Today's church has lost sight of the poor
Don't you think it must be frustrating for church leaders these days to find a good mission that would be acceptable to their church members?
Clark D. Morphew
For instance, a ministry to gay males and lesbians would not be suitable because that would require the opening of the church building to these people, called perverts and worse by many church people.
I was thinking that a ministry to prison inmates might be a possibility. But what respectable church member is going to walk inside the clanging doors for a chat about Jesus?
It occurs to me that our church buildings have become fortresses against the world. We gather our people on Sunday morning, preach a radical Gospel about caring for the poor, imprisoned, lonely and destitute -- and nobody notices the world is clamoring to be let inside.
If the world does seep into our fortress, if a member becomes entangled in crime or immorality, we quickly rid ourselves of the offending church member, as if he or she were the carrier of a spreading poison.
I am beginning to wonder if any church still in existence is even trying to mount a ministry to any person outside its walls.
Frankly, I do not know of a Protestant or Evangelical congregation, for instance, that has a ministry to poor people. I know of some congregations that serve meals to the poor one night a month. I think that's wonderful, but I wonder if that's the kind of mission Jesus had in mind.
I think Catholics do the best with poor people. They open their churches to homeless people, serve meals on a daily basis at several stations in most major cities and give the poor a boost. I also know of several Protestant congregations that shelter the poor once or twice a month in their church basements.
A friend said that most church members are middle-class, middle-of-the-road people who work hard, save their money and get nervous when someone suggests unbridled charity. Which means they will tolerate gifts to the poor only if there are controls. They don't like charity programs that spread cheer indiscriminately. Poor people ought to be qualified to receive aid -- that is, they should be on their way to a job or at least to a level way of life.
I remember meeting a Catholic nun several years ago in a small city in northern Minnesota. She was running a relief agency for transient people, seasonal agricultural workers and people down on their luck. She told me about the first gift of charity she ever made.
It was Christmas Eve and she was the chief cook for the local bishop. That afternoon she was preparing a large beef roast and ham. She had all the trimmings for a feast that evening that would include the bishop and selected priests of the diocese.
She heard a knock at the back door of the bishop's residence and saw a man standing there -- his car parked in the street behind him -- his wife and children inside. He asked for a handout, explained that he had a couple of setbacks and the family was living in their car. She gave him the ham and piled it high with potatoes and vegetables and bread.
She served the roast beef that evening to the bishop and his guests and nobody craved the ham. I think even that minimal kind of charity would please God, simply giving from our affluence and abundance.
Most congregations will have some way to justify their lack of compassion for the poor. I don't even want to hear those excuses. The fact is, Jesus loved the poor and he gave his life to those people. When he got close to the rich, to people like most of us, Jesus started preaching about money and giving. But to the poor he was a compassionate friend.
That's one of the things that's wrong with the church today: It has lost sight of the poor. And through our blindness, we may have lost sight of Jesus.
