors.
I recently got a very disturbing email from a conservative christian group the other day offering a health care plan for christians so they didn’t have to pay for the irresponsible health risks results of “others” who don’t share their philosophy of (hmmm…perfection…that they will never get sick because they are good people…wake up!!!!).
Where are God’s people? Lately, I see us arguing over politics instead of arguing within both sides of politics and saying, we don’t care which side, we want to care for our neighbors because we are a christian nation.
That’s what I’m thinking about.
May 16th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Thanks Heather for your thoughts - I am surrounded now by families on the west side without health care, and of course our homeless friends who often have none (and no housing).
We are starting a commission (via the Turner Foundation) on the poor soon, and I will print this off for our consideration.
I don’t know about the government, but we can certainly learn to care for “our neighbors” within just miles of us every day!