Tag Archives: poverty

Preventing Poverty

Dust bowlLiving in the Spirit
June 4, 2016

Scripture Reading: Luke 7:11-17

Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. –Luke 7:11-17

Jesus was probably acutely aware of how very important it was that his widowed mother had sons who could support and care for her. His brothers’* very existence freed Jesus to go about his ministry. A widow losing her only son was not only one experiencing painful grief, but also one facing destitution.

My paternal grandmother was widowed in 1928 with the death of my grandfather, leaving her with a houseful of older children from both their previous marriages and three younger children of their own. The year of his death is important. The great financial crash happened the next year and in just a few more years this family was living in the throes of the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma. My dad was ten when his father died. He dropped out of school after finishing the eighth grade to work the farm; what was left to work. I heard his stories about the dust and the failed crops but I don’t think I fully understood the situation until cleaning out my parent’s home, we found my grandmother’s purse. In it were several five dollar mortgages with differing dates from the bank where she had mortgaged cattle to get enough money to buy groceries. Social Security was created to assure that such devastation never occurred again. We have very short memories.

Jesus did what he could to help the grieving widow who had lost her son. We are called to do what we can to prevent poverty. What is the old saying of Benjamin Franklin’s: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?

Prayer: Lord protect us from our own greed that cannot see the need to plan for the future, not just ours by all of your children’s futures. Amen.

*My musings about Jesus’ brothers caring for their mother does not mesh with the story of Jesus, from the cross, asking John to care for her. I have learned from my own genealogical explorations that weaving together the bits and pieces of one’s history does not always result in a satisfactory whole, but it does usually contain a kernel of truth. Perhaps Mary out lived all her sons just as John outlived all the other disciples.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Refugee

refugees4Living in the Spirit
October 26, 2015

Scripture Reading: Ruth 1:1-18

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there for about ten years, both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons or her husband. –Ruth 1:1-5

It is an ancient story told many times in the Bible, leaving one’s homeland to survive. In the story above a family became refugees because of drought. Today refugees are created from war, various climate change events, oppression, and poverty. Our great challenge is to determine the best way to help people dealing with the issues that force them from their homelands. There are no easy answers. Is it better to help people remain closer to home in refugee camps with the hope that they well be able to return home soon or to move them from their culture to a strange land?

We non-native Americans in the United States are the descendants of immigrants some of whom were refugees although they may not have been formally recognized as such. Refugees are people by definitions who must leave their home area for their own safety or survival.* One of my ancestors came in 1630 as a pilgrim escaping religious persecution so technically he could have been considered a refugee, I suppose. I am not sure but one might have come to the US as a result of the potato famine in Ireland. That was the reason many of my hometown German neighbors traveled to the US in the late 1800’s. I don’t really know why my other ancestors came. I assume they were at least looking for a better life.

With refugees pouring out of the Middle East and Africa escaping war and oppression, it might be a good time to come to terms with the ideas of refugees for they are our neighbors and we are called to love them as we love ourselves.

Prayer: Lord, according to the book of Matthew you were a refugee in a foreign land when your parents escape with you to Egypt to save you from the terror of Herod. Help us to see you in each of the refugees we have an opportunity to serve whether near to their homeland or here in ours. Amen.

*http://education.nationalgeographic.com/encyclopedia/refugee/

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

On Being Poor

School_Lunch_ProgramsLiving in the Spirit
August 31, 2015

Scripture Reading: Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. The rich and the poor have this in common the Lord is the maker of them all.

Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate; for the Lord pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them. –Proverbs 22:1-2, 22-23

My mother was a life-long champion of the poor. Even in her dementia when she was 95+ she kept wanting me to do something about the little boys who lived “back there” who had no one caring for them and were hungry. I always assumed it was a family with which she had worked in West Virginia during the depression whose desperation still haunted her. I finally had to tell her the children were being fed to set her heart at peace. It should come as no surprise having been raised by my mother, I learned to recognize the poor as just people like everyone else. It is an important realization for it alters one’s perception of people trying to see the Christ in everyone.

Because I worked primarily with poor women, I had a relative who would go out of her way to find me at every family gathering to tell me bad things about women who were having babies just to get welfare. I truly doubt if she really knew any of them. Watching and condemning someone with several children paying for her groceries with food stamps is not knowing them. Did you know that many of the members of our armed services who have families must supplement their incomes with food stamps?

No one who works full time at any job should earn less than a living wage—no one. No child should advance through our public school system without the education he or she needs to support themselves—no child.

Prayer: Lord open our eyes to see you in everyone. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Raw Talent/Marketable Skills

r-SINGLE-MOTHER-large570Living in the Spirit
August 15, 2015

Scripture Reading: John 6:51-58

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. –John 6:51

My Spanish class in college was assigned the task of writing a poem. This was the beginning class so none of us were very proficient at the use of the Spanish language. I fancied myself a bit of a poet, in English, so I wrote a poem in Spanish using the sun as a metaphor for God. When we turned in our poems the professor simply passed them out randomly to the other class members and our assignment for the next day was to translate them into English. The poor guy that got my poem could make no sense of it. I am not sure the professor could either based on my limited Spanish skills. The student was so new at the language he was not ready yet for its abstract use.

Obviously the Jews in the conversation of our scripture today were not ready for Jesus’ metaphor. They most likely were a little insulted this man was speaking with authority when he was just a carpenter’s son, simply educated. I have seen that attitude in working with the poor. Employers want diplomas and degrees. They cannot see the potential in someone who dropped out of high school to have a baby, but spoke eloquent English, and managed well a minimum wage job and a home with small children with a come and go father on an income that most likely would not pay the employer’s utility bills. How do we find the way to channel raw talent into marketable skills?

Jesus understood the common people. They knew the importance of bread. They linked the sharing of food with the love at a meal in a family where the breadwinner and the bread baker had worked hard for what they were eating. They comprehended sacrifice.

Prayer: Lord, make us seers of raw talent and show us the ways to convert it to marketable skills as we move among your children seeking survival. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Measure of Wellbeing

Hungry ChildEastertide
April 29, 2015

Scripture Reading: Psalm 22:25-31

From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
   my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
   those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
   May your hearts live for ever! –Psalm 22:25-26

It is a theme that runs throughout the Bible: the wellbeing of God’s people is measured by whether the poor have enough to eat. One would assume that those of us who profess to follow the one true God would hold the wellbeing of his people as one of our highest priorities. The reality of the situation is that we have made a dent in world hunger but there is much left to do.

Bread for the World reports that:
Worldwide, the number of hungry people has dropped significantly over the past two decades, but 805 million people continue to struggle with hunger every day.

  • 1.2 billion people still live in extreme poverty — on less than $1.25 per day.
  • Each year, 2.6 million children die as a result of hunger-related causes.
  • But progress has been made. There has been a reduction of more than 34 percent in global hunger since 1990.
  • The target of halving the percentage of people suffering from hunger by 2015 is possible.
  • However, there are still an estimated 868 million people who are undernourished and more than 100 million children under age five who are undernourished and underweight.*

While all our efforts at meeting both world hunger and hunger right here at home must continue until all are fed, it is important that we attack the root causes of hunger. The biggest is most likely inequities in our economic systems including a living wage for all and equal pay for equal work. We now have several years of evidence that the richer getting richer does not address the needs of the low income. In fact, more people are getting poorer as our middle class shrinks.

Prayer: Lord, reorder our lives so that greed does not supplant wellbeing as our primary life focus. Help us develop and implement economic systems that offer the opportunity for all to thrive. Amen.

*http://www.bread.org/hunger/global/

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

A Living Wage

Living wageEastertide
April 23, 2015

Scripture Reading: 1 John 3:16-24

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
—1 John 3:16-17

First, I must confess that I am a bit of a nut regarding the need for every family to earn a living wage. The Poverty Level1 is woefully lacking in any real meaning as it does not include many costs of living items that are now routine. It is calculated based on an out-of-date formula tied to the cost of food as the starting point. For a family of one adult and one child the poverty wage is $7 an hour, the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and the living wage is $16.742 in Oklahoma. The Median hourly wage earned in Oklahoma is $15.17 that means that half of the workers in Oklahoma make more than that and half make less. This is all fairly complicated and takes a computer to analyze, but I am sharing it with you and the citations below to raise the issue of poverty in Oklahoma. In 2014, the Poverty Rate in Oklahoma was 16.8% ranking us 34th in the nation. The percentage of people not receiving a living wage is much higher.

You are well acquainted with the problem if your church has a food pantry, provide gas coupons, or helps with utility bills. The steady stream of people just trying to survive until they get their next pay check is daunting. Our local food bank has a program that sends bags of food home with children to eat over the weekend because the school lunch program is their primary source of nutrition. Yet Oklahoma ranks 11th among states’ unemployment rates with a rate of 5.4%. What a difference it would make if all 94.6% of those working earned a living wage.

Figuring out how to pay a living wage is just as complicated as calculating a living wage and will require all of our brightest minds to consider the best means of paying a living wage while maintaining a robust economy. It would be time well spent as it would raise the self-esteem of parents and their children, improve the health of all, cut the costs of public assistance, and probably reduce crime. More importantly, How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

Prayer: Lord, enable us to love our neighbors as you have loved us. Amen.

1http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/about/overview/measure.html
2http://livingwage.mit.edu/states/40
3http://talkpoverty.org/state-year-report/oklahoma-2014-report/ 4http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_ok.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

No Needy Among Us

EastertidePOverty keep working
April 7, 2015

Scripture Reading: Acts 4:32-35

There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. –Acts 4:34-35

Much of the injustice in the world directly relates to the distribution of wealth. Poverty has a direct relationship to crime and crime has a direct relationship to poverty. It is a vicious circle, which the mass incarcerations of recent years have made worse.* Women are routinely paid less for the same jobs than men. In 2010 in the United States the female-to-male earnings ratio was 0.81.** In 2012, CEO’s made 380 times more than the average salaries of their workers.***

I do not envision a world where everyone is paid the same. I don’t think Jesus did either, but I do think the inclusion of assuring that no one was needy at the beginning of the church was crucial to Jesus and that is why the disciples move to make it so. Everyone deserves to earn a living wage. Everyone.

My mother would describe what we do here in the United States as cutting off our nose to spite our face. The vast majority of adults receiving food stamps work. If you want to cut the number of people receiving food stamps, increase the wages of the recipients. Increased wages are directly related to decreased crime, which would cut the heavy costs of the mass incarceration we are practicing today. Putting people in prison who have families increases the number of people who live in poverty back home.

While Jesus never talked about many of the behaviors that we identify as sin, he did talk often about greed and the miss use of power as being factors that separate us from God. God loves all of God’s children and all people are God’s children. We are called to love them too. We are called to work toward a world where there is not a needy person among us.

Prayer: Lord make us a society that lives your love among those who are needy by standing with them as we seek justice for all. Amen.

*http://www.poverties.org/poverty-and-crime.html
**U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2009. Report 1025, June 2010
***http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/19/news/economy/ceo-pay/
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

 

Worthy of God

Enough for allLiving in the Spirit
November 6, 2014

Scripture Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that you should lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. — 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12

On November 4, 2014, the majority of eligible Oklahoma voters cast their votes by their absence. Oklahoma’s voter turnout for the 2014 midterm election has been estimated at about 39.5 percent, right around the national rate of 40 percent.”* Following the reporting of the election results, I heard speeches about how the vote was a reflection of the great economy in Oklahoma and that is probably true. Because I think the vote also reflects the hopelessness of much of the state’s population who did not feel their vote mattered. While we have such a “wonderful economy”, 16.6% of the population live on incomes below the poverty level. The poverty level for the US as a whole is 14.4%**. The poverty rate for Oklahoma children (24.1 per-cent) is higher than that of working-age adults (16.1 percent) or seniors (9.9).** This is a particularly significant fact because it is we seniors who vote. The reason there are fewer seniors living below the poverty level is largely because Social Security payments are indexed to the poverty level.

The 2014 election is now over and we can get back to our normal routines of life but I think we need to seriously consider that living a life worthy of God requires us to be concerned about all of God’s children. If Jesus did nothing else he gave people hope. If we truly believe that we are called to do justice in this world, we must care about all God’s children not just our peer groups. We must work to make any success our economy is experiencing be shared throughout the population. We now must hold whomever was elected accountable to do justice within our government. Our elected representatives will not be standing in our place when we come before Christ and are judged by how we treated the “least of these” (Matthew 25). The prophets foretold that the Israelites greed would come back to bite them. The same could be said to us.

Prayer: Lord, make us seekers of justice not just for ourselves but especially for those who feel they have no voice in this land. Amen.

*http://kgou.org/post/republican-gains-few-surprises-real-time-recap-oklahomas-midterm-election-results
**http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/40000.html
***http://okpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Oklahoma-Poverty-Profile-2012.pdf 

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

God’s Presence

Presence of GodLiving in the Spirit
Light a Candle for Children
October 13, 2014

Scripture Reading: Exodus 33:12-23

 Moses said to the Lord, ‘See, you have said to me, “Bring up this people”; but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, “I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.” Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.’ He said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ And he said to him, ‘If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth.’ — Exodus 33:12-16

In recent years, I have become very aware of the need to recognize God’s presence in my life and in the life of the community of faith in which I participate. God’s company is not something we should take for granted. God has chosen to make God’s presence known to us. Think about how very hard it is to be fully present to another. We should never take this gift lightly.

This segment of scripture today follows the story of Moses’ receiving the tablets of the covenant on the mountain. As he carried them down the mountain he began to hear the singing and dancing of the people as they worshiped their golden calf. Moses’ anger burned and he threw the tablets to the ground and broke them. Without Moses, the people had lost faith in the presence of God. Our scripture today reflects his frustration and his angst. Was God still with them?

Ever been there? I find myself in that spot regularly as I see the dumb things we humans do to skirt real problems when in the back of our minds we know what is just and what is right. Such knowing is imbedded in our DNA. An old hymn may say it best. You may remember it in a more modern version from Godspell:

Turn back, O man, forswear thy foolish ways.
 old now is earth, and none may count her days.
 yet thou, her child, whose head is crowned with flame,
 still wilt not hear thine inner God proclaim,
 “Turn back, O man, forswear thy foolish ways.”

  Earth might be fair and all men glad and wise.
 age after age their tragic empires rise,
 built while they dream, and in that dreaming weep:
 would man but wake from out his haunted sleep,
 earth might be fair and all men glad and wise. 

 Earth shall be fair, and all her people one:
 nor till that hour shall God’s whole will be done.
 Now, even now, once more from earth to sky,
 peals forth in joy man’s old undaunted cry:
 “Earth shall be fair and all her folk be one!”*

Oklahoma Fact: 12% of Children live in areas of concentrated poverty**

Prayer: Thank you Lord, for your presence. Write on our hearts your justice and your righteousness so that we turn around and forever be fully present to you and your will. Amen.

*Words by Clifford Bax, 1919

**http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/6795-children-living-in-areas-of-concentrated-poverty?loc=38&loct=2#detailed/2/38/false/1201,1074,880,11/any/13891,13892

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Held Accountable by God

WalkingLiving in the Spirit
Light a Candle for Children
September 12, 2014

 Scripture Reading: Romans 14:1-12

 For it is written,
‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
   and every tongue shall give praise to God.’
So then, each of us will be accountable to God. — Romans 14:1i-12

Before I retired from going to a job every day, I would drive to my gym at 6:00 am every weekday morning to exercise. Rain or shine, in the beauty of spring time or the ice of winter, I would see men and women walking to work. Usually they had on some type of uniform, most with fast food insignias. Some wore hospital scrubs. It is several blocks from my neighborhood to any medical facility and actually to any fast food place. I was a waitress and a nurse’s aide in high school and college. Trust me, you do not need to walk to work for exercise in either job.

My church started a ministry some years ago to provide fuel assistance for people in desperate need and we help a lot of people often with a few gallons of gas to get someone to medical appointments. The need is great and we never have the resources to meet all the requests we receive so we have rules we follow trying the help those with the greatest need. My city also has a bus transportation system, but it does not run at all the times people working shifts must travel and it costs money. I have no idea how these walkers get their children to child care.

These walkers do not earn enough to meet their work related expenses much less support themselves or a family. Apparently, we in society do not see them, not really. They are not a part of our lives unless they are handing us a soft drink or a burger and then we may not look them in the eye. For if we really saw them, we would be forced to see the Christ in each of them and we would be unable to live in a world that did not pay them even enough to meet their work related expenses. We will, I believe, have to account for that to God someday.

Oklahoma Fact: In 2012, 26% of working families with children were classified as low-income—earning less than twice the poverty level.*

Prayer: Lord forgive us for not seeing you in everyone we encounter through our daily walk. Amen.

 *http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data#OK/2/0
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.