What Are Our Obligations to the Poor? Part 12
June 30, 2010
Dear Friends,
The next relationship I would like to address is the relationship with man and God’s creation.
I typically go running about four or five days a week. I run through our neighborhood and then onto a country road. The portion of the road I run on most of the time has nothing on it except one country church. The rest of the road is woods. It is pretty and not heavily travelled. One thing you notice though if you are not in a car is that the ditch has a fair amount of garbage in it. Mostly, the trash is beer bottles or beer cans. This is not the ecological disaster of the century, but this micro example can serve to prepare us for the huge problem the world has environmentally. This one example can also serve to show us how interconnected the relationships of God, self, others and God’s creation can be.
The state I live in (Virginia) has an “open container” law. You are not allowed to drive with an open container of alcohol in the car. So, if you are driving and drinking alcohol, it makes sense to discard the “evidence” once consumed in case you are pulled by the police. Now, the ditch also contains other trash such as soda bottles and coffee cups, but the vast majority of it is discarded alcohol containers of some sort.
To generalize, the chain of events is something like this. People have a problem in their relation to God, self and to others in that they have a drinking problem. Now, I know that not everyone that drinks while driving is an alcoholic or has a major problem. However, for our purposes, let’s assume that if someone (a lot of people actually from the looks of the ditches) cannot refrain from drinking alcohol while driving a multi-ton vehicle at high speeds when it is both illegal and potentially hinders their ability to protect themselves and others, they aren’t making the strongest case for wholeness of being. Because people do stupid things, the state feels compelled to enact laws to protect us from these people. In so doing, these alcohol-consuming drivers see the need to litter our highways and byways with their post-consumption debris thus decorating God’s creation with Bud Lite cans. The state used to give people a nickel to return the cans so people would go along the roads and pick the cans and bottles up. Not many states do that anymore so we are dependent on good Samaritans to adopt a highway and pick up the trash. Since apparently good Samaritans are far less plentiful than drinking-driving-littering imbeciles, we have a small ecological problem on the country road on which I run.
Like I said, of the world’s problems, my country road is not that serious. There is not a lot of suffering going on because of the beer cans in the ditch. In contrast, the really big environmental problems are, as a byproduct, thrusting millions in to abject poverty. Take any major ecological catastrophe – the destruction of the rain forests, the salinization of large water bodies and land masses, the pollution of our water – and you can follow a similar path where sin and broken relationships are at the root.
Environmentalism and Christianity have a tentative relationship. People who follow Christ should be the most environmentally conscience people on the planet. Sadly, Christians tend to be among the worst offenders with our over-consumption of the world’s resources and market-driven (rather than Biblically-driven) philosophies. We do all of this despite the fact that God made man a steward of this creation.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Gen. 1:28)
Yet, despite the Biblical imperative, men – many of whom would consider themselves followers of the principles of Scripture – have destroyed whole areas of the planet.
Does God care if we ruin His planet? God made it “very good” and we seem determined to render it incapable of sustaining life. Imagine if you will God creating a painting of breathtaking beauty and inestimable value and giving it to us as a gift. He says “I am giving you control over this beautiful painting.” Instead of exercising great care over this painting, we leave it out in the rain. We use it as a drop cloth in our garage. We snip pieces off of it and burn them. We cover it in oil, poisonous chemicals and heaps of refuse. Would God be pleased with this behavior? How much more valuable is this world that He created than a painting?
If you do a study of the Old Testament God gives a lot of commands concerning plant and animal life. For example, Proverbs says “A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.” (12:10 NIV)
Now one of the great side effects of our abuse of the planet is poverty. People find themselves one year living in a lush, tropical rain forest and the next year they find themselves living in a barren, stump-filled wasteland. God’s plan, on the other hand, is for a greater synergy with and sustainability in nature. God commanded the land of lie fallow every seven years. God wouldn’t allow His people to clear cut the land of the enemies of fruit trees. God demanded that people help even their enemy if their livestock was in harm’s way. God wants us to live in harmony with His creation, not abuse and destroy it.
To summarize then, when our relationship with God’s creation is broken because we fail to recognize the stewardship God has given us, it creates many problems including poverty for those people who live in or depend on that part of creation to survive. We need to recognize this as a factor when determining how to make people whole.
Have a great week,
Comments»
Great thoughts Kyle.
I agree totally and its logical. To generalise, I don’t think that most of Christianity is used to acting on bible teaching. The difference between the wise and the foolish builder was only that one put the teaching into practise and the other didn’t. The biggest deception seems to be the separation between our spiritual life and our day-to-day life. What if we learnt to act as if what we believed in was true? Look after God’s creation…turn the other cheek…love our enemies…give freely? How much would the world change? What if Christians had ignored sanctions in Iraq when Saddam was causing problems and taken the sufferring masses food and medicines without taking their oil?
In relation to creation care, there’s a book called “Serve God, Save the Planet” by Matthew Sleeth I think. It was pretty thought provoking in how to take practical steps to looking after creation although at times I didn’t entirely agree with the attitude coming through (a little legalistic). Shane Claibourne has a DVD series called “Another World is Possible” and Volume 3 is about creation.
Thanks again for your messages
Kyle, Kim and I have really enjoyed your articles. I find your thoughts very practical, especially in my current circumstance here in South Africa.
I am confronted with begging on literally a daily basis, and it takes a great deal of thoughtful consideration and observation to “do the right thing” in the “right way”.
I find your connection to the relationship that would often precede the obligatory donations, to be very telling and maybe the key to much of the practice of giving to the needy. If you know people who need help, and you are required to help them, it really isn’t painful at all, knowing the benefit and use of the gift in a way that meets the expectations of the ‘giver’. example: I’m happy to give a needy person food, knowing that they will eat it, not sell it to go on vacation… Notice it wasn’t money, but a tithe of their produce (presumably) of flock and field harvests that are to be used to provide for those without the means to provide for themselves. The intent is clear. Also, the gleanings – God’s “Will work for food” program is another clear example of what is intended. Both have a connection with relationship. collecting the gleanings is visible (ie Ruth is seen by Boaz and his workers in the field). So giving, wether directly or indirectly would result in the giver knowing who needs help, which I believe would result in those who are able to contribute becoming more aware of who truly needs assistance…So you might say that developing a relationship through giving probably preceeded additional giving now that everyone knows who the needy are. Though giving might be employment or some other practical way of helping the poor (ie, someone sighted as harvesting the gleanings might become a worker in the fields and later become a servant of a paying master??? etc….
When I walk through town every day, I see who the “professional beggars” are, but I also see who is disabled beyond their ability to compete in the workplace, I see those looking for work, I see who is doing menial labor trying to improve their circumstances, and I’m becoming aware of those who are just passing through…I find it to be a great blessing to help out as much as I can contribute. I personally believe that God places each of the circumstances in front of me to challenge me to find when and why and how it is appropriate to help. So I find myself challenged regularly…
When giving, I find the greater blessing is the connection developed between myself and those who are helped, as well as the improvement on connecting emotionally to the truth – that in the face of God, I’m also a poor one. I rely totally upon God for provision. He gives to me, but do i appreciate it? Even the labor I give is first provided by Him, so I have no place to Boast.
I find giving to another person, face to face is humbling, sometimes a little embarrassing for both of us, but is also fulfilling and helps me to properly appreciate the Gifts we receive from our Father. And usually, because I am actually getting to know these people, I have a strong confidence that what is provided to me to be steward of, is going towards a good cause and is being used in a way that will meet approval.
One last thought. I am not 100%. Sometimes I find that someone I helped by giving some food actually increases the amount they ask for, or beg for. Surprisingly enough, this is actually quite rare. But what is really fulfilling / rewarding is when I help someone “out of the blue” one day, but the following day they approach me to talk to me and get to know me better. These individuals are the ones who I regularly find want to know more and understand more about why we help others, which opens up great discussions on the Family of God and God’s Master Plan for all of us. What a rewarding experience this is, every time!
I’ve rambled enough, but want you to know I really appreciate your thoughts and efforts to share with us. I always find your introspection to be very useful in my own considerations of how I am to improve my service to our Father! Thank you very much and I look forward to your next posts!!!
Your Brother in Christ!! cam