Who’s Who? – Another Article in Support of Blog Action Day 2008 vs Poverty

Who’s Who?
An Article in Support of  Blog Action Day 2008 to Help Fight Global Poverty!
Written and Contributed by Nate Steury

It seems as though the world is bent on determining who’s who…or, in other words, who really counts, who is “important.” Do a search on the internet for that phrase and you get 58 million plus results! Who’s who online, who’s who internationally, who’s who in the federal government, who’s who among students, who’s who in ancient Egypt – and that’s just the beginning.

I remember getting what I perceived at the time to be a coveted letter when I graduated from High School. It promised me that my name would be published in the prestigious “Who’s Who Among High School Graduates.” I thought it meant I was someone special. But it turned out to only mean that “for only $39.95 you can have a copy of this book with your name in it.” It was merely an ego feeder.

Our society, despite arguments to the contrary, does have a sort of caste system in which some people are valued more than others. Name-dropping is a professional sport! People are valued by their money, their job, their title, the car they drive, the neighborhood they live in…and on and on.

But Jesus had a different way of determining who’s who. Jesus seemed to pay special attention to those who were left out. And he has good precedence in the Old Testament for this. There you find God’s preference for the underdog! We often claim that, “God helps those who help themselves.” But the Bible seems to indicate that: “God helps those who cannot help themselves.” God looks out for the poor, barren women and younger brothers (both of which were shameful roles in ancient Hebrew society), the foreigner, the widow and orphan.

Turn to the New Testament and Jesus hangs out with “tax collectors and sinners.” (Matthew 9:11) He touches lepers who had been ostracized from their communities. He is not ashamed to be seen in public and even talk to women, which in that society and time was not culturally acceptable! Jesus hung out with what I call “the 4 ‘L’s:” the least, last, lost and lonely. And we should do the same if we claim to be an apprentice of Jesus.

There is a story from a few centuries back of some pirates who landed on a European coast and stormed the local monastery demanding all their gold, silver and jewels. The monk walked them through the monastery to the common room. He opened the door slowly to reveal a room full of the poor, the sick, the widowed as he said to the pirate, “These are our gold, our silver and our jewels.”

So how does that translate to 21st century USA? We are to go out of our way to care for societies marginalized or ‘throwaways.’ That could be some of the following: children, the elderly, those with mental and physical handicaps or mental illness, the sexually confused, the homeless, the poor, bikers, the tattooed and pierced, prisoners, foreigners and anyone else whom we tend to call “them.”

The politics of God are played on a level playing field. Someone has said that “the ground is level at the foot of the cross.” And in order to make it level, we must pay special attention to the needs of those who are “below level.”

Tony Campolo, a university professor and pastor, tells a story that portrays this reality clearly. He had traveled to Hawaii so his biological clock had not adjusted yet. He found himself wandering the streets at 3:30am. He stumbled on a greasy spoon restaurant and went in to have a cup of coffee.

As he sat drinking his coffee, some “provocative, boisterous” prostitutes entered the bar. They talked and joked for a while, then as they were getting ready to leave, one of them mentioned that the next day was her birthday. Several of them made some rude remarks to which she replied, “Yeah, why should you throw me a party? I’ve never had one in my entire life.”

When they left, Tony went to Harry, the bartender and asked if he happened to know the lady’s name who was going to have a birthday. “Yeah,” he said, “she comes in every night. Her name’s Agnes.” Tony said, “Harry, how about we throw Agnes a big birthday party tomorrow night?”

So Tony and Harry let the regulars at the bar know about the surprise party, Tony bought a cake and they were all set. That night Agnes and the others came at their regular time. When they opened the door, everyone yelled, “Surprise!” and began to sing “Happy Birthday.”

As you might expect, Agnes was overwhelmed. She began to cry then asked if she might take the cake home since it was so beautiful. She promised to be right back, but at her departure there was an awkward silence. Tony said he didn’t know what to do, so he did what any pastor would do. He said, “Let’s pray.” And he did.

When he was done, Harry said, “Hey, you didn’t tell me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?”

Tony said that this was one of those times when you knew God has just put the right words in your mouth. He responded, “I belong to the kind of church that throws surprise birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning.”

Harry replied like many people would, “No you don’t. There’s no church like that. If there were, I would belong to it.”

Maybe it’s time there were more churches like that…more churches that cared for the least, the last, the lost, the lonely. Maybe it’s time we learned “who’s who.”

Nate Steury is the pastor of St. Mark’s Church in Indialantic, where he lives with his wife and four kids. Contact him at stmarksumci@yahoo.com