The Homeless Poor.

"Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high."  Isaiah 58:4b (NRSV)
"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
"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 them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
"Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly......then you shall call, and the Lord will answer,you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
"If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your gloom shall be like the noonday." Isaiah 58:6-10 (NRSV)

Here, as in Zechariah, social justice (the improvement God calls for) is made the priority, not fasting.

The widow (women without income), the fatherless (those without support), the hungry, the naked, the poor.  Criminals (those who have gone astray), strangers (refugees/asylum seekers).  The sick (including mental illness and drug addiction).  The friendless (the lonely), the broken-hearted (those who have been rejected).
It is these we should be helping.

Improvement is called for.
Not just meeting our obligations out of  fear.
But real friendship and community.

The problem of homelessness would be solved if people who go to Church on Sundays let out their second houses (including investment properties) at low rent to people who have nowhere to live.

"'Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none'"  Luke 3:11 (NRSV)
Instead of going away on yet another overseas trip.

I can hear the excuses :
"I worked hard for that money."
"They're lazy good for nothings."
"'For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.'"  Mark 4:25
"They all smoke and take drugs."
"They're all dole-bludgers."
"This is not a charitable institution."
"They're immoral single mothers."
"You get what you deserve in life."
"They're just jealous of us."

The convention is that you don't do anything do stupid things like that.  Even in Church.

They vote for the conservatives who endorse injustice and hand out excuses.

"That's just political" (i.e. left-wing).

"In your opinion."


(Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.)

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