This series has challenged us to rethink what we believe as a church, and redefine what our role is and should be within the global community. Although it focuses on the extreme poverty in other countries, understanding that extreme allows us to get a more balanced picture, as we ourselves are at the other end.
On our planet:
• 1 in 7 doesn’t have enough to eat.
• 1 in 6 of us does not have access to safe drinking water.
• 1 in 2 lives on less than $2 a day.
• 26,000 of our children under the age of 5 die every day from preventable causes.
• every 7 seconds a child dies from a hunger related cause.
How did we get here?
If it were simply a matter of money, it would take only a little over 1% of the total income of all American church-goers to lift the poorest billion people of the world out of extreme poverty. Who wouldn’t sign-up for that! But money isn’t the only problem.
The three difficulties:
Spirituality:
Most of the poorest billion people believe in animism. It says: Creation is chaotic and unknowable, and is controlled by unpredictable spirits. It’s understandable that they would believe this - they have little education, their life doesn’t make sense and God doesn’t make sense. So spirits running around doing whatever they want is an explanation for their life.
But animism leads to fatalism. “I don’t believe I have any choices in life, and I don’t believe I can make a difference in my situation.” That is a mind-numbing, soul-killing thing to believe.
A Christian worldview is vital to poverty-stricken countries. It’s the Christian worldview that led the way for the scientific worldview. It fosters the thought of a loving God, an ordered world, hope, choice and possibilities. It helps us solve problems and believe for a better tomorrow. All religions are not the same!
Justice
What about governments? Most of the poorest billion people live with rampant corruption as a way of life, where exploitation is normal. Slavery, trafficking of children, the willful maintenance of poverty – humanity at its worst. It is a difficult and dangerous system to try to change.
Mercy
The call of the Gospel is to be merciful, to care for the least among us. Of course this takes money – to feed people, provide shelter, care for disease. It calls us to share what God has given us.
So how do we determine our responsibility in all of this?
It comes down to a simple question – the same question that an expert in the law posed to Jesus: Who is my neighbor? When asked that question, Jesus responded with a story.
Luke 10:25-37 – The Good Samaritan.
A Priest - highly respected because he represented the people before God
A Levite – a member of the elite of society
A Samaritan - a despised person in the Jewish community.
All three had the opportunity to be a neighbor in the situation.
To be a neighbor you have to have:
Awareness
All three saw the man who had been beaten and robbed. They were aware of the need. Two walked on by.
Access
All three had access. The Samaritan got in the ditch – got close to the pain and the hurt, the dirt and blood. He stopped his own progress to meet another’s need, and chose to exercise his access to the hurting man.
Ability
It was the Samaritan who put his money on the line, giving the innkeeper the coins he had and promising more if needed. But it wasn’t just money – he got involved. Money was a means, not an end.
The question in the air when Jesus’ story was over: “What kind of a neighbor are you?”
Today -
With a click on the computer we have an awareness of people in any part of the world.
By booking a flight, we can have access to any part of the world in 24 hours.
We have been blessed with ability beyond any other country.
Who is our neighbor?
Can you say that because they are over there,
they are not your concern, not your neighbors?
You can’t - if you’re a Christian.
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