Some more thoughts on the church and poverty.
I've also heard it said that not all churches are located in places conducive to helping the needy. Not all churches are in neighbourhoods where the homeless and addicts hang out, and sex workers make their living, so they can't do the work as effectively as those located on "ground zero". Fair enough, a church can't be all things to all people, but still, does that absolve us of responsibility?
We're encouraged to donate time, energy, and money to charities, or send a cheque to the Salvation Army or Union Gospel Mission, as a "token of our concern for the poor and love for Christ." But, does sending a cheque by mail show concern? Yes, on one level I suppose it does. And does it show love? Not a chance. Love gets down low, real low, to the dirty corners of life where dust gathers. Love is hard. Love sweats. Love suffers.
I think this prevalent policy of keeping an armslength distance from the poor is in effect a "clean hands" policy, and it is so in two ways.
On the one hand, we do it to clear our conscience. Then we can say to God "Look God, clean (innocent) hands. I gave money to the Salvation Army. I volunteered at the Union Gospel Mission this week." And once we've dealt with God in this way, we can resume our wonderful lives of consumption - I need a new iPod to download sermons off the internet - for at least another week, when our conscience begins to weigh heavily on our shoulders again.
On the other hand, the "armslength" approach keeps our hands clean, literally. Others - charity and church staff - do the dirty work "for us." We get to continue our nice, busy lives of appointments, schedules, and meetings, while others do the work "on our behalf", as it were. We think it's a win-win-win situation: the poor are taken care of, it gives church and charity staff something to do, and we, well, we get to continue our nice and busy lives of going from one place to another "accomplishing" things and being "productive."
The problem is that transformation, becoming more like God, happens when we spend time in the dirty, mucky place called "world", not in the sanitized environment of Pleasantville. It's not easy to get our hands dirty, that's for sure. And I'm not exactly a modern version of Saint Francis! But mustn't we at least try? Ought we not at least put efforts towards this?
Christ was born into poverty. Christ gave status to the destitute. Christ is with us today in the form of the beggar on the street. Sending a cheque in the mail doesn't cut it. We must get our hands dirty.
I've also heard it said that not all churches are located in places conducive to helping the needy. Not all churches are in neighbourhoods where the homeless and addicts hang out, and sex workers make their living, so they can't do the work as effectively as those located on "ground zero". Fair enough, a church can't be all things to all people, but still, does that absolve us of responsibility?
We're encouraged to donate time, energy, and money to charities, or send a cheque to the Salvation Army or Union Gospel Mission, as a "token of our concern for the poor and love for Christ." But, does sending a cheque by mail show concern? Yes, on one level I suppose it does. And does it show love? Not a chance. Love gets down low, real low, to the dirty corners of life where dust gathers. Love is hard. Love sweats. Love suffers.
I think this prevalent policy of keeping an armslength distance from the poor is in effect a "clean hands" policy, and it is so in two ways.
On the one hand, we do it to clear our conscience. Then we can say to God "Look God, clean (innocent) hands. I gave money to the Salvation Army. I volunteered at the Union Gospel Mission this week." And once we've dealt with God in this way, we can resume our wonderful lives of consumption - I need a new iPod to download sermons off the internet - for at least another week, when our conscience begins to weigh heavily on our shoulders again.
On the other hand, the "armslength" approach keeps our hands clean, literally. Others - charity and church staff - do the dirty work "for us." We get to continue our nice, busy lives of appointments, schedules, and meetings, while others do the work "on our behalf", as it were. We think it's a win-win-win situation: the poor are taken care of, it gives church and charity staff something to do, and we, well, we get to continue our nice and busy lives of going from one place to another "accomplishing" things and being "productive."
The problem is that transformation, becoming more like God, happens when we spend time in the dirty, mucky place called "world", not in the sanitized environment of Pleasantville. It's not easy to get our hands dirty, that's for sure. And I'm not exactly a modern version of Saint Francis! But mustn't we at least try? Ought we not at least put efforts towards this?
Christ was born into poverty. Christ gave status to the destitute. Christ is with us today in the form of the beggar on the street. Sending a cheque in the mail doesn't cut it. We must get our hands dirty.
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