Bridging Economic Divides Through Christlike Relationships

I want to talk to you and talk to me today about money and rich and the poor, what we will do with our lives and how our relationships impact us and I'll tell you from the outset this is not going to be one of those talks about how to make your life more pleasant or more enjoyable but it is incredibly important that it gets deeply into how to live together with God how to live in the Kingdom how to become the right kind of person how to use my time and my resources my relationships to do that so I hope that you will stay with me. [00:00:14]

This study actually looked at 72 million people I don't know of another study on that scale before they leverage Facebook to do that and here's what they discovered, that people who have relationships with other folks in different economic circumstances, cross-class connections or what are sometimes called economic connections, that makes more of a difference in people's lives than school districts, than family composition, than racial composition of neighborhoods what makes the biggest single difference is if a person has relationships with other people who do have resources who do have educations because it puts them in touch with ideas and possibilities and hopes and goals and a way of life. [00:01:44]

What another sociologist Robert Putnam calls bridging Social Capital, social capital is a term that's been around for more than 100 years now a school administrator coined it as far as is known in 1916 it it's having relationships with other people having connections through which flow ideas and possibilities and opportunities but Putnam says bridging social capital that is that cuts across differences so that I'm now connected with people who are different than me ethnically or culturally or economically or educationally that makes the single biggest different difference in lifting people into the possibility of opportunity. [00:03:13]

There was once a man a couple of Millennia ago he grew up poor but he has torn down the dividing wall of hostility that separates Jew and Gentiles slave and free male and female and created this strange community in which now all are one in Christ Jesus and that actually happened and a community was born in which slaves would be together with slave owners if you read a book like Philemon and relationships would get formed friendships would get made across every kind of Distinction there had never been a community like this. [00:04:09]

Anthony put it like this some of those who stopping ins are given beds While others having no beds stretch out on the floor and sleep is only as those in beds in the morning when night is over all a light get up and leave the Inn it is the same with those who tread the path of this life both those who have lived in modest circumstances and those who have had wealth and fame leave this life like an inn taking with them no worldly Comforts or riches but only what they have done in this life whether good or bad. [00:05:02]

When we think about bridging Social Capital what is it that makes a society a place of genuine opportunity only if we believe with our whole being in the equality of rich and poor before God can we walk in their midst as Jesus did unaffected in our personal relations by the distinction. Dallas would often talk about how one way to think about spiritual formation is when I believe with my whole body what I say I believe in my head and I might say I believe Rich poor are all equal and alike before God but actually when I walk amongst those who are poor how do I respond what happens in my body what is my body language the tone of my voice the ease of the flow of my words what does that say. [00:06:09]

How do we respond to that man sleeping in those discarded boxes does it take great and awkward effort even to acknowledge his presence or to speak to him if need be or to take his hand or help him with his few possessions are we frightened of him though the circumstances are perfectly safe do we shrink from being seen near him or dealing with him is his smell and dirtiness alone enough to repel us from him or how about others not in such an extreme condition does the fact that a person is without work or an apartment or an automobile make us treat him or her as if he or she were different if so then we have not truly beheld our own ruined condition and because of this we cannot heartily love that person. [00:07:02]

It's when I come to see my own desperate neediness before God then I recognize other people are just simply needy like me and of course in the Bible they're very clear statements uh supremely from Jesus about how when we are giving to those that the world regards as the least of these without enough money for clothing or for housing we are in the presence of him or in the Book of James Dallas actually writes about this uh uh how James talks about when a rich man comes into a church to give it a good seat a lot of attention Poor Man's hustle off stand in the corner sit on the floor we insult the poor and failed to care for our neighbors as we would be cared for. [00:07:59]

We might Dallas goes on do some of our ordinary business in the poorer districts of our community it may even be as simple as getting out of our cars and onto public transportation one of the great social and economic divisions in many parts of the world is between those who must ride public transportation and those who can transport themselves we might also do shopping banking even living in the poorer districts of our area to lend substance to our grasp of how the economically deprived experienced their world and Ours this will add a great substance to our understanding prayers and caring that can never be gained by an occasional Charity Run. [00:09:12]

This week you might think about where do you go to shop where do you go to eat or one other real simple thing this coming Sunday when you go to church go to church and look for somebody there who looks different than you somebody who may not be very well dressed may look a little shabby somebody who is alone somebody who might not be from the same kind of education or background that you are and go sit next to them and talk to them and pray for them bless them and just notice in my own heart how natural am I in this moment what does my body tell me that I deeply believe about this person. [00:10:05]

Reflecting on the teachings of Jesus, we see that the church is uniquely positioned to foster these cross-class connections. Jesus broke down barriers between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female, creating a community where all are one in Him. This community is called to embody the equality of all people before God, regardless of their economic status. [00:04:27]

Recognizing our own neediness before God helps us see others as equally needy and deserving of love and respect. This perspective fosters genuine compassion and service to those in need. The Bible teaches that when we serve those regarded as the least, we are serving Christ Himself. [00:07:55]