100 Sermon Illustrations on Poverty

My first exposure to abject poverty was while serving as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines. My wife, Pat, and I served there from 1971-1973. Surprisingly, it was through this U.S. Government program that we learned the basics of how to avoid dependency! "What they saw is what they got" - the volunteer. Peace Corps trainers instilled in us that real lasting relationships are made when you give only yourself away.

We came with our zeal, two suitcases and some knowledge, but no project money, building funds, equipment or commodities to give away. To be sure, it was frustrating at times not having the resources to do the job the "American way," but the friendships and respect gained were very real.

During our second year of Peace Corps service, God used the overwhelming hopelessness of the poverty we saw to convict us of our own lack of love for the poor! Our experiences ingrained in us a desire to help those in poverty find a dignified way out of it.

In 1984, we returned to the Philippines to do pioneer church planting among the Igorot tribes of the Central Cordillera range of northern Luzon. Because of government abuse and neglect, these tribal people were fertile ground for an on-going communist insurgency. This insurgency was rife with promises to liberate the poor. The communists saw Christianity as a threat to the spread of their atheistic dogma. This ever-present danger, coupled with poverty because of government abuse and neglect, made life very difficult for these early converts. We came into this situation with no building funds, salaries, or program funds. What we did bring was a micro-credit program sponsored by FARMS International.

Micro-credit was new to me then, although FARMS had a history of micro-credit dating back to its 1973 inaugural program in Sri Lanka. I was not at all sure how this loan program would complement our church-planting ministry. I was a bit skeptical, but the believers in the area looked upon it as an answer to prayer. They were a very industrious people. What was lacking was readily available capital to establish productive cash-crop farming, animal raising, or home-based enterprises.

We served there for eight very exciting years and saw much accomplished. Our philosophy of missionary practice was to do nothing for those we served that they could do for themselves. This was very liberating for them as well as for us.

Dependency is the result of "doing good" that is "not good."

We initiated the FARMS micro-credit loan program early on in our ministry. The results were truly encouraging. The community acknowledged that we were really helping the poor.

Each loan recipient tithed and gave offerings from their project profits. Because of this, a self-supporting church naturally emerged. Eventually, a substantial church building was erected with no foreign funding whatsoever - a first in those mountains. Jabbok Bible Church earned a reputation as a giving church, reaching far beyond its own congregation with many acts of charity. They had learned the joy of giving. God provided in many ways to meet the needs of these new believers. Most have built nice homes and have experienced many blessings in their lives. The church's outreach and influence continues today without any outside funding. Their church is truly God–reliant.

Since 1993, I have served as the Executive Director for FARMS International. This year we are celebrating 39 years of ministry with eleven programs in eight countries.

God's Blueprint

Scripture has a considerable emphasis on the poor, revealing for us God's heart for the poor. Hundreds of scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments admonish the believer to "consider the poor," to "do good" to the poor, to "plead the cause" of the poor, to "lend to the poor" and to help the poor out of his poverty!

God outlines his blueprint to prevent perpetual poverty in Deuteronomy 15:1-11. As we read these verses, we find that loaning to help the poor regain economic security was central to God's original formula. God even pronounces a blessing, a tangible blessing, encompassing all of life to those who "regard the poor." Psalms 41:1

The New Testament, which is the foundation of the Western work ethic, is rich in references, honoring and encouraging work (1 Thess. 4:11,12 Eph. 4:28).

The key to releasing those in poverty is work - work that uses God-given talents and resources to create wealth. Then people can meet their own needs and those of others. This is in sharp contrast to consuming someone's charity.

The guiding principle of FARMS International is the scripture, "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith" (Gal. 6:10).

Dependency is the result of "doing good" that is "not good." Self-reliance is the result of "doing good" that "is good." There is a great gulf between these competing ideas.

Can micro-credit be used to minimize the dependency syndrome? I believe the answer is yes. When strictly Biblical principles are used to guide a micro-credit program, dependency is not a problem and a healthy reliance on God is the result.

Micro-credit is an opportunity for those with wealth to meaningfully supply the "necessity of the saints," while not fueling dependency.

While keeping in mind that families are key to development, it is also important to note that the poor need not be dependent. They can, in fact, flourish when given the opportunity to use their God-given talents and gifts.

Working with one's hands to have something to give to others is liberating. Here are a few of the key benefits of micro-credit:

1. Helps to maintain the Biblical family order, in actuality keeping families together.

2. Impacts the rural as well as the urban poor.

3. Breaks the usurious money lenders hold on the poor.

4. Multiplies "thanksgiving unto God" (2 Cor: 9:12).

5. Generates prayer for those who give to support the program, thus connecting the Body of Christ in a healthy way. "And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you" (2 Cor.9:14).

6. Promotes an indigenous vision to help their own people.

7. Encourages true local ownership and decision-making.

An Effective Tool

I believe when used correctly and with a strong Biblical emphasis, micro-credit is an effective tool in building up a God-reliant church. I would strongly recommend a micro-credit program be instituted early on in any church planting effort to get Christians firmly established economically. The emphasis from the start should be on indigenous support of the church, its pastors, evangelists, outreach, benevolence and building programs. If we are coming alongside an established work, great emphasis should be placed on teaching the proper Biblical view of stewardship.

As Westerners, we take bank credit for granted. We use it nearly every day of our lives. Therefore, it is not too difficult to imagine the hardships our brethren experience in places where credit is not available or comes with crippling usury. It is therefore easy to endorse the micro-credit approach. In addition, it is gratifying to see our mission dollars, that are invested in revolving micro-credit, keep on working! This approach to helping the poor not only produces wealth but it also generates tithes and offerings promoting self-supported and God-reliant congregations with longevity.

A Short List of Keys for an Effective Micro-Credit Program

· Requests to establish a micro-credit program should come from established mission agencies, missionaries and indigenous organizations.

· In order to ensure a working relationship, principles of operation need to be clearly laid out and agreed to by the cooperating agency or missionary.

· Development without Christian conversion is futile at best.

· Family development is preferred to most forms of community development, because the family has a vested interest to succeed. They are also best at identifying their real needs and will work hard to meet them.

· The head of the home is the preferred recipient of a loan. The Biblical model of family is thus preserved and strengthened.

· Family discipleship, especially in Biblical stewardship, is key to the success of the project. Money is a heart issue. It is not surprising, then, that the loan program is an open door to effective discipleship.

· Tithing of project profits cannot be overemphasized as a key to successful micro-credit programs. Tithing must be taught as an act of thankfulness and obedience for the blessings of God. Once this habit is established it releases the individual to a lifestyle of generous giving and experiencing the blessing of God.

· Giving is key to breaking the cycle of poverty. The project holder not only provides for his own needs but also becomes a blessing to others. This truly builds self-worth and breaks the poverty mentality.

· Project candidates must have local church endorsement. This ensures that the committee is helping those with a proven Christian commitment and a real need.

· Loan distributions should be clustered to maximize the impact of the generated tithing on individual churches. The goal is family as well as church enablement.

· A service fee set by the committee of 5-10 percent of the loan's face value helps pay administration costs as well as forming a buffer against bad debt and devaluation that decrease the revolving fund.

· We receive no government funding. This policy permits total freedom to share the Gospel as well as to target the Church of Jesus Christ.

· Programs that incorporate regular meetings of project holders, including the sharing of testimonies, ideas, continued Biblical and technical training, are the most successful. Real program ownership and community result.

· Committees can cost-effectively provide technical training from in-country resources that benefit project holders and the community as well.

· Project size must be large enough to maintain capital for continuation of the project. Personal savings accounts are key to long-term economic stability.

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Joseph Richter is the executive director of FARMS International, Inc.

E-mail: farms@lakenet.com

For more info on avoiding dependency:

World Mission Associates, 825 Darby Lane, Lancaster, PA 17601-2009 USA.

Phone: (717) 898-2281, FAX: (717) 898-3993, E-mail: GlennSchwartz@msn.com Web: www.wmausa.org.

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

"It was great, Dad."

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

"Oh yeah," said the son.

"So what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered, "I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.

With this the boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are."

Too many times we forget what we have and concentrate on what we don't have. What is one's person's worthless object is another's prize possession. It is all based on one's perspective. Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for all the bounty we have instead of worrying about wanting more. Take joy and appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends.

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Home foreclosures, auto repossessions, workforce cutbacks, bank collapses, 401(k) losses. As a comedian used to say -- “Is that all that’s troubling you, cousin?” But no one is really laughing.

Current economic conditions and the lack of employment opportunities in our country now have created many needy families. Although two parents may be present in these families, the main breadwinner has lost his or her job.

What can churches and friends do for these folks who suddenly find themselves without enough income to pay current bills, let alone maintain their current living standard?

Of course, we could say that there are unemployment benefits and even welfare to help folks like this -- but is that how those of us who are believers should respond to real needs?

Unfortunately, government welfare has developed many families who live in permanent poverty, and because of this some Christians either resent or are indifferent to the real poor.

Caring for the poor -- the truly needy -- is biblical and necessary. The fact that the government may have assumed that function does not cancel the responsibility of the church.

Besides, the motivation of government welfare is not necessarily love; rather, it is pity or guilt. With what may be intended for good, government welfare systems trap people at the lowest economic level with indiscriminate handouts. To qualify for support, most recipients must show only that they are not working, not that they cannot work -- and this system has produced generational welfare.

The Bible encourages us to provide for others out of love. It is interesting to see the contrasting objectives of biblical care and government welfare. The effects of sharing with others in need, out of God’s love, are threefold.

First, a sense of fellowship and belonging is created. “You are enriched in every way for all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many acts of thanksgiving to God. Through the proof of this service, they will glorify God for your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with others” (2 Corinthians 9:11-13).

Second, stronger family units are built up. “Now if anyone does not provide for his own relatives, and especially for his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8).

Third, a high standard for work is developed, and this prohibits laziness. “It is not that we don’t have the right [to support], but we did it to make ourselves an example to you so that you would imitate us. In fact, when we were with you, this is what we commanded you: ‘If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat’” (2 Thessalonians 3:9-10).

Welfare was transferred from the church to the government because the church neglected the responsibility. It can be recovered, and once again the church must become the leader in caring about genuine personal needs. This is not an option from God; it is an imperative. “The one who gives to the poor will not be in need, but one who turns his eyes away will receive many curses” (Proverbs 28:27).

However, Scripture also points to several factors that qualify those who should be the recipients of “biblical welfare”:

• Poor -- those unable to meet the most basic needs (see Deuteronomy 15:7-11; Proverbs 19:17).

• The diligent -- many people are lazy by nature and supporting these people is just as unscriptural as not supporting those with legitimate needs (see Proverbs 16:26).

• Widow -- a qualified widow is biblically defined as a woman 60 years old or older whose only husband has died (see 1 Timothy 5:3-10).

• Orphans (see Psalm 82:3; Zechariah 7:10 and others).

• Those needing immediate care (see James 2:15-16). They may not qualify as “poor” or “widows,” but simply “lacking of the daily food” as a result of unemployment or illness.

• Lifestyle -- Scripture indicates believers should have a moderate lifestyle, but not one of poverty. “It is not that there may be relief for others and hardship for you, but it is a question of equality” (2 Corinthians 8:13).

Committed Christians should encourage their church leaders to establish a benevolence ministry. A portion of every church’s budget should be designated for needs in the fellowship, in the community and even in other areas of the country.

Each church should have a resource team to counsel families in need, to determine who does and does not qualify. There should be such an atmosphere of sharing and caring that members feel as free about sharing a financial burden as they would a physical problem.

Our goal should be that when faced with needs from within the Christian community, we will respond appropriately without relying on government help. After all, realistically, government handouts are not helpful in the long term, and the government welfare well is running dry.

These suggestions, based on biblical principles, not only inform us of what the church is capable of doing, but what the church must do.

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[Original illustration at this number was added to HolwickID #7307]

One day a father and his rich family took his son to a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show him how poor people can be. They spent a day and a night in the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son,

“How was the trip?”

“Very good Dad!”

“Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked.

“Yeah!”

“And what did you learn?”

The son answered, “I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden, they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden, they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard, they have a whole horizon.” When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless.

His son added, “Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are!”

Isn’t it true that it all depends on the way you look at things? If you have love, friends, family, health, good humor and a positive attitude towards life — you’ve got everything!

The Beatitudes in the gospel of Luke talk about the poor — people who have nothing. Matthew, by contrast, describes those who are “poor in spirit.” Now most of us prefer Matthew, because we can rationalize away this verse as a command to just be humble. But in Luke, I think, Jesus really means POOR, those who live in poverty. God favors them not because He is sorry for them, but because they have an increased capacity for purity in their faith. Many of the idols that stand between us and our Lord have been stripped away for the poor.

Tim Keller, pastor of New York's Redeemer Presbyterian Church, argues that many of us have a middle-class spirit. Yes, we want Jesus to redeem us from our sins and give us eternal life. But we're hardly dependent on Him — we don't need to be. We've got our 401(k)s and savings accounts. When the car breaks down, we get it fixed. If we get tired of our furniture, we buy new furniture. Are we depending on God or the idol of our own affluence? I suspect the latter. I have to admit that as hard as I try, I have many, many idols.

A few years ago I took my two sons and my daughter to Peru to visit our ministry there. We met a man who lived in a hut atop a garbage dump. He had almost nothing in the way of material possessions — yet his eyes sparkled as we visited in his home. He had a quiet dignity. He was living in abject poverty — yet, his love for God was deep. Fewer obstacles stood between him and the Lord — because he had no one and nothing to trust except God.

The great danger of a comfortable lifestyle, on the other hand, is that we may worship idols unawares. The answer, as Keller argues, is to vanquish our middle-class attitudes and adopt the spirit of the poor — to seek after that purity of love in our relationship with Jesus that I found on that garbage dump in Peru.

There's a good lesson for all of us here, especially in this wealthiest of nations: It's wonderful to have all of our creature comforts, of course, but with them come idols. And to get close to God, we must vanquish the idols.

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Copyright (c) 2003 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint with Chuck Colson” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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Jim Sowards of Lampe, Missouri, was cleaning out an old storage box one day when among the ancient bills and canceled checks he found a tattered business card. Queen City Casket Company, Springfield, Missouri, it said. And on the back of the card was a hand-written message.

Immediately, Jim's mind went back several decades to the week before Christmas 1939. He was nine years old, trudging down the cold, wet streets of Springfield. One of his shoes had a hole in the top, and the ragged coat he wore was at least two sizes too big. A tattered bag containing magazines hung from one shoulder.

Jim's mother had died from pneumonia when he was five. His father worked two or three jobs, and Jim sold magazines to help out. He had a regular route of customers, which included the Queen City Casket Company on Clay Street. The owner, a Mr. Rader, always took him back into the factory to ask his workers if they wanted any magazines.

On this particular day, Jim was in the office shaking off the rain like a wet dog when Mr. Rader noticed his shoes, one of which had a hole in the top. Mr. Rader asked to see the soles and was shocked to find them completely worn through with cardboard inserts covering the holes.

“You can't walk around like that,” he said. “Come with me!” Then he whisked Jim into his pickup truck before the boy could protest. They drove to a nearby shoe store.

“Inside, a salesman fitted me with the finest pair of shiny new oxfords I had ever seen,” Jim recalls. “When I stood up, I felt about ten feet tall!” Mr. Rader also bought Jim a pair of socks.

Back in Mr. Rader's office, the businessman took out a business card and wrote on the back of it, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Then he handed the card to Jim, put his hand on his shoulder, and said, “Jimmy, I want you to know that I love you.”

Jim was stunned. “For the first time in my young life I sensed a flicker of hope that somehow things would be all right,” he says. “Maybe not that Christmas, and maybe not even the next year, but with people like Mr. Rader in the world, there was kindness and love, and that would always make a difference.”

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Source: Signs of the Times, Copyright (c) December 2002, Pacific Press, http://www.signstimes.com; submitted by Dale Galusha

”I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any … situation … “ (4:12) — For reading & meditation: Philippians 4:4-13

Here is another step that can move us from financial bondage to financial freedom. (3) Recognize that you are only free when you are free to use either poverty or plenty. There are two ways in which men and women try to defend themselves against financial disaster. One is by saving as much as possible in an attempt to avert it. The other is by renouncing money or material things entirely in order to be free from their clutches.

Both methods have disadvantages. The first, because it can cause miserliness and anxiety, and tends to make a person as metallic as the coins they seek to amass. The second, because it seeks to get rid of the difficulty by washing one’s hands of it entirely. In each case, there is a bondage — one is a bondage to material things, the other a bondage to poverty. The man who is free to use plenty only is bound by that, while the man who is free to use poverty only is also bound. They are both bound. But the person who, like Paul in the text before us today, has “learned the secret of being content … whether living in plenty or in want” is free, really free.

While waiting for a train in India, a missionary got into a conversation with a high-caste Indian. “Are you traveling on the next train?” the missionary asked. “No,” he replied, “that train has only third-class carriages. It’s all right for you, because you are a Christian. Third class doesn’t degrade you and first class doesn’t exalt you. You are above these distinctions, but I have to observe them.” Lifted above all distinctions!

PRAYER:

O Father, what a way to live — lifted above all distinctions. Plenty doesn’t entangle my spirit, and poverty doesn’t break it. No matter how I have lived in the past – this is how I want to live in the future. Help me, dear Lord. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY: James 2:1-10; 5:1-8

1. Where does favoritism come from?

2. What does James say about selfish living?

For years I have heard on television and read in newspapers that a poor person who could not find a job was, if not expected to turn to crime, at least excused for doing so. Unfortunately, the more this idea is promoted, the more likely it is to occur, especially among those who do not have a strong character base. The facts concerning this issue are interesting, and as a friend of mine was inclined to say, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but no one is entitled to the wrong facts.”

I was raised during the Depression, so I was familiar with an occasional knock at the back door by someone asking for something to eat in exchange for some work they could do around the house or garden. Interestingly enough, virtually no one asked for free food -- they wanted to work for it instead. Statistics clearly validate that the crime rate coming out of the Depression was actually lower than it was when we entered the Depression. An article in The Financial Post by David Frum points out that the identical situation occurred in Canada. He said that statistics confirmed that in Canada there was “an overall five percent drop” in criminality between 1992 and 1993. This, despite the fact that 1993 should have seen an increase in crime. Instead, faced with plant closures, job losses and shrinking social services, the Canadians became less inclined to break into houses and steal from the owners.

The reality is people do what they're taught and expected to do. If we will eliminate the concept that poverty breeds crime and more carefully teach that the right way is the best way, we will see further reductions in crime. In many cases an economic belt-tightening is a character-building experience that helps us learn to get along without many of the so-called “necessities of life,” so we emerge from the economic challenges stronger and better prepared to build a more successful future.

When you hear the name Charles Dickens, what comes to mind? A CHRISTMAS CAROL? Sentimental tales of poor but loving families, or helpless orphans saved by wealthy benefactors? All of those impressions are accurate, but there's a lot more to Dickens than that. In fact, there's a lot more to this great novelist than even many literary critics have been able to see.

Author, editor, and critic Myron Magnet suggests that this is because so many readers and critics bring their own preconceptions to their reading of Dickens (along with many other authors). As Professor Lilia Melani of Brooklyn College summarizes, “Because of Dickens's moral outrage and his attacks on society's institutions and values, later critics, who were often Marxists, hailed him variously as subversive, rebellious, and even revolutionary.”

But in a provocative book Dickens and the Social Order, that's recently been reissued, Magnet makes the point that Charles Dickens — the passionate reformer and champion of the downtrodden, a man usually hailed by modern liberals as one of their own — was actually more of a traditionalist than many people realize. Indeed, Dickens, with his emphasis on the reality of fallen human nature and the importance of families, echoed themes we have found to be so important in the lives of children and in keeping them out of a life of crime.

For example, Dickens lived in an age when many philosophers and writers promoted the inherent goodness of human beings, especially human beings unspoiled by civilization. But Dickens was completely unconvinced by that utopian idea. In an essay that can only be described as politically incorrect today, he wrote bluntly, “I have not the least belief in the Noble Savage. I consider him a prodigious nuisance, and an enormous superstition. ... If we have anything to learn from the Noble Savage, it is what to avoid.” While Dickens had his doubts about civilized society, he viewed it as vastly desirable compared to the alternative.

That has left some critics wondering whether Dickens was not attacking society at all, but rather fallen human nature. That suggests that Dickens — radical as he was in some ways — would have very little in common with the kind of reformers today who operate by putting all the blame for society's ills on someone else.

Magnet also demonstrates that Dickens's attitude toward human nature is at the root of his strong belief in the need for families. In Barnaby Rudge, for example, the fatherless, untaught, and undisciplined characters are naturally inclined toward villainy, not saintliness. They have, as Magnet puts it, “undeveloped or defective souls” and “built-in ... aggressiveness.” This illustrates why even imperfect families play a vital role in restraining the young from giving in to their worst impulses and teaching them to function in society.

In short, Magnet makes a strong case that radical critics who have seen in Dickens a reflection of their own political views have missed a great deal of what he had to say. It just goes to show the trap that even the most intelligent and educated readers can fall into. It takes more than intelligence to be a good reader — it also takes discernment, humility, and a willingness to listen to other people, beginning with the author. Without those qualities, reading can be downright dangerous.

FOR FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION:

• Myron Magnet, Dickens and the Social Order (ISI Books, 2004 edition).

• Charles Dickens, “The Noble Savage,” ClassicAuthors.net. Originally printed in Household Words, 1853.

• Stefan Kanfer, “And on the Right, Charles Dickens!“ City Journal, Winter 1999.

• Myron Magnet, “What Use Is Literature?“ City Journal, 1 July 2003.

• G. K. Chesterton, Chesterton on Dickens (Ignatius Press, 1989 edition).

• C. S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism (Cambridge University Press, 1992 edition).

• Os Guinness and Louise Cowan, Invitation to the Classics (Baker Books, 1998).

• Vigen Guroian, Tending the Heart of Virtue (Oxford University Press, 1998).

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Copyright (c) 2004 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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A few weeks ago I participated in “Justice Sunday,” a nationwide simulcast urging Christians to lobby their senators against the Senate's filibuster on judicial nominations. The next day, I appeared on HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS. I argued that justice was getting judges appointed to the court who would interpret the Constitution instead of making up laws. On the other side was Albert Pennybacker, a minister representing the Clergy and Laity Network United for Justice. He argued that we need justices who “serve the well-being, particularly of minority people and people who are in jeopardy.” We both appealed to the same standard: justice.

What is JUSTICE? That's the threshold question for any society. The classic definition is seeing that “each person gets his due.” Fair enough. But for liberals, “getting their due” means giving benefits to the needy; for conservatives, it's punishing wrong-doers. Liberals believe that people are born good, but corrupted by society. So in the sixties, Ramsey Clark, then-Attorney General, said baldly that poverty causes crime — so government's job is to fix society. The Johnson Administration's “Great Society” programs spent billions. The result: Welfare soared, and so did crime.

Along came the conservatives, of which I was one, arguing for retributive, law-and-order policies. This fueled a huge prison-building boom. Today, there are 2.1 million people behind bars — ten times the number thirty years ago. And crime remains stubbornly high.

You see, the real answer is not an either/or approach; it is the biblical way, which embraces both the distributive and retributive models. Biblical justice recognizes that both punishment and meeting social needs are essential to a just society. The Bible calls for punishment, not necessarily because it deters, but because justice demands it. But Scripture also demands social justice: Ancient Israelites were told to leave gleanings on the field for the poor to eat, to feed the hungry, and to clothe the naked.

Secularists, both liberal and conservative, fail because they see people as objects — either to be punished or to be serviced. Biblical justice is much grander, seeing people as humans made in God's image. God seeks shalom, which in the biblical definition means, not just the absence of war, but also genuine accord and harmony, a society in which people care for one another.

The problem is that humans don't behave as we should in order that society would function as God intends. This is why the Christian view of justice must be aimed toward restoring the shalom that is marred by human sin. It means restraining and punishing wrong conduct, but it also means, in the words of the great scholar Neal Plantinga, promoting human flourishing.

This is why Prison Fellowship promotes what we call “restorative justice,” that we must go beyond punishing wrong-doers and reconcile criminals and victims, make criminals pay restitution, and restore offenders to the community.

Christians today line up on both sides of the ideological divide, but if we really understood the biblical model of justice, I doubt we would. Sure, we want strict constructionist judges to preserve the rule of law. But we also want to help those created in God's image. If we seek both, we will go far toward creating the true SHALOM that God desires.

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Copyright (c) 2005 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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Got water?

$46 billion - Amount spent per year globally on bottled water.

$1.7 billion - Amount needed per year beyond current spending to provide clean drinking water to everyone on earth.

More than one billion - Number of people worldwide who lack reliable access to safe drinking water.

80 - Percentage of world illnesses due to water-borne diseases.

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Source: The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/; submitted by Pastor John L. Bechtel, http://www.tagnet.org/fremont/

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Today in America, faith-based programs are the subject of intense interest. Since the president's faith-based initiative first shone a spotlight on them, many Americans have been trying to figure out exactly what these organizations do and why they're so important. A new book by Barbara J. Elliott, titled STREET SAINTS: RENEWING AMERICA'S CITIES, is must reading for anyone who truly wants to understand the faith-based movement. The book takes its readers into the grimmest situations — abused and neglected children, communities terrorized by gang violence, babies separated from their imprisoned mothers, and many more. And it introduces us to the people who are turning these situations around.

As Elliott explains it, “A street saint is someone who is willing to go where there is pain and suffering and be a presence of healing with love. ... The maladies of our country do not all come from our material circumstances,” she says. “They come from a poverty of spirit. Too few hands move swiftly enough to give where there is need. Street saints build relational bridges to heal the souls of the people whose lives they touch.”

Elliott's book is filled with inspiring and sometimes heart-wrenching examples of people building such “relational bridges.” Like John Perkins, who was repeatedly beaten and tortured while working for racial reconciliation, but who looked into the faces of his torturers and prayed that God would help him “preach a gospel that is stronger than ... race.” Or Connie Hilton, who was raped and whose husband was murdered in their own home; she now tells her story to prisoners in the hope that they'll never commit a crime again. Story after story testifies to the transforming love and power of Christ and of the need for His people to reach out to those who are suffering.

For obvious reasons, my favorite example is the section on InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI), a ministry of Prison Fellowship. The program was first implemented seven years ago in a Texas prison with the help of then-Governor George W. Bush, and it has been used in three other states since then. IFI, as Elliott puts it, is a “total immersion in a radically different way of thinking and living.” It identifies sin as the root of the inmates' problems and aims to transform them from the inside out. And as a recent study shows, it's been remarkably successful at reducing recidivism rates and changing lives. One inmate said of the program, “IFI has made me feel like I am somebody and I have potential. I have a whole lot more discipline and self-control than before. ... And I'm learning to control my anger. ... Change is not overnight, and it's not easy to change, but God is changing me.”

That's something that more and more people today are able to say, thanks to the faithful and innovative work of the “street saints.” Barbara Elliott's book encourages all of us to get involved in that work and to know that through the power of Christ, we really can help change the lives of “the least of these our brethren” and, in the process, ourselves.

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This commentary first aired on January 17, 2005.

Copyright (c) 2005 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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Time magazine recently published a special money issue. Among the numerous articles aimed at helping readers manage their money was one titled “The 5 Things You Should Never Buy Again.”

Included in the five products or services that Time indicated a person should never, ever purchase was -- are you ready for this? -- lottery tickets. Yes, you read correctly, Time magazine has come to the conclusion that the lottery is a bad buy.

For the curious among you, the other purchases Time believes are a waste of money are: alternative flu remedies, unlimited cell phone minutes, bottled water and credit card payment insurance.

Time says the pitch when it comes to lottery tickets is “Win big! Never work again! Make your neighbors jealous!” However, according to the magazine, the odds of actually winning are astronomical.

“According to Powerball,” Time reports, “a player’s odds of winning the big one are 1 in 195,249,054. The odds of dying from a meteorite striking the earth are 1 in 700,000.” [1]

While I appreciate Time’s take on the lottery, its report and advice is nothing new. If anything it is a little late. Currently, 43 states and the District of Columbia operate government-sponsored lotteries.

Christian leaders and fiscal conservatives for years have pointed out the flaws of state-sponsored lotteries. Among the problems that have been pointed out is that the lottery disproportionally affects the poor.

A 2007 report by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan organization based in Washington, D.C., found that the poor “spend more on lotteries as a percentage of their income.”

Additionally, the study reported the impact of lotteries on those in poverty “is further compounded when examining states that earmark lottery funds for education.... [L]ower-income individuals -- the very people who are more likely to spend heavily on lotteries -- are less likely to benefit from the earmarked proceeds because they are less likely to attend college.”

The Tax Foundation study showed that state-sponsored lotteries amount to nothing more than a regressive tax that disproportionately burden poor Americans.

Proponents of the lottery have countered the “hurts the poor” argument by asserting the gambling is voluntary. No one has to play.

While that argument has a ring of truth to it, it is disingenuous because in order for the lottery to be “successful,” people must play. As a result, the government advertises, markets and entices its citizens to participate.

In fact, the marketing directors of state-run lotteries have done such a good job of selling their “product” to low and middle income Americans that a majority believe they have a better chance of accumulating $500,000 by winning the lottery or sweepstakes than by saving and investing, according to a survey by the Consumer Federation of America and Primerica.

The same poll found that 45 percent of those with incomes of $15,000-25,000 say that the lottery -- not saving and investing -- is the “best chance to obtain half a million dollars or more in your lifetime.” Only 31 percent chose saving and investing.

In 1999, the National Gambling Impact Study Commission reported that players “with household incomes under $10,000 bet nearly three times as much on lotteries as those with incomes over $50,000.” It also found that the 51 percent of lottery tickets are bought by 5 percent of players.

Any marketing strategist worth his or her salt knows that the key to success is not in pushing a product, but rather in creating a concept, image or idea that a consumer can relate to. Lottery ad campaigns concentrate on selling a dream: The hope that in an instant a person can become financially set for life. A certain segment of the American population is swallowing this fantasy -- hook, line and sinker.

Lottery opponents have long warned about the conceptual fruit government-sponsored gambling would produce. More than a decade ago, a group opposing a lottery in Texas -- calling themselves “Texans Who Care” -- distributed a report titled “The Lottery Fact Book.”

Included in the booklet was an item that conveyed the idea that state-run lotteries send the wrong message about success. It read: “State governments should not use their prestige, power and wealth to teach citizens the values of luck and chance as opposed to the values of hard work and planning. The government should not build false dreams and illusions in order that the state should profit. A society in need of hard work, discipline, saving, investment, and economic growth should not put its hope in a lottery.”

Forty-three states and the District of Columbia have chosen to disregard the warning that state-run gambling bears rotten economic fruit. Instead, they shamelessly promote a get-rich-quick fantasy. The result: A significant number of Americans have resorted to economic daydreaming.

State governments from sea to shining sea now entice their citizens with the constant and never-ending refrain that “a lottery ticket a day could possibly keep future financial woes away.”

State-run lotteries have so successfully marketed the illusion of lottery success that many working-class Americans are willing to trust their financial futures to a game of chance rather than wise investing.

I appreciate Time’s advice never to buy a lottery ticket, I really do. However, I find the magazine’s message has come, as the old saying goes, a day late and a dollar short.

________

Kelly Boggs is a weekly columnist for Baptist Press and editor of the Baptist Message (www.baptistmessage.com), newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.

[1] David Holwick: In reality, there are no authentic records that anyone has ever been killed by a meteorite, though Annie Hodges, a housewife in Alabama, was struck by one in 1954 while she slept on a sofa [see http://www.xenophilia.com/zb0005.htm]. The statistic in the article is most likely based on the probability of a meteorite striking the earth and causing fatalities, averaged over a long span of years.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #1321]

A friend of the poor is a friend of God.

Proverbs 19:17 tells us that “he who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD.” And in Proverbs 14:31: “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” The prophet Jeremiah wrote of good King Josiah, “'He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?’ declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 22:16).

All of us marvel at history's friends of the poor. We look at the life of Francis of Assisi, who left the fortunes of his father's textile industry to live with the poor. There was something right about his life, something we want to emulate.

Author Gordon Aeschliman got to know Bishop Festo Kivengere before his death. When he first met him Festo was a black Anglican priest under the cruel and pathetic dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin. Amin's demonic campaign of terror in the 1970s left hundreds of thousands of orphans and widows in its wake. Amin threatened to kill the priest and many Christians overseas offered to let him into their countries. But Kivengere stayed in Uganda to minister God's mercy to the poor, the widows and the orphans.

After Amin was kicked out, Gordon asked Bishop Kivengere how he managed to live in the middle of such pain and destruction. “Doesn't such poverty overwhelm you?” Kivengere's sweet spirit, forged through his relationship with Christ, shot right back: “No, Gordon, Christ's compassion does not overwhelm us. It sharpens our vision, sensitizes our hearts, and compels us into action.”

A theme that runs throughout the Bible is the temptation of wealth. One reaction has been to renounce all wealth and live simply for God. Elijah and John the Baptist are prophetic examples. The most famous medieval example must be St. Francis of Assisi.

After having a crisis of faith on the battlefield, God put it on Francis' heart to rebuild an abandoned church in his area. He had no assets of his own, so Francis stole expensive clothes from his rich dad and used the money to rebuild the church with his friends. His irate father dragged Francis to the public square in Assisi and asked the local bishop to demand that Francis give up the project. Instead, Francis took off his clothes in front of the crowd and renounced all his possessions and inheritance. [The stunned bishop is said to have grabbed a cloak from someone in the crowd and thrown it on Francis.] From that point on, Francis never looked back.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #32974]

For their book, HUNGRY PLANET: WHAT THE WORLD EATS, Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluiso asked 30 families around the world to buy a week’s worth of groceries and display it for the camera.

A family in Darfur, Sudan, had the most meager spread, with grains, sugar and salt provided by the United Nations and supplemented with purchases of limes, onions, salt and dried tomatoes. A week’s bill ran to $1.23 for a diet of congealed porridge and soup, three times a day, seven days a week.

Most abundant was a German family’s cache of breads, fresh produce, meat, beer, milk and pizza for $494.19.

________

Source: Peninsula Daily News, December 28, 2005

In an oft-quoted, albeit apocryphal, exchange between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, Fitzgerald says that “the rich are very different from you and me,” to which Hemingway replies, “Yes, they have more money.”

Well, there is one way in which well-off Americans are increasingly different from other Americans: family structure.

Today, married couples with children are less than one-quarter of all households; that’s down from one-half in 1960. But this decline is not spread evenly among socio-economic classes. As a recent WASHINGTON POST article noted, the decline has been “far less among couples who make the most money and have the best education.”

What’s more, “these couples are also less likely to divorce.” As a result, their children have a tremendous “leg up” in the competition for higher incomes and the status it brings.

In contrast, “the poor aren’t entering into marriage very much at all,” according to Pamela Smock, a sociologist at the University of Michigan. She told the Post that arguments about the economic benefits of marriage “do not seem to change their attitudes.”

So, while the well-off are getting better-off thanks to marriage and family formation, those at the bottom are falling further behind for the opposite reason.

Given the well-documented economic and personal benefits, both to adults and children, of getting and staying married, why aren’t those most in need of those benefits getting married?

Placing the blame, as the POST does, on “the erosion ... of the broad-based economic prosperity that followed World War II” is off target. Economic distress alone cannot explain why the poor are less likely to marry these days. After all, poor people throughout history have gotten married just like everyone else.

One reason has to be cultural. The 1960s assault on traditional authority and values has resulted in what political scientist James Q. Wilson calls the “subversion for the popular support of marriage.”

Unfortunately, as my colleague Anne Morse writes at our BreakPoint website, the WASHINGTON POST article does not explore the influence of “wealthy Hollywood moms who make out-of-wedlock child-bearing look chic and glamorous.” Poor, young women emulate celebrities. Nor does the article “mention the destructive impact of Great Society policies that essentially promised young women regular government checks” so long as they “have a baby out of wedlock and avoid marriage ever after.”

In the end, the POST does not give a satisfactory answer as to why the poor are marrying less often than the wealthy. But the article does set off alarm bells for the future of American society — and for the future of the poor.

As Anne Morse writes on our website, married couples are highly motivated to work hard and pool their savings for the future. Why? Because they believe they’ll HAVE a future together. This is a big part of why married people have more money than those who do not marry.

If the poor truly believe that they cannot afford marriage — or don’t need it — we, the Christian Church, have to find way to help them understand that, for many reasons, including the well-being of their children, they cannot afford NOT to marry. For their future and for ours.

________

Copyright (c) 2007 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

Dorie-Ann Kahale and her five daughters moved from a homeless shelter to a mansion Thursday, courtesy of a Japanese real estate mogul who is handing over eight of his multimillion-dollar homes to low-income Native Hawaiian families.

Tears spilled down Kahale’s cheeks as she accepted from billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto the key to a white, columned house with a circular driveway, a stone staircase and a deep porcelain bathtub. Her family will live there rent-free, but must pay utility bills.

“I’m shocked. I’m overwhelmed,” Kahale said. “From the little box we had to what we have today.”

Kawamoto, whose own eyes started welling up as Kahale cried, handed over two other homes Thursday to homeless or low-income families.

Kawamoto, one of Japan’s richest men, said he plans to open eight of his 22 Kahala homes to needy Hawaiian families. They will be able to stay in the homes for up to 10 years, he said. He also gave each family 10 $100 bills to help them move in.

Kawamoto selected the eight low-income families from 3,000 people who wrote him letters last fall after he announced his plan. He has said he tried to pick working, single mothers.

Giving away mansions shows more dedication to helping Hawaii’s homeless than just handing out wads of cash, he said. Asked whether he was concerned about losing money on the effort, he laughed and said: “This is pocket money for me.”

Kahale’s new house is worth nearly $5 million, an average price for the mansion-like dwellings on Kahala Avenue. It is one of the more modest homes in the neighborhood, many of which feature ornate iron gates, meandering driveways and sculptured gardens.

Kahale became homeless two years ago when her landlord raised her rent from $800 to $1,200, putting the apartment beyond reach of her salary as customer service representative for Pacific LightNet, a telecommunications company. She first stayed with relatives, then moved to a shelter in September.

“What we need to do is appreciate,” Kahale said after getting the keys to her new house. “As fast as we got it, it could disappear.”

Lyn Worley, 40, who got the key to another Kawamoto house, said she believes her neighbors will grow to love her family.

The elementary school clerk has been living in a house in Waianae with her five children and brother for the past four years. Their lease ran out - and then Kawamoto’s offer came along.

“We prayed so hard and cried so much for God to drop something from the skies, and he did,” Worley said. “And he did, he really, really did.”

________

Copyright 2007

The Associated Press

I’ll never forget Easter 1946. I was fourteen, my little sister, Ocy, was twelve and my older sister, Darlene, was sixteen. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with no money and seven school-aged kids to raise. By 1946, my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter, the pastor of our church announced that a special holiday offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.

When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy fifty pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save twenty dollars of our grocery money for the offering. Then we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn’t listen to the radio, we’d save money on that month’s electric bill. Darlene got as many house- and yard-cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us baby-sat for everyone we could. For fifteen cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three potholders to sell for a dollar. We made twenty dollars on potholders. That month was one of the best of our lives.

Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we’d sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about eighty people in church, so we figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be twenty times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.

The night before Easter, we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn’t care that we wouldn’t have new clothes for Easter; we had seventy dollars for the sacrificial offering. We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn’t own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn’t seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet.

But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about our old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt rich.

When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting in the second row from the front. Mom put in the ten-dollar bill, and each of us kids put in a twenty-dollar bill.

We sang all the way home from church. At lunch, Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes! Late that afternoon, the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn’t say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp twenty-dollar bills, one ten-dollar bill and seventeen one-dollar bills.

Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn’t talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling poor. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn’t have our Mom and our late Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night. We had two knives that we passed around to whoever needed them. I knew we didn’t have a lot of things that other people had, but I’d never thought we were poor.

That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor, I thought. I didn’t like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed — I didn’t even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor!

I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over one hundred students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time.

We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally, on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn’t know. We’d never known we were poor. We didn’t want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn’t talk on the way. Mom started to sing, but no one joined in, and she sang only one verse.

At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun-dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said one hundred dollars would put a roof on a church. The minister added, “Can’t we all sacrifice to help these poor people?” We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week.

Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering.

When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over one hundred dollars. The missionary was excited. He hadn’t expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, “You must have some rich people in this church.” Suddenly it struck us! We had given eighty-seven dollars of that “little over one hundred dollars.”

We were the rich family in the church! Hadn’t the missionary said so? From that day on, I’ve never been poor again.

As Christians, it is our responsibility to care for the downtrodden. Scripture makes clear the joy inherent in doing so. Proverbs 14:21 observes that “whoever shows kindness to the poor will be happy.”

The biblical account of Boaz, a “prominent man,” and Ruth, a young widow attempting to support herself as well as her widowed mother-in-law, is a beautiful example of personal financial sacrifice for the sole purpose of helping someone living in poverty and despair.

Scripture recounts that after Ruth asked the workers harvesting Boaz’s barley crop if she could walk behind them and pick up, or glean, the grain they had dropped, Boaz instructed the men: “Be sure to let her gather grain among the bundles, and don’t humiliate her. Pull out some stalks from the bundles for her and leave them for her to gather. Don’t rebuke her” (Ruth 2:15-16).

Boaz was following the instruction to God’s people from Leviticus 9:9-10: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident.” Note that Boaz not only followed the law but also went beyond what it required. And being a man “of noble character,” he made sure that Ruth would be protected while working in his fields and not rebuked or humiliated because of her vulnerable state.

You can make compassion for the poor a part of your Christian lifestyle by practicing modern-day versions of gleaning. You might offer to pick up the day-old bread from local grocery stores and distribute it to food ministries, or you might simply use a bread bank to collect your family’s change for the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund.

Proverbs 21:13 tells us plainly that our prayers will not be heard if we close our ears to the cries of the poor. It seems unlikely, therefore, that the church in America will experience blessing and revival if we fail to demonstrate concern and care for poor and hungry people.

And the bottom line is that meeting physical needs through hunger ministry opens doors for sharing Christ. As believers, that’s what God expects of us.

A priest in England preached a sermon that said it was morally justifiable for the poor to shoplift. Father Tim Jones said that he did not believe it was right for people to shoplift but maintained it was the “least worst option” for people in desperate situations.

He gave the example of prisoners being released from prison without benefits or other financial assistance. He said it was for better for people in such circumstances to turn to shoplifting from large retailers rather than turning to prostitution, mugging or burglary.

He said, “My advice does not contradict the Bible’s eighth commandment [do not steal] because God’s love for the poor and despised outweighs the property rights of the rich.”

A spokesman for an English supermarket chain Asda responded that shoplifting affected hardworking store staff more than the rich. He challenged the priest to repeat his sermon before the local store’s workers and see how they responded.

________

Original article:

"Priest: Shoplifting is ‘Least Worst Option’ for Poor," by Charles Boyd, Christian Today reporter, 22 Dec 2009, .

A Church of England priest has found himself at the center of controversy after he told his congregation it was morally justifiable for the poor to shoplift.

Father Tim Jones of St. Lawrence and Hilda Church in York said this week that he did not believe it was right for people to shoplift but maintained it was the “least worst option” for people in desperate situations.

He gave the example of prisoners being released from prison without benefits or other financial assistance, saying it was for better for people in such circumstances to turn to shoplifting from large retailers rather than prostitution, mugging or burglary.

“My advice does not contradict the Bible’s eighth commandment because God’s love for the poor and despised outweighs the property rights of the rich,” he said in a sermon Sunday.

A spokesman for supermarket chain Asda, in response, argued that shoplifting affected hardworking store staff more than the rich.

“Maybe Father Tim Jones could repeat his sermon at our York store and see what reaction he gets?” he was quoted as saying by the York Press. “He’s one psalm short of a sermon!”

There was a great deal of diversity in the earliest churches of Christianity. Obviously, the “first” Christians were the Jews who had known Jesus personally and those who joined the movement on the basis of their testimony. Unfortunately, we know precious little about those first Palestinian Christians. As a result, this post involves those earliest churches that formed in prominent cities around the eastern Mediterranean. These cities provided hubs for travel and new ideas. Many contained decent-sized Jewish communities. Those factors proved helpful to the Jesus movement’s expansion.

Though bound by common languages and by Roman imperial commerce and culture, these cities varied in significant ways, as did the churches. We do not know how the great church in Rome began, but our best evidence suggests that the church started among Jews and eventually was dominated by Gentiles. Paul’s letter to the Romans implies that several churches gathered in various homes throughout the city. On the other hand, Paul’s first epistle to Thessalonica reflects an entirely Gentile congregation. Perhaps his letters to Corinth do as well. Relationships between Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus pose a significant challenge in some of Paul’s letters, but not in others.

People used to assume that Christianity flourished only among the poor. First Corinthians 1:26 -- “not many among you were wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many well-born” -- still influences how many imagine the first Christians. However, Paul’s words actually describe the population in general, in which not many did enjoy education, wealth, power, or status. Economic historians still debate just how many people lived in poverty in the ancient world and what such poverty entailed. The ancient Mediterranean included very few people who were fabulously rich, others who depended upon those wealthy persons, some relatively prosperous merchants and tradespersons, and masses of people who lived just above or below subsistence level. Slaves also constituted a significant portion of the population, perhaps between one-third to one-half the population of some major cities.

Our primary sources suggest that the early churches included just that sort of mix. For example, in 1 Corinthians 11:17-22 Paul describes church gatherings in Corinth. Some eat and get drunk while others go away hungry. Paul’s contempt burns against the prosperous members of the church: “Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing?” The epistle of James likewise addresses tensions between rich and poor Christians (2:1-9). Meanwhile, the book of Revelation describes the church in Smyrna as poor (2:9) but the church in Laodicea as rich (3:17-18). Indeed, later Christian apocalypses such as the Shepherd of Hermas, the Apocalypse of Peter, and the Ascension of Isaiah complain against wealthy believers who do not care for the poor in their midst.

Paul’s letters also address both slaves and slaveholders. His epistle to Philemon apparently encourages a slaveholder to accept his (runaway?) slave Onesimus with kindness. Interpreters continue to debate whether or not Paul is calling Philemon to grant Onesimus his freedom. (We do know that some later Christian communities did purchase the freedom of slaves.) And in 1 Corinthians 7:21-24 Paul advises slaves to grab their freedom if they can get it. (Pay attention to how various translations handle 1 Corinthians 7:21!)

The churches in Paul’s circle of influence almost surely included some persons of means. For one thing, Paul depends upon “patrons” like Phoebe (Romans 16:1) and potential donors in Rome to send him along in his journeys. And what about Chloe, who had “people” who could communicate with Paul on her behalf (1 Corinthians 1:11), or Erastus, the city treasurer of Corinth (Romans 16:23)? We also find that some Christians resented not being invited to support Paul (see 1 Corinthians 9), suggesting that they could afford to make contributions. Paul’s well-known attempts to raise funds for poor believers in Jerusalem also suggest disposable income among some Christian communities. Surely the churches included persons of varying means.

An early church meeting must have been a wild scene. Many churches included Jews and Gentiles who were figuring out how to build community together. Almost all churches included masters and their own slaves, the rich and the destitute, tradespersons and menial laborers. We ought not romanticize the movement, as if sunshine and lollipops attended their every gathering. Indeed, the signs of conflict leap off the pages of various ancient documents. Nevertheless, the movement appealed to and gathered an extraordinarily wide range of people.

________

Greg Carey, Professor of New Testament, Lancaster Theological Seminary

What do we mean when we talk about the “favor of God?”

The house you’ve always wanted goes into foreclosure and you buy it for a steal. Your kids bring their report cards home and it’s straight A’s. You find out that a long lost relative left you a tidy sum of money.

Many people may think that God’s favor is something like that. When life seems to break your way, it’s easy to think, “God is really smiling down on me now. He must really love me.”

When we turn to the New Testament, though, we get a splash of cold water. The favor of God doesn’t always line up with great circumstances. Case in point: Mary.

When the angel Gabriel shows up to announce the first Christmas to Mary in Luke 1, he tells her twice that she has God’s favor. But her situation sure doesn’t look like it.

Gabriel has just told her she is going to be pregnant out of wedlock in a culture where this isn’t just frowned upon but could have been punishable by death. The man she loves, Joseph, is probably not going to understand the situation or believe her bizarre explanation and might leave her. She’s already poor, and if Joseph rejects her, she’ll be destitute. She might have to beg for a living.

So here’s Mary -- financially insolvent, with a ruined reputation, her most important relationship in tatters.

Maybe you can relate if you sense no joy or good cheer this Christmas season, but dread. Your life doesn’t look like one “blessed and highly favored.” For you, Christmas only reminds you of all the good you don’t have in your life.

If that’s you, then Mary’s circumstances are particularly relevant, because she supposedly has the favor of God in the midst of all her mess. How?

Because a Son is being born to her -- a Son, the angel says, whose name will be “Jesus,” meaning that He will save His people from their sins. Like all of us, Mary’s main problem was a severed relationship with God. Jesus was coming to restore that.

But Jesus was coming to do more than merely save from sin. Gabriel points out that He’ll also rule from the throne of David (Luke 1:32). It’s easy to miss how big that promise is. David’s throne symbolized the restoration of worldwide peace and blessing -- a condition called shalom.

Think of the promise in Joel where the prophet says, “I will restore the years that the swarming locusts have eaten.” Not just forgive, but restore. Bodies destroyed by disease will leap and run in perfect health. Reputations that have been ruined will be exonerated. Relationships torn apart by death will be mended, as we see, in J.R.R. Tolkien’s words, “all the sad things come untrue.”

We know that God will do this because He did this with Jesus. At the cross, Jesus went through pain that looked like a defeat. But the Father used that pain for our good. He reversed it and turned the devil’s strongest attack into an opportunity to redeem us and restore the world.

Mary isn’t the only one with a miraculous birth in Luke 1. Her relative Elizabeth also gets a visit from Gabriel, and even though she’s barren, she is promised a child. Barrenness has never been easy, but in those days it would have been devastating, the biggest disappointment a woman could imagine. The lead-up to Jesus’ birth includes an elderly, barren woman getting pregnant because the birth of Jesus is God’s promise to erase our deepest disappointments.

What that means is we don’t have to be frantic if we don’t get to everything on our “bucket list.” Many of us live with such an urgency to experience everything that life becomes worthless if we don’t. It’s not the glib stuff, like not seeing the Grand Canyon, that really leads us to disappointment. It’s not getting married or having children, or being financially comfortable, or overcoming an illness. What we need to see is that in the resurrection, under the reign of the Son of David, every disappointment will be fulfilled.

We have pain; He will reverse it. We have disappointment; He will erase it. We yearn for justice; He will restore it. When we go through seasons of racial strife in our country, many people start to ask, “Will there ever be justice?” Or maybe the yearning for justice is more personal: You’ve been wronged and just can’t get past it. You want to cry out like the psalmist, “Will the wicked go unpunished?”

Unless we look to God’s perfect justice -- instead of our judicial system or our own efforts -- we’ll always be bitter. Perfect justice will be restored but only when Jesus rules from David’s throne. That truth gives us the hope to continue working for justice now while enduring the injustice in the world.

In the end, that’s what God’s favor is all about. It’s what Christmas is all about -- hope. God’s favor isn’t always easy. Sometimes, as with Mary, it brings with it a lot of difficulties. But it’s always good because it brings us a hope in God’s promises and an assurance that His presence will be with us.

________

J.D. Greear is president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

"I wish I had never bought you."

For years, those cold, callused words of rejection haunted Tony Nolan. "I can remember my [adoptive] dad looking at me from my toes to my head and he'd say, 'Son, is this all $200 got me?'"

Nolan never heard the words he most wanted to hear.

"I never remember as a kid ever hearing three words that a soul longs to hear, 'I love you,'" Nolan said. His parents "may have said it, but I never can remember it. ... Out of all the things that bothered me growing up, that bothered me the most. It hurt the most, more than any beatings, not hearing those three words hurt the most."

Years of emotional abuse followed physical abuse that began when Nolan was just a year old. "For the first three years of my life, I went through foster care and I was incredibly abused physically and burnt with cigarettes," Nolan said. "As a little baby from the age of 1 to 3, I was thrown up and down flights of stairs because I couldn't walk up and down them fast enough, and I had knots all over my head."

Drive-by shootings and murder were commonplace in the Jacksonville, Florida, community, called "Sin City," where Nolan roamed the streets as a teenager.

"I can remember as a young boy hearing men fight outside of my window," Nolan said. "My next-door neighbors would shoot guns and drive around our house."

For several years, Nolan used drugs and alcohol to escape the reality of a life filled with fear, rejection and death. But the marijuana, cocaine, acid and "massive amounts of alcohol," only deadened Nolan's emotional and psychological torture for a short while.

"I found myself locked in that world of addiction and darkness," he said.

When Nolan was 15, his adoptive father died of cancer. A year and a half later, Nolan dropped out of high school and left home. He drifted from one menial job to the next until he landed a position as the captain of a $1.5 million luxury yacht that cruised major ports along the East Coast such as Atlantic City, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Keys, Newport, Mass., as well as the Bahamas.

"Everywhere I went people would look at me and say, 'Young man, you've arrived in life. You've made it in life.' Outside, everything seemed to be OK, but inside I was still withering. I had done everything the world said you need to do to be happy and it did not live up to its claim and that was very disturbing."

At age 24, Nolan found himself contemplating suicide. "I'd start drinking at 7 o'clock in the morning and I didn't have a reason to live," he said.

Then, one night, although still a bit inebriated from drinking a 12-pack of beer earlier that evening, Nolan finally agreed to attend a singles function at church with his stepbrother, who had been inviting him for months.

"They gave me coffee that night because I was drunk and later that night they gave me Jesus," Nolan recounted. "I had no idea that the Bible is not filled with cruel commandments but sweet solutions."

Twelve years later, Nolan now travels across the country, with his wife, Tammy, leading an evangelism and discipleship ministry, to teens called TnT Ministries. Literally thousands of teenagers have committed their lives to Christ as a result of Nolan's ministry.

"God is using Tony Nolan to reach countless lives," said Austin Rammell, director of the Florida Baptist Convention's personal/student evangelism department.

"In March 2001, he spoke at 2XS (the Florida Baptist Convention State Student Conference). He preached with the power of God and gave a clear and strong invitation to people to come forward only if they were giving their life to God in salvation. Through God's power, 950 students came forward. God is using Tony Nolan to encourage the saints and reap a harvest. He has given him the ability to communicate to people from all walks of life. Without a doubt, I believe this ability comes from God's call on his life, his commitment to walking with Jesus, and his passion for seeing people know Christ." ...

Nolan said he is constantly amazed that God would allow a former drug-addicted, high school dropout the privilege and opportunity to serve him. He said God's call on his life to fulltime student evangelism was confirmed through a meeting a several years ago with his biological mother, who had been confined to a mental institution shortly after he was born.

"She looked at me from my toes to my head and she said. 'You know what, I don't understand all of these doctors killing these babies. ... The doctors told me not to have you. It looks like God knew what he was doing.'"

Nolan said God used those words of encouragement from his birth mother to inspire him to excel as a student at the Criswell Center for Biblical Studies in Dallas where he memorized about 50 passages of Scripture a week and studied the biblical languages of Greek and Hebrew while earning a college degree in biblical studies.

More importantly, Nolan said he learned in Bible college that "God would use the dumb and the unwise things, the abase things that he might confound the wise, so that he might do one thing and do it well, lift high the name of Jesus and help people to miss hell and make heaven."

And as for those three words, he never heard as a child, Nolan said his wife, Tammy and daughter, Christy, and son, Wil, have more than compensated through their expressions of love.

Now each time Nolan hears, "I love you," he said God reminds him, "He has never regretted purchasing him with the priceless blood of his Son."

Nolan said his all-consuming passion is not to be distracted by "the insignificant, short-lived trivial things of this world, but exhausting myself to live for the glory and the renowned name of God alone."

*

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