We are all needy. Some of us have needs that are more visible. We’re homeless, or jobless, or addicted to crack. Others have needs that are less visible. We’re depressed, or paralyzed by fear, or addicted to work. And none of us are exempt from the Great Need to get right with God. We’re sinners, without exception. We have different kinds of needs. But we all have them.
So, we are committed to serving all kinds of neighbors — poor and rich and everyone in between — in all their forms of need.
Some needs, however, leave people uniquely vulnerable to the harshness and unpredictability of life in our broken world. Yes, we are all needy, but certain needs are more crippling to our basic flourishing as human beings. Temperature drops? Nowhere to sleep. Economy tanks? No one to lean on. Bullets fly? Nowhere to hide. So, with a peculiarly personal passion, God gives himself to the poor, the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, and the oppressed. “When no one else will, I will be your Provider, your Protector, your Spouse, your Father, your King, your Judge.” And he calls us to be the same, and do the same, for the same, in his holy name.
So, we are specially committed to loving our most vulnerable neighbors in their unique forms of need.
It’s a twofold calling. The first dimension keeps us from neglecting those who are materially and socially well-resourced but may be spiritually and emotionally destitute. Jesus reminds us that the visibly Not Needy are quite often the neediest of us all (Luke 6:24-26). It also provides fertile soil in which humility can grow. If I know I’m needy, too, maybe I’ll start to renounce the you’re-needy-I’m-not superiority and don’t-help-me-I’ll-help-you paternalism that infects so much Christian “community service” and urban yuppie “volunteering.” The second dimension of our call to neighbor, on the other hand, helps us to pursue the poor with special zeal and practical focus. It keeps us from neglecting the most vulnerable out of a scattered and skittered ambition to serve “everybody.”
Dearly beloved, let’s love all of our neighbors, the poor in particular.
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