You Have Heard it Said…

By Κλειω

On October 30, 2024, the editors of the Daily Sentinel wrote an opinion piece entitled, “Exasperation is hard to combat”. It focused on the Community Resource Center for the unhoused, located in downtown Grand Junction. They wrote:

“The resource center for the unhoused stirs conflicting emotions. On one hand, there’s deep appreciation for the resource center staff, affiliated nonprofits and volunteers who are dedicated to making a difference in the lives of marginalized people who are often barely tethered to society. They’re doing the Lord’s work—but not without an impact on neighboring businesses. This is the “other hand” that makes it difficult to justify keeping the resource center in its current location.”

The opinion goes on to state that because the Downtown area is growing in “sophistication” and because the “unhoused problem is going to be with this community for the foreseeable future” they suggest that these services be provided somewhere else. Once more, our unhoused neighbors will be shuffled along. Lacking from the editorial is discussion about how that might impact those who are unhoused. Their voices are absent from this editorial, but that wasn’t surprising to this reader. More insidious was the reference to “doing the Lord’s work”. 

The inclusion of this statement felt heretical alongside the rest of the article, which was a slap in the face to those who have dedicated their lives to sacramental justice. What some characterize as “woke” ideology is quite literally the heart of the Judeo-Christian belief system. An advocate was quoted in the same editorial, stating, “If we don’t come together to identify the root causes and to actually work with the community that this is affecting, then we are not going to get anywhere with it.” Is it possible that this is the heart of the “Lord’s work”?

References to liberation of the poor are found throughout the Biblical texts. It is present in the Law. Every seven years, it was ordered that debt should be canceled. If God’s people were faithful in this, “there need be no poor people among you” (Deut.15:4).

That passage goes on to state, “Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to” (Deuteronomy 15:10).

Prophets also support liberation of the poor, “‘I will speak against those who cheat employees of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, or who deprive the foreigners living among you of justice, for these people do not fear me,’ says the Lord” (Malachi 3:5); and “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him?” (Isaiah 58:6-7). In response to violence against the poor and dishonest business practices, Micah asked, “What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). 

The Gospels also speak of liberation of the poor. Mary sings, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” Jesus speaks frequently about the poor: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20); “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:35-36, 40); and “When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed” (Luke 14:13-14).  

So, what does this mean for those living in Mesa County? The editors of the local paper would like us to have pity for the local businesses who are crying out for action against the poor in this town. They would use their print space to create divisions among us. They would have us look at the poor as “them” and to feel as though “we”—the housed, the tourists, the business owners—are victims. Our local nonprofit agencies are struggling to manage the poor, because that is their primary duty: to manage the poor, engage them in services, check another box off their matrix and quantify their results. And yet, in meetings, they are first to declare that having unhoused in visible spaces, near our reimagined (gentrified) shopping centers and parks, is bad “optics.” Our city leaders use a grocery list of incidents as ammunition to shoot down the only facility in the downtown area that provides some sort of all-day respite from the elements, focusing instead on relocating and continuing to shuffle people around who already struggle daily to meet their own needs to just survive. 

When one person in our community is ill (poor, addicted, houseless, diseased, depressed, oppressed, disadvantaged, disenfranchised), we are all ill. In 2020, there were at least 27,928 Christians in Mesa County. I imagine some of the loudest business owners/politicians/editors in the downtown area find themselves seated at a local church, at least occasionally. Are we meant to take in those words every week and then continue our lives, unchanged? Or are we meant to inwardly digest those words and turn them into action? Again, if we have a banquet, Jesus instructed us to invite the poor. Understanding this command brings us to a deeper understanding of our duty and relationship to the poor. We are instructed to actively come together as a community with these neighbors and invite them to sit at the table with us. Jesus’s entire ministry asks us to see those on the margins and then asks us, over and over, how we can move ourselves closer together to create a community in which all belong. Once we accept this, only one question remains: how will we work together to create this Heaven on Earth? We are a people of abundance! It is time we started acting like it.