Friday, June 19, 2015

We Are The Poor

My American seminary once asked me to do a survey. What were local Churches doing for the poor? I first asked an elder of a local Church: “What does your Church do for the poor?” He looked perplexed. He said: “We are the poor!” More recently I heard an American preacher say: “We are God’s hands.” Which is to say, all of us, on the planet. Yet millions of hands are empty. They have nothing to give, and there are none to receive. Part of my required reading in seminary was the book “God of the Empty-Handed.” I interpreted the empty-handed as me (and so, I imagine, did the author). American students interpreted the empty-handed as the poor. OBSERVATION: What does one have left to give, then? I have seen that the gift of faith can light up any life.

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