Thy Kingdom Come

Patrick McDonald, founding director of Viva Network, relates the poignant particulars of an afternoon in a small village in the foothills of the Andes. He had just arrived at Itirapampa, and was discussing with the local pastor the logistic of the mission trips he was coordinating, when in rushed a woman whose “furrowed face” and “stubby fingers” bore testimony to a hard life in these remote parts. In her arms she cradled a baby who was evidently in dire need of immediate medical attention. As the sky overhead darkened with the gathering storm clouds, amid the helpless wailing of the woman, the pastor prayed while Patrick “stood there in the back” wanting to do something yet not able to. It wasn’t long before the child stopped breathing and the lifeless arm fell to the sides. The child probably had died because of diarrhea from drinking polluted water.

This is not a stray incident rather it is a reality that many wake up to every single day. Just yesterday I was reading a news article beneath a heartrending picture of a toddler with a nearly empty bowl in her tiny grasp. The World Food Programme is to close twelve of its feeding centres in Somalia and in neighbouring Kenya. Other countries like Ethiopia and Uganda are restricting their services on account of lack of funds. Undoubtedly, the ones who would be most affected would be countless scores of children. My husband and I received an email from a Christian organization asking that we partner with them in their providing for impoverished children in just one neighbourhood in Ethiopia. It was deeply disheartening to learn that they needed eighty thousand dollars for this year and they were able to raise just fifteen thousand.

Of the many woes that plague the world around us what has been brought to attention here is the fate of children. Patrick McDonald writes that nearly 26,600 children die everyday from preventable diseases or hunger. Why are children at such peril when there are so many of us Christ followers around? It is an uncomfortable and difficult question to find answers for. I can’t help but wonder that a lot has to do with our eschatological stance.

One might wonder how ones view of the end time would affect his/her present Christian responsibility. In my opinion it does influence and shape the direction not only of our thoughts but also of our actions. If we believe even as we wait for His second coming that Christ’s Kingdom is here, in “the now,” because of His glorious death and resurrection and is not some distant event far away in the future we would strive more diligently for the perfect cause of the Kingdom; which along with the salvation of souls is also the alleviation of temporal sufferings of folk; that includes provision of the means of sustenance - food and shelter; medicines and even means and equipment for accessing clean drinking water. Let us not be dulled by a pessimistic gloom that dictates the belief that things would remain as they are, if not worsen before the millennium of Christ’s rule. For His kingdom is here within us and without and we are called not just to pray that His will be done here on earth as it is heaven, but we are also called to work tirelessly toward that end, with His abounding grace.

To echo Patrick McDonald’s sentiments, equipping a church in a remote location with a “first-aid cupboard full of anti-diarrhea and other medicines,” or better still finding a way whereby they would have clean drinking water; partnering with organizations like World Food Programme or even writing a cheque to All God’s Children “would not require us to re-mortgage our homes or complete PhDs – it just has to be done. For pity’s sake, let’s get it done!”

In God's Image!

After a seemingly endless stream of lectures at college in Coimbatore, India where I was getting trained to be a teacher, my classmate and I walked home under the relentless and sweltering glare of the Sun. As we walked we talked about things pertinent to our course and about generalities that occupy the imagination of twenty year olds. After a half hour walk I reached my room.

I was staying in the house of a school headmistress as a paying guest. And I sorely missed home and friends. Just in order to alleviate the misery of being by myself I was in the habit of busying myself during those long evening hours that almost always seemed to crawl at snail’s pace. I filled my evening with walking and reading lest my mind wandered to sad thoughts that one is wont to when alone or away from home. And on that given day, as soon as I came back from classes, as usual I sat on the wooden bench in the narrow kitchen and I pored over The Indian Express sipping a cup of over sweetened tea. Just as I finished reading the regional news and turned the page to world news I heard aunty (the headmistress in whose house I was staying as a paying guest) yell at a feverish pitch, “You must come and watch this.”

I quickly walked up the narrow flight of stairs to her room, where there already was quite an assemblage peering intently at the television screen. From the jigsaw puzzle of the newscaster’s commentary, aunty’s interjections and the noisy observation of the other folk there, I gathered the horrific picture of what had happened in America on the 11^th of September, 2001. We kept silently flitting in and out of the room; we couldn’t keep ourselves away from the heart wrenching scene of loss. In a strange sense it was our way of expressing solidarity with those who had lost everything.

Over the years I have often wondered, what is it about us humans that we can grieve for the suffering of another we have never even met; Without skipping a beat our hearts begin to feel the pain of someone half way across the globe. In the tragic unfolding of human grief, humanity reaches out to each other. In the last couple of days I have heard so may heroic narratives of men and women who gave their todays so that someone else might have their tomorrows. They looked the horrific scenes of grief in the eye and rose above it in reaching out to fellow human beings.

I can’t help but think that the capacity to share in the suffering of another is the divine spark in us. This to me is one of the irrefutable proofs that we were indeed made in the image of God. In feeling another’s pain, in our reaching out and in our giving up of ourselves for another we truly reflect the God in whose likeness we were created.

What we do to the least of these...

For those of us living here in America the Health Care Reform has indeed become the bone of contention. Some are very vocal about their support for the reform suggestions still others are vociferous about their disapproval of the proposal. Not a day goes by without the news broadcasters drowning the very rudiment of journalism (for it is rarely unbiased and informational) by their opinionated vehemence. I must admit information is indeed very hard to come by; God knows that my husband and I have been trying hard to glean that ever elusive unbiased and honest information. I won’t pretend like I am privy to every minutiae, whatever I am about to say stems from my reading of the word of God and I bring to the table my understanding of the ethical and moral issues surrounding the providing of health care in this country, of which I am but a fledgling member.

A close relative narrated to us only last week the sorry tale of his woes about his very personal experience with the health care system here. He said that he has had that experience of being turned down by a health insurance company because medical records revealed a certain visit to the doctor. Even though I have been here only a while I understand what such a rejection portends. Without health insurance, treatment for one’s sickness is a near impossibility simply because of the exorbitant prices that one would have to pay. It just seems a very sad state of affairs that someone would be deprived of the prospect of getting help and treatment because insurance companies refuse to cover them. And this is just one example of the fact that the present health care system is not all that it should be in a country that is still considered the wealthiest in the world.

In a system where health care and insurance are so closely related, that it is difficult to see any lines separating one from the other, I believe, health care reform is no longer a political issue where citizens bound by loyalties should feel the strong need to toe the party line, but rather is a moral issue where every human being is called to strive to set right a system that is skewed.

Before I extend my reasons for supporting the oft heard “public option” (see footnote 1), I must reiterate that I have no expertise on the subtleties that might be involved in this system (and it is needless to say that practically every system has its share of it). My support for it comes from my strong allegiance to God’s directive or must I say that which is implied when He said, “what you do to the least of my brethren you do it unto me.” I do understand that with the public option there is a possibility of a “federal takeover of health care” and there is much fear and I would not say that it is unfounded because that might be a real likelihood; and a lot remains to be seen; No one can vouch for a health care system that is still a conjecture. With the public option perhaps there would be tax increases for folk who might be in a position to afford it. But these are chances followers of Christ should be willing to take. Because with the reduced cost of insurance that the public option brings there could be a possible avenue of respite for those who otherwise might be forced to make that painful choice between putting food on the table and getting a life threatening illness treated; For health insurance plans sometimes exclude those who are ill and almost always exclude those who don’t have the financial means. We as Christians are called specifically to come alongside those who have not the strength, wealth or the voice to be heard. Who knows the tide might change and we might become “the least of these.” We must ever remember to love our lesser privileged neighbor because the basis for our social ethic is concern for “the least of my brethren.”

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Mathew 25: 34-40).
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Footnotes

1. “A government –run health insurance plan that theoretically offers coverage at a price below that of private insurance plans. Federal leverage could lower administration costs and reimbursements to doctors and hospitals” – Health –care Glossary: Terms you Need to Know, TIME Magazine, August 31, 2009. It must also be added that the public option in its present proposed form is to function alongside other private insurance companies.