Jesus & the Poor

I could not leave well enough alone. These are just some thoughts on Jesus and the poor which are mostly my dad's thoughts with my embellishments.
These are my own thoughts on all the fruitful blogging that has taken place over the last few days. I know that we have not specifically addressed the poor, except to put it in context of "poverty theology" which I guess is a fancy meaning for "we don't have to subscribe to it." But I feel differently and am beginning to focus on the ways in which the Holy Spirit is revealing actual ways to help in a physical way. These are fun days.

Jesus and the Poor
a. Jesus references the poor 58 times in the NT why? And why, in the one prayer he taught us to pray, did he teach us to pray daily for our bread? Daily does not sound like we should have a stock pile of bread for ourselves when others go hungry.

b. Required commandments are only two: Love the Lord your God and Love one another (your neighbor). We excuse our requirement to love them with material goods and think that loving them means only spiritual love. Or we claim not to know who our neighbor is - so we are unobligated to love them.

We, I believe, are to love them with food, shelter, clothing and compassion.

c. Health & Wealth gospel is an American Gospel twisted to appeal to our fundamental need for bigger and better. Only our country is concerned with having more than you or more than my neighbor. The command is NOT that we have more than our neighbor; its that we LOVE them. Period. We are the only country in the world that has written in our constitution that we actually have a right to happiness. I don't think that God is too concerned with our rights when we sit back and allow atrocities in our own church related to the poor and suffering. How many people in the church pews do you know could use help?

d. Jesus probably was not poor what faith healer do you know that is poor? However, he commanded that we (the church) take care of the poor. We do not do this, instead we seek blessing on our lives, maybe not at the expense of others, but others are suffering. The church has no formal mechanism to help the poor. The early church (see Acts 2:45 & 4:34, 35) knew that Jesus was serious in his command as they had a daily distribution of food the arugment may be that food storage was different then and yes, I agree, however, the command to care for the poor is not different, yet when you need an excuse any one will do.

e. John Wesley (of whom our Nazarene doctrine was founded on) stated that if we have luxuries while our neighbor is suffering we are not saved and will go to hell. Now, this is not the prosperity gospel that sells well in America. We do not want to hear that if we have and others have not, we'll go to hell but I don't think Jesus was kidding when he commanded that we love our neighbor, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, clothe the naked. This is not something I want to risk regardless of if Moses, Abraham, Joseph, Job were all wealthy. I also don't think Jesus was joking when he said if you do not do this, you do not know me.

f. We require the poor to help themselves, before we will help them. This is not the model Jesus taught. Jesus I will not take the risk of having steak when my neighbor eats tuna for dinner night after night.

Keep in mind, these are my thoughts - through the lense of my own experience and my upbringing. I was brought up to ALWAYS consider those less fortunate than ourselves. As a pastor's kid, I remember times when we had Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinner with people in the church and I had no idea why - I thought everyone had food and family to share with. It was not until I was older did I realize that my folks were feeding these people. I know my sisters remember this and probably felt the same thing. So, we grew up with parents who always gave more of themselves than they probably had - so we had good models!
Today, my dad has potluck at his church every Sunday because probably half the folks that worship there would go home hungry if it were not for Sunday potluck - another eye-opener for me - in my own church!

So read in love - it's posted in love of Jesus and seeking to do his commands and with a commitment to action...the action of a poverty theology.

Next post - Who are the poor?