The classic question for urban ministries workers: What do I do about the guy on the street who asks for money? This is such a complicated question-because the same words can be asked by a slew of different people with different motivations and different desires. Some are asking to know an efficient way of dealing with their feelings of guilt and discomfort. Others ask with hearts aflame with compassion but with little sense of what it might take to hear some of the answers. Others are asking for clarity about responsibility as if it were a philosophical question alone. Some are just asking because they don’t know what to do and are not yet sure if they want to do anything at all. Lupton’s answer: Due diligence. Self-admittedly he says that it’s not satisfying. And we’d all agree. I guess the answer has to be more than a desire for the immediate remedy of an awkward situation. I couldn’t agree more.
As I’ve thought about the question, I’ve come up with at least two rails to ride on: Call them the Macro and Micro rails (or make up another two names if you’d like.) Unfortunately, the questions have to be answered in with other questions. So here they are.
Macro: What does the thrust of your life look like in these situations? Do you know your city’s places for care? Do you know the process one would have to go through to get help? Do you know which soup kitchens are open when? Do you have a sense of what is needed in your community? And more largely, how have you voted? Do you know those whose policies will actually help people and their communities? Are you informed of the issues that hurt the poor? Do you care about them? A friend of mine used to say that I don’t want you to work at a soup kitchen after work if at work you just cut a deal with predatory lenders. That’s the Macro rail
Micro: Do you know the person? His name? Her story? Have you listened to what’s going on? Do you know them as neighbors, friends, fellow congregants, or just strangers? Do you spend the time of due diligence to free folks not to lie to you? Do you have any relationships that can help you with these kinds of questions?
I’m not sure that these are all that helpful of answers…or further questions. But I do think they give us rails to run on. And here are the other rails. Wisdom, prayer, hope, and love. Biblically speaking, it’s unjust to help someone continue in his or her lies and deception. But Biblically speaking, it’s not always wrong to suffer injustice for the sake of love of neighbor. Somewhere between those tensions of grace is where we must live.
February 8, 2008 at 2:31 am
I like your use of the “macro and micro rails”. That makes a lot of sense. I like your idea, or rather your friend’s idea, that, “I don’t want to work at a soup kitchen after work if at work you just cut a deal with predatory lenders.” I think it’s justice on a higher level than the Church has ever viewed it before.