No Poor Among You

“No Poor Among You”

Deuteronomy 15:1-11

            “We all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free market capitalism for the poor.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

            Contrary to popular belief, capitalism is not enshrined in the Bible.  We cannot claim God has blessed this land because of our capitalist economy—such as it is. 

            King is right. It isn’t the poor who petition governmental bodies for tax breaks, but the rich.  The poor lack access to government officials.  They don’t have the money to pay lobbyists.  They can’t make significant contributions to election campaigns.  They have no advocate in the halls of Congress, or state legislatures, or city or county legislative bodies, or access to presidents, governors, county executives or mayors. 

            Who will speak for the poor?  No one with enough visibility.  No one with a strong enough voice.  No one with enough power to call attention to their needs.

            In the musical, Fiorello, Fiorello La Guardia runs to represent New York City in congress.  In order to fight the dominant political machine which has run New York far too long he takes his campaign directly to the people.  In one of the songs he sings we hear the line “poor hard-working poor.”  These were the people who needed to be heard and represented.  He won their votes—and the election.

            As a fellow New Yorker I’m proud to say that in congress and later as mayor, LaGuardia never forgot who elected him.  His reputation for honesty and fairness make him a legend in the city to this day.

            But he is an exception.  We know that most politicians are more concerned with their party’s agenda, and even more concerned with raising money to keep themselves in office, than they are with helping those who most need their help.

            God understands the problem of the poor.  That’s why a solution was built into Torah given to Israel at the beginning of their wilderness years.  As Israel was preparing to enter the promised Land, Moses called the people together and reviewed the commandments God had given them in the wilderness.  The beginning of Deuteronomy 15 contains God’s instructions concerning the poor.  The main point?  “There shall be no poor among you.”

            God understood the problem of generational poverty.  Once a person—often through no fault of his/her own—sinks into poverty, it can become impossible to rise out.  All too often the poor lack the wherewithal to get back on their feet, so generation by generation they fall deeper into poverty until it becomes a way of life.  They know nothing else.  They have no way of changing their circumstances.  They accept their fate and struggle just to get by.

            God’s idea was that poverty shouldn’t last more than seven years.  Every seventh year all debts were to be cancelled, and everyone got a fresh start.  Sounds ideal, doesn’t it?

            There is no proof Israel ever followed this commandment.  By the first century, when Jesus walked on the earth, there were the rich, who kept getting richer, and the poor who became more and more oppressed.  (Sound familiar?)  Part of Jesus’ message was condemnation of the rich who kept the poor in generational poverty.

            In Deuteronomy 15:4-5 Moses says God will bless Israel “if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God.”  Israel didn’t, and suffered long periods of domination by other nations.  Whether this was God’s doing or the result of their own corruption, the result was the same.

            This should be a warning to us.  God favors the poor, and will eventually come to their aid.  Let’s not be found on the wrong side of history.