"How can we worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday" (Shane Claiborne, Irresistible Revolution, p. 56)?
That question cuts to the core of our Christianity. Do we live what we say we believe? Do we reincarnate in our lives the essence of the kingdom of God? Are we willing for the Word to be made flesh again and again, every day and in every way in our lives?
"The great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor" (Claiborne,113).
Who do you know that is poor? How much do you interact with that person? Engage that person in conversation? Do you avoid that person with presumptions about their plight? Or do you engage them, striving to uphold their dignity even though they may have compromised it? Do you judge their condition or to seek to minister despite their condition?
"I long for the Calcutta slums to meet the Chicago suburbs, for lepers to meet landowners and for each to see God's image in the other. It's no wonder that the footsteps of Jesus lead from the tax collectors to the lepers. I truly believe that when the poor meet the rich, riches will have no meaning" (Claiborne, 114).
