Sometimes I get the feeling I really should be up on what is happening at the moment. Things like the news gives the impression that if you’re not up to date, you’re missing something critical.
Thankfully chiefly through a rather chilled and relaxed father, I am discovering again and again, it still pays to take your time and not be in such a rush to forget what happened yesterday for the allure of today. Sometimes it pays to go back and see what happened and allow that to inform your present.
This acts as a precursor to coming across Frank Viola’s recent interview with N.T. Wright. As someone who uses Google Reader and gets email updates I might have posted about this back then. I didn’t and I don’t regret it. Rather, it’s given me time to take in what’s been said in the conversation and then share it here for your perusal.
This is not a short interview, but it is worth reading to be enlivened by good talk again on the importance of the historicity of Jesus among other things. As this blog title will indicate, however, what particularly peaked my interest was the part on poverty and the role of the state and the function of the church and who deserves to be considered poor enough. One part of the interview caught my eye:
There is a real danger that in a go-getting country like the USA those who have initiative, energy, advantages of birth and education, can easily look down on those who have none of those things. It simply isn’t the case that every human starts at the same level point so that the rich are those who’ve worked for it and the poor are those who couldn’t be bothered. Throughout the Bible God seems to take special note of those trapped in poverty, and we should do the same.
To me that is as appliable in this country as it is over the pond. It has been my privilege over the last 12 years to work with churches and Christian organisations to address areas of poverty that are stark and unrelenting. It can be so easy to become somewhat cynical about the nature of those looking to be served and fall into that trap of because of my background expecting others to have a similar mentality and just sort themselves out. Yet it is that very lack of a progressive mentality that is itself an indication of a poverty of mind and spirit that deserves our love and compassion. That in itself is not easy to exercise, but then that’s where our motives and drives come into it again and we rest in the God who rescued our sin-sick state of poverty to enrich us in Christ with love, peace and a sound mind.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 