"Defense of the poor is an undeniable theme of the Bible, as well as the foundational texts of many other religious traditions. Faithful people of any kind would be hard pressed to deny God’s concern for the poor.
Currently, the world population is slightly more than 7 billion people. The ONE Campaign (an international advocacy organization) reports that 1.2 billion of these people live in extreme poverty, with an income of less than $1.25 per day. For many of us, this is unimaginable poverty. Because this crushing blight is so unimaginable, we often fail to imagine and pursue ways to overcome it.
Hopefully, most of us are not active oppressors of the poor. But are we part of a system of oppression? When our personal resources are limited, is charitable giving a priority? When our national resources are limited, do we insist that global poverty be a top concern of our elected officials? How much more than our fair share of the world’s resources do we use each day? When I ask myself these questions, my answers convict me of my complicity in the oppression of the poor, and I can only pray for the mercy and grace to live into better answers."
One of the scriptures assigned for today was Psalm 72 and it is the one choose by the author of the meditation. The editors of the magazine traditionally choose one verse to place above the meditation. In this case however, I think that the first four verses shed additional light on the meditation. Quoting from the New Century Version those four verses read like this:
Psalm 72:1-4 New Century Version (NCV)
God, give the king your good judgment
and the king’s son your goodness.
2
Help him judge your people fairly
and decide what is right for the poor.
3
Let there be peace on the mountains
and goodness on the hills for the
people.
4
Help him be fair to the poor
and save the needy
and
punish those who hurt them.
After reading Psalm 72 my eyes drifted to 73 that takes up a similar theme. In part the Psalm says:
2
But I had almost stopped believing;
I had almost lost my faith
3
because I was jealous of proud people.
I saw wicked people doing well.
4
They are not suffering;
they are healthy and strong.
5
They don’t have troubles like the rest of us;
they don’t have problems like other
people.
6
They wear pride like a necklace
and put on violence as their clothing.
7
They are looking for profits
and do not control their selfish
desires.
8
They make fun of others and speak evil;
proudly they speak of hurting others.
9
They brag to the sky.
They say that they own the earth.
10
So their people turn to them
and give them whatever they want.
11
They say, “How can God know?
What does God Most High know?”
12
These people are wicked,
always at ease, and getting richer.
My thoughts were that this speaks to our society today and the discussion often heard about the 1%.
With a little extra time this morning I decided to also look at the Episcopal Cafe site and the Speaking to the Soul section. The theme continued even though the author of this section was using Mark 9:30-37. This blog post says in part:
"It boggles my mind to think that there was a time, not too long ago, that this gospel was preached shamelessly in churches where wealthy parishioners had private padded pews, sheltered from drafts, while the poor were banished to bare back benches, and others excluded entirely. It’s a sad reminder that there’s a persistent, primitive urge in most social animals to establish a fixed order of dominance and submission. ...
Potentially we all have that hair-trigger “Hey, what about me?” reflex. ...
And all of this is no news to Jesus. He is human, too. One reason he became human was to show us how to rise above reflex. He’s here to shake things up with a message of love that is totally counter-intuitive. His challenge to us is to stand human nature on its head."
This blog post does not refer to the poor or mention money, but for us in this Western Society the implication is there because our "pecking order" is defined often by the amount of money and things that we can accumulate.
My surfing odyssey continued and I went to The Lead section of the Episcopal Cafe where I happened on the article "Talking religion: Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at Liberty University". There were three links at the bottom, one of them from Esquire magazine about Bernie Sanders visit to Liberty University. In part of his speech quoted there he said:
"I am far, far from a perfect human being, but I am motivated by a vision which exists in all of the great religions–Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and others–and which is so beautifully and clearly stated in Matthew 7:12. 'So in everything, do to others what you would have them to do to you, for this sums up the Law and the prophets.' The Golden Rule. Do to others what you would have them do to you. Not very complicated. ...
…there is no justice when the top one-tenth of 1 percent own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. There is no justice when all over this country people are working longer hours for lower wages, while 58 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent. There is no justice when, in recent years, we have seen a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires while, at the same time, the United States has the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. Twenty percent of all children—and 40 percent of African-American children—now live in poverty."
So what is to be said about this web serf "adventure"? It seems to me that the meditations of two Episcopal blogs, the political concerned retorick of a presidential candidate,and the undeniable concern that Jesus had and has for the poor merge and both judge and credit our society
With a little extra time this morning I decided to also look at the Episcopal Cafe site and the Speaking to the Soul section. The theme continued even though the author of this section was using Mark 9:30-37. This blog post says in part:
"It boggles my mind to think that there was a time, not too long ago, that this gospel was preached shamelessly in churches where wealthy parishioners had private padded pews, sheltered from drafts, while the poor were banished to bare back benches, and others excluded entirely. It’s a sad reminder that there’s a persistent, primitive urge in most social animals to establish a fixed order of dominance and submission. ...
Potentially we all have that hair-trigger “Hey, what about me?” reflex. ...
And all of this is no news to Jesus. He is human, too. One reason he became human was to show us how to rise above reflex. He’s here to shake things up with a message of love that is totally counter-intuitive. His challenge to us is to stand human nature on its head."
This blog post does not refer to the poor or mention money, but for us in this Western Society the implication is there because our "pecking order" is defined often by the amount of money and things that we can accumulate.
My surfing odyssey continued and I went to The Lead section of the Episcopal Cafe where I happened on the article "Talking religion: Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at Liberty University". There were three links at the bottom, one of them from Esquire magazine about Bernie Sanders visit to Liberty University. In part of his speech quoted there he said:
"I am far, far from a perfect human being, but I am motivated by a vision which exists in all of the great religions–Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and others–and which is so beautifully and clearly stated in Matthew 7:12. 'So in everything, do to others what you would have them to do to you, for this sums up the Law and the prophets.' The Golden Rule. Do to others what you would have them do to you. Not very complicated. ...
…there is no justice when the top one-tenth of 1 percent own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. There is no justice when all over this country people are working longer hours for lower wages, while 58 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent. There is no justice when, in recent years, we have seen a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires while, at the same time, the United States has the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. Twenty percent of all children—and 40 percent of African-American children—now live in poverty."
So what is to be said about this web serf "adventure"? It seems to me that the meditations of two Episcopal blogs, the political concerned retorick of a presidential candidate,and the undeniable concern that Jesus had and has for the poor merge and both judge and credit our society
