I thought about adopting a luxurious lifestyle and thought that could be good. It’s not realistic, but I guess my difficulty is not living in luxury but the fact that others cannot.

Poverty has at least two expressions. Material and Spiritual. Tonight we focus on the material next week we shall explore its wider connotations.

Watching the football, there was a lot more supporters calling for England than for Nigeria. Could that be because there is greater wealth in the UK than in Nigeria?

A sociologist called Runciman wrote of relative deprivation. In other words what constitutes poverty here may well be construed very differently in Africa.

Tonight we shall try to understand something of God’s heart for the poor and give some thought to our response to the poor.

Some Statistics

Last week the UN World Food Programme warned that South Africa is facing its worst food crisis for a decade, with around

13 Million people facing starvation

June 5 2002 National Hunger Awareness Day in America

33 Million Americans face hunger – stated in USA today 10b

In a recent YMCA newsletter dated 29^th May 2002 it stated that there are

Around 180,000 young single homeless people in the UK

211 million children aged 5-14 years old are working.

8.4 million are involved in the worst forms

Forced & bonded                                   5,700,000

Fighting                                                 300,000

Prostitution & pornography             1,800,000

Illicit activities                                       600,000

World Bank Group –

In 1998

1.2 billion people world wide had consumption levels below $1 a day 24%of the population of the developing world.

2.8 billion lived on less than $2 a day

Poverty is hunger.

Poverty is lack of shelter.

Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor.

Poverty is not being able to go to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom.

What the Bible says….

Deut 15.4 The ideal…. “There should be no poor among you”.

John 12.8 The reality…. “ You will always have the poor among you”.

Yet….

Psalm 69.33 The Lord hears the poor

Psalm 82.3 Defend the poor and the fatherless

Prov 14.31 He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their maker.

Prov 19.17 He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord.

Lev 19.10  …leave them for the poor (grape harvest)

Matt 11.5 the good news is preached to the poor.

2 Cor 8.9 He became poor.

Gal 2.10 Remember the poor

1.    God has a heart for the poor – do we share that heart?

2.    Proximity is often a factor in our concern – how can we broaden this.

3.    Living simply, so that others may simply live. How does poverty affect us?

4.    What will we do in the light of this tough issue.

Responses:

1.      Lifeboat ethics – Garrett Hardin – allow the poor to drown, otherwise the poor will drag the rich down with them.

2.      Help those in need to the limits of our ability – Peter Singer.

Question is how much –

i. Options from our plenty –

ii. Giving so much that we reduce our standard of life to only just the point where our gift would cause as much suffering to ourselves (and any dependents) as those we seek to relieve. Almond p293 Applied Ethics.

3.      Yet human life is not only about existing but about the enrichment of human life. John 12 – the anointing of Jesus.

“Humankind needs to be healthy and fulfilled as well as to be sheltered and adequately fed” p678 New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral theology.

4. Like Jesus we can leave our comfort zones to be and work with the poor.

(Tonight – appeal for Toybox, Grace going to work in Romania and Chara with those in Africa as part of their gap year. Julie Russell working with the Nepalese , many of whom are very poor.

5.         Campaigning – Jubilee 2000 – reducing the third world debt, now Trade for Life.

Conclusion – God has a heart for the poor, we cannot ignore their plight.

God never intended a world where 12 million people could face starvation!

We need not simply to bring others onto the lifeboat but to help them build their own.

______________________________

Notes:

Poverty – IVP dictionary p678

The poor are those who are powerless to determine their own destiny and meet their own needs. They include those who suffer from adverse circumstances: the sick, the physically handicapped, the orphaned and the widow, immigrants, slaves, and prisoners.

Poverty is not good, it isolates people Prov 14.20, it puts them under the power of others Prov 18.23.

God hates injustice Deut 25.16

A companion to Ethics Ed Peter Singer

World Poverty Nigel Dower:

p273

Consider the following two facts: first a thousand million human beings – a fifth of the world’d population – live in absolute poverty: hunger, malnutrition, widespread disease, high infant mortality, squalid living conditions, fear and insecurity. Most of these people live in the poorer countries of the world, often referred to as “developing” countries.

Second, there are many rich individuals living in the rich countries with the wealth and resources to help reduce radical poverty; and many governments in rich countries who similarly have the capacity to transfer resources and expertise to reduce that poverty.

p273 Archbishop Helda Camara “When I help the poor I am called a saint, but when I ask why are they poor I am called a communist”.

p276 re population “Development is the best pill”. (lesser need of lots of children for security).

3 evils of poverty

p277ff

1.      life shortening,

2.       It involves great suffering and pain (from disease and hunger).

3.      It undermines an essential dignity and decency to life.