The Least of These

"Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me" (Matt 25:40)

I was walking on the street yesterday when a woman stopped me and asked for money because her baby is in the hospital sick and she doesn't have money to pay. She gave me a photocopy of the hospital admission note. The baby described in the notes is sick, indeed. It only took a second to see from the notes what I needed to see, but I appeared to study it for longer as the thoughts went through my head: Is this a scam? Can I give her enough to really make a difference? But I wanted to use that money for______

It was one of those moments that God, with that quirky sense of humor, makes you put up or shut up. I have been thinking alot lately about the inequality of resources in the world that contribute to making life here so difficult (that difficulty is the next blog - stay tuned). Then, whammo, here's my chance to help right the balance. What was I going to do?

Well, I gave her some money, quite a bit actually. And why not? I had been to the money changer earlier in the day and so I had a pocketful of cash. What was I going to do with it? Get a nice bottle of wine? Download some more tunes onto my MP3? Get that new hotplate for my flat? Fly to Rome for a getaway weekend in the spring? None of those is bad. In fact, they're pretty healthy I'd say. But I don't think they stack up that well against a sick baby in the hospital. This woman needed the money; I have it and she doesn't. It seems like simple math, doesn't it?

Yet, my response was not spontaneous. I had to struggle with that inclination to keep the money as "mine". Mine, not yours. I worked hard for it, why can't you?

But one of the many things I'm learning here is the disparity of opportunities in the world. We're not that aware of it on a widespread scale in North America. Sure, we have pockets of poverty but we usually manage to explain those things away. What you learn here is that most of the world is very, very different, and it's not because of individual effort or merit. It's just a different world over here. People can't "just" go out and earn it. Here in Palestine, for example, people are not allowed to move around freely, so the job market in the area they're restricted to fills up very quickly. The poverty from unemployment then affects educational opportunities, quality of health care, and so on. And it's not just the political environment. Many countries have few natural resources and they can't afford to buy them, so no heat, cars, lights, etc. Life gets hard very fast. Although we see pictures of these things on TV in North America, I don't think we know what it's like. At least I didn't.

My friend Julie says There is plenty in the world to go around if we would only let it. This place is just one example of what happens when we don't let it, when "mine" gets out of control. My land, my security, my religion.

One of the famous Gospel stories is about the rich young man who asks Jesus what he has to do to have eternal life. Jesus says to follow the commandments. The man says he does that. Jesus says then, in that radical way he has, "Go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." The man goes away, "for he had many possessions." I wonder what happened to that man? Did he shrug the episode off and go buy Spurs season tickets and a new HDTV? Or did he grieve his decision for the rest of his life? Or did he think it over and later go sell everything and follow Jesus?

We don't know what happened to the man, but it's an interesting story isn't it? Interesting the choice he had (Eternal life/new IPhone?....eternal life/new IPhone?) and the choice he made. Stark, huh? So I think we sometimes spiritualize it: Oh, Jesus didn't really mean to get rid of everything, it was just a metaphor for spiritual wealth.

Here, in this place, I'm not so sure.