The War on Poverty

The “War on Poverty” which has been fought here in the United States since the 1960’s is far from over. After trillions of dollars spent to wage this war, we are no closer to having poverty defeated than we are to watching pigs fly. I think the Chicago Cubs have more of a chance of winning the World Series that the US has of ever defeating this societal nemesis. Merriam Webster online dictionary gives one definition of “POVERTY” as “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions.” Just debating that will send us down a rabbit hole I have no intention of entering. But the synonyms for “poverty” are listed as “scarcity” and “dearth.” For something to be “scarce” is to have “want of provisions for the support of life.” To be “dearth” is to lack supply. In any case, poverty does not just apply to economic means. When Jesus said, “The poor you will always have with you,” (Matthew 26:11; Mark 14:7; John 12:8) I think he was not only speaking of the poor financially. While they are included in this, I really feel Jesus was making a broad statement including poor in health, emotional well-being and spiritual well-being among others. Being poor includes anything that causes dearth (a lack) that holds people back from living the abundant life that Jesus came to give them. (John 10:10) Jesus came to alleviate “dearth” and bring abundance.

I am sure when Jesus pronounced that there would always be the poor among us, many of his hearers focused only on the economic aspects of what he was saying. For a long time, I did too. In Jesus’ day, his hearers would assume that being poor meant the person lacked the blessing of God for some sin or sins which they had committed. Being rich was a demonstration of God’s blessing upon them and an attestation of their righteousness. Well, we can just look around today and see how false that view is. Very few of the rich in our times even try to pretend they are righteous much less give credit for their material well-being to God.

A problem arises from the standpoint of the Church. The Church has acquiesced to the misguided notion that a government hand-out is actually charity. With that mind-set, the Church (big “C”) had abdicated its responsibility in helping the poor. When I say poor here I mean all of poverties aspects: financial, spiritual, physical and emotional and all the others too numerous to name. Knowing that we will always have people - the poor - to minister to because Jesus said so, we (the Church) need to engage – or re-engage – in our calling. Our mission, our calling, our ministry, should be the same as that of Jesus. Jesus announced his mission, his vision and his purpose – all statements or slogans “good” churches have and need – by reciting the words of Isaiah the prophet. Quoting from chapter 61, verses one through three, Jesus said: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) In essence, part of Jesus’ ministry was to help overcome financial, physical, emotional and spiritual poverty in those he ministered to. 

It is a small point that is often overlooked and seems almost contradictory. But notice that he does not claim that he will end poverty altogether. Jesus knows there are some who will never accept his message and his prescription for their own healing. Preaching the good news to the poor doesn’t alleviate it, just as government largesse doesn’t alleviate it. In this area, I agree with Ezra Taft Benson who wrote: “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.” Jesus isn’t worried about our “socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions” - one definition of poverty - that we have or do not have because those will not last. Our abundant life is not found in the phrase, “the one with most toys wins!” 

The obvious question becomes, if we will always have the poor with us, why should we try to help change their circumstances. Always is a long time to fight such a consistent malady. Why waste our time if we are never going to win? The simple answer is that Jesus told us to. The New Testament gives examples of the early church doing it. God reminded Israel over and over again not to neglect the poor and needy. When we help out, pitch in, offer assistance, we are engaging in the ministry of Jesus. We get a chance to minister like Jesus did to people like those to whom Jesus ministered. In this way we get to live out his calling which is our calling. We will not win the war on poverty, but God willing, we can bring people to the place where they can be transformed in a way like Ezra Taft Benson wrote about. The government is not the entity that can bring about this type of transformation. Only Jesus Christ working through the power of the Holy Spirit in his church can.

Jesus said we would always have the poor with us. They even inhabit the Church. There are many within the Church who are impoverished in some form or fashion. Too many within the Church suffer some dearth and are not willing to allow Jesus to help alleviate it from their lives, not willing to enter into that abundant life he came to give. There is a myth about St. Paul that he once healed a blind beggar. The man stands up, looks around and promptly rips out his eyeballs. The man knew how to be a blind beggar. He didn’t know how to be a sighted person. He reverted to the known because this new unknown reality was way too scary for him. He was comfortable being dependent upon the kindness of others. It had worked sufficiently until this point. Now, his need for being dependent was gone. His opportunities for “making it” were completely different. The prospect of having to rely on his own resources scared him back into a dependent mode. This poor fellow chose dependence instead of abundance, a life of relying on charity rather than a life filled to overflowing with the fullness that only Jesus Christ brings. 

The enormity of the problem, the impossibility of the task, does not diminish or negate our call to do what we can and pitch in. Not every congregation has the wherewithal to be directly involved. But again, the call is still present. It reminds me of a story about thousands of starfish stranded on a beach. A little boy was walking down the beach throwing beached starfish back into the water. Someone commented to him that it was such a big task he could not expect to make a difference. The boy picked up another starfish, threw it back in the water and said, “I made a difference for that one.” Then he moved on to the next. If Jesus call was to deal with the poor, and he passed that call onto us, then we must do it. We need to meet the various poverties head on with all of the power and authority Jesus gave us. We may not defeat poverty but we can make a difference, one starfish (or person) at a time. It is impossible to win a war without engaging in a battle. So Church, let’s get busy. It is what Jesus wants us to do.

Look For The Cross

Each week I drive the highways around Oklahoma City generally taking my son the over thirty miles each way to taekwondo class. In town we have a hospital named St. Anthony’s. They have several billboards around town advertising their services. But one caught my attention. It says, “Look for the cross.” The main St. A’s hospital building has a big blue cross on the side of it.  While the blue cross is trying to draw people to their facilities, their advertising slogan is more important than they imagined. It has implications for every believer in Jesus Christ.                 

The whole New Testament is full of references to the “cross.” With that much ink, the cross must be important. But not just any cross. It is only the Cross of Christ that we should look for. I am always amazed at how the cross has turned from an excruciatingly painful execution method and God's chosen method of redeeming our sins into elaborate pieces of jewelry. We have glorified the cross in a way that would be foreign to Jesus’ way of thinking. How many people do you know who would wear a guillotine or electric chair around their neck? While I would love to see Madonna (not the one who was Jesus’ mother) wear a guillotine but I am not sure it would make the fashion statement she is looking for. 

While crosses as jewelry have received much attention (just look at any jewelry section of any department or specialty store), so have people who make a sign of the cross on their body. I am not talking about body art or tattoos but a series of four motions. This has drawn a lot of ridicule from some branches of Christianity as a ritual that borders on the superstitious. While in some circles that may be true I am afraid that ignorance of the meaning behind this motion looms large. When I discuss this with people I am always reminded of the movie (I know, here we go again with the movie references) “Keeping the Faith” with Ben Stiller and Edward Norton. Stiller plays Rabbi Jake Schram and Norton plays his best friend Father Brian Finn. The story is about their friendship and how they are both attracted to the same girl, played by Jenna Elfman. In one part of the story, when the two guys are younger, they check each other’s way of worship. Schram asks Finn about making the sign of the cross on your body. Finn replies with a simple method of remembering. The method tells the order of touching your body to make the sign of the cross: “spectacles, *~&+^ (a man’s private parts that rhymes with spectacles) wallet, watch.” While the wallet watch steps may be either left or right depending on which side you keep them, the head and lower torso must be done in that order.

Many people practice this order religiously without ever knowing why they do it or what it means. If everyone else is doing it I probably should too. Some people do it at the drop of a hat and at every mention of a certain word or phrase. In essence, many people drain the motion of its meaning. As one who does not do anything like that without understanding its wider implications, it took me a while after becoming a Christian before joining in this practice. No one could explain the practice satisfactorily to me. When I lived in Florida, I was on our Vestry (church board) and we had bought a new building. Someone wanted to paint the front doors red. I asked why? I got two not so good answers. The first was that every church “up north” had red doors. In Florida that is a common excuse for doing many things. The other explanation was that if the church had a mortgage then the doors were painted red. Needless to say, I was the only “nay” vote on the proposal. It is not that I am opposed to red doors per-se but we must know why we do what we do. God in his infinite wisdom redeemed this situation. The following Sunday was Palm Sunday and we always reenacted the Triumphal Entry from the back of the building outside and in through the front doors. A dear retired priest who saw every moment as a teaching opportunity explained how and where the procession would go. He reminded everyone that we would go around the building and enter through the newly painted red doors. He went on to explain that in walking through the red doors, we were walking through the shed blood of Christ. Now that made sense! At the next Vestry meeting I changed my vote.

So, what significance does making the sign of the cross on our bodies have? I realized this significance of this while in seminary. The church we attended had a cross hanging over the altar at a slight tilt. The cross was constructed out of wood molding. The design was an outline and the interior void was in the shape of a cross. Every time I received Communion, I felt God was looking through the cross at me while I was receiving the Body of Christ. Wow, what a powerful reminder of the cross. This is also a powerful reminder of why we make the sign of the cross on our bodies. The cross is not just a piece of jewelry. The cross is the only thing that can make me acceptable in God’s sight. When I make the sign of the cross on my body that is how I want God to view me, through the cross of Christ. That motion means something: something powerful, something meaningful, something eternal. In an Anglican service of worship, there are appropriate times when this is done. The reason to do it is to bring home the importance, the significance of what Jesus has accomplished for us. There is a big difference between ritual and reminder. If what we do does not bring us to the cross, the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf, then we probably should not do it. We miss the depth of meaning when doing things by rote.

I am not trying to shame people into doing something they do not feel comfortable with. I am explaining the reason why certain things are done. I do not want people to jettison meaningful portions of their religious practice but to understand the deeper meaning contained in them. And I don’t want people to take on things that are not meaningful to them either. I know when I make the sign of the cross it helps me understand the price Jesus paid for me. It also calls me to something that is beyond my total comprehension. Think about this. Evaluate all of the religious stuff (baggage) you are carrying to see if there is something you need to participate in to add significance to your relationship with Jesus Christ. Also evaluate to see if you really need to stop doing something because you have no idea why you do it. Just remember, making the sign of the cross points to the foundation of our faith. It points to Jesus, our redeemer and the Lord of Life.

In closing, this subject reminds me of the words of Jeremy Riddle’s song “Sweetly Broken.” I hope you will remember why the cross is important. Go ahead and make the sign over your body. Go ahead and wear one as a piece of jewelry. Just never forget what it points to. The first verse of the song say it best: “To the cross I look. To the cross I cling. Of its suffering I do drink. Of its work I do sing. On it my Savior, both bruised and crushed, showed that God is love, and God is just.” Because every cross should remind us of Jesus Christ, the Lord of Life.

“'Cause They Don’t Know the Difference”

In the movie “The American President,” (1995) a scene takes place in the Oval Office involving President Shepherd, played by Michael Douglas, and his aide Lewis Rothschild, played by Michael J. Fox. They are in a heated discussion about the president’s poll numbers and what is happening on the political landscape. As you read this you must remember that there is music appropriate for the intensity of the situation.

 

Lewis: "People want leadership. And in the absence of genuine leadership, they will listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership, Mr. President. They're so thirsty for it, they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand."

Shepard: "Lewis, we've had Presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand, 'cause they're thirsty, Lewis. They drink it 'cause they don't know the difference."

 

I have always loved this exchange and even used it in a sermon. I think it relates to the state of the church currently and the seemingly steep decline the church has suffered in recent years. It does help to explain certain aspects of this most recent election and the condition of the church here in America.

 

We all know people who are living the Waylon Jennings song:

  

I was looking for love in all the wrong places

Looking for love in too many faces

Searching your eyes, looking for traces

Of what.. I'm dreaming of...

 

These people are seeking to find something fulfilling in life but don’t seem to know where to look. Too many are trying to find it in the bottom of an alcohol or pill bottle or some other recreational drug. And when that doesn’t work, they numb themselves in other drugs and alcohol. The recent trend of people seeking institutional rehabilitation for drug abuse is due to prescription drugs. Now that Colorado has legalized (decriminalized not legalized my son tells me) marijuana, you have to wonder how many people will be taking their vacations there to really check out after they check in. This new law could help the restaurant business and may offer munchies hour that would really be happy! In today’s culture, this is the sand that people are drinking because they don’t know the difference. The church has been complicit in this downward spiral. In fact, the church has been dining on sand too. We – by this am I making a huge generalization about the church and not referring to any specific congregation or denomination – have not presented the gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that answers the problems in people’s lives. Trying to pinpoint the cause of this would take too long to write here. But the main culprit is a lack of biblical knowledge, insight and application.

 

The Bible speaks throughout of the human condition and the simple solution to that condition. Nowadays, too many people view sin – missing the mark; not living up to the standards that God has set – as passé, out-of-date, irrelevant. Most people feel they should get a slap on the wrist and have most of their sins decriminalized. They have not broken the big “10” so anything else is just a misdemeanor. They fail to see how their actions or inactions violate any precept of God. They are unaware that Jesus reduced the Ten Commandments down to two and that, in doing so, expanded their application more broadly. I always chuckle at the joke about the elderly women who approached her priest and said: “I may be a lot of things but I am NOT a manifold sinner.” “Manifold sinner” is a term used in one of the confession prayers in one of the many previous Books of Common Prayer. The priest replied, “Let’s go talk to your husband!” There are two things certain for all human beings: sin and death.

 

If people knew how to use the Bible I am sure that our culture would not be in such decline. The psalms particularly speak to the problem of eating sand. Psalm 63 states: “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Any person who has accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior knows that Jesus is the answer to this problem. He said in John 4:13: “but whoever drinks the water I give him will never be thirsty again. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” This is just one example of the Bible pointing to Jesus as the answer to life’s most important questions.

 

I know people who will question my trust in a book that was written so long ago. And no matter how hard J.K. Rowling tried through her “Harry Potter” series, or any other book or series for that matter, they still cannot outsell the Bible. So, why is the Bible so important?

 

As an Anglican I believe what the traditions of our denomination have said about the Bible. In the “Articles of Religion”, otherwise known as the “39 Articles,” it is stated that “Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation.” There are no other volumes or tomes needed. The Book of Mormon, the Qur’an, Think and Grow Rich, the Kama Sutra, The Little Red Book from Chairman Mao, or any other work is useless in comparison to the Holy Bible. There is no need for Dianetics or Psycho-Cybernetics, just Jesus and the Bible. Another reason for seeking answers in the Bible is listed in “An Outline of the Faith commonly called the Catechism.” This is a question and answer document about many foundational principles of the faith. On the topic of the Holy Scriptures one of the questions is: “Why do we call the Holy Scriptures the Word of God?” It is answered as follows: “We call them the Word of God because God inspired their human authors and because God still speaks to us through the Bible.” There is the answer. If God, the creator of the universe from the smallest particle to largest galaxy, and us too, speaks through the Bible, why would we look elsewhere for answers? Like Mao or Napoleon Hill knows more about life and living than the Lord God Almighty! In the Bible we encounter the answers to every pressing issue we may encounter on our journey here on earth. We don’t have to drink sand and think it is water. We can go to the source of living water and drink and be satisfied. I am still at a loss to think that people would actually think sand could be tasty and beneficial. I have eaten my share of sand at the beach – swimming in the usually mild Gulf of Mexico after a hurricane makes sand eating a more likely prospect – and it doesn’t taste good. It only makes you thirstier. We, the church, have something better than sand. We have something that could never be mistaken for sand except if we ourselves accept it as a viable alternative. We need to let people see the difference, know the difference. That difference is Jesus! Then, and only then, will they be able to seek after the true living water and not settle for a mirage of water known as sand. Go ahead and read the Bible again for the first time. Try it, you’ll like it. Jesus will quench your thirst because he is the Lord of Life.