"Poverty was created not by God but by you and me, because we have not learned to love our neighbor as ourselves. Gandhi put it well when he said, 'There is enough for everyone's need, but there is not enough for everyone's greed'...Even though there is enough for everyone, greed and injustice will always create poor people in the land, so God teaches us personal responsibility to our poor neighbors. God also establishes rhythms of rest for the land and structures of providence such as gleaning, where the poor are able to gather food from the fields. And God sets in place a plan for jubilee, regular intervals when inequality is dismantled."
"True generosity is measured not by how much we give away but by how much we have left, especially when we look at the needs of our neighbors."
"The early Christians used to write that when they did not have enough food for the hungry people at their door, the entire community would fast until everyone could share a meal together. What an incredible economy of love. the early Christian said that if a child starves while a Christian has extra food, then the Christian is guilty of murder. One of the fathers of the Church, Basil the Great, writing in the fourth Century, put t this way: 'When someone strips a man of his clothes we call him a thief. And one who might clothe the naked and does not - should he not be given the same name?'"
Exodus 16:16
Deuteronomy 15
Leviticus 25:8-55
good reading from Irresistible Revolution by Shane Clairborne.
No comments:
Post a Comment