Video for January 30th, 2025
Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s video.
In our scamper through the five marks of mission we are at number three: to respond to human need by loving service. I will steadfastly resist referring to the frequently misinterpreted words of Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. It is oft quoted as Jesus’ instructions to treat the poor and needy well because we may see him in them, although contextually it cannot mean anything of the sort. I think I may have made a fuller video about that before.
However, there is a rich tradition of bias to the poor and the marks of a kingdom where the needy are cared for going back to the earliest parts of the Bible. Deuteronomy 15:4 puts it starkly. “There need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you”. But the Old Testament Law is realistic about the frailty of human economic systems and the greed which accumulates wealth in some at the expense of others. Later in the same chapter in Exodus the writer is resigned to the fact that, “there will always be poor people in the land”. This is repeated almost verbatim by Jesus in Mark 14, “the poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want”. Exodus 15 also makes clear the command to God’s people to care and be generous. In verse eleven, “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land”. The writer of Proverbs 19:17 says, “Whover is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done”.
Later, the prophets are scathing about the behaviour of the rich. Ezekiel writes in chapter 16: 49, “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy”. Amos chips in in chapter 5: 12, “For I know how many are your offenses and great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts”.
Jesus takes up these themes, but with a twist. The poor, move from being an object of charity, excluded from the nation’s economic life to being in some way an exemplar of the spiritual life. The poor widow is praised for her rich generosity, although the relative miserliness of the rich is shared in the same breath. The repentant Zaccheus is praised for giving back more than he gained through criminality. The ones who are invited to the banquet when the first set of guests refuse are the ones who are poor and excluded. Poverty as a state of mind conscious of our own inadequacy is described as a blessed state. Paul reflecting on Jesus ministry in 2 Corinthians 8 says, “that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich”.
It is a defining characteristic of many of our heroes of the faith that they have gone the extra mile to help the poor practically. In Hereford we have no greater example than John Venn, Vicar of St. Peters for over 50 years until his death in 1890. He was aided by his sister Emilia, at whose graveside a woman aided by their love and generosity said, “She always had a smile ready for everyone.” Theirs was not patrician largesse but a deeply relational transaction flowing out of their faith in Christ and the imperative of discipleship. Many of the buildings that were part of his work remain standing, and the work is continued through Vennture an ecumenical charity. Venn’s work began in response to the terrible winters of the early 1840’s where he organised a soup kitchen to keep people alive and healthy. However, he quickly realised that dealing with the symptoms of poverty were not enough. His initial work was tending but he realised Christian faithfulness required a prophetic transforming as well. I’ll talk a little bit about that next week. I hope part of our missional endeavour in this year of engagement will be an openness to the same spirit of generosity in response to human need, not just overseas but closer to home as well.
+Richard