Thoughts From Galatians 2 - Part 2

 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along. Gal. 2:10

           I just read where Trump is selling a "fast-pass" for citizenship to the United States for $5 million. This would insure that the United States gets the "best" of the immigrants while in the meantime ICE continues to arrest and chase out the poor illegal aliens. I sat at a medical staff meeting while the CEO of the hospital brainstormed about what strategies could be put in place to get the "best" patients to come to our hospital and not drive to Knoxville. When I asked what he meant by "best" he said patients that have insurance not Medicaid (the poor).

         I once heard that the definition of being poor was a person with very limited options. For example, if I had a bad tooth, I could go to the dentist or the orthodontic surgeon and get a root canal. If it was really bad, I could have it pulled and get an implant. A poor person might go to the health department on the one day a month a retired oral surgeon donates his time, wait all day, and get his tooth pulled and get a handful of ibuprofen.

         Our sinful nature which is patting us on the backs for achieving the success we have in life so we are the "best", is also telling ourselves that the poor had the same opportunities that we did but just were self-indulgent, lazy, and are now reaping what they deserved. Not to go into depth on that thought because chances are the playing fields weren't equal, but on a deeper level doesn't that go against the whole thrust of the Gospel. What is the Gospel? It is good news that people who didn't deserve anything except judgement could receive grace and mercy and become God's children by a free gift. It leaves out the whole concept of "better" and says we are all poor. It says that no amount of self-effort can attain the status but only a humble admission that we are all equal at the foot of the cross.

          This is why the gospel is so readily grasped and accepted when we go on mission trips to the third world countries. They intuitively "get it" whereas in affluent countries it's counter intuitive. It's Christmas time and I am once again bombarded by the truth that Jesus came to a poor family, was born in a stable, was proclaimed by outcast shepherds, spent his ministry years looking for daily housing, didn't know where his next meal would come from, and the people that accepted His teaching, with a few exceptions, were the poor.

         In this culture where we are being indoctrinated that there are "better" and "worse" people, let's not let that mindset creep into the Church. Of all the things that the leaders of the Church could have told Paul not to forget - their parting words were "don't forget the poor" and we must not either.