When is it convenient?
I was thinking today about our tendency to help when it's convenient.
When we have a few extra dollars, we contribute to charity.
When we have extra food, we give some to the food bank (some of us offer the dented cans or things we don't want to eat).
Yet need does not wax and wane with availability. Homeless people don't disappear when there's a shortage of beds in shelters. People don't magically have enough winter clothing when there are no coats available. People aren't magically filled when there is no food available. And the needs of people for community don't disappear when churches decide they have no room for "people like that".
When we have a few extra dollars, we contribute to charity.
When we have extra food, we give some to the food bank (some of us offer the dented cans or things we don't want to eat).
Yet need does not wax and wane with availability. Homeless people don't disappear when there's a shortage of beds in shelters. People don't magically have enough winter clothing when there are no coats available. People aren't magically filled when there is no food available. And the needs of people for community don't disappear when churches decide they have no room for "people like that".
The challenge is to switch from thinking about getting rid of the extra
we have to thinking about offering what is in short supply. After
Christmas, for instance, most people stop thinking about food pantries
- except for those who are going there to get something to eat. Yet the
need is present throughout the year - and is largely unfilled during
the summer.
It's not just the material that allow people to survive that is needed. It is also the community. And I suggest the challenge for our clerics - of all faiths - is to consider those who are least likely to be able to find a spiritual home, and work toward creating the space. That means divorced Catholics, and gay Southern Baptists, and sex workers whose faith is in Islam. There is a need for spiritual food, clothing, and shelter to the very people who are excluded from communities of faith.
My faith language is Christian, and so I tend to see Jesus as an example. Jesus reached out to people and restored them to community. That's the real healing.
We often fear polluting our congregations with people who are not holy or pure enough. I am suggesting that, by keeping people from the community of preaching, prophecy, and prayer, we are the ones whose actions are impure. We are divorcing our brothers and sisters in attempting to create for ourselves a false sense of piety, and it fails miserably.
The great - and scary - thing about having all sorts of people in our faith communities is that their needs will be right there with us. These people will not be the abstract "poor" or "prostitute"or "plagued" - they will be our friends. Our responsibilities to them - physical and spiritual - will be plain to see.
And the most wonderful thing of all is that we will realize how much these brothers and sisters have to offer us. They, too, have their gifts, resources, and talents. In empowering them to be part of our communities, we will be empowering them to serve alongside us - and even to serve us.
Let us take a long look at the physical and spiritual needs of the people around us, and see where they are not being served. Then let us do what we can to serve those needs.
It's not just the material that allow people to survive that is needed. It is also the community. And I suggest the challenge for our clerics - of all faiths - is to consider those who are least likely to be able to find a spiritual home, and work toward creating the space. That means divorced Catholics, and gay Southern Baptists, and sex workers whose faith is in Islam. There is a need for spiritual food, clothing, and shelter to the very people who are excluded from communities of faith.
My faith language is Christian, and so I tend to see Jesus as an example. Jesus reached out to people and restored them to community. That's the real healing.
We often fear polluting our congregations with people who are not holy or pure enough. I am suggesting that, by keeping people from the community of preaching, prophecy, and prayer, we are the ones whose actions are impure. We are divorcing our brothers and sisters in attempting to create for ourselves a false sense of piety, and it fails miserably.
The great - and scary - thing about having all sorts of people in our faith communities is that their needs will be right there with us. These people will not be the abstract "poor" or "prostitute"or "plagued" - they will be our friends. Our responsibilities to them - physical and spiritual - will be plain to see.
And the most wonderful thing of all is that we will realize how much these brothers and sisters have to offer us. They, too, have their gifts, resources, and talents. In empowering them to be part of our communities, we will be empowering them to serve alongside us - and even to serve us.
Let us take a long look at the physical and spiritual needs of the people around us, and see where they are not being served. Then let us do what we can to serve those needs.
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