Beyond the dichotomy

In my last post, I promised to explore the concept of nice folk helping poor people, "embodying Jesus" and whatever else they think they're doing. I have touched on this before. But it might be good to delve into it some more.

In 2010, I wrote this post. Now if we spend a split minute asking ourselves which of the key protagonists is the most wretched in the eyes of God, it becomes obvious that it is not the homeless guy.

So on the one hand, we have a shelterless guy who has no access to food, water, sanitation or friendship. On the other hand we have a well catechised professed Christian. Again it might be interesting to ask which of the two is the most pitiable, or the poorest, in God's eyes.

This Faithless song lays it out quite well:

You look fresh, yeah
But all I got is dirt in my hair
My nightmares manifest,
But I can escape
Yours is in your chest
With no form or shape

The Middle Ages grasped something about this that we forget. Back then, it was the custom for whoever gave a coin to someone who was begging to request a prayer for the salvation of the giver's soul. The practice was probably very self-serving on the part of the givers, but at least the practice acknowledged that God listens to the poor, and that the salvation of the rich is in grave danger. Both the giver and the givee knew this.

Better still, in The Fear of Beggars, Kelly S. Johnson reminds us that in the Christian polity, we have supposedly surrendered our property at the feet of the apostles and from that point onward we should all become beggars, which is a stance more in keeping with our ontological dependence on God.

Nowadays we don't even recognise this, the poor are just left to be poor, both materially and spiritually. They've got nothing on us. But fortunately for all involved, progressive Christians have a bit to spare, both materially and spirirtually, and we're willing to dole out a few crumbs of it away.

Now, if the homeless guy and me were both to die and appear before God tomorrow what would God see? Probably that we were both desperately poor and miserable, desperately sad and full of unshed tears. The one coming at the end of a life deprived of earthly comforts and friendship, the other coming at the end of a life lived without a grasp and command of the most basic elements of the Christian Imagination.

But it is my hope that God would also affirm the "life, goodness, health, purity, and well-being of the dying, the sinners, the sick, the impure, and the poor" to use the words of Poserorprophet.

In my understanding of Dan's stance, life, goodness, health, purity and well-being are not simply things to be given out to people who lack them. They are primarily things to be affirmed in people who have already them. Despite all of the brokenness, God sees the life, the goodness, the health, the purity and the well-being of the homeless guy now. He sees them in me now. Maybe instead of pitying our miserableness -or the miserableness of others for that matter- we could begin by affirming these too.

But at the end of the day what I'm saying is: stop essentialising, we're all people. We're all sinners. We're all beggars for love. But despite our weaknesses (which I am not excusing or condoning) we are also beautiful and good and healthy and pure and well. Once we grasp this, there is much less scope left for any kind of condescention.