“The poor you will always have with you….” (Mark 14:7) Jesus spoke these words and since the first time I read them they have haunted me. I was raised in a middle-class family in the suburbs of Chicago. And even if we struggled now and again. My father and mother worked hard to make sure we never went hungry. With four children all pretty close together in age, hand-me-down clothes was a way of life, along with shopping at the ‘seconds’ store where clothes and shoes that didn’t pass inspection ended up. One sleeve on a tee shirt might be longer than the other, but my mother always said, “Unless you take your school shirt off, who is going to know?” Like I said we struggled but we’re always able to make ends meet, somehow.
As a kid, I knew there were people better off than us, but I also knew that there were those who were in worse circumstances. I never really saw ‘poor’ people unless while we were downtown and saw some of the homeless walking the street. And with them I could not understand why they did not have a home. I had read and was told about things like the Great Depression, but that had been years ago. Why didn’t these folks have a home? No one I knew had a good answer and I was to busy living in my little world to care enough to find out.
Because of this ignorance and prejudicial things I grew up hearing, I gained a fear of the unknown about becoming ‘poor’ myself and also found myself looking down on those I considered poor. Why didn’t they just go out and get a job? In my heady 20’s I thought these things and felt pretty self-righteous about it. Addictions to drugs and alcohol changed all of that.
I guess if you could say there was an upside of my addictions, it would be the humility that was brought on through wreckage of my and other lives around me by substance abuse. It is a great equalizer. In ways I would have never guessed as a kid, I found myself, for a while, one of those homeless people. And as I associated with others who were in like circumstances, I began to see that there was a myriad of reasons why people became homeless. But I also came to see that poorness was not something people chose. It also was a complex social issue that entailed understanding what Jesus understood and emphasized with, there will be those who have advantages and those that do not. It might be a matter of where and to whom you are born. It might be a matter of the color of your skin. It might be a matter that you served your country and came out of it with more pain than shows through physical wounds. In my short time living on the streets, I was shown that the saying, “There for the grace of God goes I.” Was not only true then it is still true today. So, I come back to what Jesus said, “The poor you will always have with you…” I am haunted by this because I know His heart was weighed down by the truth of this and if that is true so should mine be.
RuthAnn and I have been given the great blessing to lead a ministry that can and should be on the front line trying to alleviate the consequences of poorness in one of the richest countries on earth. And in the few months we have been at this, I can say I am overwhelmed with the need that is out there. And I have come to rely on the small victories we have had as a refuge from the storm.
Over the last three weeks our school’s yearly food drive has been one of those. Being out with the kids walking the neighborhoods around the church distributing over 2000 empty bags with a note asking our neighbors to fill them with cans foods and dry food stuff that will help those in need have a better Thanksgiving has lifted my spirits. Gathering over 260 generously filled bags, sorting through the 1000’s of items we received and finally distributing food to 58 families, so far, again shows what we can do when our hearts as a community are in the right place.
But seeing this is not a seasonal problem then there are no seasonal solutions. The need is all around us, all the time. Jesus knew that it would be true and also as it was His mission to alleviate it, our very salvation depended on it: “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” (Matthew 25:34-40) In the verses to follow Jesus warns those who do not care for those in need will end up in eternal death.
I do not share this morning with intention to frighten us into action. Just to remind all of us that if it is our intention to ‘be like Jesus’ a good place to start is with making sure our neighbors are fed, warm, and safe whenever we can. The mission seems daunting to me but if you join me there will be one, maybe two, one hundred or unlimited numbers ready to serve. Jesus is coming soon, and I want to be doing His work when he does.
Blessings and Happy Sabbath,
John
11/16/18
