The great American disconnect …

Days like yesterday (Thanksgiving Day), with houses full of loved ones and a veritable feast splayed across the dinner table, make understanding those living in dire need more difficult. What it really is like to not have a home, to not have supportive loved ones, and to not have food is beyond the understanding of most of us, requiring the use of our imaginations to attempt to comprehend the difficulty of surviving such circumstances.

Our comprehension of “living in need” in America is much like the story of how in Hollywood there is an exclusive school attended by children of movie stars, producers and directors. Asked to write a composition on the subject of poverty, one little girl started her literary piece with: “Once there was a poor little girl. Her father was poor, her mother was poor, her nanny was poor, her chauffeur was poor, her butler was poor. In fact, everybody in the house was very, very poor.”

Most of us don’t get it, and sadly, so many of us don’t try to understand. We have little patience for those in need. Perhaps we’ll try to sympathize for a little while, but if the needy remain needy we see them as a drain on resources, become impatient with their failure to change their circumstances, and quietly slink away. Such people are left to social workers and institutions, rather than any sense of being our brother’s keepers.

How we view the “least” among us today is often not a biblical view, which is more akin to the story told by Anne Benefield as follows …

St. Lawrence was martyred in 258 A.D., but we remember him not for his martyrdom. We remember him as the Archdeacon of Rome. His responsibilities included maintaining the sacred vessels of the small, struggling church and distributing alms to the poor. While he was Archdeacon, the Governor of Rome took Pope Sextus captive and demanded, “Where is the treasure of the church?” The Pope would not tell, and they tortured him to death.

Next the Romans took Lawrence captive. “Where is the treasure of the Church?” they demanded, threatening with the same fate that befell the Pope. Lawrence replied, “Governor, I cannot get it for you instantaneously; but if you give me three days, I will give you the treasure.” The governor agreed. Lawrence left.

Three days later he walked into the governor’s courtyard followed by a great flood of people. The Governor walked out onto his balcony and said, “Where is the treasure of your church?” Lawrence stepped forward, and pointed to the crowd that accompanied him – the lame, the blind, the deaf, the nobodies of society – and said, “Here are the treasures of the Christian church.”

The Bible takes a low view of those who take a low view of the poor and needy …

“It is a sin to belittle one’s neighbor; blessed are those who help the poor,” Proverbs 14:21.

And the Bible praises those who generously help the poor …

“Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed,” Proverbs 28:27.

In fact, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we see the poor and needy hold a special place in the eyes of God …

“He will rescue the poor when they cry to him; he will help the oppressed, who have no one to defend them. He feels pity for the weak and the needy, and he will rescue them. He will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their lives are precious to him,” Psalm 72:12-14.

Are their lives precious to you? Should we see such people, and feel about them, any differently than the God who lives in us through His Holy Spirit? Is your view, and response, to the poor, the needy, the least among us connected to God’s view, or are you part of the great American disconnect?

Scotty