100 Sermon Illustrations on Poverty

Tom and Nancy were farmers in eastern Colorado, lost farm, turned to alcohol and drugs, almost divorced, went to an American Baptist Church. They went on a retreat with a friend, both were saved and also their teenage son. Their lives were put back together.

Millard Fuller was a successful entrepreneur and businessman, so successful he was almost a millionaire at age 29. Yet he was so wrapped up in business and making money that his wife Linda decided to leave him. They got back together and decided to start their lives over.

The Fullers happened to stop by Koinonia Farms in Americus, Georgia, where they met Clarence Jordan. Millard was so inspired that he sold the business and gave the money to charity. With Jordan he developed a dream - give poor people interest-free mortgages and help them build their own homes. Payments are recycled into a mortgage fund. By 1972 the first 27 homes were constructed.

In Charlotte, N.C., 350 volunteers raised 14 houses to grab attention by erecting a block of homes in 5 days. Newspaper called it “The Miracle on 19th Street.”

A passer-by asked Millard who paid for it all. “Nobody.” Man: “Folks don’t do this sort of thing for nothing.” “It’s worse than that - they paid to come.” Millard explained about the volunteers from churches around the country. The onlooker said, “Man, that’s real religion!”

Louise Adamson works in the slums of Atlanta to bring the gospel to poor

people. When the white congregations died out or moved on, she stayed. She

is eccentric but dedicated.

#1047

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Larry Cottam, a former Seventh-Day Adventist preacher, let his son starve rather than go on welfare. He had money in the bank but would not use it because it was God's tithe.

We also have God's money tied up in bank accounts when it could be out there meeting human needs.

[also see #687]

Joan Ganz Cooney, head of Children's Television Network, said this:

“Most people who call themselves Christian would not follow Jesus if he returned today. His teachings were, after all, very radical - love your enemies, turn the other cheek, shelter the homeless, feed the hungry ... I am not strong enough to be a true follower. A true follower, I believe, would have to take a vow of poverty. Jesus was quite clear on that point.”

________

From “Context,” 4/1/88

Sermon on how Jesus directed his message to the poor, and not to the rich. Discusses biblical concept of being poor (OT: those who must depend on God for their every need).

A Fresh look at the Beatitudes of Jesus.

1. Blessed Poverty

2. Blessed Grief

3. Blessed Meekness

4. Blessed Hunger

5. Blessed Mercy

6. Blessed Purity

7. Blessed Warfare

Sermon in Leviticus series:

"WHAT'S SO BLESSED ABOUT BEING POOR?" Lev 25:35-43

I. Current political climate.

A. Anti-poor?

B. Poverty is gaining in America.

C. What should a Christian's attitude be?

D. The Old Testament gives some concrete answers.

II. Poor and God's Kingdom.

A. Due to God's blessing, there shouldn't be poverty. Deut 15:4

B. Harsh reality - always poor among us. Deut 15:11

C. Believers should do something about it. Deut 15:7-10

III. Self-help: Gleaning.

A. Poor are allowed leftovers. 19:9f; 23:22; Deut 24:19f; Ruth 2

B. Gleaning on Sabbath years. Lev 25:6

C. Jubilee - everyone starts out fresh. Lev 25

D. Helping hand: Redemption of poor brothers.

IV. Dignity and compassion.

A. Treat as hired worker, not a slave. (Don't humiliate) 25:39-54

B. Dignity - let him bring pledge out of own house. Deut 24:10-11

C. Don't hold pledged coat overnight since he needs it. Deut 24:12

D. Don't hold back wages. Lev 19:13; Deut 24:14-15; Matt 20:8

E. Don't oppress the poor. Exod 23:9

V. Justice.

A. Don't deny justice to the poor. Exod 23:6; Deut 24:17

B. Don't favor the poor. Lev 19:15; Exod 23:3

C. No slavery of poor brothers. Lev 25:39-54

VI. Religion.

A. Sabbath rest applies to all. Lev 16:29

B. Sliding payments (vows & sacrifices). Lev 5:7,11; 27:8

C. Tithe used for poor to celebrate. Deut 14:29; Deut 26:12

D. Same atonement price (1/2 shekel). Exod 30:15

VII. Before Almighty God, we are all empoverished sinners.

A. Put God first & material needs will be met.

B. Christians must get involved, not sit back and criticize.

C. Opportunities to serve:

D. When Jesus judges us, the criteria of our spirituality will be

how we treated our weaker brothers. Matthew 25

#1876

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America believes several untrue myths about poverty:

1. The "War on Poverty" only made things worse.

2. Welfare dependence passes from one generation to the next.

3. Welfare costs are a major tax burden on the middle class.

4. Work is a guaranteed way out of poverty.

Three truths about poor people:

1. The poor are less educated than other Americans.

2. Most of the poor don't work.

3. Most of the poor live in single parent households headed by women.

Four false assumptions:

1. The poor have too many kids.

2. Most of them live in inner city ghettos.

3. Most of the poor are black. (They make up 29%)

4. Poverty is a lifelong affliction.

(Spirituality) is still essential to poverty-fighting. In Washington, D.C., multimillion-dollar programs have failed, but, a mile from the U.S. Capitol, success stories are developing: spiritually-based programs such as Clean And Sober Streets, where ex-alcoholics and ex-addicts help those still in captivity; the Gospel Mission, which fights homelessness by offering true hope; and the Capitol Hill Crisis Pregnancy Center, where teenage moms and their born and unborn children are cared for. They are all saving lives.

In Dallas, Texas, a half-mile from the Dallas Housing Authority’s failed projects, a neighborhood group called Voice of Hope invites teenagers to learn about God through Bible studies and to work at remodeling deteriorated homes in their neighborhood. During the past decade, crime rates among the boys involved with Voice of Hope and pregnancy rates among the girls have been dramatically lower than those in the surrounding community.

Private charities can do a better job than government, but only if they practice the principles of effective compassion. GIVING, by itself, we need to remember, is morally neutral. We need to give RIGHTLY, so as not to impede the development of values that enable people to get out of poverty and stay out.

[filed under #3043 in file cabinet]

#3106

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A step-by-step look at how one person brought chaotic finances under control. Anne Elhajoui started out with only rudimentary financial rules (one credit card) and ended up going to a credit company, which straightened her out. A tight daily budget was necessary. She also had a mentor at the credit company.

Why not commit a crime?

If we can answer this one question, we can solve the crime problem.

The massive crime bill that lawmakers passed last fall contains a chilling confession: They haven’t a clue what causes crime. The bill earmarks several billion dollars to create a host of national commissions, task forces, studies, advisory boards — and even a presidential summit — all to study the causes of crime. The tragic irony is that we’re spending billions of dollars asking the wrong question. The question we ought to be asking is, What causes virtue? Why do most people, most of the time, refrain from crime? Answer that question and we can begin to solve crime.

History is littered with failed explanations of crime. In the nineteenth century, Cesare Lombroso believed criminals could be identified by physical features — sloping foreheads and long arms; but no physical trait correlates universally with criminal behavior. In this century, sociologist Edwin Sutherland blamed crime on the influence of bad environments; but many criminals ply illegal trades chosen on their own. Marxist analysis blames poverty for crime; but wealth is no guarantee of virtue. During the 1977 New York City blackout, most looters were employed workers who didn’t need the things they stole.

After an exhaustive 17-year study, psychiatrist Samuel Yochelson and psychologist Stanton Samenow concluded that all the standard explanations of crime are dead ends. Their own work suggests that crime is rooted instead in the way people think. Our thinking guides our choices; choices become habits; habits create character. They write: “Even when a specific crime, such as assault, has not been planned in advance, it is a matter of a criminal’s responding in a habitual manner.”

This approach aligns squarely with biblical teaching: In the words of Proverbs, “As a man thinks, so he is.” Perhaps it is time to stop trying to explain crime and start asking how to persuade people to think differently — to make moral choices that create virtuous character.

In a recent speech, theologian Michael Novak drew a striking parallel to economics. Economists are forever seeking the cause of poverty, Novak noted. But the fact is that throughout human history, most people lived at the subsistence level. The affluence of the modern age began when Adam Smith turned the question around: He asked what causes wealth. If we can identify the systemic forces that create new wealth, we can nurture those forces until potentially everyone can prosper.

By the same logic, Novak said, there’s nothing mysterious about why people commit crime. As the Book of James says, you covet things you cannot have, and so you quarrel, fight, and kill. Crime is endemic to the human condition. The more significant question is how to encourage virtue. How can we create self-governing republics where citizens police themselves?

The answer begins with “as a man thinks.” The historic function of intellectual leaders, says sociologist Philip Rieff, is to assert a culture’s “communal purpose” through its normative ideals and moral demands. But modern elites have abandoned that function; instead, they exalt personal choice over communal purpose, individual liberation over moral demands. The result is an ethic of autonomy that undercuts internal restraints on impulses.

That approach is clearly bankrupt. A recent Newsweek poll found that three- quarters of Americans believe our country is “in spiritual and moral decline.” The U.S. Senate has created a Character Counts Caucus. William Bennett’s Book of Virtues tops the bestseller lists.

Yet virtue cannot be learned from textbooks. As Aristotle said, character is inculcated through communities — families, neighborhoods, churches — which demand moral accountability and give us models to imitate. The current ferment over crime presents an extraordinary opportunity for Christians to make the case for virtue. Secular institutions, racked by relativism and autonomy, cannot speak to the issue correctly. Only we can.

Our efforts must begin in our own families. The family is the first school of human instruction, where the deepest tracks of character are laid down, where our moral heritage is passed on to the next generation, where conscience is formed. Through family life we nurture the virtues needed to revive a decaying society. As Novak puts it, our country “ought to have 250,000,000 policemen — called consciences.” And when those consciences are on guard, “it is surprising how few police are needed on the streets.”

Second, our churches must become redeemed communities — what Richard John Neuhaus calls “communities of character in a sea of mendacity” — serving as models to the secular world.

Finally, churches must aggressively equip laypeople with a biblical world- view, informed by the classical understanding of virtue — temperance, fortitude, prudence, justice. Only then can Christians contend for virtue in the public arena.

For many evangelicals, this will take fresh thinking. We have a right tradition of personal piety, but we have lost sight of an older tradition of public virtue. Piety turns inward to cultivate the heart; virtue turns outward to build the community.

Given today’s frenzy over crime, it is no surprise that Congress is pouring billions of dollars into misguided studies directed at the wrong question. This is a time when Christians should lead the way — not only in asking the right question but, even more important, in modeling the right answer.

Copyright (c) 1995 CHRISTIANITY TODAY, Inc./CHRISTIANITY TODAY Magazine

#3540

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The dozen women, donned in white gowns and mortar boards, walked into the sanctuary of the Church at Rock Creek -- and into a new life -- as they "graduated" from an innovative new ministry designed to move Arkansans from welfare rolls to payrolls.

The women, all of whom have been receiving Transitional Employment Assistance (TEA) funds from the state, participated in a six-week "Life Skills Workshop" developed and implemented by the Little Rock church's ministry arm, Rock Creek Care Center.

The workshop, held for six Fridays, taught participants fundamentals in lifestyle management, from values to interviews in an unusual hand-in-hand effort to combine ministry with governmental reform. Following the Dec. 11 ceremony, each graduate met with prospective employers at a job fair held at the church as part of the process.

Lisa Davis, 30, said that since attending the classes "they have taught us budgeting, values, forgiveness and how to be a positive role model for my children also."

"What I get out of this is ... hope," Davis said. "Before I started taking this class, I had jobs here, jobs there, just being lazy. I didn't want to go to a job or keep a job for a month. I had a job at Children's Hospital and kept it for about two weeks and quit it. I became totally dependent on the TEA check."

Her comments showed that many of the women have more to deal with than seeking a job. She noted Rock Creek pastor Mark Evans "taught us about accepting God into our life and this is where God taught me about forgiveness, because in November last year I got shot. They tried to teach me to deal with the guy that shot me, to forgive him.

"I have been feeling more positive about myself and my outlook on what I want to do, and I didn't have that outlook at the beginning," she commented, adding she wants to finish her high school education and move into the field of abused and neglected women and children.

Like fellow participant Lisa Davis, Anita Williams, 35, found herself "just sitting at home every day doing nothing but watching TV," prior to attending the classes. "Now, hopefully, I'm going to find a good job, finish school, get a GED and continue training in computers."

Also like other participants, Williams attended a variety of classes that included career-boosting information about filling out a job application, personal conduct and dress during an interview. "We had a lot of people coming out and telling us about their careers and a couple of ladies from the DHS (Department of Human Services) come ... teach us about budgeting. We had a lot of interesting things going on about clothing and, you know, life."

Rock Creek member Shirley Shackleford serves as workshop administrator, "making sure we contact presenters, do scheduling and programming, making sure the ladies understand what their requirements are," she explained. "Our focus is on setting goals, positive thinking, budgeting. We will coordinate through the Department of Human Services for personal needs, such as GEDs. I also fill out progress reports on attitude, participation."

Shackleford, who also is on the staff of Here's Life Inner City, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, said she has served as the workshop's administrator for more personal reasons.

"I was, at one point, a welfare recipient," she said. "I was a single mom for 11 years and I raised three children and there was a point in my life where I needed to rely on the state to help me. There were no programs like this at the time. I have a burden and a heart for this."

While the workshop reflects a desire by federal and state government to help move people from welfare to work, Evans said the church sees it as a ministry meeting needs. "The Care Center is the beginning umbrella of how we minister to people by meeting their needs and, ultimately, leading them into a relationship with Christ," he said.

Of the 12 who completed the workshop process, eight have made personal decisions for Christ.

Evans worked with Shackleford and church members to develop the content, he said, "to give the real-life, hands-on, 'Here's how you can take principles and apply them to your life.' These are things like job interview skills, how to prep a resume, learn some things about yourself and to make proper decisions. We also want to show them what the Bible says about how Jesus teaches how to take the time you've been given and make the most of it."

He said the church will continue in the welfare-to-work process, assigning mentors to counsel graduates for a 12-month period and holding its next Life Skills Workshop -- with a new group of participants -- in February.

If the workshop appears to be an extreme departure both in how churches minister and in how government moves welfare recipients to work, it is. Hope Center in Little Rock, held at a First Church of God facility, piloted the project and has seen about 80 graduate from the program. Rock Creek used the Hope Center as a model for their workshop.

Evans said church member Joan Adcock, also a Little Rock city director, planted the idea for a welfare-to-work ministry after her work with the Hope Center. "About the same time, government started talking about welfare to work," Adcock recounted. "We started praying over that and started understanding that God was calling churches to come forward in welfare-to- work."

Adcock noted the Little Rock board of directors recently approved six community centers for welfare-to-work initiatives, as recommended by the board's site base committee. "Every one of those came in with a faith-based component," she said. "I expected more of a government element."

As foreign as it seems, will Arkansans see more churches working in partnership with government to accomplish welfare reform?

"I believe so," remarked Larry Toller, one of Gov. Mike Huckabee's liaisons to DHS. "It stands to reason that the church has numerous resources available to it. It can be an extended family. It has a vast number of volunteers who are not only willing but able to help folks."

Gov. Mike Huckabee, who spoke to graduates, said following the ceremony, "I've always believed very strongly that the absolute key to welfare reform is faith-based ministries to people. Government can give a sterile check, a class, but it takes a human being to wrap their arms around a person and say, 'I love you and you matter, not because this is a job to me, but you are a person like me.' That's the difference."

Helen Webb, DHS economic services supervisor, agreed, explaining "the most important thing is that the churches are giving of their time and efforts and hearts. We at DHS are involved with paper. The churches are able to provide these ladies the Life Skills Workshop where they can learn life skills to go out and get a job so they can got out and help their children."

"We're in a new paradigm," Toller noted. "There has been a paradigm shift in welfare reform. Whereas in the past, welfare was an entitlement, now we're calling it Transitional Employment Assistance. This is time-limited.

"Presently, state law requires a two-year time period for a person who is able-bodied to move from dependency to self-sufficiency," he said. "That's a big jump, considering that we've had decades of the mind-set that this is an entitlement. Now we have a new approach. Federal law requires no more than five years and state law (enacted in 1997) is two."

Toller noted because federal and state law "both encourage churches' involvement in the welfare-reform movement, we're looking for ways to make that happen. The plan for Arkansas is each county has what's called a TEA coalition made up of private citizens, business leaders, elected officials, community leadership and pastors. They'll try to fill in the holes and take down the roadblocks."

For Brenda Rudley, 21, the roadblocks to help were rooted in personal self- esteem. "I wasn't working, I was just at home laying around watching stories every day. I had low self-esteem and attitudes toward other people. Before I started coming here, I would let people put me down just because I'm not working. Coming to this program, having someone telling me I can do something makes me a better person.

"I know that just by going through this program I'll better myself and my kids," said Rudley, the mother of three. "Before I leave here today, I want to get a job not just for the money but because I like to work. I'm ready to go out there and make some money and further myself."

Huckabee recognized the many personal battles fought by welfare recipients like Rudley wanting to make a change in their lives as he spoke to the women during the graduation ceremony.

"Remember not what the people around you say when they tell you what you can't do," he urged, "but what God says you can do. If you'll plug into him, you'll realize that the greatest strength you'll ever have in your day is the strength that he supplies. The best way to get self-esteem is not for somebody to give it to you, but to let God get into you when you answer his call."

Evans urged other churches to "pick up" on the welfare-to-work ministry. "It should be the future of welfare reform. It's not only something that the government needs, it's something that the church needs to do.

"As a pastor, I need to lead my church to do this kind of ministry because this is what Jesus told me to do," he said. "I want us to look at our future relationship and how we continue to develop our ministry plan in partnership with people like the Department of Human Services.

"It's incredible what kind of changes can take place," he remarked. "The government has thrown money at the problem. They stepped up to the plate when the church backed away and got out of the ballpark. It's time for the church to get into the ballpark, step up to the plate and work in partnership with DHS. They can't do everything else the church can do."

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HOW TO KNOW THE LORD

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(1) Thinking Biblically About Justice

"Justice and righteousness...Caring for the poor and needy ... Is not this to know me? says the Lord". Jer. 22:15b-16

Christians of all kinds - Catholic, Conciliar and Evangelical - are now more concerned than ever about social justice. Theology is never a "value-free" discipline, and in a world of stark injustices, many are doing theology from the side of the poor, rather than from an acquiescent, privatised Western perspective.

For CATHOLICS, Mater et Magistra (1961) broke the long alliance between Catholicism and socially conservative forces. Twenty years later Laborem Exercens inveighed against multinationals fixing high prices for their products and very low prices for raw materials.

EVANGELICALS in Berlin (1966) saw social involvement as the enemy of "biblical evangelism'; Lausanne 91974) viewed them as complementary; Wheaton (1983) saw social action and political engagement as integral to evangelism.

The WCC's Towards a Church in Solidarity with the Poor (1980) urges us to read the Bible from the perspective of the poor: :The Bible is a book of hope, concern and solidarity with the poor .... Unfortunately when the poor were given low priority in the life of the churches ... ecclesiastical institutions frequently become part of oppressive systems."

...

Who am I to write on this subject? I belong to the group least qualified to speak about justice and the poor. I am a white, Anglo-saxon Protestant evangelical, middle-class, middle-aged, well-educated (and beardless) living in a rich, lucky country (Australia) with a happy family in a quiet, treed suburb. I can "work" most systems to my advantage. My job's fulfilling, I earn about the national average, I've been twice around the world. I've worked hard, saved hard, studied hard, and I play hard. As a kid I scrounged bottles, animal manure and scrap metal for pocket money. We were not rich, but we were never hungry.

I grew up believing most of the poor were either lazy or stupid. Why the constant shortage of bricklayers? If Japan can do it, why not Bangladesh?

Righteous indignation focused on things like pornography, violence and sexual sins, rarely such macro-ethical issues as poverty, injustice, race and war.

My "conversion" began when I found that most of those who served the poor did not share these ideas. Dom Helder Camara, for example, flirted with fascism ("God, Fatherland and Family", "order is more important than justice") until he worked in the favelas in Rio - those festering piles of human beings separated by bits of cardboard and corrugated iron.

Paulo Freire says the middle class have a choice - to identify with the rich and influential, or with the poor, who have very few choices. Such a conversion is scary: there's fear of giving up what we have worked hard for; guilt that what we spend on luxuries would keep many starving families alive; a feeling of helplessness ...

The income gap between the poor and the rich, everywhere, is widening. Since the Industrial Revolution we've never learned to share it properly. It's not "trickling down" to the ever-increasing poor.

*****

THE BIBLE is certainly big on justice. The hebrew and greek words for justice (yashare and tsedeg, and dikaiosune) may have three meanings: personal virtue (Noah, or Joseph, were "just" Gen. 6:9, Matt. 1:19); judicial fairness (:Lev.19) or social responsibility: behaviour towards others which is like a covenant God's gracious concern for us. Unfortunately the KJV's use of "righteousness" for tsedeg gives the impression, not of justice, but rather holiness of living, which is an important but diminished understanding of the biblical idea.

Social justice concerns attitudes to the least privileged - the poor, widows, orphans, foreigners. When harvesting, the Israelites were to leave them something (Deut. 24:19-21). Interest on loans is forbidden (Ex. 22:25). All persons - including slaves and migrants - are entitled to rest on the sabbath (Ex. 23:12, Deut. 5:14). Slaves must not be treated harshly (Lev. 25:39-43). There is a clear relationship between oppression and poverty: "Remember you were once slaves" (Deut. 26:5-8). The God of the Exodus intervenes on behalf of the powerless and oppressed: so must his people.

The message of the prophets: "Seek justice, correct oppression" (Is. 1:17). They thunder against the rich and powerful who oppress the poor but their outrage is strongest against a religion devoid of justice (Hosea 6:6, 8:13; Amos 5:15, 21-25; Micah 6:6-8, Is. 58:1-11; cf. Prov. 21:3). God accepts or rejects Israel's worship according to their concern for the poor. Even prayer mustn't be a substitute for helping the poor (isa. 1:15-17). In the relatively affluent 8th century Israel, poverty was not accidental. The prosperity of the rich rested largely on the exploitation and mistreatment of the poor - through a legal system biased towards the rich, monopoly control, restrictive trade practices, unjust wages and arbitrary price increases. Many of the poor had lost their land to large property owners. Later, Ezekiel rebukes the rich for unscrupulously accumulating real estate for profit (22:28).

Many of the Psalms describe God judging the world with justice (e.g. 96:13; cf. 97:6, 98:9). His will is that justice and peace kiss each other (85:10-11). "The Lord executes justice for the oppressed" (146:7).

The angel's message to Zechariah promises that John, in the prophetic tradition, would summon a people "back to the way of thinking of the righteous" (Luke 1:17) (not "national self-interest"!).

Mary's Magnificat praises a God who shows mercy, scatters the proud, puts down the mighty, lifts up the lowly, feeds the hungry (and by these means "helps Israel" Luke 1:46-55).

Jesus" ministry will bring good news to the poor ... announce a "jubilee" (Luke 4:16-19). In the Jubilee (Lev. 25:3-5, 8-12) soil was to be left fallow, debts remitted, slaves liberated, and property returned to owners who had forfeited it by debt.

God in Christ becomes poor, choosing the weak, as Paul says, to "confound the mighty". The Kingdom, says Jesus, is given to the poor (and to the rich if they will repent). It is all about new relationships - with God, with others. It turns our customary values upside down: so the "first in the kingdom" are those with no status in society. The poor are blessed, not because of their poverty and misery, nor because they are "better" than others but because they recognize their need for God (Matthew 11:5, 5:3-11, Luke 6:20). To the rich, the gospel is "bad news before it is good news", so the rich young ruler, with his inordinate love of money and power is told to sell his possessions and give them to the poor so that he could have "treasure in heaven" (Matthew 19:16-30). It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom. We echo the words of Jesus' friends: "Who then can be saved?" No wonder the poor, the outcasts, the "excluded" heard him gladly. He enjoyed parties with disreputables, so the religious establishment was outraged at his behaviour. They "rubbed in' the fact that he was from Nazareth, an obscure therefore despised town.

The Kingdom is not something we passively await (as the Thessalonians later thought), but we help make the kingdom happen. There is mystery here: we must sow seed, God gives the gift of life, so that we can reap the harvest. He calls us to be co-redeemers with him. "They have no wine" at Cana, so Jesus asks for the cooperation of the servants as he produces some. Today, they have no jobs, no justice, no opportunities, no freedoms, no homes, no hope. If we don't fill the jars, there will be no miracle......

Jesus cut across selfish patriotisms and universalized the idea of "neighbour". Injustice done to anyone, anywhere, is my concern. One's neighbour is chosen, not given, as Hans King put it.

At the great judgment (Matt. 25:31-46) we shall learn that to serve others in their need is to serve the Lord himself. To ignore the poor is to turn away from the Lord. To be persecuted for the sake of justice is to be persecuted for the sake of Jesus (Matt. 5:6, 10,11).

The NT epistles are replete with admonitions to care for the poor (e.g. Gal. 2:10, James 2:5-7, 5:1-6, 1 John 3:17, 1 Tim. 6:17-19). Greed is a cardinal sin, a form of idolatry (1 Cor. 5:10-11, 6:10, Eph. 4:19, 5:3, 5, Col. 3:5).

The Bible does not condemn inequality of possessions per se. Redistribution so that "all have an equal share" is not a biblical idea. Those who argue this way will have to do it on philosophical or socio-political rather than biblical grounds. (Jesus enjoyed Galilee's feasting and suffered Golgotha's thirst. Paul experienced both prosperity and poverty, Phil. 4:12). What the Bible condemns is indifference by the affluent to the plight of the destitute. We "bless the poor", not paternalistically, but as God has blessed us - "grace justice" rather than "parity justice". The goal of justice is not equality, but shalom, a peace which assures the true humanity of individuals and communities.

*****

A THEOLOGY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE must include the following:

* Every human being is made in God's image. (So we uphold the right of every person to live in freedom, in dignity, in peace, in health, and to know the One whom to know is to experience fullness of life).

* Our generous Creator has entrusted us with a bountiful world, which we "subdue" but also "replenish". The earth was given to all, not just to the rich. (There is enough food to go around - for our need, but not our greed. It is not God's will that a quarter of us live in luxury while the rest struggle to survive).

*The "mark of Cain" is upon us - we are all sinners - but God's gracious concern is for both Cain and Abel, exploiter and exploited. (Jesus differentiated between "sinners" and "sinned against". To the Pharisees he preached judgment, so that they might receive forgiveness; to the sinned-against - 'I do not condemn you: go and sin no more").

* I am my brother's keeper. (I must not walk by on the other side of the road/tracks/sea).

* He sends his prophets who say "The effect of justice will be peace" (Isa. 32:17). False prophets want "peace, peace" without justice).

* Abundance may betoken God's blessing, but it carries an awesome stewardship. Because God's shalom issues in and from right relationships between us and God and each other, we have a simple choice: his kingdom, or violence. (Outside the kingdom all are oppressed, some by unjust systems and persons, others by their selfishness and greed. Jesus said the second oppression is much worse than the first).

* God comes among us both as judge and victim (rebuking our selfishness and being nailed to a cross).

* He calls upon us to repent, to live in radical obedience to the Kingdom's demands, not just as individuals, but in loving community. (A mural in a Romanian church shows people ascending into heaven in community, but falling into hell alone and isolated).

* We pray "Give us this day our daily bread". (If I am hungry that is a material problem; if someone else is hungry, that is a spiritual problem - Berdyaev).

* Our mission in a lost world includes word (preaching good news), deed (faith without works is dead), and sign (words and deeds without the Spirit's power may not be Christian, 1 Thess. 1:5, I Cor. 4:20).

Finally, something to ponder from Billy Graham's latest book Approaching Hoof Beats: "My basic commitment as a Christian has not changed, nor has my view of the Gospel, but I have come to see in deeper ways that implications of my faith and the message I have been proclaiming. I can no longer proclaim the Cross and the Resurrection without proclaiming the whole message of the Kingdom, which is justice for all."

In the next section we shall look at the five practical ways of Doing Justice (research, reflection, prayer, compassion, action).

*******

(2) DOING JUSTICE

"The really important teachings of the Law (are) justice and mercy and honesty. These you should practise...." (Matthew 23:23)

(1) RESEARCH: GET THE FACTS. Talk to the "poor" - single parents, unemployed, migrants - and to social workers, district nurses, etc.

Who are the poor? Definitions are elusive, but the poor know who they are. They have no "place". Some are poor geographically, "displaced". Others are poor emotionally, with no place in a loving family/community. Others are poor spiritually, having no place in Christ's kingdom. Many are materially poor - they are deprived, within their communities, of the basic necessities to "live decently". In Australia, they may not be starving, but they can't afford a good education or holidays, or car repairs, or all the bills.

Why are they poor? Is it their own fault? Most answers are either too simple or untrue. Perhaps it's the death of a parent, ill-health, physical/mental disability, collapse of a business, breakdown of marriage, lack of basic education, medical bills for sick children - the list may be endless. Bishop Peter Hollingworth: "....the causes of poverty are precipitated more by problems in the organization and structures of society than by individuals themselves."

Which brings up to economics. Our national and international systems revolve around greed and power: "the international imperialism of money" (pope Paul VI). People are rich or poor because of the "distribution system"; what makes money gets done, what doesn't make money doesn't get done. Richard Nixon, when U.S. president said in a moment of candour, "The main purpose of American aid is not to help other nations, but to help ourselves."

Selling powdered milk to poor people (who can't read the directions) makes money, so - until too many babies die - why not? And your morning cuppa coffee: it's grown in the two-thirds world, where people are hungry. We have money for coffee while people in Sao Paulo's favelas have no money for food. So the plantation owners grow coffee for us instead of black beans for them. Understand? (It's the same with tobacco: and, incidentally, if you smoke and drink coffee you are 40 times more likely to get lung cancer than if you imbibe neither). Brazil has more cultivated acreage per person than the U.S. , yet in recent years the proportion of undernourished there has risen from 45% to 72% of the population.

1.9% of El Salvadorans won 57.5% of the land - mainly selling cash crops abroad while at home hunger is endemic. Archbishop Oscar Romero spoke out against his country's injustices and the newspapers almost daily vilified him as corrupt, insance, a communist - and never printed his sermons. (Many wealthy El Salvadorans are mass-going Catholics too). Behind him on an office wall were huge photos of two priests who were murdered, and a banner HE WHO GIVES HIS LIFE FOR ME IS SAVED. Romero was shot while celebrating the eucharist on 24 March, 1980. In El Salvador, to work among the poor is an act of subversion.

The multinational corporations exist to make money for their stockholders, and they do it very well (Coco Cola invested $80,000 in India and by 1977 had made $16m. profit). Dom Helder Camara has been saying for years that if rich nations paid fair prices to developing countries for their natural resources there would no longer be any need for aid and relief projects. Most developing countries rely on cash from one or two products. For example, in 1960 three tons of bananas in Honduras could buy a tractor; but in 1970, the equivalent was eleven tons. They says it's each government's role to legislate morality. (But if the government is in the pocket of the multinationals, and against the poor.....?).

Heard of Minimata disease? A company in an Asian country kept dumping mercury into the water for years after knowing it was causing paralysis, retardation, insanity and death. The company was simply making money. There's money in mercury poisoning, red dye #2, fluorocarbons, alcohol, and a million other harmful things.

Back home, # 50% of Australian uni students are from families in the top 16% of the occupational scale # About 35,000 households in Victoria alone have their gas and electricity disconnected each year: many others go hungry to avoid this (they choose hunger to being cold). Over 100,000 each year are now seeking help for food, clothing and rent from relief agencies.

What are the functions of poverty in a country like Australia? Peter le Breton (Australian Politics, A Fourth Reader , pp. 99-100) says they include: (1) Dirty, repetitive, dangerous, undignified and menial work is done (mostly for low pay) (2) The rich can divert a higher proportion of income to savings and investment, to foster economic growth the benefits of which mostly favour the rich (3) If you're rich enough you'll pay little or no tax: the tax burden falls unequally on poorer wage-earners (4) Poverty creates jobs like corrective services, police, social workers (5) The poor buy goods no one else wants - secondhand cars, clothes etc. - enhancing incomes for sellers of these commodities (6) Those who espouse social norms of the desirability of hard work and thrift can accuse others of being lazy and spendthrift. So these latter are, of course, undeserving of the privileges the former enjoy (7) The deserving poor (e.g. the disabled) can allow the rest of us to feel altruistic, moral, and practise the Judaeo-Christian ethic (8) The powerless absorb the economic and social costs of change and growth: they are pushed out of their communities by high rents, urban "development" and freeways to convey the middle-class from the suburbs to the central business district .....

For Jesus when a system got in the way of people's wholeness, it had to go. Inveighing against the pharisees' legalistic religious system he said, "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath" (Mark 2:27). Our systems are mostly serving mammon, so we too will call for systemic change. We may not hold to any particular economic/political theory: a Christian is called to critique all ideologies. (As the cynic put it, capitalism is man exploiting his fellow-man; with communism it's the other way around!!). Systems either do God's will, or they are under his judgment .....

(2) REFLECTION; THINK ABOUT THE FACTS Working hard to think clearly is the beginning of moral conduct (Pascal). Reflection and praxis go together. If one is sacrificed the other suffers (Freire). Some are too quietist, seeking only bliss, or too philosophical, seeking only ideas, or too activist, seeking only bread. (Don't just do something, sit there!).

Beware of temptations not to think objectively. Our church congregations are mostly embedded in the rich half of society, so our "suburban captivity" can be self-protective. We meet few destitute "hidden people".

The problems are complex, but some things can be said simply:

2-1 Poverty is not just a lack of resources, but of power, of knowledge, of help and of hope. Poverty is loneliness. So it's not alleviated by handouts alone, but when the poor themselves become givers.

2-2 The best prophet of the future is the past, Lord Byron said. Reinhold Niebuhr has argued (convincingly in my view, in Moral Man and Immoral Society) that is we wait for the powerful to come altruistic we will wait forever. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The powerful have never - well, hardly ever - relinquished their privileges without some form of coercion being applied to them., Those with a biblical view of sin and evil won't find that surprising.

The dictionary says power is "the capacity to act". Because the exercise of power-for-good may be dangerous Christians often have an aversion to the use of power. Power means responsibility: and flight from power may mean a flight from responsibility.

2-3 Let us beware of "selective indignation", preaching only against evils threatening my family/group/church. Ask what Jesus got mad about .... And I accept myself as part of the problem, rather than blaming others: what have I not done that causes this one to be poor?

2-4 Our education system encourages us to "succeed" - which may not be the same as enhancing good human relationships. There's a tension in education between conformity to and the transformation of society. Some education may aim at collecting knowledge and certificates; transformation means asking how education can be liberating. (In Latin America learning to read is more than learning a skill, as in the West. It's a revolutionary activity as people learn about values and rights. That's why the powerful keep people illiterate).

2-5 Each of the world's peoples has its own particular cultural, ethnic and political distinctives: these must be respected. "First world" models of development may not be appropriate to developing countries. May we arrogant westerners be sensitive to the feelings of some overseas oppressed who consider us impertinent meddlers in their affairs. In the film "Gandhi" I remember that great man saying to the British, "Let us fail, if necessary, but with dignity, rather than have you here running things better while we are deprived of our liberty." The "excluded" must become the subjects of their own history, being part of the decision-making, and encouraged to control their own destinies. If an oppressed group is not crushed completely, they will organize themselves to defend their rights and values. With regard to injustice, we - the helpers - must always ask, What do the helpees want us to do? Speak out or not? Exert pressure on their oppressors or not? Engage in some form of activism or not?"

2-6 "Uou can't legislate morality" is a cop-out. All that is legislated is morality: the question is "What kind?" When the state fails to legislate mercifully, the church will do what it can, and will call the state to account, as the prophets did.

2-7 Jesus grew up in an oppressed country. The Zealots were "freedom fighters", Herodians and Sadducees went along with the status quo; Essenes withdrew to the desert; Pharisees debated questions of private morality. Jesus disappointed them all, renouncing violence, exploitation, apathy and moralism: they're all dehumanizing. His was the way of sacrificial love.

(3) PRAY. Ask "Who are my people?" then pray fervently for them - and their oppressors. Prayer, says Jacques Ellul (Prayer and Modern Man) is the ultimate act of hope. Prayer is "God with us" in our struggle. It is the only possible substitute for violence in human relations. Without sincere and earnest prayer the church can easily develop a bureaucratic oppressive mind-set, becoming an ally of, and operating like, worldly powers. Prayer rescues action from activism, and inaction from bewilderment and despair. But prayer is not a substitute for action. Contemplative love is not the end, but a means to the end of authentic love. As Thomas Merton once put it, let us not forget that Mary and Martha are sisters.

(4) FEEL. This is "listening presence", compassion, identification and encounter (i.e. incarnation). We won't do this as well as Jesus did but we must try. Reality is much more than objective facts. We must not act for others merely through feelings of personal outrage, but when - and until - through caring friendship we earn the right to be invited to be their helper or advocate. Such feeling presence enables us to transcend narrow bigotries. (Pharaoh's daughter saw more than a baby crying; she saw the baby of an oppressed Hebrew crying). Our practical help and advocacy for the poor will have the marks of suffering - the beatings, crown of thorns, and the nails - if we are truly the church of Jesus Christ. Only thus will it be sacramental, mediating the grace of God to those in need.

(5) ACT CREATIVELY. We must do theology, not just be committed to reflection on reflection.

Let us not ever be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problems: if enough individuals act, in concert, almost any problem can be solved. To act is to effect change; godly action is to bring in the kingdom somewhere on earth. Robbers move against their victim; the priest and levite have a passive mind-set and move away - to be "neutral" (encouraging more injustice); the Samaritan uses the materials at his disposal (donkey, oil, wine, clothes, money, physical strength, compassion. In our culture he would also make representations to the police about security on the Jericho Road).

The church is involved politically if it does nothing: it is voting for the status quo. All it takes for evil to triumph is that good people do nothing. The villains in Jesus' stories were seldom men who did things they ought not to have done; usually they were people who left undone the things they should have done. The rich man let Lazarus lie unhelped at his gate; the servant made no use of his talent - these received the severest condemnation. The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. Churches are bearers of traditions concerning ultimate meaning and value, and are already organized, so they are ideal mediating groups in our society.

If "charity begins at home" then a church will ask: "What needs exist in our neighbourhood, and what resources do we have to meet them?" Day-0care facilities, a food box in the foyer, counseling centre (with fees related to ability to pay), housing for the homeless/elderly, writing letters to keep elected officials honest - these are some beginnings. Above all, let us build "shalom churches" where the values we preach to the world are incarnated in the faith community.

However, charity is not justice. A charitable act is a somewhat spontaneous, temporary, non-controversial response to an accident or tragedy. Conditions of injustice are not accidents. They are never "acts of God" but acts of men. To relieve victims of injustice demands that the root causes of injustice be addressed and removed. Charitable acts must not be a substitute for this more controversial pursuit. Giving a pneumonia sufferer a box of tissues may be of some comfort, but it is irrelevant to the victim's recovery, which depends on other factors.

Father Brian Gore, an Australian priest held for 14 months in a Philippine prison, said recently that aid organizations were actually supporting a system of injustice when they do not ask why Filipinos went hungry. "An organization which exclusively looks at the effects rather than the causes is a dead loss", he said. We must therefore be involved in process as well as projects. Camara's best-known quote is devastating on this issue: "When I give money to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask 'why are they poor?' they call me a communist!" From a biblical perspective, mercy and justice belong together.

Individual activism can be encouraged. Jeremiah got across ideas through "prophetic signs" - going around in a loin-cloth, wearing a wooden yoke, etc. These are more than symbols, they are dramatic parables of judgment, arousing peoples' inquisitiveness and enabling them to hear God's message more clearly. Our mass media would notice this sort of thing! Collective advocacy is usually more effective however )prophets today can also be dismissed as crackpots). Public opinion can be changed. (In Australia, unfortunately, it's not the quality of the opinion that counts, but how many hold it. Our elected representatives mostly follow public opinion, they do not lead it, as in some European countries).

Often church councils and assemblies think they're doing something when they pass resolutions. Being reactive rather than active, these often change nothing, if they are not linked with other courses of action. (An offensive U.S. TV show interviewed married couples in their bedrooms about their sex lives. Churches passed resolutions which changed nothing - until someone organized 5000 families to boycott the sponsors!)

Such activities force us to ask tough questions. Polarizations will occur; we may find ourselves crusading with the "ratbag element"; and we'll discover that self-interest and power games exist even in churches!

FINALLY, the evils here are ubiquitous, huge and complex. But we must not succumb to immobility: let us do something, and be free to learn through failing, if necessary. Let us repent of our sins of omission before we blame others for their sins of injustice. Then let us get involved. Fighting poverty is war: the violence of poverty kills just as surely as bullets. I am convinced, however, that we must fight this war non-violently. Christ gave his life for others who could not save themselves: let us give our lives for the wretched of the earth. Let us begin with ourselves, and in a world of crying need, adjust our lifestyle accordingly. Let us renounce addictions, especially those involving the desire for immediate gratification. Let us be Christ to others", as Luther put it - serving the, being advocates for them, acting as agents for change. Albert Einstein once said: "The problems of the world cannot be solved with mechanisms, but only by changing the hearts and minds of man and speaking courageously."

But remember, there's no point in bearing a cross if you don't believe in resurrection.

*

If the world were 100 people there would be:

57 Asians

21 Europeans

14 from North and South America

8 Africans

52 would be female

48 would be male

70 would be nonwhite

30 white

59% of the entire world's wealth would belong to only 6 people and

all 6 would be citizens of the United States [Holwick: the true figure is closer to 25%; all of North America represents 5.17% of world population]

80 would live in substandard housing

70 would be unable to read

50 would suffer from malnutrition

1 would be near death

1 would be near birth

Only 1 would have a college education

99 of them will not see this message, because only 1 would have a computer.

That Sunday morning I stared into our nearly empty refrigerator trying to imagine how I'd stretch our food to last us the rest of the week. My two kids and I had just moved from a shelter for abused women into a small, low-rent apartment. I wasn't sure where lunch would come from, let alone Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. I was tired of praying for miracles, tired of worrying about how we would get by.

“We'd better get going to church,” I told the kids.

“Wait!” cried my four-year-old son, P.J., climbing onto the counter to open a kitchen cabinet while three-year-old Amanda reached into the refrigerator. “Don't you remember, Mommy? We're supposed to bring something for the poor.”

Yes, that's what the pastor at our new church had said. How could I tell my son we were the poor? “We don't have anything to bring.” I said, closing the refrigerator door just as Amanda extracted a single droopy carrot. P.J. held up a dusty can of peas he'd found. “Sure we do!” he said.

It's bad enough my children have to go to a new church dressed in old clothes, I thought. Now I'm letting them bring rotten food to the altar.

By the time we got to church and grabbed a pew in back, the altar was overflowing with offerings – turkeys, pies and loaves of bread. I knew that a fraction of that bounty could feed my family for a month. I whispered a familiar prayer: “Lord, help us get on our feet again.”

P.J. and Amanda picked up their offerings.

They walked toward the altar, P.J. in his little suit that was too short in the sleeves, Amanda holding her carrot in front of her like a candle. All heads tamed to watch. The pastor pointed to where they could leave their gifts. A murmur ran through the crowd and people smiled.

I felt a rush of pride. P.J. and Amanda had found something to give while I saw only empty shelves. As it turned out those shelves weren't empty for long. Members of our church showed up on our doorstep with more than enough for a Thanksgiving feast. Looking at the bounty, I thought of others I knew who could use a little extra. “Come on,” I said to my kids, “let's see if we can share some Thanksgiving.”

__________

Tina Fenech, Brampton, Ontario, Canada

Source: Guideposts, Copyright (c) November 2000, http://www.guideposts.org

*

[Illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #9192]

Dad Chaney ministered for 50 years in the slums of Chicago. He was a source of light and hope to those who were down and out. He took the gospel into the back alley … the garbage dump of life. One day his housekeeper found him kneeling by his bed… dead.

Dad Chaney as a little boy was poor … he like any other boy wanted to go out to play… but in order to help his widowed mother makes ends meet worked out in the garden as the sun beat down on his back and plastered his sweaty shirt to his body. He finally found a part time job milking cows for a farmer. He milked the cows with one hand while he held his Latin book with the other hand and studied. Later someone found a Latin book (it may have been his) and in the flyleaf was written this poem… “Latin is a dead language / As dead a dead can be./ First it killed the Romans, / And now it’s killing me.”

He found an old lead pipe, took his knife and split it down one side, then he took a hammer and pounded it flat making a tablet. With the point of his knife he then carefully carved these words that you need to remember and then he nailed the tablet above the place where he milked the cows. What was that important message? “7-12-1879 Life is against me but life will tell.”

Not long ago, as I was doing research for a paper I had to write, I stumbled upon some statistical data that greatly disturbed me. Researchers estimate that every day 16,000 to 24,000 children die from hunger related causes. In 2004, for example, almost one billion people lived below the international poverty line, earning less than one dollar per day. These impoverished people struggle daily with malnourishment and hunger, and the majority live in what is called the “developing” world. This developing world has six times the population than the 57 or so countries comprising the “developed” world of which the United States is a part.(1)

Yet in the United States, by contrast, over two-thirds of the population are overweight and almost one-third is considered obese according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for the years 2001-2004.(2) In fact, the Centers for Disease Control shows an increase in the number of obese persons in the United States in their data compiled from 1985-2006.(3) It is not difficult to see how a country with a smaller population would have greater access to food and therefore less problems with malnutrition and hunger. Perhaps more troubling, however, is the fact in 22 different states 25 to 30 percent of their populations are considered obese.(4)

These statistics became more than facts and figures when I encountered Jesus’s illustration of the sheep and the goats in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 25. In this harrowing account of final judgment, the Son of Man holds court over all the nations. Like a shepherd who separates the sheep from the goats, the Son of Man gathers the nations before him and separates them from one another. On his right go the sheep, and on his left go the goats. The sheep are commended for their righteousness, and the goats are punished for their unrighteousness.

Among the many insights one could glean from this passage, one stood out in bold letters, particularly as it relates to the facts and figures of poverty and hunger; Jesus defines righteous living in terms of acts of justice and kindness done to the least of these. He says to the sheep on his right: “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me” (Matthew 25:34-36). The sheep are astonished that they are counted among the righteous, based on this definition, for they never saw Jesus hungry, or thirsty, or as a stranger, or naked, sick or in prison. Yet, Jesus answers them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, YOU DID IT TO ME” (Matthew 25:40). What a surprise to find that righteousness involves acts of mercy, kindness, and protection for the “least of these” among us. Indeed, how sobering it is to know we are counted among the unrighteous when we neglect those opportunities to show mercy, kindness, and protection.

Perhaps an even more vital insight is found in the opportunity to encounter the living Jesus in the presence of “the least of these.” Author Paul Janz notes: “Christ does not say that inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these, it will be ‘as if’ you had done it unto me; but rather that inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these, YOU HAVE DONE IT UNTO ME.”(5) In the bleak, gaunt, ravaged expressions of malnourishment and hunger, we glimpse -- indeed we encounter -- Christ himself, the way, the truth, and the life. We are given the opportunity to recognize, to receive, and to respond to Jesus himself in the plight of the “least of these” among us.

What do world hunger, poverty, illness and despair have to do with righteousness? What do they have to do with Jesus? According to Matthew’s Gospel, they are the vehicles for a revelatory encounter with Jesus, unto whom we minister through acts of mercy, kindness, and justice. Indeed, according to Matthew’s Gospel, we have the opportunity to experience the blessedness of inheriting the kingdom prepared for us as we minister to Jesus in the least of these all around us. Rather than seeing poverty, hunger, homelessness and imprisonment as pervasive societal ills, statistics, or problems to avoid, we are given the blessing of ministering to our Lord, and of seeing in their faces, the face of Jesus.

________

1. Statistics from Bread for the World, www.bread.org and the World Food Programme, www.wfp.org.

2. Statistics from the Weight Control Information Network, www.niddk.nih.gov.

3. Centers for Disease Control, www.cdc.gov.

4. Ibid.

5. Oliver Davies, Paul Janz, and Clemens Sendak, TRANSFORMATION THEOLOGY: CHURCH IN THE WORLD (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2008), 115.

________

Copyright © 2008 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5938]

A certain alchemist who waited upon Leo X. declared that he had

discovered how to transmute the baser metals into gold. He expected to

receive a sum of money for his discovery, but Leo was not such a

simpleton. He merely gave him a large purse in which to keep the gold

he would make. There was wisdom as well as sarcasm in the present.

That is precisely what God does with proud men; he lets them have

the opportunity to do what they boasted of being able to do. I never

heard that so much as a solitary gold piece was dropped into Leo's

purse, and I am sure you will never be spiritually rich by what you

can do in your own strength. Be stripped, brother, and then God may be

pleased to clothe you with honor, but not till then. --C. H. Spurgeon

An old woman, known to all her neighbors as "Garbage Mary," lived

in a small town in Florida. Every day she would be seen dressed in

her rags, walking the streets, scavenging through garbage cans for

food, which she hoarded in her car or in her tiny two-room apartment.

She was a recluse with no friends, and, as she scrounged cigarettes

and ice cubes from anyone who was available, it was logical to believe

that she was an old woman who was rapidly losing her mind and living

on the verge of destitution.

Finally, Garbage Mary was picked up by police and confined in a

psychiatric institution. But, when some court officials went to her

apartment to collect a few of her personal effects, they were amazed

to discover that there was money everywhere. Scattered through her

apartment and her car were bank books, stock securities, oil-drilling

rights, real-estate documents, and cash, which indicated that Garbage

Mary was worth more than a million dollars. These documents also

indicated that she was not an old woman, but a forty-eight-year-old

college graduate, who had inherited a great deal of money when her

father died in 1974.

Further investigation revealed that she had experienced two unhappy

marriages, and her brother felt the resulting trauma may have caused

her mental problems. Her psychiatrist conjectured that, living alone,

she had fallen into a mental rut because she had nothing to excite

her. Whatever the reason, the tragedy remains. Here was a woman,

abounding in the physical resources she needed to meet her physical

needs, foraging through garbage and living in rags, while her

resources went unused and neglected. While her money collected

interest, she collected garbage!

All who ignore the spiritual wealth which Christ has provided while

pilfering in the devil's immoral and temporal garbage make a more

pitiful "mistake" than that of Garbage Mary.

For many years Hetty Green was called America's greatest miser. When she died in 1916, she left an estate valued at $100 million, an especially vast fortune for that day. But she was so miserly that she ate cold oatmeal in order to save the expense of heating the water. When her son had a severe leg

injury, she took so long trying to find a free clinic to treat him that his leg had to be amputated because of advanced infection. It has been said that she hastened her own death by bringing on a fit of apoplexy while arguing the merits of skim milk because it was cheaper than whole milk.

How many others have died spiritually while arguing the merits of a cheaper way into heaven -- one which cost them less, or nothing, and yet one whose false, "skim milk" doctrines lacked the essential spiritual elements and nutrients to bring and maintain true spiritual life.

My Source:

NORTH MARSHALL MESSENGER

Volume 4, #6, December 6, 1998

… … … … … … … …

Author: David Lemmons

==================================================

REMEMBER THE POOR (Galatians 2:10)

There are three main sections of chapter two of Galatians: (1) Paul’s Defense of his Apostleship–2:1-9; (2) Paul Openly Rebukes Peter–2:11-14; and (3) The Contrast of Two Systems: Freed from Law and Justified By Faith–2:15-21. In between the first two of these divisions verse 10 (which is really a part of Paul’s defense of his apostleship), is presented as an important challenge to all Christians. We are to REMEMBER THE POOR!

REMEMBER THE POOR! Paul wrote, in Galatians 2:9-10–”And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. 10 Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.” Paul was pointing out that the “PILLARS” at Jerusalem did not add one thing to the message which he and Barnabas were preaching. His argument was that his message came to him from Jesus Christ, and not from any other. But along with the emphasis given to the divine origin of Paul’s message, and as a part of it, was the charge to REMEMBER THE POOR.

REMEMBER THE POOR! The POOR in this context would have been the poor saints of Judea. It was not necessary for Paul to be instructed in the importance of such a charge for a number of reasons. First of all, as we will notice shortly, the Old Testament scriptures [with which Paul was intimately familiar] are filled with references to such a duty. Many provisions are made in the word of God for the care of the poor. But not only so, Paul knew about the monumental task of bringing Jew and Gentile together in Christ, considering the enmity which had long characterized their interactions. Paul knew that collecting funds from the Gentiles to assist the poor saints of Judea (Jews), would be most helpful in uniting the two as the gospel message demanded (Galatians 3:28). We will want to come back to this point as we conclude this article.

REMEMBER THE POOR! Let’s notice some of what the Lord has revealed to us about remembering the poor. It is stated that God regards the poor equally with the rich (Job 34:19). The fact is that both poor and rich are the product of His hands. Most people, if honest, will have to acknowledge that the rich are given more attention and respect than the poor. God’s word recognizes that such can even be a problem as we assemble for worship (James 2:1-8). These kinds of discrimination are not well pleasing to the Lord, nor are they Christ-like.

REMEMBER THE POOR! Why? Because God does not forget the poor (Psalms 9:18). Even if every single one of us forgets the poor and ignores this exhortation of Galatians 2:10, the poor will not be forgotten. Can we not see that one of the purposes of God’s word is His revelation of Himself to us. How thankful must we be to have such a written revelation which guides us to know what pleases and displeases our God! If we are to be pleasing to God, we must notice, pay attention to, the things that are characteristic of God. We are like God whenever we remember the poor.

REMEMBER THE POOR! Why? Because God maintains the right of the poor (Psalms 140:12). For you or me to go up against the poor by disrespecting them or in some way abusing them, is for us to go up against the One Who maintains their right. Shall we find ourselves fighting against God?

REMEMBER THE POOR! Why? Because God delivers the poor (Job 36:15; Psalms 35:10). Would we yield ourselves to be used by the Lord for the noble purpose of delivering the poor? Likely we all can look around us and find both those in relation to whom we find ourselves to be rich and poor in the world’s standard of measuring such. How important is it to be understanding and compassionate and teamed with God in helping to relieve those less fortunate then we? Really, how important is it to ME? When occasion arises that we can be used to help in delivering the poor, do we seize upon them, or let them pass? Further, do we search out such opportunities?

REMEMBER THE POOR! Why? Because God exalts the poor (1 Samuel 2:8; Psalms 107:41). In Hannah’s beautiful prayer to the Lord, she exalts Him with marvelous praise by drawing a strong contrast between the supposed mighty men and the Almighty God of heaven, who lifts the poor from the dunghill and exalts them as princes. Should we have concern for the poor? God does and it matters not what we have in this world’s goods, we owe it all to God (Js 1:17).

Now, let’s think back to one of the reasons Paul would have had no problem with the exhortation to remember the poor. He knew the expression of concern and caring would have an impact on the uniting of Jew and Gentile. Does it not make perfectly good since that we might use the same reasoning today? You see, the sins of men have separated them from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). They have a need of hearing the saving message of the gospel, and then obeying that message. How do we get their ears? How do we help them to listen to the message? One powerful way is to REMEMBER THE POOR! A powerful aid in our efforts to evangelize will be remembering the poor. In doing so, we align ourselves with a caring and loving God who has always REMEMBERED THE POOR!

In 1994, two Americans answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics (based on biblical principles) in the public schools. They were invited to teach at prisons, businesses, the fire and police departments and a large orphanage. About 100 boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were in the orphanage. They relate the following story in their own words:

It was nearing the holiday season, 1994, time for our orphans to hear, for the first time, the traditional story of Christmas. We told them about Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem. Finding no room in the inn, the couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger. Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word. Completing the story, we gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger. Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins I had brought with me. No colored paper was available in the city.

Following instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw. Small squares of flannel [cut from a worn-out nightgown an American lady was throwing away as she left Russia], were used for the baby's blanket. A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt we had brought from the United States. The orphans were busy assembling their manger as I walked among them to see if they needed any help.

All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat. He looked to be about 6 years old and had finished his project. As I looked at the little boy's manger, I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. Quickly, I called for the translator to ask the lad why there were two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously. For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger.

Then Misha started to ad-lib. He made up his own ending to the story as he said, "And when Mary laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don't have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with Him. But I told him I couldn't, because I didn't have a gift to give Him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept Him warm, that would be a good gift.

"So I asked Jesus, 'If I keep You warm, will that be a good enough gift?' Jesus told me, 'If you keep Me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave Me.' I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and He told me I could stay with Him - for always."

As little Misha finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed. The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him. Someone who would stay with him - for always!

The Americans? They had learned the lesson they had come there to teach that it is not what you have in your life, but Who you have in your life that really counts. We all should give thanks for the people that "keep us warm" in life. For all of God's many blessings to us: freedom from want, life, love, togetherness, and for the enduring love of Jesus Christ, the one person who keeps us warm and safe forever.

________

Attributed to Will Fish in some sources

I was five years old. My parents had moved from Alberta to Portland, Oregon, in hopes for a better living.

Unfortunately, my father passed away a year after our move. It was in December and Christmas would be a sad and dismal time for us that year. Much of my mother's meager funds had gone to pay for his funeral. Tears in her eyes, she told us not expect presents this year. She promised us a tree and a roasted chicken for Christmas dinner.

A few days before Christmas, Mother took us to the grocers to purchase the bare necessities for our Christmas dinner. I noticed the grocer slip some candy in the bag after she paid him. The candy was nice, but it didn't make up for toys.

Just as we were entering the path leading to our home, my brother yelled loudly and took off running, my mother and I not far behind. George was already on his knees trying to open one of the two large cartons sitting on the porch. Mother stopped him, saying they did not belong to us. My brother declared that our name was on the boxes.

A neighbour, watching for our return, informed us that delivery truck belonging to the largest department store in Portland - Myer and Frank by name -had brought the cartons. The driver had explained that the store somehow knew about our father's death and took it upon themselves to see that we received toys and food for Christmas morning. The second box held a turkey with all the trimmings for our Christmas dinner.

Over 70 years have passed but I have never forgotten that the largest retail store in Portland, Oregon, also had a heart.

Stella Bird

Victoria, BC

He entered my life 20 years ago, leaning against the doorjamb of Room 202, where I taught fifth grade. He wore sneakers three sizes too large and checkered pants ripped at the knees.

Daniel made this undistinguished entrance in the school of a quaint lakeside village known for its old money, white colonial homes and brass mailboxes. He told us his last school had been in a neighboring county. "We were pickin' fruit," he said matter-of-factly.

I suspected this friendly, scruffy, smiling boy from an emigrant family had no idea he had been thrown into a den of fifth-grade lions who had never before seen torn pants. If he noticed snickering, he didn't let on. There was no chip on his shoulder.

Twenty-five children eyed Daniel suspiciously until the kickball game that afternoon. Then he led off the first inning with a home run. With it came a bit of respect from the wardrobe critics of Room 202.

Next was Charles' turn. Charles was the least athletic, most overweight child in the history of fifth grade. After his second strike, amid the rolled eyes and groans of the class, Daniel edged up and spoke quietly to Charles' dejected back. "Forget them, kid. You can do it."

Charles warmed, smiled, stood taller and promptly struck out anyway. But at that precise moment, defying the social order of this jungle he had entered, Daniel gently began to change things - and us.

By autumn's end, we had all gravitated toward him. He taught us all kinds of lessons. How to call a wild turkey. How to tell whether fruit is ripe before that first bite. How to treat others, even Charles. Especially Charles. He never did use our names, calling me "Miss" and the students "kid."

The day before Christmas vacation, the students always brought gifts for the teacher. It was a ritual - opening each department-store box, surveying the expensive perfume or scarf or leather wallet, and thanking the child.

That afternoon, Daniel walked to my desk and bent close to my ear. "Our packing boxes came out last night," he said without emotion. "We're leavin' tomorrow."

As I grasped the news, my eyes filled with tears. He countered the awkward silence by telling me about the move. Then, as I regained my composure, he pulled a gray rock from his pocket. Deliberately and with great style, he pushed it gently across my desk.

I sensed that this was something remarkable, but all my practice with perfume and silk had left me pitifully unprepared to respond. "It's for you," he said, fixing his eyes on mine. "I polished it up special."

I've never forgotten that moment.

Years have passed since then. Each Christmas my daughter asks me to tell this story. It always begins after she picks up the small polished rock that sits on my desk. Then she nestles herself in my lap and I begin. The first words of the story never vary. "The last time I ever saw Daniel, he gave me this rock as a gift and told me about his boxes. That was a long time ago even before you were born.

"He's a grown-up now," I finish. Together we wonder where he is and what he has become.

"Someone good I bet," my daughter says. Then she adds, "Do the end of the story."

I know what she wants to hear - the lesson of love and caring learned by a teacher from a boy with nothing - and everything - to give. A boy who lived out of boxes. I touch the rock, remembering.

"Hi kid," I say softly. "This is Miss. I hope you no longer need the packing boxes. And Merry Christmas, wherever you are."

____________________

by Linda DeMers Hummel (c) 1992, from A 4th Course of Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Hanoch McCarty and Meladee McCarty. Originally appeared in the December 22, 1992 issue of "Family Circle" entitled "Daniel's Gift" and appeared in the December 1994 issue of "Reader's Digest."

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