Job 12:1-6,13-25; Acts 11:19-30; John 8:21-32 Those at ease have contempt for misfortune. So Jobs comment, on this Labor Day. And how true it is. We have a tendency to blame others for their problems--they wouldnt have cancer if they hadnt smoked, they wouldnt have earthquakes if they hadnt lived in California, they wouldnt be homeless if they were thrifty and hardworking. Our problems, of course, have no such cause--theyre undeserved, unmerited examples of the caprice of fate. Right? Sure, sometimes we court trouble. Sure, sometimes the calculated risks dont pay off in our favor. But the reality is that, no matter why some one is in trouble and pain, Christians are called to be actively engaged in their relief. We arent supposed to sit at ease, contemptuous of their misfortune. Were not even supposed to much worry about the cause of their misfortune. We need to feed the hungry, visit the sick, clothe the naked. Regardless of why theyre hungry, sick or naked. And while its great, and vitally important, to ask how we can keep hunger, sickness and nakedness from happening in the first place, as human beings and people of faith we need to deal with those who are afflicted today, and not just with the prevention of future crisis. On the whole, Christians get this. Of course, there are some armchair quarterbacks who want to only do relief for the deserving poor, the politically acceptable. But on the whole, the outpouring of Christian generosity in time, talent and treasure gives relief to the afflicted AND seeks to develop strategies for better futures. Its easy to get donor fatigue. Its easy to look at the immense problems of the world, whether in Iraq or around the corner in our own towns, and despair that were throwing good money after bad, wasting our hours helping people who dont want to change, casting pearls before swine. Its easy--and its wrong. The Christian response to human need is not measured not just by how much change we make, but by how much our efforts to help others change us. Because, in serving and giving, we stop being those who sit at ease, judging. We begin to find that the hungry are not that much different from us, that the guy in the prison isnt all that alien from our own way of thinking, that we have been blessed and not paid our just desserts.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 16:05:53 +0000
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