Streams of Mercy

The back cover of The Presbyterian Outlook in recent weeks has reminded us again and again of some very important truths. With pictures of masked child care workers, food service workers and health care workers in one column and the heading “Poverty in America doesn’t look like what you think it looks like,” we are challenged to see things in new ways.

“Forget the stereotypes. Poverty is a lot more widespread than you probably thought. Especially since the pandemic. Poverty looks like the food service worker who can’t afford to put food on their own table. It looks like the health care worker who cannot afford their own prescriptions. Or the child care worker who can’t afford child care. Being poor in America is not just about a lack of money. It’s about working hard and still not having access to the basic things so many of us take for granted. Like a decent wage, housing, affordable medical care, educational opportunities, and so much more … In Matthew 25:31-46, the call is loud and clear: we must work boldly and strategically to eradicate systemic poverty in our communities and our country. We must work together to act on our beliefs to change laws, policies and structures in our society that perpetuate economic exploitation of people who are poor.”

In another article in the same issue, Diane Moffett challenges the church to “try to be as much like Jesus as we can” as Presbyterians work to discern a vision for the church in our day. These words are filled with new thoughts to guide in that process of discernment: “We cooperate with systems that create this disparity when all we do is simply feed the person … when we don’t ask what are the systems in place that are preventing the flourishing, the fullness of life, that Jesus talks about.”

There’s so much to think about and so many needs to be addressed – all at a time when our sense of community is fragile, and our ability and our willingness to work together is difficult. In Esther 4:14 we read the phrase “for such a time as this.” Queen Esther was called to accept the challenge “for such a time as this.” The phrase “for such a time as this” is for each of us as well. We are who we are, how we are and where we are - “for such a time as this.” May we be found faithful.

Elizabeth