The following are quotes from the Greg Boyd sermon "God's heart for the Poor" - quotes that were so striking and challenging and yet calling to something deep in my spirit, quotes that I don't want to forget, that I want to seep into my mind until I see the world differently:
Greg Boyd asks the question - from a kingdom perspective, what keeps people in poverty? Here are some of his thoughts:
"In the broader culture, when it comes to thinking about poverty issues...we look at everything through the grid of our knowledge of good and evil. So we come at this through our judgements and that's why, invariably, people think...that if only we could blame the right people... accuse the right people, well then we will solve this problem."
"But, according to the Bible, the problem of poverty and most other social problems are much deeper than any political program's ever going to fix...deeper than any human ingenuity is going to fix."
"The Bible teaches that the problem of poverty and every other social problem is not, and here's the unique kingdom perspective, is not primarily, a problem with people. People make choices, and they're morally responsible...but the fundamental problem is not people. The problem, most fundamentally, is that this world is oppressed. We're under the influece of principalities and powers that we ourselves invited into this world back in the Adam and Eve days, and we are oppressed. Here's what Paul says, incredibly important verse. "For our struggle" - this would include the struggle about poverty and responsibility with wealth, "the struggle is not against flesh and bload but against the rulers, against the authoriries, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil the heavenly realms."
"The forces are using an unjust system to dehumanize everyone, rich and poor. The powers use an unjust system to dehumanize the poor by reducing them to a subhuman level of existence...by reducing them to a system that's beneath human dignity; that's not how humans were meant to live. But the powers also dehumanise, use an unjust system to dehumanize the affluect. And this is what we need to see. Reduce us to a subhuman level of existence by... reducing us to brainwashed mice who are perpetually on the consumeristic treadmill chasing the proverbial cheese of the American dream; that's not how humans were meant to live...Robbed of the joy of living a simple life, an extravagantly generous life. The powers are playing us. Dehumanizing one group because they have too little, dehumanizing another group because they have too much, inflicting us with judgements that keep us from working together to fight them and to fix the problem"
"It is time for God's people to tell the system to kiss off. It's time for God's people to wake up to what is going on. It looks like it's about us, but it's bigger than us, We've got to know who they real enemy is. It's time to wage war against the powers, and we do that by refusing to make other human beings the enemy. Ephesians 6:12 if it's go flesh and blood, it's not the enemy. If it's got flesh and blood, it's someone that Jesus died for, which means it's someone we're suppose to be fighting for, and against the powers."
"Rather, the way we do warfare against the real enemy is by refusing to make them (those different to us or those with whom we disagree) the enemy, collapsing our judgements and asking the question how can we together resist the system, fight the system, rage at the machine which is so polluted with the principalities and powers"
"What we need to understand is that the way we struggle against the principalities and powers is not just by changing our beliefs. That's a pre-requisite but changing beliefs in and of themself, that doesn't do anything. You fight the system and the powers behind the system by changing how you live."
"To fight the powers, the affluent and the poor need to agree together to collapse all of our judgements, to walk humbly with our God, and to live in ways and relate in ways that will alleviate injustice and demonstrate compassion.'
We have to do it together.
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