As an advocate for those living on the margins, I’ve learned that we need a better understanding of one another and the terminology we use when it comes to people’s lives. “Poor” can be expressed in a multitude of ways: needy, lowly, meek, afflicted or humble.
But the word “poor” does not exist in a vacuum. To be poor means that someone must be rich. There must be a power dynamic present to stretch and separate populations from one another, thereby creating those who have power and those who are oppressed by power. God calls for every person to live into the fullness and wholeness of God’s good creation. To be poor is to be denied full personhood – the person God created you to be in the fullness of imago dei (the image of God).
That’s why God chooses a side. God created us, along with a wealth of abundance. Yet the powers of this world would scare us into scarcity, encouraging those in power to hoard wealth and privilege, creating dire need for those on the margins. As followers of God, our call is to side with the poor.
This message is excerpted from “God chooses a side” by Tuhina Verma Rasche in the April 2020 Gather magazine. Today is the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost.
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