"I was hungry and you fed me…thirsty and you gave me something to drink…a stranger and you welcomed me…naked and you gave me clothing…sick and you took care of me…in prison and you visited me….whatever you do for the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you do for me.’” --Matthew 25, parable told by Jesus, excerpt
What if whenever we donated groceries for a food insecure family or provided free medical care to an indigent person, or whenever we showed mercy to a lonely senior, or visited someone in prison, we were actually caring for God? Actually loving God directly? Seeing God in that hurting person?
That’s the question Joan Osborne asked in her self-titled 1995 song, “What If God Was One of Us” when she sang, “What if God was one of us, Just a slob like one of us, Just a stranger on the bus, Tryin' to make His way home?” That’s a pretty radical idea. That God: the creator of all that exists; God, who lit the fuse on the Big Bang; this God is also in you, me, and everyone, but especially in the hurting of our world. God in folks whom society far too often ignores or worse, even hurts, neglects on purpose.
What if God is one of us?
What if God is with the hungry and the thirsty, the tens of thousands of Gazans, waiting in a mile-long queue to find food for their empty bellies? What if God is the stranger, an undocumented person, dragged away by masked agents, stripped of all legal and human rights, detained in an inhumane prison? What if God is one of the 16.9 million Americans who will lose their Medicaid health care coverage under the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” championed by the President and his followers?
I’d say God is “one of us” in a very real ways way. Each of us has inherent worth and dignity because we are made in the image of God. Whenever one of us is treated without mercy, or thrown out on the streets, or deported to a nation where they might be killed, or denied health care, we are doing that to a child of God.
Maybe even to God.
My faith tells me that job one for a Christian is to seek out, see, love and care for the least among us, our brothers and sisters in the family of God. Now not everyone in my tradition feels or acts this way. Not long after shepherding the “BB Bill” through the House, Speaker Mike Johnson posted on social media.
“‘All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.’” …Then commenting on that Bible passage, Johnson wrote, ‘soli Deo Gloria,’ Latin, meaning ‘glory to God alone.’”
So, let me get this right.
We “glorify God” when we fund a tax cut for the wealthiest by slashing health care for the poor and food stamps for the hungry? The government can choose to give away billions to folks who already don’t pay enough in taxes, but please, PLEASE, don’t attribute such heartless acts as being “of God.” Or blessed by God. Or somehow reflecting God’s will.
God has and will always, be on the side of the powerless, those who have had few powerful friends on Capitol Hill lately. The Bible is very clear about our responsibility as people of faith and humans, to our neighbors.
Deuteronomy 15:11, “For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore, I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’ Exodus 22:20-26:”You shall not oppress or hurt the poor. Leviticus 19:9-10. “A portion of the harvest is set aside for the poor and the stranger.” Proverbs 31:8-9, “Speak out in defense of the poor.” Luke 4:16-21, “Jesus proclaims his mission: to bring good news to the poor and oppressed.” 1 John 3:17-18, “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees one in need and refuses to help?”
And my favorite, Matthew 25:34-40, “What you do for the least among you, you do for me, Jesus.” But when we turn our backs on the lost, lonely, and neglected, we turn our backs on God, in a way. Turn our hearts away from God.
Too many Christian leaders use faith like a fig leaf to cover over the shame of their actions towards the poor. I don’t revel in judging fellow believers, but I cannot stand by when they use the language of faith to justify actions that do not at all reflect God’s love and mercy.
What if God is one of us? What if every time we fail to help the helpless, we fail God? What if when we show mercy and love, we love God?
Something to think and pray on in these troubling times.
(The views expressed in this essay do not necessarily reflect the views of the people and church I serve nor the United Church of Christ.)
The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment