The rich and the poor have this in common: the LORD is the maker of them all.

Some Reflections on Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.
The rich and the poor have this in common: the LORD is the maker of them all.
Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fail.
Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.

Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate;
for the LORD pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them.

The first of three scripture readings for Sunday, September 6, all of which deal with not only how we treat other people, also who we see other people and distinguish them one from another.  This is one of those Sunday’s that is truly a “preacher’s nightmare.” How do, we preach the Gospel, the God News, of God about our responsibility to the poor and God’s judgment of us when we fail to do so, without, in the United States of seeming to preach one political party over another?

First, the preacher has to determine, as Jim Wallis of Sojourners Magazine states, “that God is not a Republican or a Democrat.  Next, having done our best to understand this, then we all, not just preachers, look at the second sentence of the above proverb:

            The Rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is the maker of them all.”

If the Lord indeed is the maker of all of us, then any injustice or bias we demonstrate toward the poor, because they are poor, any blaming of the poor for the economic problems of our society (yes, I know, politics again) or blaming them for being poor and hungry and unemployed demands more thought, prayer and study on our part.  I do remember that Roman Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador, Oscar Romero stated just before his assassination, that “when he fed the poor, people called him a Saint, and that when he asked why there were so many poor, people called him a communist.”

Our Lectionary Readings this week, beginning with this one from proverbs and including James 2:1-10, [11-13], 14-17 and Mark 7:24-37 will challenge both our understanding of politics and religion.  I will continue to share my thoughts with you and welcome your comments as I struggle with God’s call to us as creatures both rich and poor “who have all been made by the same Lord.”