Human Dignity: The Marginalised

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  On Jesus and the poor

  Joel Edwards says that Jesus offered the poorest far more than comfort or protection.

  Download Link Transcript 2 mins 27 secs
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  Jesus was amazing and his attitude to people just continues to give us great examples. And his attitude to the poor, particularly as captured in Luke’s gospel in the New Testament – Luke a doctor, but somebody who was very concerned about how the gospel related beyond the Jewish community, and very passionate about women, about the position of children and the outcasts. So Luke told us, perhaps more than others, how Jesus responded to the poor. He taught them, he fed them, he protected them from the powerful by challenging power, often in their presence. But he was still quite demanding, you know, he still threw down the gauntlet: if you want to follow me, you have to be my disciple, you have to take up your cross, you’ve got to follow me. He wasn’t saying that to the powerful and the privileged alone, he was saying that to the marginalised and the poor.

  And so what we find in Jesus’ response to the poor is an element of tough love, real truth. And a real truth which constantly reinforces this idea that God is calling us to something really quite majestic and quite elevated, and that that majestic and elevated calling – to act for the common good, to act out of selflessness – is not just something reserved for the powerful and the elite. It is a privilege to which even the poor must aspire, and he challenges them to do that because, in that aspiration to rise above poverty, to rise above marginalisation, we discover what it means to be truly human. And I think that’s a privilege Jesus would not deny the poorest of the poor. So yeah, it was tough love to the rich and the powerful and the wealthy, but actually he didn’t hold back from offering that calling to dignity to the very poor.

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  On practical care

  Joel Edwards’ motivation for fighting extreme poverty has ancient roots.

  Download Link Transcript 2 mins 25 secs
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  I’ve had the privilege over many years to be involved in a variety of Christian ministries, which is – which extends itself beyond the pulpit and the pew to try and bring the good news about Jesus to the pavement of society, if you like. And this is about conscientising, bringing awareness to Christians, of a long history and tradition of care. This is about practical care, be it in challenging poverty as we have done, be this about challenging corruption, or indeed human rights – these massive issues facing society. And it is virtually impossible to do that as a Christian in the here and now, in the 21st century, without some reference way back to the dawn of these biblical imperatives from the Old Testament prophets: “He has shown you, o man, what is good. What does the Lord require from you? Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God.” That was our mantra as we fought corruption and stood with individuals around the world in civil society to fight extreme poverty.

  And so always one stands in the immediacy of the problems and the enormity of the problems in the 21st century against a backcloth of centuries of prophetic agitation, of this insistence of God that a higher quality of life through honesty and caring, living up to the image of God, is always behind you. You always have to look and remind yourself that this is true religion, and that this true religion has been seeking to enforce itself in Christian faith for three millennia.

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  On widows and orphans

  Iain Provan probes the Old Testament’s emphasis on looking after the vulnerable.

  Download Link Transcript 1 min 8 secs
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  In terms of looking after those marginalised people, as we would nowadays call them I guess, those who are vulnerable in society – so widows, orphans, foreigners, who of course are famously vulnerable in the world we live in as well – it’s rather extraordinary, the extent to which Old Testament law pushes people to treat those folks well, appropriately, look after them.

  In fact, the king is particularly tasked with the job of looking after the marginalised, which in the ancient Near Eastern context is rather extraordinary because you basically have a very hierarchical society in which the king is a demi- or semi-god and the peasants are the peasants, as it were. So one of the great things in the Old Testament, one of the motivations is, remember that you were slaves in Egypt. Remember that you were once those people. Therefore, you should look after those people.

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  #EndCovidForAll

  Tim Costello shares about the importance of focusing our attention on the pandemic’s impact on the world’s most vulnerable.

  Download Link Transcript 2 mins 28 secs
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  TIM COSTELLO: There are some fundamental things all humans on this planet share. We all breathe air. We all talk to one another, laugh, hug one another. Humans all sneeze. Humans love to dance together – far better than dancing alone. But COVID-19 has changed the way of being human. The things that we would normally do mean we put others at risk. And physical distancing – absolutely necessary – tragically has become social distancing: humans scared to hug, to dance, to laugh and talk together.

  Well, it’s important to physically distance – that’s why our shopping malls are closed, and our churches, and our football games – just to be life-saving good citizens to others. But how do you physically distance in a slum? Whether it’s in Brazil or in India – 60,000 infections a day now in India, it’s rushing through the slums. How do you physically distance when you’re in the Rohingya Refugee Camp, Cox’s Bazaar – I’ve been there – ten families sharing one pit toilet, walking huge kilometres just to get water, how do you wash your hands and physically distance?

  That’s why ‘End COVID For All’, which particularly marks World Humanitarian Day on August the 19th, is so important. It’s to recognise that everyone – the most vulnerable and poor – are God’s children, with great dignity. COVID doesn’t end for any of us until it ends for all of us, until it ends for them too. Yes, our national borders need to be shut, but not our hearts – that would close down our humanity.

  In ‘End COVID For All’, we’re inviting you to join a whole lot of people to say: “We are thinking of others.” Here is the mask that I’ll be wearing – #EndCOVIDForAll – you can go online and get a filter mask, a virtual mask, and take a picture of yourself and share it. ‘End COVID For All’ is about all of us literally being in this together. It doesn’t end for any of us until it ends for all of us.

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  An Empty Plate: Jack’s Story

  Jane Corbett shares a powerful story of a seven-year-old boy living in poverty in Everton, Liverpool.

  Download Link Transcript 1 min 41 secs
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  JANE CORBETT: I was working with a family where the little lad was found by his mum – his mum doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, hasn’t got a flat-screen television – was found peeling wallpaper off the wall to eat at tea time, because they literally hadn’t got anything to eat. This is a couple of years ago, and it’s still happening now – not to this particular family, but to others. And so I supported them and helped out there.

  And then I said to the mum, “How does your little one cope with the emotion of all this? Does it make him very angry, is he very depressed about it, how does he get his emotions out?” I said, “Is he any good at drawing, or drama?” She said, “He loves drawing.” So I said, “Would he like to do me some drawings about it?”

  So she had a chat with him, and he said, “Yes – if it helps other kids in Liverpool.” So I said, “Brilliant.” And I said, “What are we going to call you? Because we can’t call you by your real name because it’s a bit too scary if the right-wing press are outside your door.” He said, “I want to be called Jack, like Jack Sparrow!” So I said, “Okay, we’ll call you Jack.”

  So he drew me a picture of an empty plate and he said, “Do you see food?” He drew me a picture of, again, an empty plate, that then had ‘Africa’ and then ‘Liverpool’ over the top of it, and then he said, “Because I’ve heard kids in Africa are hungry too.”

  And then he came up with this quote – he was seven at the time – he came up with this quote – and this little kid thought he was worthless, so if you go back to the Christian faith, God is saying “You are really, really important” and I constantly say that and text his mum because she lives off these texts saying “You’re a cracking little kid Jack, keep going” – he thought he was worthless, but he came up with this brilliant quote that said, “Listen to me. You’re grown-ups. This is bad. You are being bad, unless you do somethink (with a ‘k’) about it.”

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