The community of God is begun by a woman or man, alone in
faith, committed to the burden and shame of poverty, in complete dependence on
God. They have desperately sought God
and are given from the mouth of God a work to do. Their work is not professional, but an act of
love for love, for God’s work is always founded on love.
It may be working for the poor, it may be raising children
through difficult circumstances, it may be assisting the disabled or elderly,
it may be offering compassion and a listening ear to those who are lonely, it
may be healing the sick, it may be supporting the dying... there are unlimited
lifestyles of love. But it is always
among those who have been rejected and so have an empty hole which only love
can fill.
This work doesn’t pay well.
They may not gain much personal reward at all, but are sometimes mocked
or hated because of the work of love.
Their bodies deteriorate, they can’t pay their bills, they struggle with
depression. Many people look at the cost
of the work and honestly say, “You need to find a different line of work.”
They work not for reward but because they are called. They work because it is an honor to work for
the King of the universe, and because love is the most noble of all tasks. At times the work is head, but they trust
that it is worth it for the sake of the world and they trust that it will be
worth it for them. Eventually.
This is the life of faith.
These are among the most lonely of people, and they surround
themselves with the lonely, the outcasts of society. Yet this ragtag group have something that the
society around them doesn’t value—they have dependence.
At first they depend on the central figure of faith who
seems to have such abundance of love that it stretches the boundary of
humanity. Around this saint there is
healing. The hungry are fed. The depressed find joy. The grieving find
encouragement.
As the central personage enters deeper into their personal
poverty, being eaten by sickness or depression, love flowers in the Spirit of
the community. It isn’t just one Lover,
but a group and finally a multitude of lovers, all dependent on each other for
support, for food, for housing, for relief, for restoration, for welcome.
Poverty together is not poverty. To be truly poor is to be in community with
the poor and in that community poverty melts away like butter in a campfire. To
be poor is to see the poorer, and to share what little one has with the needy.
It is the poor who see the hungry and give their food. It is the poor who see the naked and give
them an extra coat. It is the poor who
see the homeless and give them their last inch of space in their tent. For the foundational moral truth of poverty
is to be the one who sees, and the one who shares.
Poverty of spirit embraces the poverty of one’s community
and gives what little one has into that poverty in the hopes that there is
enough for all. Individual poverty is
lessened by sharing with community. A
single stick is too poor to carry the weight of a human being. But a multitude of sticks can carry a fully
grown human over a river. Even so, an
individual poor person is helpless. A
group of poor people can withstand a great burden.
This is the community of God. It is the community of mercy, the community
of sacrifice, the community of fellowship.
The community of God is the community that takes joy in depending on one
another, as well as depending on the God who gives them all.
A wealthy person may also enter into this community and take
part in the joy, but only if they give all.
For no one is really a part of this community unless they are dependent
on each other and dependent on God. And
that can only happen when the crutches of power, of riches, of income, of
importance is all cast aside into that black hole of deep poverty.
This is the community of Jesus who cast aside all his
riches, becoming poor, so that we might all participate in His wealth. His dependence becomes our participation in
the fulfilling, joyful community of dependence.
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