The Feeding And Aiding Of The Four Billion

In Mark 8, when Jesus was moved to compassion
by a hungry crowd, he asked his followers one
simple question, "How many loaves do you have?"

Of the earth's 8.1 billion people, at least half are living in conditions most of us would consider intolerable. 

Examples:

• One in nine of our world neighbors face serious food shortages. By contrast, an estimated 40% of food in the U.S. goes to waste, and far more to waist.

• Over a billion people in the world live in urban slums without power, sewer systems or running water. Most of us over consume energy to the detriment of our environment.

• Well over a hundred million people are refugees due to war, drought, persecution and civil unrest, and many of these have been homeless for decades. Their number is growing.

• Fewer than 18% of the world's people will ever be able to afford a vehicle. We have more licensed vehicles in the US than licensed drivers.

• An estimated six out of ten children around the world are not learning basic reading and math skills. We are blessed with free public education.

• Countless numbers of people suffer from lack of basic dental and medical care. We take that for granted.

According to World Vision president Richard Stearns, author of the The Hole in our Gospel, those of us who earn $50,000 or more a year are among the wealthiest one percent of the world's population. This raises grave concerns about the future of a world with these kinds of disparities between haves and have nots.

A friend recently noted that we likely ignore such glaring disparities for fear that responding generously and justly would "hurt our pocketbooks."  But in light of St. Francis of Assisi's words, "Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that have received--only what you have given,"  this could actually be the best thing that could happen to our pocketbooks. Francis truly believed Jesus's teaching that giving to those in need was the soundest possible investment we could make in the most secure enterprise on earth, the worldwide and everlasting "Company of Heaven."

Here are some ways we can help create a more just, joyful and peaceful world:

• Urge our nation's lawmakers to set an example to other nations in drastically reducing what we spend on war-making and instead investing in a kind of Marshall Plan that would fund food and development projects all over the globe. According to the War Resister's League, a stack of $1,000 bills equal to what the US government currently spends each year on past and present wars would be over 115 miles high. Reinvesting such funds could literally eradicate starvation.

• Encourage people to divert their retirement savings from stock traded corporations to investments in Calvert and other funds that provide immediate help to the poor through loans for small businesses and which invest in such projects as alternative forms of energy, agricultural development and healthcare.

• Radically reduce the short sighted spending we do for our personal comfort and convenience and double up on investing in the long term wellbeing of our world neighbors. For example, we could all fast regularly and/or have a subsistence rice and bean diet meal once a day, then give extravagantly to organizations that benefit needy members of our worldwide human family.

We all have multiple opportunities to help save lives and to make life better for the hungry and homeless Jesus and the prophets cared for. For example, many in our community support the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale held at the Fairgrounds on the first Friday and Saturday of October, an effort that raises over $400,000 annually for Mennonite Central Committee's worldwide relief and development work. In the past number of years a significant percentage of that has come through direct cash, check and credit card donations at the Sale, and from contributions made on their website--in addition to income from food, craft and auction sales.

Even this commendable effort represents only a fraction of the kind of generosity today's urgent world needs call for. But to the hungry and homeless every little bit helps.

From the prophet Isaiah:  

Is not this the fast that I choose:
    to loose the bonds of injustice,
    to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
    and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
    and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them
    and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

 Isaiah 58:6-7 (NRSV) 

When we claim God as our Creator, every human on earth becomes our kin, and deserves a hand up.