IN THE movie, "The Hunchback
of Notre Dame", the gypsy sings her prayer: "God help
the outcast, hungry from birth. Show them the mercy they don't
find on earth. God help my people win them to you still. God help
the outcast when nobody will … Please help my people, the
poor and down trod. I thought we always (are) children of God."
Jesus asked, "What shall I compare the kingdom of God to?
It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount
of flour until it worked all through the dough?" ( Luke 13:
20-21) God uses ordinary people. The kingdom of God is not about
elitism and exclusiveness. It starts with a housewife. Yes, a
woman. A social nobody then, who goes about her daily household
chores.
Mother Teresa believed that we
see Christ in the poor. Her Sisters of charity believe they touch
the body of Christ when they help the poor. They pray while working,
believing they are doing it for Jesus and doing it to Jesus.
Our culture of commercialisation
is teaching us to live as the Rich Man in the story of Lazarus.
We are occasionally presented with the images of the poor Man
Lazarus at our gate but we are immediately reminded of the extra
gadget we ought to buy and the next restaurant we should eat.
The theologian Jürgen Moltmann
said: "The opposite of poverty is not property. Rather, the
opposite of both is community."
In 1942, Clarence Jordan, having
studied agriculture and then theology, attempted a shocking experiment
in living the Gospel by founding Koinonia Farm in Georgia.
Among
the many impacted by Jordan was Mr Millard Fuller. In November
1965, Mrs Linda Fuller told her husband that she was leaving him.
He was so absorbed in his business, making the sum of US$1 million
(S$1.5 million) a year that he had not noticed she was slipping
away. Panicked by her wake-up call, he put her and their children
into their Lincoln Continental and set off for Florida.
On the way they met some friends in Georgia, who had moved
to Mr Jordan's Koinonia community. Mr Fuller agreed to have lunch
with Mr Jordan, and ended up staying a month.
Mr Fuller began hammering on new door frames, as he founded
the ministry called Habitat for Humanity, which has engaged thousands
of volunteers in building more than 100,000 homes for the working
poor throughout America and around the world.
Mr
Millard Fuller: His life was changed
after meeting a man of God.
United Methodist News Service picture.
On this earth, we are called to live in community
where status is outdated, where we laugh at the hint of somebody
feeling superior. We do not live in an insulated bubble. We learn
by living, sharing, daring, tearing down fences. We open doors.
The problem is the door, not the wealth, not the poverty, but
the door.
Mother Teresa heeded Christ's
call to serve the poor, and she burst through an ugly door into
the slums of Calcutta.
Sometimes
churches burst through a door to discover new neighbours. Neighbours
near and in far-away places. Neighbours from diverse ethnicity
and culture. God is building a people, not defined by poverty
or property, but as a community.
Jesus could not stand the way people love things and use people
instead of loving people and using things. They were content to
live in the world with beggars when God wanted to give them brothers
and sisters.
My former District Superintendent
in the United Methodist Church in the US, the Rev Bette Poe, wrote:
"… our world is a hungry world; hungry not just for
food for the body, although there are millions of people who are
physically hungry. But, our world is hungry for … answers
… for hope … for something to fill that empty place
in their lives …
"Why, then, do we turn our
eyes away from those who are most hungry for Jesus? The drunks,
the crackheads, the prostitutes, the outcasts of society. Why
aren't we inviting those people to church? Why do all the people
in our pews look like us?"
In contrast, John Wesley wrote "I bear the rich and love
the poor; therefore I spend almost all my time with them."
(Letter to Ann Foard, Sept 25, 1757).
We are the victims of our own
way of life when we cut ourselves off from each other. When we
fail to knit our lives together with all other lives, then we
are the loser. However if we have faith in Christ, we will learn
to respond to needs as Christ does. Surprisingly, we discover
that both the rich and the poor/the outcast need the same thing
from each other - community.
We are not independent. We are
interdependent!
The Rev Gabriel Liew is Pastor
of Kampong Kapor Methodist Church.
QUOTE:
WE NEED EACH OTHER
'We are the victims of our own way of life when we cut ourselves
off from each other. When we fail to knit our lives together with
all other lives, then we are the loser. However if we have faith
in Christ, we will learn to respond to needs as Christ does. Surprisingly,
we discover that both the rich and the poor/the outcast need the
same thing from each other - community.'