Extreme Poverty… choosing which of your children gets to eat today.
What does God expect of us?
Here is a quote pertinent to us as Christians: It’s not about charity, it’s about justice. (Bono)
Here’s another: Meanwhile our suffering world waits for signs of God on earth…. God’s plan is that we, the church, are to be the primary evidence of God’s presence.
(Mark Labberton, in The Dangerous Act of Worship)
I read something interesting the other day --
a $32,000 income puts one in the top 1% globally. The top 1%..... wow!
In Sub-Saharan Africa, over half the rural population lives on less than $1.25/day…
(read Extreme Poverty, Income Inequality, The 1%)
It's a persistent and troubling question… Why are we so blessed, while others suffer so?
I don’t know the answer to that question. It’s hard -- coming to grips with the uncomfortable fact that we have been endowed with an extraordinary abundance of blessings in an extremely poor world. Lazarus is indeed lying at OUR gate.
What are we to do?
That is a good question,
for God will surely ask each of us what we did…
Jesus, concluding his alarmingly straightforward
parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, says:
Whatever you did (or did not do)
for one of the least of these brothers of mine,
you did (or did not do) for me.
What are we to do? We are not called to sell our homes and give the proceeds to the poor, though some have actually done so.
We are called to share, just a bit.
In Luke’s gospel, John the Baptist -- describing what true repentance looks like -- puts it like this: The one who has two coats should share with him who has none; the one who has food should do the same.
Sharing... just a bit. The scraps from the rich man’s table would have been gratefully welcomed by Lazarus; for lack of those scraps, he died.
We can share, just a bit. Here’s God’s direct command on the subject -- the instructions He gave to His people as they entered the promised land: When you reap the harvest of your land, do not harvest to the very edges of your fields -- leave that for the poor. When you harvest the grapes from your vineyard, do not go back and pick up the few that fell from your basket -- leave them for the desperately poor.
In modern language, this scripture
(found in both Leviticus and Deuteronomy)
would read like this:
if God has blessed you with an income,
don’t spend 100% of it on yourself --
share a little, just a bit, with the less fortunate.
Are we willing to share? One percent... half of one percent... one quarter of one percent…
Have we packed our budgets so full that we’ve literally nothing left to share?
Perhaps God is calling us to reevaluate some of our lifestyle choices…
Truly, we are Blessed, to be a Blessing.