Change, an Invitation to Life: The Rich and Poor Have One Thing In Common

Change, an Invitation to Life: The Rich and Poor Have One Thing In Common: “The rich and the poor have this in common: the LORD is the maker of them all.” (Proverbs 22:1-2) Yes, we all have one thing in common an...

The Rich and Poor Have One Thing In Common

“The rich and the poor have this in common: the LORD is the maker of them all.” (Proverbs 22:1-2) Yes, we all have one thing in common and that changes everything else. The rest of this passage gives us an idea how our common creation and common Creator affect (or should, or could, or can) how we live and how we see others.

"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." (Proverbs 22:8-9, 22-23)

If the Lord is the maker of us all, then all are affected by what happens to the other. The world is in the middle of a major refugee crisis, a major migration crisis. People from the Middle East are doing their best to get to Europe to escape violence, death and injury caused by terrorists and by evil governments alike.  In the West, people are coming from Central America and Mexico, running from the dangers of drug cartels, human trafficking and poverty. Some are coming legally and others illegally. 

As we look closer to home we also see those in our own country who live in rural areas or inner cities with poor school systems, few job possibilities, the resultant unemployment and often serious drug problems.  The problems can be huge and the solutions allusive. Often good people, ourselves included, frustrated by the difficult situations give up and settle for finding blame instead: “people are lazy, the just want a handout from the government, I worked for mine, they can work for theirs.” I understand the frustration, I understand the anger, though I also understand that there are those in our nation, including some of our politicians and some of our news media, who foment this anger.  I also live in Alabama, less than eighty miles from Wilcox County which is one of the poorest counties in the United States, with over 16% unemployment, so I have some sense of the challenges some people face in overcoming poverty.

What are we to do? Remember most of us are good people; most of us really do care and do want to do what is right. As Christians we are called to welcome the stranger. To care for the hungry, the homeless, the orphan and the widows. 

I don’t have an answer to that question. Well, actually I do. I have an answer, but not a solution. If the Lord is indeed the maker of all of us, then any injustice or bias we demonstrate toward the poor because they are poor is unacceptable. We must also think get the facts and consider them seriously before blaming the poor for the economic problems of our society, or blaming them for being poor and unemployed and hungry.  This demands that we give the best that we have. Any solution demands serious thought, prayer and study on our part, as well as cooperation with other people of good will.

As I struggle with these questions, I reflect on Roman Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador, Oscar Romero, who said before he was assassinated while celebrating Holy Communion, “when I feed the poor, people called me a saint. When I asked why so many people were poor, they called me a communist.”

As human beings, we truly are tribal creatures. We care first for our families, and then for those who look and act and think as we do.  This is good and important, but at times we are blinded to the biblical reminder that the “Lord is Maker of us all.” It is important to remember that Jesus, himself, was also limited by his human vision to a narrower understanding of the scope of his life and ministry.

It took the Syrophoenician woman, whose story we read in Mark 7:24-37, to teach Jesus that all of God’s people are connected.  When she approached Jesus and asked him to heal her daughter of demon possession, he told her that “it is not fair to take the children’s food and give it to the dogs,” pointing out to her that she, as a Gentile, was not worthy of the blessings God had sent him to bring to the Jews.  As she pointed out to Jesus that “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the children’s table,” I can almost see the “scales” fall from Jesus’ eyes. Later, as recorded in the Gospel of John, Jesus, in talking with the Samaritan woman at the well, a person a Jewish male should never interact with, shared with her that the “day is coming, and now is, when true worshipers will worship God in Spirit and in Truth.”

Yes, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, male and female, immigrant and native, Muslim or Christian, all are reminded, that “the Lord is the maker of us all.”

Do We As Christians Really Show Favoritism?

Some Reflections on My Favorite/Least Favorite Book of the Bible: James 2:1-17

Do we as Christians really show favoritism? Do we really prefer wealthy new members in our congregations? 

As the pastor of a wonderful Episcopal Church that has a desire to grow and to bring more people into a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ, I hope that the answer to these questions is a resounding NO. I do, however, believe that James, the brother of Jesus, in his letter to the Churches of his time asks some very, very important questions.

James is concerned about what we do as well as what we say. He seems to believe that our faith has as much, perhaps more, to do with how we act than with what we believe. Today he might even say, “sure, you talk the talk, but do you walk the walk?” He even borders on Heresy when he says, “So faith by itself, if it has no works is dead.”

In our prayers in the Episcopal Church we acknowledge that God’s people come in all shapes and sizes, stages of belief and unbelief, from every race and nation. We pray for “all sorts and conditions of people.” It can, however” be difficult to communicate with people whose backgrounds and life experiences are so very different from ours.

Years ago, in the mid 1990’s in New Orleans, the Episcopal Churches in the metropolitan area formed a feeding ministry for transients, the “semi-homeless,” and the homeless. We filled in the one day a week not covered by other churches or organizations. One of our commitments was to eat with “our guests” as well as to serve them. This was sometimes a challenge because our current life situations were so different: after lunch most of the servers were going back to work or back home. We were going to pick up our children from school and coach their soccer teams; we would eventually go home to a warm house and a good meal and other evening activities.  Most of the people we served would go back out to the parks or the library or a fast food restaurant, any place to stay warm and dry and to pass the time away.

Yes, it is easier to welcome people into our assemblies whose backgrounds are similar to ours. But James is not talking about assemblies only. He is talking about welcoming people into the kingdom of God, of which our assembly is a part, an outpost, perhaps even a “Missionary Outpost.”  From yesterday’s reflections on Proverbs 22:1-2, I am reminded that “The rich and the poor have this (one very important thing) in common: the LORD is the maker of them all.”

With this in common, all differences can be overcome, but respected. In fact, we can learn from one another and our various life experiences, our successes and failures, our words and actions. Our faith will be stronger and as James tells us, “we will really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Change, an Invitation to Life: The rich and the poor have this in common: the LOR...

Change, an Invitation to Life: The rich and the poor have this in common: the LOR...: 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 o...

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.”