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Pilgrimage
3 September 2010
'How can you not feel sorry about people who have died?'
This resounding comment, made by Tony Blair this week when interviewed by Andrew Marr about the Iraq war, reminded me of something I've been reflecting on recently.
I've been remembering that behind the statistics we see every day, there are people.
And I've been thinking about the idea of pilgrimage as a personal discipline that I should be carrying out every day. When I say pilgrimage, I'm not necessarily talking about a long geographical journey - although that's certainly part of it for many people - but the idea of going out of my way to see what is in front of me.
Reading the gospels, it is fascinating to notice how many times it says that Jesus saw someone. In the middle of a crowd of people and a busy life, Jesus actually noticed an individual. Usually, he went on to touch that individual in a profound way. Seeing and doing are intimately linked. If we notice, we are moved to act. This is why we often don't see; why we even shield ourselves from seeing.
Poverty is not statistics; it is people. It is not a huge crowd in a refugee camp on the news; it is thousands of individual stories.
Recognising that someone in need is an individual, a person made in God's image, a human being like me, is the first step to fulfilling the command to love our neighbour as ourselves.
This is the radical message of the good Samaritan: there are no strangers, no statistics, no news stories; there are only people made in God's image, who are in need.
This might mean the people living in absolute poverty around the world. Or it might mean someone living in poverty more closely to us, someone who is bullied, or left out, or struggling with substance abuse or who is desperately lonely or in debt. The point is that whoever they are, they need a neighbour. And that neighbour is me.
It is amazing how often we do not see these people. We screen them out of our daily lives, flick over the TV news and end up not noticing them as people or not caring about them as we carry on with our comfortable lives.
Yet, in a profound way, God is with the broken, the outcast and the poor people, and we find an intimacy with God as we connect with them. It is in serving that we receive. It is in giving our lives away to others that we gain life. 'Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven', and we receive more of the kingdom when we are with them.
This is the pilgrimage that we need to go on every day: to leave the comfort of our lives, connect with the last, least and lost around us and around the world and discover that in discovering them we encounter God.
And the discipline of this kind of pilgrimage is to see. To take the time to see who is around us, notice what they are thinking, see who is involved and who is excluded. To see not a billion living on less than a dollar per day, but to see a billion people made in God's image for whom God has plans and dreams and purpose. Having seen, we can pray and act and serve. And we will meet God.
David Westlake, Tearfund’s Integral Mission Director
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(The views below are the authors', and not necessarily those of the Evangelical Alliance.)
| Written by John on 03 September 2010 at 14.47 |
| Six years ago I was just like the majority of UK citizens. I worked hard, and still do, I believed politicians, I believed the media and I was completely convinced that this is an overcrowded country. I believed that the UK is a soft touch and that people were coming here from overseas to milk the system. I believed that they received cash handouts and accomodation without having to work. As your article indicates, I looked at situation and did not investigate and look at individuals. This all changed when a black lady came to clean my office. I found her a hard working individual and enjoyed the short conversations I had with her. To cut a long story short I found out that she was an 'overstayer'. I found this out when she was arrested and placed in an Immigration Removal Centre. I then found out why she had come to the UK. I found out about her being shot and attacked with acid. I then realised that she was partially sighted because of the acid attack. I also discovered that if she went back to her country she would be killed, and her government could do nothing to prevent her killing. Over the next few years I found out what it is really like to be an asylum seeker in UK. The Home Office assume that everyone is telling lies. I saw an immigration judge smile at this woman and hoping that her eye would get better (impossible) then refuse her application, saying that she was untrustworthy. I then found out that asylum seekers get only £35 per week to cover clothing, food, toiletries and travelling expenses. Asylum seekers cannot work to ease their poverty. If they do they break the law. By breaking the law they go to prison, and when released can be immediately deported back to their persecutors. If they fail in their applications they loose the £35, but still cannot work. It is estimated that there are about 30,000 people in this position. If it were not for charities and concerned individuals all would have a park bench for their home and dustbins for their supermarket, and there are not many charities or individuals who will help. I was recently talking to a ordained minister about this problem. His response? ..."What can one person do?" Was this not the response of the priest who crossed over and left it to the Samaritan to help? Churches could do much more to help these people; but congregations need to investigate the problems for themselves. I know of a churchgoing MP who, when aproached by an asylum seeker told her to leave his office and go home. God bless John |
| Written by David Young on 03 September 2010 at 11.41 |
| And the practical upshot ten years later will be zero. I spent a year of my life working for a homelessness charity and during that time I never saw any evidence that the popular Christian notion of dribbling a bleeding heart over anyone who 'looked poor' made the world a better place. On the other hand, a real, positive difference is made when people step back, look at the bigger picture, and then ask if they are really doing this for any reason other than the appeasement of their own conscience. It would not have met with Jesus' approval, but it would not be the only thing Jesus was wrong about. |
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Subject: Poverty | Prayer
Author: Westlake, David
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