The responsibility for us in the church today is to continue his message and ministry to the world.  Jesus told us that “the poor we would have with us always” and this remains true to this day.  So how do we as a church navigate the different circumstances that the poor and oppressed of the earth suffer?  With our current world economic situation poverty is on the rise, people are being taken advantage of, and are being exploited by others.  Nothing seems to change, Just as in Jesus’ day. 

     Poverty and oppression has many faces and many facets.  It is not just a physical issue, it is much more.  People are much more than physical beings.  Jurgen Moltmann writes of the expression of the poor in the gospels.

     “The poverty meant extends from economic, social and physical poverty to psychological, moral and religious poverty.  The poor are all those who have to endure acts of violence and injustice without being able to defend themselves.  The poor are all who have to exist physically and spiritually on the fringe of death, who have nothing to live for and to whom life has nothing to offer.  The poor are all who are at the mercy of others, and who live with empty open hands.  Poverty therefore means both dependency and openness.  We ought not to confine poverty in religious terms to the general dependence of men on God.  But it cannot be interpreted in a  merely economic or physical sense either.  It is an expression which describes the enslavement and dehuminization of man in more than one dimension”.

     According to Moltmann, the expression the poor is far more reaching than the physical needs. We as Christians can minister in a variety of ways based upon how the Spirit may be calling us.  But if we are to follow Christ our involvement with his mission is not an option, it is a privilege.  Filip Spagnoli writes about the extent of our duties towards the poor and how the individual should intervene.  We as believers are commanded, encouraged, and filled with the Holy Spirit to do these good works.  I have been thinking about my part in God’s plan and the poor, each of us have a part.  Have you discovered yours?  Any thoughts?

Picture: Ethiopia by babasteve

Quote: JurgenMoltmann, The Church in the Power of the Holy Spirit, pg. 79