The Poor and the Body

The lights were dimmed and we settled into reasonably confortable chairs to watch a 45 minute presentation selected by one of our annual clergy retreat planners.

Mike had told me about the cutting edge work by film maker Gerry Straub to put film at the service of the poor but I was unprepared for what we were about to see.

In the film Faces of Poverty ( http://www.sandamianofoundation.org/film_facesofpoverty.html) we were introduced to real people with credible stories - filmed in such a way as not exploit those interviewed but to introduce them to us as neighbors. What becomes abundantly clear through the film is that the Church has significant work to do at the most fundamental levels.

Before we are seekers of grace, we pursue the basics; food, clean drinking water, clothing, shelter, sanitary toilets, showers, work. When children are homeless, when the church-going factory worker is told that her job of 18 years has been outsourced to China, when the medical bills for a loved one leave a family in bankruptcy, how do we proclaim the gospel of Jesus and not get deeply involved in moving toward healing?

While it has to be said that the plight of the poor may not be our collective fault, it is, clearly a responsibility we share with them. We pay taxes that provide some helpful services. Our offerings to the congregational treasury help to underwrite the local food pantry. What we seldom do enough, however, is to meet the poor, to acknowledge them in person.

In Cameron and in many other communities, Christians of every tribe are hosting weekly community meals at no cost so that the poor and those with resources can sit at a common table that previews our sitting together one day at the Lord's Table. There in soup and crackers we taste God's preferred future - a time when all members of the Body are joined as one, praising, serving, and advancing the reign of God.

How are you helping the struggling and the well to find each other and new life in Christ?