Remember the Poor
“Remember the Poor” – February 4th, 2024 (Deuteronomy 15:10-11)
As I sat in the salon chair in a city we visited last year, Nichole asked me how much I wanted her to trim, to which I gave my usual reply, “Please take 10 years off.” As she snipped away, our conversation meandered around various topics; we chatted about life, the universe, and everything. I shared some vulnerable things, my way of inviting her to share more deeply, if she felt so inclined. She looked at me for a long pause, scanning my face to see if I was a safe person, then went on to relate several heartbreaking stories. Nichole, a stunningly beautiful Korean-Australian, had been abused, mistreated, deceived, manipulated, and repeatedly taken advantage of. She expressed feeling unhappy, used, unlovable, even ugly. I listened to her words and tried to listen through her pain to her heart. Hopelessness was threatening to overtake her. When she paused to stare blankly in the air, I asked her what she would do if time and money were not barriers. Her countenance suddenly transformed. She had apparently given this a lot of thought – she lit up and began to describe in great detail her dream to create a sanctuary for abandoned and abused animals. After several minutes of animated descriptions of her fondest hope, she lamented, “It will probably never happen,” concluding bitterly with, “I hate people; I love animals.” Oh, how my heart broke for Nichole. Wiping away tears, I looked into her eyes through the salon mirror and spoke words of life over her and into her. By this time, two other stylists had stepped over and were leaning in to listen to our conversation. “Precious Nichole, you are created in the image of God. You are beautiful! Jesus, who is fully God and fully human, is the one person who will always love you perfectly and completely and will never abandon you or use you. God’s perfect love for you is without limit and without condition. God wants to show you what love looks like, who God is, and who you are.” By the time I asked her if I could pray for her right then, her tough exterior had cracked, her heart opened up, and she silently nodded her head. It was a holy moment.
The wording of today’s Vineyard Value is drawn from Galatians 2:10, in which Paul is relating instructions he’d received from the Apostolic Council: “They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.” Remember the poor. Who are the poor, and how are we to remember them?
Today we’re going to look at our key text in Deuteronomy in The Message translation as we seek to understand what God has to say to us about the poor.
Deuteronomy 15:10-11 (The Message) – “Give freely and spontaneously. Don’t have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God’s, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.”
I spent some time this week looking at what the Bible says about the poor. There are at least six words in the original biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek that all get translated to a single word – “poor” – in English. We know that much gets lost in translation, so let’s investigate some of the many nuances of these words. I invite you to listen and to notice (maybe even jot down) which shades of meaning the Lord highlights to you today. The Hebrew word dal refers to those who are low, weak, or thin. The Hebrew word rush describes the state of being in want. The next two Hebrew terms are both mentioned in our Deuteronomy text today. The first, ebyon, describes the poor as those in want, needy, poor in material things, subject to oppression and abuse, needing help, needing deliverance from trouble, needing to be delivered by God. The second, ani, speaks of the poor as those who are afflicted, humble, having the right to gleanings, weak, oppressed by the rich and powerful, depressed in mind or circumstances, lowly, those whom God does not forget, those upon whom God bestows compassion and favors, those whom God saves and delivers. There are also two Greek words we see in the New Testament to refer to the poor. The first is penichros which refers to those who are needy. The second is ptóchos which speaks of those who crouch and cower in beggary; those who are thoroughly frightened; those who rove about in wretchedness; the spiritually poor either in a state of humility or destitution; those completely lacking resources, the extreme opposite of the rich; those destitute of wealth, influence, position, and honors; the lowly and afflicted; those destitute of the Christian virtues and eternal riches; those destitute of the wealth of learning and intellectual culture which the schools afford; the helpless; those powerless to accomplish an end; the distressed.
There’s a lot here to unpack! If I were only looking at one narrow definition of “poor,” I might miss or forget Nichole and others along the way.
Why do we exegete Scripture, which is to ask, why do we make a careful historical, literary, and theological analysis of a text? In exegesis, we embark actively on a detailed investigation, we engage authentically in the great conversation, we explore ardently via our creative imagination. Our goal in doing this is not just to get more information, but to experience transformation. Exegesis informs us and invites us to be transformed by adjusting our attitudes, aiming our attention, and altering our actions. The word “exegesis” means “to lead out.” So, when we exegete Scripture, we are approaching each text and asking the Holy Spirit to lead us out into greater depths of:
- faith (What are we to believe?),
- hope (What are we to expect?), and
- love (What are we to do?).
Come, Holy Spirit!
In essence, our text from Deuteronomy today encourages us to always be generous with our attention and our actions toward our neighbors who are in trouble, poor, or hurting. I find it helpful to also consider what the text is not saying. We may come to a text like this and make assumptions about who our neighbors are. Is it possible that the person who is in trouble, poor, or hurting could be someone in our own family? Is it possible that the person who is in trouble, poor, or hurting is a stranger on the other side of the planet? Is it possible that the person who is in trouble, poor, or hurting got into that state through poor choices they made? Is it possible that the person who is in trouble, poor, or hurting is stuck in a prison of injustice? Is it possible that the person who is in trouble, poor, or hurting could be hidden in plain sight? Is it possible that the person who is in trouble, poor, or hurting has a situation that is too complicated for us to understand? The important thing is to be open to whomever the Lord directs our attention and to be open to however the Lord directs our actions. We want to do what we see the Father doing and be guided and empowered by the Spirit as we follow Jesus and remember the poor.
As we hold our hearts open to who the poor are, let’s consider how we are to remember them. Our text in Deuteronomy 15 gives us some straightforward instructions:
- Give freely.
- Give spontaneously.
- Always be generous.
- Have an open purse.
- Have open hands.
- Give to your neighbors who are in trouble, poor, or hurting.
- Don’t have a stingy heart.
And if we follow God’s instructions? God promises us his blessing in everything we do, all our work and ventures. Thank you, God, for your beautiful promises!
Here are a couple of ideas to help us to think through how we can remember the poor in a practical way. Instead of asking, “Should I help this person?” we might consider, “What is God asking me to do in this particular situation?” Instead of wondering, “How can I fix this situation?” we might consider, “What is God’s assignment for me?” Instead of thinking, “Do I do something about this or not?” we might consider, “What part can I play in bringing healing, justice, or deliverance to this group of people?”
We seek to live in the radical middle, not leaning towards “caring too much” by creating unhealthy dependencies, etc., not leaning towards caring too little by creating apathy in ourselves. We live in the tension where we do not close our eyes to the poor, but we remember them right where they are. We look to Jesus and listen to the Spirit as to the specifics of what God is calling us to say and to do, as we continue to remember them to the best of our ability through our prayer, presence, compassion, counsel, open hands, open heart, generosity, grace.
The Lord created and designed us to live in interdependent community, as we together depend on God and become a community of pilgrims who help one another in appropriate ways to be and to become and to do all that God wants us to be and to become and to do. May we open our hearts and minds to be so thoroughly loved and embraced by God so that we can unreservedly reach out to love and embrace God and people. May we live and move and have our being in Jesus, abiding in his shalom, the place of wholeness, flourishing, and delight.
God is calling us to notice, attend to, look at, listen to, get to know, and remember the poor. One at a time. God values the individual and calls us to do the same. There are many helpful wisdom parameters and practical considerations. We won’t remember the poor perfectly. To love is to open up our hearts to another, so it is very likely, dare I say inevitable, that we will get wounded. “Love hurts, love scars, love wounds and marks any heart not tough or strong enough to take a lot of pain,” as the Nazareth song goes. It is true that our hearts will be hurt, scarred, wounded, and marked when we choose to love. We are not tough or strong enough. But there is a love that is much stronger and much deeper that can heal any hurt, scar, wound, and mark. There is a profound sacrificial love that transcends and persists, regardless of circumstances. Song of Solomon 8:6-7a (NRSV) describes this kind of love, the love of God, with such beauty, “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.” God’s love is profound, sacrificial, faithful, strong, healing, unquenchable. We remember the poor when we generously give of God’s great love that we have received.
God, give us the grace to obey your command to us to always be generous with our attention and our actions toward our neighbors who are in trouble, poor, or hurting.
I want to close with a quote from one of my textbooks in my current seminary class. This comes from Emory University professor, Dr. Thomas G. Long – “Our life together in the community of Christ allows us to look with realistic and yet hopeful eyes toward the world as the arena where God’s Spirit is even now working, making the impossible possible, creating faith where there is nothing else to believe in, creating love where there is nothing lovable, creating hope where there is nothing to hope for. Trusting the promise of God to redeem the whole cosmos, we see in every place where misery is alleviated, hostility is lifted, and chains of bondage are broken, signs of the coming triumph of God.”
Luke 17:21 (NRSV) – “The Kingdom of God is among us.” Remember the poor.
