Blessed are the poor

One of the most obvious things about our society and about any society is that the poor are generally treated badly. To be poor means to experience objectification and rejection; it is to experience blame and judgment. ‘The poor’ experience other people’s fear of them as hatred and attack; poverty on the outside is to be feared and judged, because it represents human failure and suffering. None of us really wants to be poor and so the poor are on one level always to be feared.

The flip side of this is that most of us are drawn towards success and wealth, as success and wealth project the image of human happiness and well-being. Wealth and status are attractive. The wealthy are seen to be good because they represent our dreams about what human happiness looks like; wealth and all that it can bring: learning, friendship, autonomy, choice, status, power, influence and control are the things that we as humans seek and desire.

So, why are ‘the poor’ God’s chosen ones?

(Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?  James 2)

For God what is important is that we learn dependence on Him and love for our neighbours: two things that can come more easily to the poor than to the rich. For God, externals are not important, but internals, the quality of our hearts.

None of us can be unaware today of the refugee crisis that we have all been watching on our television screens, reading in our papers and hearing about on the radio. A European politician recently said: ‘If you are rich and attractive to others, you also have to be strong because if you are not, they will take away what you have worked for and you will become poor, too.’ In so doing the politician has perfectly articulated fear of poverty, fear of the other, fear of the sacrifices that come along with doing the right thing. Fear that I / we will lose what we value and need. That is what all of us must feel at some level when we are made to see another person’s need and a claim is made from us to help. The fear itself isn’t wrong, but what is important is how we respond to it.

Helping other people is a complex business, responding as a nation is even more complex, but as individuals and as a nation, God asks us to look deeply in our hearts and look at our fear. If we can look at our fear and overcome it then we can do what we need to do, whatever the cost. That is the goal that all saints have achieved- overcoming their fear to do what God asks them to do. That to me is our duty as Christians, to operate not out of fear (even though it will be there) but to operate out of generous love.  Fear brings rejection, blame, coldness of heart and cruelty; love brings compassion, mercy, generosity, forgiveness and purity of heart.

In his Letter, James (James 2:1-10) talks about the kingdom that God has promised to those who love him. That kingdom must be a kingdom where love reigns, and love is the best ruler that there is. So, if we can overcome fear (and perfect love casts out fear) then we can be inheritors of a miraculous kingdom where mutual flourishing and generous love remake and re-mould us into God’s everlasting children.

The kingdom of God is not a place that you can go to without a long an arduous battle with human sin. Jesus shows us the way; and the journey with him is what enables us to see the final destination, when we arrive. None of us on our own strength can hope to achieve perfection, but Jesus reveals to us both the cost and the reward of perfect love. Sacrifice is part of God’s generous love: - but God is wiser than us, through sacrifice he brings about a greater kingdom.