With Justice for All ch. 9

"Our response to the poor is a crucial test of our faithfulness to the gospel.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," Jesus read, "because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, and to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. " (Luke 4:18-19)

The Church, as Christ' Body on Earth, is charged with carrying out Christ's mission. Jesus' example is our model, our biblical mandate, to proclaim the Good News to the poor."

These are John Perkin's words as he begins chapter 9 talking about God's special concern with the poor. He goes on to say,

"As God's agents on Earth, we are responsible to live out this special concern for the poor. You cannot be and you ought not be in the president's administration unless you are committed to the president's philosophy. Otherwise his program will not be carried out smoothly. In the same way, you cannot effectively carry out God's program unless you have the mind of Christ. To have the mind of Christ is to be especially concerned with the poor. It is to have a special compassion for the disenfranchised, for the aching in our society. And it is to act on that concern.

Whether we take the gospel to the poor, then, is not an incidental side issue; it is a revealing test of the church's faithfulness to Christ's mission.

How then shall we proclaim the Good News to the poor? Once again Jesus is our model: "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14) . Jesus relocated. He didn't commute to Earth one day a week and shoot back up to heaven. He left His throne and became one of us so that we might see the life of God revealed in Him."

Perkins spends the rest of this chapter talking about the challenging idea of relocation. He speaks passionately about how we must live among the poor. We must be one with them. Their needs must become our needs. Do you have thoughts about the challenging principle of relocation?