Alright, been thinking a lot and reading a lot about these things and I don’t think I’ve come to a whole lot of conclusions, but consider this my ‘verbal processing’ of poverty and what it means to take a proactively Christian approach to the poor in your neighborhood.
I think what I am getting most hung up about is this idea of empowering as opposed to sustaining. As Christians we can continue to give to those in poverty in a way that sustains their position as a receiver and an individual on the edge of poverty. I think that this is biblical – that we are called to give to those who ask of us and not expect anything in return. The idea of giving to the poor and giving generously and continuously is biblical, I don’t have any qualms about it. “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?” Luke16:11 … I mean there ya have it, measured by our own standard of giving.
But this type of service keeps me in a position to give and keeps the other person in a position to receive – I am the one in control, the one with the power. Poverty as a condition is ultimately about the distribution of power and I don’t see how this is going to tip the power scale to the side of the marginalized. Even if I choose to form a relationship with this person and I become an advocate for the injustice that is happening in the life of this individual, I am still in control and still in a position to give therefore forcing the other person into a receiver posture. I don’t think that this means that we should just shrug our shoulders and go about our business without giving, loving, advocating …. But what about moving past this place of sustaining poverty and actually empowering these blessed ones to take hold of kingdom riches and their identity in Jesus in a way that transforms entire lives and communities? These sound like two radically different things to me.
What was Jesus really saying when He said “Blessed is the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”(Matt 5)? I don’t think that He was excusing us from caring for the poor by passing over them with a ‘God bless you’, but that He really means it – the poor are blessed, they really do posses treasures of the kingdom of God. I love this quote from Robert Lupton: I need the poor? For what? The question exposes my blindness. I see them as the weak ones to be rescued, not as bearers of the treasures of the kingdom. The dominance of my giving overshadows and stifles the rich endowments the creator has invested in those who I consider destitute.
So, what does this mean for those of us who desire to live as Christ? I am not sure I know the answer except that it is not enough to remain the helper and the giver but we’ve got to open ourselves up to empower these people because I can’t imagine a deeper poverty than to have nothing to offer to anyone. That is the deep wound of poverty – worthlessness, not having anything of value to offer to the world, this is the lie sealed in the hearts of these ‘poor’ souls -- that the image of the Creator in whose likeness they have been formed is absent. The very essence of creation in the image of God conveys worth and value and beauty that is quenched in these people who are reminded constantly of their un-value and worthlessness – what a terrible lie to live with daily.
Coming from a middle class background into a culture of poverty no matter what country you are in is a cross-cultural experience. There are so many ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ already when trying to be sensitive to another culture but when you add poverty into the mix, how do you not take away their identity? It just seems wrong to me for me to be the one to presume to know what the local poor community needs and therefore implement the appropriate program. Who knows the heartbeat and true problem of the community better than those who have wrestled with it for years? The difference between sustaining and empowering lies here – how can we empower the people in poverty to be instruments of change within their families and communities in a way that speaks to THEIR needs and not to what we perceive the needs to be? And herein lies my struggle… how can we be proactive, move towards justice, advocate equality, give help and love to these individuals without tipping the scale of power even more by making it ‘our responsibility’ instead of the communities? I am not sure if this makes sense outside of my head – but basically I want to empower the community to be it’s own instrument of change without putting ourselves in a position to be ‘helper’ and ‘giver’ and the poor to be ‘receiver’ and ‘helpless’.
Admittedly, there are so many hurdles to loving in a way that speaks power into the life of another – especially with poverty because it runs so deep and isn’t just in the housing area but in the child rearing and the education level and the drug addictions and so on. As I’ve been getting more involved with poor people in my own community, I have had to ask a lot of questions about what it means to be truly loving because I don’t think Jesus would just give a $20 and a hug – he always spoke to the sin, to the heart of the matter and then spoke hope and power into the lives of the broken… man, I want to be like that.
