My goal in this post is to raise awareness of an area of injustice that is often overlooked by many Christians. We are good at calling abortion unjust, but I fear sometimes we miss God's concerns regarding justice to the poor.
Amos was contemporary with Isaiah and a prophet from Judah whom God called to go to the northern kingdom to cry out against its sins and injustices. Israel's judges were accepting bribes from the rich against the innocent. The next verse reveals that these innocent people happen to be poor. The rich were paying high prices to a judge to "sell" (declare guilty and punish) innocent poor people over petty things like a pair of sandals! What we have here is picture of classism. Justice was being distorted by the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor. God tells them they are trampling upon the heads of the poor, treating them like dirt by denying them the justice they deserved. This is a problem that exists today in this great nation and exists in the church. James also addresses this problem.
"My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?" (James 2:1–7)
Classism is like racism but on the basis of class. One of the ways we (by "we" I mean many Conservative Evangelical Christians) trample on the heads of the poor today is by seeing them as not worthy of relationships, at least not with us. If we are honest, we do have a tendency to show partiality. If we observe the inclinations of our hearts carefully, we will see within we are all prone to looking down on people of lower classes than us. Even our "help" that we offer is done in a condescending manner and for our own conscience. But calling them our friends? Opening up our lives to people who are in a lower class than us? That is not really what we had in mind. But that is precisely what is needed!
Poverty in all its forms is all the result of a broken relationship with God and cries out for justice to roll down like a river (Amos 5:24). The poor do not need substance abuse counseling, food stamps or housing nearly as much as they need genuine, redemptive relationships. When Christians deny the poor access to such relationships, are they not acting like the unjust judges in Amos' day? Are they not trampling on the heads of the poor and denying them a God-given right? Is not the gospel the good news to the poor that God came to us in the person of his Son, in the flesh and identified with us in our poverty to make us rich? This he did by establishing a redemptive relationship with us. Will we deny justice to the poor?
--Pastor Dave
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