One servant of God would drive their children to a slum area once a week to do social work. Children as they grew up did not like the idea, as they were going to an English medium school. They protested that they did not like the place and could not stand the dirt and stink there. However, he told them that there will be poor in the vicinity, helping them is a demonstration of Christian love and treating them with dignity is absolutely essential. Those children grew up to serve the poor and needy in a spectacular manner.
Elite and rich in the city want themselves to be insulated from poor pavement dwellers. The poor are expected to live in ghettos isolated from others. City developers like the poor to be invisible as it damages the reputation of the city. The people who clean up the city, do menial jobs, and domestic helps are poor, marginalized, neglected and ill-treated.
However, the Bible teaches us that the poor are equal contributors for the city development, protections and cleanliness. “There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siege works against it. But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. (Ecclesiastes 9: 14-16)
Gratefulness was not found in the city. There was no statue for the man who delivered the city from war. They did not remember him at all. Today also poor people in the city are not remembered or recognized or respected or rewarded. Instead, they are ridiculed, hated, and ostracised.
One preacher said that the body of Lord Jesus Christ was handed over to Joseph of Arimathea. God could not trust poor disciples, hence gave the body to a rich man. What a pathetic paradigm and ridiculous prosperity teaching?
Do I treat poor people with dignity?