A great gulf
“You
have the poor with you always”. These, we are told, are the words of Jesus
(John 12:8). They sound like a resigned sigh. We will never be able to get rid
of poverty. And it seems so when we look around. Though there are United
Nations reports of the diminution of poverty in some parts of the world the
evidence all around us is of people trapped in their poverty with no apparent
way out.
Meanwhile
there are others who can give their children a thousand dollars pocket money
and live in exclusive suburbs surrounded by walls. They are not bad people but
they often cannot see the huge gulf between their way of life and that of the
poor. Or if they do see it they say it is not their job to do anything about
it.
Jesus
knew about this and he told a story of a rich man who dressed in purple and
feasted every day. He was probably not a bad man but he just had his eyes
closed to the poverty of the man at his gate. When they both die Abraham is
introduced as telling the rich man that there is a “great gulf” between him and
the poor man now, who is being comforted “in Abraham’s bosom.”
The
gulf in the future life is unbridgeable but the one in this is not. There are
countless stories of people realising the outrage of the gap between the rich
and the poor and devoting their lives to doing something about it. Despite the
poverty trap all around us, there is such mobility in our world today that it
is possible – dare I say it – to prove Jesus wrong: we don’t have to have the
poor with us always. Information is everywhere and can be communicated
instantly to anyone. Democracy and accountability is growing despite starts and
stops, starts and stops. There is a report this week of an old (75) priest
refusing to leave his community of 75 Christians and a couple of thousand
Muslims holed up in Homs (Syria) unable to move more than a kilometre in any
direction. They are running out of food and facing the winter cold with blown
out doors and windows. It is a desperate situation but they know that the world
knows. This gives them hope. Theirs is just one more story that can swell the
progress towards peace.
But
what is difficult to penetrate is the human heart which often sets itself to
ignore and shut out the knowledge of the poor man at my gate. I just don’t want
to know. The prophet Amos said almost 3000 years ago, “Woe to those ensconced
so snugly in Zion.” It is a warning stil starkly applicable today.
29 September 2013 Sunday
27 C
Amos 6:1,4-7 I
Tim 6:11-16 Luke 16:19-31
