Day 1: Guiding Texts

Biblical Texts: Matthew 26:6-13 and Deuteronomy 15:1-18

It was the blatant misuse of the Matthew text by many Christians that really forced me to start thinking about issues of poverty and ultimately led me into this experiment. In our Matthew text Jesus says these infamous words: "you will always have the poor with you." Apparently, and despite the fact that there are NO biblical scholars who believe this, there are many Christians who think this then means Jesus doesn't want us to care about poor people, but only about worshipping him.

Their contextual reasoning goes like this: a woman of questionable character pours very expensive ointment on Jesus' head. The disciples become indignant because the money could have been used to help the poor. And then Jesus says "Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. For you will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me." The argument, then, is that Jesus says you can't defeat poverty, and it's better to use your money in God-worship than trying to vanquish an unconquerable foe.

The problem is two-fold. First of all, Jesus is referring to Deuteronomy 15, which says "Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, 'Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.'" The hard part is the pain it would bring about to hear Jesus quote from Deuteronomy 15, since it would also bring to mind verse 4; "There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the LORD is sure to bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as a possession to occupy, if only you will obey the LORD your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today." In other words, if the people were following God's guidance, it would be obvious because there would be no persons in need. And since they are always with you, I suppose that means, well, you get the idea.

So when Jesus says the poor will always be with you, it is a reference back to Deuteronomy, as well as a judgment on the people because of what Deuteronomy says. How crazy is that?

The second issue is that the wording in Matthew means something more like this: "I [Jesus] am here with you right now and you should focus more attention and action towards me than anything else. But I'll be gone soon, and then it's back to the poor, who will definitely still be around and needing help."


Secondary Text #1: U2

On their album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (my favorite album of theirs, by the way), U2 has a song called Crumbs From Your Table that is just plain amazing. Here's a couple of lines from it to act as one of our secondary guiding texts for today:

"Where you live
should not decide
Whether you live
or whether you die..."

"You speak of signs and wonders
but I need, something other
I would believe, if I was able
but I'm waiting on the crumbs, from your table."

Secondary Text #2: Martin Luther King Jr.

The following comes from MLK's Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam. It's the closing to his address, which was given on April 4, 1967:

"A nation that continues year after year to to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death...

These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wombs of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. 'The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.' We in the West must support these revolutions. It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make deomacracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.

We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world - a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

Now let us begin. Now let us re-dedicate ourselves to the long and bitter - but beautiful - struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment in human history."