Poverty and The Power Surge

Part of being pastor, in fact part of being a follower of Christ, is seeking to feel the pulse of the community that is beloved by God. The Gospel is making each one of us more relevant to the communities in which we live. The gospel is transforming, good news that matters to the left-out and the left-down, and it is calling each of us to make a difference. When Christ is aware of the suffering that is pressed upon the people in the margins, Christ brings healing. Would the body of Christ in our time, the church, be held to a lower standard?

Luke 13:10-17

Common English Bible (CEB)

Healing on a Sabbath

¹⁰ Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. ¹¹ A woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and couldn’t stand up straight. ¹² When he saw her, Jesus called her to him and said, “Woman, you are set free from your sickness.” ¹³ He placed his hands on her and she straightened up at once and praised God.

¹⁴ The synagogue leader, incensed that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded, “There are six days during which work is permitted. Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath day.”

¹⁵ The Lord replied, “Hypocrites! Don’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from its stall and lead it out to get a drink? ¹⁶  Then isn’t it necessary that this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for eighteen long years, be set free from her bondage on the Sabbath day?” ¹⁷ When he said these things, all his opponents were put to shame, but all those in the crowd rejoiced at all the extraordinary things he was doing.

I was in Jack in the Box Wednesday morning waiting for my appointed meeting time with one of us when I was engaged in an eye opening conversation.  A disabled vet from the Vietnam era came to the counter in a wheel chair; his legs were amputated as a result of diabetes. (Just a note, this condition is very common in poor communities) He knew the teller at the restaurant who was a retirement aged Euro-American woman. The question was, “how is this new healthcare system going to hit you?” Her answer was more than disappointing.  She recalled that her period of unemployment had finally found relief and that she was happy to be off of the unemployment rolls. It was exceptionally hard for a woman her age to secure a job.  Unfortunately, she was about to file unemployment again. The corporation that she was working for realized that full time employees would require health coverage. In response, they were turning a large percentage of their positions into part- time positions. As a result she would need unemployment benefits until she could secure a second job that held together body and soul.

Who is keeping the poor and the infirmed bound? I wonder to myself. We complain that governments never doing anything to help us. When they do, are we supporting obstacles that bind us up into cycles of scarcity and need? Are we part of a system that sustains and/or creates poverty? Do I need my burger to be so cheap that corporations are justified in creating a margin that artificially inflates poverty?

The power surge is not limited to corporations – in many cases the governmental systems are contributing to the injustices at the margin. Here is the news. “In 36 mostly red states, HHS will be enrolling people via online applications at healthcare.gov because (some) local Republicans have refused to set up state-run exchanges. For these states and their largest cities, HHS listed premiums and subsidies called a tax credit. The credits go directly to insurers monthly; they are not refunded in a lump sum after filing one’s yearly taxes. (Rosenfeld, 2013)” I understand that the argument about whether Affordable Health Care is a benefit is not over, but it seems that proving the point is a tug of war in which the poorest among us are the rope.

Lower to moderate income households are well cared for in theory.” The subsidies would be given to households earning between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level. In 2013, that’s individuals making $11,490 to $46,000; two-person families earning between $19,530 and $78,120; and four-person families making between $23,550 and $94,200. These thresholds are revised yearly by the government. (Rosenfeld, 2013)” This looks promising, but the biting truth is that we are still creating cracks through which the poorest among us will slip.

Here is an obvious shortfall.  “There is one big exception to this rosy scenario that will unfairly impact an estimated 5.5 million truly poor people, thanks to (some) Republican governors and the U.S. Supreme Court. Obamacare expanded Medicaid’s eligibility to all people whose incomes were under the federal poverty line. (Medicaid is the state-run program for the poor and people with disabilities.) The Supreme Court ruled that states could opt out of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion when it upheld the law. Twenty-two red states have done so, according to the Urban Institute. As a result, there’s a coverage gap in these states because people’s sub-poverty line incomes are still too high to qualify for Medicaid, but not high enough to trigger the tax credits to help them buy policies in the Obamacare marketplaces. (Rosenfeld, 2013)”

 Are we really willing to allow this argument to take place on these particular theaters of conflict? The poorest among us – those struggling at the very edge of economic health, those whose capabilities, or social locations, or arbitrary circumstances have pushed them into an eddy of financial stress, are being bound and we might be tempted to blame the system and let it continue. What’s your reading? Would Jesus, the one we follow, buck the system and set the suffering free? Shouldn’t left-down and left-out be a temporary condition on the kin_dom of God? Sometimes those in the gathering place are protecting their assets more than caring for the sick. Jesus finds it necessary to challenge this. Do we?