Have you ever noticed that gasoline often costs more in the poorer
sections of town than in the rich sections? Similarly, grocery stores
on "the other side of the tracks" sell their wares at a higher price.
Banks charge fees to those account holders who don't have sufficient
resources to maintain a minimum balance, and they charge outrageous
overdraft fees to customers who can least afford it. Auto dealerships
give the rich auto loans at extremely low interest rates, but they gouge
the poor, even if they have perfectly good collateral and steady
incomes. States sales taxes--particularly in those barbarous states
that tax food from the grocery store--disproportionately target the
poor, who pay a higher percentage of their incomes for the necessities
of life than do the rich. The exploitation of the poor by both business
and government is certainly nothing new, and in many ways the poor are
better off than in the past. But not as much as might appear on the
surface. There are no more debtors prisons, but fairy recent changes to
the bankruptcy laws designed to protect the poor mean more and more
families lose everything they have every year. The overthrow of
feudalism means that serfs are no longer tied to the landlord's land,
but some factory managers and owners of big companies continue to
exploit their workers, particularly those without proper documentation.
The social safety network put in place in the U.S. by Presidents
Roosevelt and Johnson provide a minimal income and basic health care to
certain portions of society, but the rest of society's poor continue to
barely get by, if they get by at all. The Bible has more to say about
care for the poor than almost any other topic. Our reading today from
Proverbs has this line: "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." In other words, God stands
with the poor. That's good, but is it enough? If those of us who
consider ourselves the people of God don't stand with the poor as well,
of what value is it? It's too easy to leave it in God's hands. "Well,
if God wants to do something about it, let God take care of it." Or
this old canard: "It's not the government's job to take care of the
poor, it's the church's job. If Christians would just meet the needs of
the poor, government wouldn't have to." The obvious problem with this
line of reasoning, of course, is that the church doesn't take care of
all the needs of the poor, nor is it able to. We live in a society
where fewer and fewer people attend church, and many who do have no real
commitment to the church as an institution, or to its mission in the
world. Then there's the problem that the mission of many churches is so
otherworldly that they're of no earthly value. Any way you slice it,
the church as an institution can do little to address the real needs of
the poor in today's world. It's not that they can't do anything, it's
that they can't do enough. Only governments--with the strong backing of
people of faith who feel God's mandate to care for the poor, the sick,
the weak, and the needy--have any chance of lifting people out of
poverty and misery. Maybe governments don't do it overtly in the name
of God, but that doesn't stop individual believers from casting their
votes and lending their voices to progressive causes from doing so in
the name of God. One of the most popular patriotic songs nowadays is
"God Bless America." Some people sing it as though Americans have the
right to be blessed above any other people, but that's clearly
ridiculous. What can we do to merit God's blessing? "Those who are
generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor." This
proverb applies not only to individuals, but to nations as well.
Psalm 125 (first published 7 September 2003)
"Peace be upon Israel!" is the phrase that ends this psalm, but the
modern nation of Israel is far from peaceful. The psalmist advances the
principle that God blesses the upright and punishes the wicked, a nice
sentiment and a theme of traditional wisdom (e.g., Proverbs), but one that
is not always the case (cf. Job and Ecclesiastes). While suffering is
often the result of sin, the person who sins is not always the person who
suffers. All too often the innocent, or at least the relatively innocent,
suffer for the sins of others. The situation in Israel and Palestine
today is a good example of this verity. The history of the modern state
of Israel is filled with violence and injustice, including the expulsion
of Palestinians from their homes beginning in 1948, violent Arab attacks
and reprisals, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the violence of the
Palestinians against Israelis in the two intifadas, and the
state-sponsored violence of Israel against Palestinians, both in overt
acts and in unjust laws and discrimination on the part of the Israeli
government. The current intifada was set off by Ariel Sharon's
intentionally provocative visit to the Temple Mount in September of 2000.
Other Israeli provocations include the continued building of Jewish
settlements in occupied Palestinian territory and the building of a
"Berlin Wall" to incorporate appropriated Palestinian territory into
Israel. Palestinians have exacerbated the situation by sending waves of
suicide bombers into Israel to attack civilians. The most recent
ceasefire fell apart after Israel assassinated a number of Palestinian
leaders (whom Israel identified as terrorists), killing many civilians in
the process, and Palestinians responded by murdering civilians in suicide
bombings. Both the overt violence exercised by Israelis and Palestinians
and the structural violence perpetrated exclusively by the Israeli
government (because the Israeli government alone has the power to do
so)--which is directly abetted by the U.S. through arms sales, political
support, etc.--perpetuate the suffering of the people of the region,
Israelis and Palestinians alike. In the midst of all this violence and
suffering, where is the upright person whom the psalmist says God will
bless? They don't get much press, but they are there. The Israeli peace
activist who advocates talks, not violence, is cause for hope. The
Palestinian young person who opposes violence perpetrated against innocent
civilians is acting in an upright manner. The foreigners who risk their
lives, and sometimes lose them, to stand between warring factions and call
for an end to the violence show belligerents on both sides the way out.
It is not the rabid right-wing Israeli militants who attend synagogue
service on Saturday and spew hatred against their Arab neighbors who are
upright. It is not the self-deluded would-be martyrs who go to the mosque
on Friday and make plans to destroy their enemies who are just. The God
of Jews, Muslims, and Christians abhors the violence of those who falsely
claim to be followers of God, but who in reality are only following an
evil projection of their own warped hatred. If we would see peace in
Israel, we who do not live there must support policies that will put an
end to violence on both sides of the conflict. If we oppose Yasser Arafat
because of his purported support for violent solutions to the Palestinian
problem, we should also oppose Ariel Sharon, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other
Israelis whose antagonism toward Palestinians is evident to all unbiased
observers. We must stop arms sales to Israel, and we must pressure those
countries that supply weapons to the Palestinians to stop as well. We
must begin to treat leaders of Israel and Palestine in an evenhanded
manner, so that the U.S. is no longer seen as favoring one side over the
other. Finally, we must support those Israelis and Palestinians who are
risking their lives daily to bring peace to their land. The Road Map for
Peace is a useless piece of paper until we begin to act like arbiters
rather than partisans.
James 2:1-10, (1-13), 14-17 (first published 7 September 2003)
Showing partiality to the rich is a longstanding problem in the church,
as evidenced by today's reading from James. Even in the first century,
the rich were treated with greater respect than their poorer counterparts.
The trend continued into the Middle Ages, getting so bad that wealthy
families were often able to buy influential church offices, including the
papacy. The problem remains today. I briefly attended a church several
years ago led by a pastor who was generally respected by his congregation.
The one complaint that people had about him was that he had a tendency to
fawn over the wealthier members of the congregation, making a spectacle of
those who had given large donations to the church. In comparison to the
widespread tendency of Christians to favor the rich, an examination of the
life of Jesus as portrayed in the gospels shows Jesus praising the
humility and faith of the poor and warning that the rich were in danger of
missing out on the kingdom of God. Jesus counseled the rich young ruler
to sell all he had and give it to the poor, then follow Jesus. He said
that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich person to enter heaven. While a guest in the house of a wealthy
individual, he criticized his host for failing to provide the simple
hospitality shown him by the woman who was washing his feet with her tears
and drying them with her hair. Christianity is a religion that calls for
a radical reexamination of one's attitude toward riches. If the rich are
in danger of being excluded from the kingdom, what does that say to those
of us who enjoy comfortable lives, indeed, lives that are luxurious by
non-Western standards? The fact that we may not be as rich as some of our
neighbors does not mean that God will overlook our squandering of the
wealth we have been given. There are many advantages to wealth, and many
dangers as well. Money can provide one's family with a comfortable life,
it can give one access to a good education, it can ensure decent health
care, and it can give the person who has it the leisure to do many good
works. These are all positive things, but is it fair that a small number
of us--larger numbers in the West--can take advantage of excess wealth
while vast numbers of people can barely make ends meet? About two billion
people--one-third of the world's population--live either below or very
close to the poverty line. How can the excess wealth of the very rich,
both individuals and nations, be used to alleviate the suffering of the
very poor? As James says, if we see our brother or sister in need, we
should act to alleviate the need. Christianity began as a movement among
the lower classes, with just a few wealthy patrons. In many places it has
become the religion primarily of the middle and upper classes. In making
this transition, how has the religion changed? Do the poor still view
Christianity as a religion that offers a message of hope, not only in the
next life, but in this one as well? When Karl Marx spoke of religion as
the opiate of the masses, he was primarily talking about a Christianity
that focused on the benefits of the afterlife in order to keep the poor in
check. It is small wonder that the twentieth century saw people turn away
from the church in droves. However, it is a testimony to the power of the
original message of Jesus that many of the poor today, from Latin America
to Africa to Asia, are seeking to reform Christianity, returning it to its
roots, rather than to abandon it altogether. If those of us who live
lives of advantage continue to follow a made-for-the-middle-class
Christianity-as-usual, how long will the poor see their religion as the
same as ours?
Mark 7:24-37 (first published 7 September 2003)
In the 1980s, after scientists studying AIDS had come to an understanding of what caused it and how it was transmitted, they were confronted with a public relations problem. Although they had released their findings in the media, public hysteria about the disease was still prevalent. C. Everett Koop, U.S. surgeon general under Ronald Reagan, issued a detailed statement on preventing the transmission of AIDS that was designed to calm the public's fears and educate them on the subject. After the statement's release, many of his supporters on the right said that he had sold out and become an apologist for the gay-rights lobby. Misinformation and fear continued to be widespread. Children with AIDS were expelled from public schools and from churches. Fearmongers claimed that if a person with AIDS was sitting in a restaurant drinking water, and a waiter giving him a refill let the pitcher touch his glass, AIDS could be spread throughout the restaurant. Much of the fear and lies about AIDS were spread by those on the right who had a visceral hatred for homosexuals. In the midst of this insanity, one woman almost single-handedly quashed the hysteria of the radical right and calmed the public's fears about people with AIDS. Princess Diana made a very public visit to an AIDS clinic, making a point to shake hands with some of the patients in order to demonstrate that AIDS couldn't be transmitted by casual contact. The pictures of her visit spread throughout the world, and the majority of people came to understand that what the scientists and the surgeon general were saying about AIDS was true, and that victims of the disease deserved love, not fear or hatred. People have a natural tendency to be leery of those who look different, speak different languages, worship God differently, or have a different culture. Jesus confronted this attitude when he visited the Gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon. He encountered a woman whose daughter was "possessed by a demon" and sought healing for her. He seemed to rebuff her first advances, saying that his healing power was intended only for the "children," that is, the Jews. He might have said this to test her faith, or he might have been giving voice to his disciples' prejudices, in order to expose them as unjust. When the woman persisted in her plea, Jesus pronounced that her daughter had been healed. Who are today's outcasts, the people around whom we feel most uncomfortable? Is it the immigrants who have moved into our neighborhoods, resisting assimilation to our culture? Is it the new family next door that belongs to a different ethnic group? Is it the people who worship at the makeshift mosque or temple just down the road? Is it the homosexual couple who are parents to your children's friends? Is it the street people who hang out around your church? Is your church a mission, doors open to whoever might show up, or is it a club, open to members only (and their special guests)? If the neighborhood around your church changed, would the congregation stay and minister, or would it pack up and move? It's not even enough to welcome all who come our way. If we are to follow the example of Jesus, we must seek them out. Jesus met the Syrophoenician woman in a place that was outside his usual element. Why did he travel to Phoenicia? Was it to rest? Or was he actively seeking to expand his ministry? Either way, the application for today's Christians is clear. We are to continue Jesus' work of bringing the good news to all those whom we encounter, and we even need to go out of our way to make sure that everyone hears--and sees--the message of power and healing.