Removing Prejudices in Missions

Removing Prejudices in Missions

In the recent decades, missions have been dominated by an emphasis on serving the poor claiming that God is on the side of the poor. It troubled me greatly to hear people interpret that God is biased when the scripture teaches us that God does not show any favoritism. Paul writes that the Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or master all are one in Christ. All are equal in God’s sight (Galatians 3:28). God does come alongside those who are marginalized but it does not mean that God has rejected all the others. The disciples of Jesus were not living below the poverty line. Many of them had the means to host meals for Jesus and his followers. The women disciples in particular served by financially supporting the itinerant evangelists. Jesus served the rich individuals as much as the poor by showing his concern and compassion without any bias. Somehow, in our interpretation of the scripture we have tended to focus only on the ‘economically poor people’.

Henri Nouwen writes, “But sometimes our concern for the poor may carry with it a prejudice against the rich. We may feel that they are not as good as the poor…. More and more, my experience is that rich people are also poor, but in other ways. Many rich people are lonely. Many struggle with a sense of being used. Others suffer from feelings of rejection or depression” (The Spirituality of Fund Raising, 2004). We need to remove our prejudices in missions.

Jesus taught that the poor in spirit are blessed and the Kingdom of God belongs to them (Matthew 5:3). It is very clear that Jesus was not referring to the socio-economic status but to the spiritual status of the listeners. It is only those who admit that they are in spiritual poverty that they can inherit the Kingdom of God. Spiritual poverty has now become very visible in fast growing urban India. The middle class Indians are now willing to try all forms of the new age spirituality to satisfy their spiritual hunger. The church in India in every city must open its door wide to these seekers and meet the needs of the influential middle class.

Join us in prayer and participation as we serve the middle class Indians in partnership with the churches to eradicate spiritual poverty in our nation among all communities.  John Amalraj

January-April 2012, Issue 1, INFOCUS

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