Poverty, Part 5

Poverty, Part 5

…(Jesus) said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” John 21:16

There are different types and manifestations of poverty, which is not only an affliction of the poor. Some form of poverty – financial, physical, mental, emotional – afflicts everyone at some time in their life. Certainly, the focus of Jesus’ life and ministry was on those suffering due to illness, social isolation, or oppression, regardless of their ethnic, religious, or their socio-economic status. He was drawn to the hurting and sought to lift people out of their anguish by opening them to what he called the kingdom of heaven. Most people, then as now, were unable to grasp the nature of this kingdom, wrongly imagining it to be a new-and-improved version of what they were currently living (sometimes imagining a kingdom where they could be the oppressors instead of the oppressed). This kingdom, however, is not simply life-as-we-know-it without the annoyances of bothersome people or lack of money. Rather, the kingdom of heaven is a higher dimension of conscious existence where today’s challenges, while still present, take on a new appearance and effect – not because our circumstances change but because we change, along with our perspectives, understandings, and priorities.

Putting aside the lack of food and shelter required for survival, other types of poverty are products of misinformed assumptions and perspectives about needs. If we feel impoverished by the lack of a physical possession (or the immediate ability to obtain it), the item we seek is likely something we have projected a deeper need upon. The possession may help us feel better for a time, but the need or lack will return because we did not address the true source of the poverty. We can drive ourselves into bankruptcy trying to buy our way out of our perceived needs. What is needed is seldom a new job, outfit, car, or partner, but a transformed perspective that allows us to recognize the deeper need beneath the surface need. And that deeper need is almost always spiritual in nature. We cannot, however, address spiritual poverty with physical objects.

In the kingdom of heaven there is enough of everything in sufficient quantities for everyone to have what they need and more. Poverty results from people taking, consuming, and/or hoarding more than they need out of greed or fear they may not have enough in the future. It is a manifestation of one’s lack of faith in a God who provides. The kingdom of heaven is not a physical location but a state of being. The kingdom of heaven is our current location and life-circumstance, but experienced through the lens of communal faith in a generous God. As such, when we give or receive, we draw from the abundance of God’s resources instead of the relative scarcity of what we consider our own. When we live under a philosophy of scarcity, not having enough for one’s needs is a perpetual concern. In contrast, life in the kingdom of heaven is one where a small amount of food feeds a multitude (see the stories of loaves and fishes), a tiny mustard seed becomes a giant bush providing shelter for many, and where a pinch of yeast added to flour provides a much larger quantity of bread. A kingdom of heaven mentality acts as a multiplier of unfathomable proportions. Living in the faith of a God who provides in abundance removes the need for greed and other insecurities. Those with an excess of anything are willing to share because they know if and when they experience a lack, someone with an excess will provide.

Those who enter monasteries and convents take vows of poverty, meaning they purposefully renounce personal possessions and rely solely on the church or sponsoring organization to provide for their needs. A similar faith in God is required to enter the kingdom of heaven. Those actively seeking spiritual maturity find themselves redefining their needs, which tend to shrink to a fraction of their former levels. I am told there is an ecstatic joy in living free from the bonds of the kingdom of materialism (I wish I could say this from personal experience). One recognizes the toll taken on our physical, mental, and emotional well-being by the extra possessions we accumulate, the ridiculous expectations we attempt to meet, and the air-brushed images of the perfect life we attempt to emulate. With a trusting faith, everything we need is made available to us. And when someone in need presents to us, everything necessary for us and them comes to us, so we are always free to be instruments of generosity.

Jesus had a gift for awakening folks to the depth of faith we all possess but seldom recognize or employ. It is a healing, poverty-demolishing faith, and that is the faith that opens the gates to the kingdom of heaven.

This is the 13^th in a series about The New-Old Social Pandemic. The opinions expressed here are mine. To engage with me or to explore contemplative spiritual direction, contact me at ghildenbrand@sunflower.com.