Poverty

What is poverty? Moreover what is the poverty with which God is concerned? I believe he is concerned with our physical well being only so far as it does not distract us in one direction or the other... Meaning that we do not devote our lives to providing for the physical but also not being so hungry that we can no longer recognize God because our very minds don't have the fuel to make the connection. However rich or poor God is indifferent to the amount of material we collect, but is highly interested in what we do with that material.

For example, the widow who gave the last of her money, Christ was not moved to provide for her but yet allowed her to voluntarily give all of her material resources to God. I believe this was because he was well aware of the strength of her spirit, she was rich in the spirit of God. Yet, Christ lavished vast amounts of compassion and time on the tax collectors who were very rich in material but very poor in the spirit of God.

So I ask now who is the poor in America? Most of the material poor I have met are rich with reserves in spirit for they understand, in heart, the phrase there but for the grace of God go I. Even if they do not attend regular services or prescribe to a particular belief system, I have seen a poor family take in an even poorer individual without hesitation. Yet in my dealings with parishes I have met many who are willing to give from their surplus to charity and devote surplus time to goals they believe to be worth while, but will walk past in judgment one of God's children who is poor in some way, much like the Judge or Priest in the story of the good
Samaritan.

I believe that there is a poverty among the well to do in our society. I believe that there is a great emptiness in the spiritual stomach of a large portion of Americans. Why else do they spend so much time in pursuit of extremes? What people claim as addiction, and make no mistake I understand the implications of chemical and physical addiction, is an attempt to fill the void in the soul. Of course it turns into habit and later serious addiction, but it starts with a "wanting to feel alive." At least that is what I hear from most of the people I have dealt with in addictions. The rest come from an attempt to find solace from one kind of a pain or another. In both cases I submit that they are really seeking God. Why then do they turn to some physical thing instead of to scripture?

It is because of those who in the day of Christ would be the Pharisees and Elders, Christ warned of. It is because of the hypocrites and the falsely pious, that these poor rich people lose their way. These morally righteous, when they teach the supposed law of God, start with the belief in their own superiority, thier own righteousness and call it god. They find some extreme sense of false devotion and call it belief. They take a personal crusade and call it righteousness. It is no wonder that good, and intelligent people can no longer find God, because His holy name has been used in vain to persecute those who sin.

These morally righteous, these pious charlatans, claim that God is the answer to all things. God is the answer to all things, but what they mean is "devotion to God, as I am devoted to Him, is the answer... the goodness I exude because I am so totally devoted to God is the answer." They do not believe in the God of Abraham, the Spirit, the Father and the Son. They believe in their own image of a god, which if it could be seen would look strangely like them. They believe in a god that can be cajoled, whose favor can be won from and his will, subverted to their own.

God, the true God, is not this. The will of the God of all cannot be controlled or stopped. It is unrelenting and ever moving toward His kingdom. We can either move with it or against it.
These self-righteous are truly the least in God's kingdom, and therefore most deserving of our love and compassion. We must learn to love the self-righteous and fill the shallow. We must help them both to know the God of all, the God of love.

We can only do this by following God's law and keeping His commandments. We must treat them as gently and lovingly as we ourselves would want to be treated if we became lost and blind, at all times keeping God first and foremost in our minds. This is what the phrase "God is the answer means." This is what the answer entails. If we do this, no matter how hard it gets then we will find all that we seek. For if we, with the help and grace of God, solve the spiritual poverty problem, then the material poverty will simply cease to be.