Micah’s Challenge for the Poor - Belconnen Baptist Church
This week is the anniversary of my commencement of working among the poor in the slums of Melbourne. For 52 years I have worked among the poor, and for most of that time I continued the tradition of the Wesleys who cared for the poor through Wesley Mission, Sydney. The Wesleys established credit unions, free schools and dispensaries, attacked factory work conditions and parliamentary laws allowing economic exploitation, slavery, war, piracy, gambling and political graft.
So Wesley Mission hurls itself into social reform and personal evangelism. John Wesley held personal evangelism in balance with social responsibility. When people were born again, they had to show the fruit of faith by loving their neighbours. The urban poor of England’s Industrial Revolution were evangelised and souls were saved among the coal-miners, iron smelters, quarrymen, shipyard workers, cotton factory hands and servants. Social care for all people, especially the poor, marked the early Methodists.
The poor responded and with teaching, tens of thousands advanced themselves. As Wesley wrote to some clergy: “The rich, the honourable, the great, we willingly leave to you. Only let us alone with the poor, the vulgar, the base, the outcasts of men.”
As the poor became the basis of his church, so during my 27 years of ministry at Wesley Mission, we continued to care for the poor, the needy, the alcoholic, the widows, the homeless and the hungry. That concern is seen in the way we encouraged everyone to take part in our activities and all of our no-cost or low-cost activities.
Increasing urban poverty is a world problem, perhaps our greatest world problem. A billion people today live in the slums of Africa and Asia, in the barriadas of Latin America and the favelas of Brazil.
In spite of the economic meltdown of Wall Street, Australians have a right to be confident. As our national anthem states, we are young and free. We could also add, we are rich and powerful. According to data from Treasury and the Bureau of Statistics, Australian wealth has now hit $5 trillion, which is $250,000 per capita. AMP economist Shane Oliver estimates that average Australian net wealth is now eight times disposable income – the highest in the world (yes, Australia is apparently now the world’s richest country). According to the study, the same figure for the US is 5.5 times and the UK 7 times.
We may not see ourselves as especially privileged and if we live in a small rural community we may think those figures are only true for city types, but as a nation we need to examine our aspirations and our hearts. What is God saying to our nation and our church communities this year about our possessions, our pride and our walk with God?
The passage from Micah opens with “Hear now what the Lord is saying.” Let’s pray that we hear.
The Challenge of Micah
a. The Problem: God’s people have forgotten to rely totally on God.
Micah chapter 5 has foretold the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. He will be our peace. It is the “strength of the Lord.”(5:4) and “the majesty of His name”(5:4) that gives us security and peace. But the Israelites have forgotten this, and in Chapter 6, God brings “a case against his people” (v2).
Remember God is talking to his people here, not to unbelievers – he’s talking to people he has saved, who should love him and serve him. People like us. They go through the motions of service with burnt offerings and sacrifices, even to the extent of extravagantly offering to sacrifice their children (!) (see v7). But the Lord takes no delight in displays of service if our hearts are not right.
Micah reminds his people, especially the spiritual and secular authorities of his day, what has angered God. Are we tempted by money and position? Do we stay silent to avoid annoying important people? Do we keep quiet even when our leaders are contravening God’s standards?
b. The Solution: Micah reminds people how to get back to God
The Lord speaks through Micah in verse 8, “He has told you” implies he’s said this before, why weren’t they listening – he reminds us what God requires and note that it is a requirement: do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God. Justice and righteousness are twin foundations of God’s throne (see Ps 89:14). We are concerned as churches with righteousness – working out our personal faith through Bible study and quiet times – but we sometimes forget that justice is an equal foundation of God’s character. God’s anger burns against those who neglect justice.
Micah gives graphic examples of injustice and rebellion against God – evicting women from their homes (2:9), robbing innocent passers-by (2:8), using short measures in trade (6:11), corruption in the legal system (7:3) and prophets taking bribes to tell the rich what they want to hear (3:5)
The Church today is Jesus’ bride, meant to show God’s character to the world. If we neglect justice, we are not showing the full face of God.
Around the world, women are still being persecuted and are the innocent victims of war and poverty. Women in refugee camps in western Sudan are afraid to collect firewood because they might be attacked by gangs on horseback.
Girls in Nepal and other parts of Asia are sold into virtual slavery by their very poor families. Rich nations like ours exploit the poor to obtain cheap T-shirts, chocolate and coffee. There is vast inequality in the rules that govern trade – one rule for the rich farmers of Europe and America, and another for the poor.
Poor nations are crippled by debt and pay 3 or 4 times more in debt repayments than they receive in aid. Thirty thousand poor children will be robbed of life today because they don’t have access to clean water and affordable medicines. Is God angry about these abuses? Are we angry?
The church needs to speak out for the poor and powerless. On an international level, Micah Challenge is a global Christian campaign that wants to take the words of Micah and give them relevance today, to act prophetically for God’s justice and kindness.
How can we tell people about God’s love and salvation if our actions do not demonstrate God’s love? As Paul tells the Thessalonians, “We were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” (1 Thess 2:8). The good news is shown in our words and actions, our lives and our demonstrations of the power of God. James tackles the issue in his letter like this, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” (James 2:15-17)
Paul and James both recognize the importance of an integrated mission – that we should humbly acknowledge God’s amazing grace in our lives and seek to serve, just as Jesus served, the outcasts and the poor and the powerless.
That message comes through strongly in the opening section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matt5:1-12), his first public speech after declaring in the Temple that he came to bring good news to the poor. And what does he choose to focus on – humility (v2, 4 and 5), mercy (v7), righteousness (v8 and 10) and peace (v9).
Jesus takes us, feeble in faith as we are, and transforms us, if we are walking humbly with him. If, as a nation of Christians, we can mourn over our spiritual poverty, that is the first step towards finding the Kingdom of God.
Last year, two Christians from Zambia were visiting churches and schools in Australia talking about projects in Zambia to provide clean water. The man, Joseph, was 37 years old and he joked that he had already passed the average life expectancy of Zambians (life expectancy has been declining in Zambia because of AIDS). He was impressed that anyone who lived in comfort, the way Australians do, could stay faithful to God. In his eyes, material wealth was a barrier to faith.
Certainly it was for the rich young ruler. Now you’re going to remind me that it was “love” of money that kept the young ruler out of the kingdom and that is true, but we all know that money has a very seductive power. We have to stay pure in heart and hungering after righteousness rather than hungering after material things.
We can afford to be generous, and indeed, Christians have for years served the poor as part of the gospel, giving out of our wealth. But we should also recognize that we can speak out against corrupt systems and practices that keep people poor and without hope.
We can show God’s love to the women in Sudan by providing food and shelter but we could also be urging political and corporate leaders to stop the violence that is the result of economic greed.
c. How Micah Challenge takes up Micah’s words.
As an outworking of the challenge voiced by Micah to do justice and love kindness, Micah Challenge, a global Christian campaign seeks to do 2 things: (i) renew our commitment to justice for and with the poor as an integral part of our faith. (ii) urge our leaders to work for the fulfillment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to halve global poverty by 2015.
These are goals that fit in with God’s eternal values and they are achievable if we pray and act. It is exciting that Christians from all traditions, and non-traditions as well, are taking up Micah Challenge as a way of demonstrating God’s justice and kindness.
The goals are basic and it is an indictment of our world that today people are still dying of hunger and living without access to basic rights such as housing, schooling and medical care. Many of the goals concern women and children, the groups in society with the least power.
One thing we can do is sign the Micah Call, a vision statement that says in part, “ We commit ourselves, as followers of Jesus, to work together for the holistic transformation of our communities, to pursue justice, be passionate about kindness and to walk humbly with God. We call on Christians everywhere to be agents of hope for and with the poor, and to work with others to hold our national and global leaders accountable in securing a more just and merciful world.”
The challenge for us is to heed Micah’s words, to live lives that demonstrate justice, humility and kindness, so that we can be people living as God requires, blessed by our Father. So let’s pray for humble, softened hearts. Let’s live lives that reflect God’s justice and righteousness.
Let’s make this year a year of Christians working together for justice so that Australia can be known as a Godly and generous nation.
In 2003, I was in Washington DC, at a function attended by President George W Bush, political leaders from 162 nations, including senators, congressmen, politicians of all colours, a king, several presidents, past Presidents, Prime Ministers and Past Prime Ministers, all of us united with the one aim, to help the poor of the world. Rock star, U2’s Bono, spoke. “TIME” had declared him, and Mrs and Mrs Bill Gates, their “Persons of the Year” for their relief of poverty and disease in Africa.
Bono said, “This is not about charity, it’s about justice, that’s too bad, because we’re good at charity. But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. There’s no way we can look at what’s happening in Africa and, if we’re honest, conclude that, deep down, we would let it happen anywhere else.”
“I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing, which, to be truly meaningful, will need 1% of the federal budget tithed to the poor.” He said he was inspired by religious leaders coming together to fight the spread of AIDS, and by the Church’s call for debt relief for the world’s poorest countries.
Aboriginal communities on the margins of our country towns and inner city ghettos like Redfern live in poverty, in overcrowded shacks, lacking sanitation, clothing for the children, education; knowing hunger, disease and unemployment. The inhumanity and injustice of it breeds resentment at being unable to help themselves, for poverty means powerlessness, and frustration with powerlessness breaks out into riots.
But the meaning of the incarnation of Christ is: God has come to live among us! Our discipleship means following Him in helping the poor today. Nothing epitomises the life and teachings of Jesus so much as His care for the poor. If all the words of Jesus were lost, His words about caring for the poor would remain in mankind’s memory. “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” Matt 25:35-36
1. God notices whether we care.
We are saved by our faith in order that we might serve God in expressing His love to others, especially the poor. Believers have an obligation to care for the poor. God judges nations and people who are not believers based upon how they have cared for the poor.
We are saved by faith, but judged by our actions. The standards by which nations and people who have not heard the Gospel and those who have heard and do not obey it, is of how they cared for the poor. Every generation and country has poor people. They live in unhealthy, crowded and dangerous conditions.
They lack food, shelter, education, power, and organization. But why are the poor, poor? What keeps them in the cycle of poverty? The Bible describes some of the causes and the consequences of their poverty. Our word “poor” basically means “lacking material possessions”. However, the Bible has 245 references to the “poor” meaning the needy and dependent, the frail and the weak, the impoverished through dispossession, those who are hungry, and those afflicted by oppression. Over four hundred verses indicate God’s concern for the poor.
Author Michael J. Christensen writes, “God looks in anger upon the arena of human struggle and takes sides. The side He takes is the side of the poor and the oppressed, the down trodden and the hopeless, the outcasts and the underdogs. God identifies not with the winners but with the losers. It is precisely because God is no respecter of persons that God takes a special interest in those who are treated unfairly and need his help the most. For the sake of countering injustice, God must side with the losers – orphans, widows, pilgrims, and the despised, afflicted, and impoverished – for the kingdom belongs to them.”
2. God is found among the poor.
Poverty can have the face of a discarded baby, an abused child, a homeless youth, a bashed spouse, a lonely old man, or an AIDS patient. Poverty can be physical, emotional, or spiritual. To be poor means to lack love and the essentials of life: food, clothing, shelter, health, support, identity, and purpose.
The economically poor and the spiritually impoverished have the same basic need – to know that God cares. “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ V37-40
The wealthy and the righteous are amazed that God should have been helped by them, but God reveals when they helped the poor they were doing everything for Him personally. This is a great insight: if you are looking for God you can find Him among the poor. His care for the poor is expressed by His dwelling among them.
The omnipotent power of the universe incomprehensibly dwelling among the powerless! It is a great paradox that God can be found among the powerless like a baby at Bethlehem! How should we Christians seek to minister among the urban poor? How can we transcend the barriers – racial, economic, linguistic, cultural, sexual – to go to people? So many fear close contact with the poor because they may ask something of you! Yet we cannot transcend the barriers unless we risk closeness and possible request!
I chaired the Parliamentary Budget Estimates Committees a couple of years ago. We summon each Minister of the Crown, the heads of Departments, all key bureaucrats and advisors and examine them on their expenditures and programs of the past year and their proposals for the next. It is often a grilling process. We were shocked by the racist and arrogant attitude of the Hon Frank Sartor, the Government minister who was heading up the re-development of the Redfern/ Waterloo area towards Mick Mundine the Chair of the Aboriginal Housing Company in the area known as “The Block”, our worst urban slum. Governments wish the problem would go away.
The Aboriginal community called upon the minister to resign. There was impasse between the people living in the Block and the Minister. The former Opposition leader had said he would bulldoze everything, so there was no comfort from either the Government or the Opposition.
In the middle of the Hearing, I publicly challenged the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, the now disgraced Milton Orkopoulos, and the Minister of the Redfern-Waterloo redevelopment Frank Sartor, to come with me the next Saturday, in our old clothes, no white ministerial cars, no press, no speeches, no photos, to spend the day gloved and walking in the Block with wheelie bins and a servant heart, shovelling garbage and picking up needles, talking with the indigenous people.
We would practically improve the safety and liveability of the Block, and by shovelling garbage demonstrate the deep concern we have for daily life in Aboriginal Redfern among the poorest of all.
I asked local residents for permission to come onto their land. They were supportive of our clean up, enjoying a chat as we cleaned up the garbage. I asked approval of the City of Sydney hygiene department and they provided us leather gloves and hazardous needle disposable units. Before we could start some miracles occurred.
The then current Opposition Leader Peter Debnam (not the present Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell) visited the block the day before for a photo opportunity and announced that if elected they would no longer bulldoze the existing houses but build 46 new houses!
Then the Government indicated that although they had mistaken the date and so could not come, they would organize regular clean-up days in the block throughout the next year. And the City Council, seeing we were going to shovel the garbage sent two teams with trucks and the collection equipment to clean the streets before we arrived!
On the Saturday selected, four of us back-bench politicians, took the bins, picked up garbage, spoke with the residents, refused all photographs, made no speeches, but just showed in humble service that we cared for the poor.
The church in the city must have members living among the poor. I honour Church members from Wesley Mission and other churches who live in Redfern, in the high rises of Waterloo, in the tenements of Darlinghurst and in the Trust buildings of The Rocks. Because they live among the poor our message has credibility. Some choose to stay in the environment out of which you have risen mentally and spiritually. You have a powerful ministry to those still there.
To reach the poor we must preach the gospel, identify with them, live among them and help them obtain food, clothing, shelter, legal aid, education, jobs and childcare. We must speak against the bureaucratic systems and empower the poor. You help end the dependency cycle and enable the poor to stand up for themselves.
John Wesley wrote in his diary, 24th November 1761, “I visited as many as I could of the sick. How much better it is when it can be done to carry relief to the poor than it is to send it, and that both for our own sake and for theirs.” Wesley’s was one long crusade in the cause of the poor. He encouraged others to follow his example. Wesley had compassion for the poor: “I have found some of the uneducated poor to have the most exquisite taste and sentiment. I love the poor, and in many of them find pure genuine grace unmixed with folly and affection. If I might choose, I should still preach the gospel to the poor.”
Wesley found God among the poor, and like him Wesley Mission has ministered for 196 years serving God among the poor. Jesus commends practical, caring love. It is the hallmark of the disciple of the Kingdom.
You here in this church should be proud of the Belconnen Baptist Missionaries who directly work with the poor. Missionaries like Scott and Kathryn Girvan who work with Baptist Missions in Malawi. They work with some of the world’s poorest people group – The Yao. They are teaching the locals agriculture, life skills and general health. (Kathryn grew up here at BBC, and her parents and other family members who attend the church here are immensely proud of what she and Scott are doing.
Then there are Dominik and Raylene Fechner who work with poor children orphaned in Thailand who are infected with HIV/AIDS. They work with these poorest of the poor in a number of orphanages’ in Chang Mai. Dominik and Raylene spent a number of years here at BBC and their parents also attend this church.
Jane Arnott works with poor children who are orphaned in Thailand who are infected with HIV/AIDS at Agape Home – an orphanage in Chang Mai. Jane became a Christian at BBC and has since been a missionary for over 10 years.
Natashia Allitt works with people infected by HIV in St Petersburg. She spends time with children who are placed in Russian orphanages and teaches at churches and other organisations about how to care for people with HIV. Natashia also comes from BBC.
All the other BBC Missionaries whom you support are working in other ministries, mainly involved in Scripture Translation or Church Planting.
Last financial year (2007-2008) Belconnen Baptist Church gave $110,000 to your missionaries serving the poor. This came through your missionary giving, the proceeds from BBC’s Opportunity Shop which gave $45,000 raised by your volunteer helpers, and a further $45,000 was given by BBC members to aid specific projects that help the poor.
The Micah challenge has been heard here. God bless you as you are a light set upon a hill to our whole nation.
3. Neglecting the poor hurts our future.
If we neglect the poor, we suffer personally and spiritually. There is one test of the extent of our love for Him: how have we cared for the poor? That was the thrust of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address: “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”
Bishop Laurence of Rome, was forced by the Emperor to turn over the valuables of the church. He gathered a number of poor Christians and stretched his arms over them and said, “These are the precious treasure of the church, these are the treasure indeed, in whom the faith of Christ reigns, in whom Christ hath his mansion-place. What more precious jewels can Christ have than those in whom He promised to dwell? For it is so written, ‘I was hungry and ye gave me to eat, I was thirsty and ye gave me to drink, I was houseless and ye lodged me. What ye have done to the least of these, the same have ye done to Me.’”
The treasures of the Church are still the poor. When we smugly disregard the needs of others, we risk our future. ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ This is a mega-trend that marks our ministry, our care for the poor. The early Church cared for them and grew to strength, and so must we today.
Paul wrote 1Co 1:26-29 that God called few who were socially, politically, and intellectually important. So it is not through human wisdom, strength, or worldly position that one is saved, but only through God’s wise plan and power accomplished through the cross. But those who are have a primary task to care for the poor. When we care for them we meet Him among them.
It was what Colin Powell, a four-star general, called the greatest W.M.D. of them all: a tiny little virus called AIDS. The church was slow but the church got busy on this, the leprosy of our age.
Love was on the move. Mercy was on the move. God was on the move. When churches started demonstrating on debt, governments listened—and acted. When churches starting organizing, petitioning, and even lobbying… on AIDS and global health, governments listened—and acted.
God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.
In the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It’s not an accident. That’s a lot of airtime, 2,100 mentions. The only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the neglect of the poor. ‘As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.’ (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good news to the poor.
But here’s the bad news. From charity to justice, the good news is yet to come. There is much more to do. There’s a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response. It’s not about charity; it’s about justice. And that’s too bad.
Because we’re good at charity. We are good at it as seen in every flood and bushfire or tsunami. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can’t afford it. But justice is a higher standard.
Our task is only finished when the poor know justice, not just charity. That is the Micah Challenge.
Rev The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC
