Poverty and Justice Bible
Alison Gelder, Chief Executive of Housing Justice and a Bible Society trustee, gets to grips with The Poverty and Justice Bible – and opens up a passage that has particular resonance for her.
‘I'll tell you what it really means to worship the Lord. Remove the chains of prisoners who are chained unjustly. Free those who are abused! Share your food with everyone who is hungry; share your home with the poor and homeless. Give clothes to those in need; don't turn away your relatives.’ Isaiah 58.6-7 (CEV)
I run a Christian homelessness charity, Housing Justice. As such I am often called upon to speak or preach about homelessness and the role of churches in helping the homeless.
When I first took up this role a friend challenged me about the focus on homelessness, saying that there was no reference in the Bible to specific works of mercy or mission for homeless people. This made me get my Bible out and search.
After reading a lot about strangers, poor and destitute people (categories of homelessness in biblical times), I found Isaiah 58.6-7.
Here is a clear-cut commandment to care for homeless people in a very specific way – by bringing them into our own homes. God is saying, if you want to worship me as I want to be worshipped, do these things. It is not a metaphorical statement; it is a radical call to change the way we live. It’s about behaving in such a way that people really would be able to tell that we are Christians by the way we live our lives.
Professionally I could not recommend Christians everywhere sharing their homes with homeless people, not least because the long-term solution is for people to have homes of their own. However, there are empty and under-used buildings (including houses) belonging to churches which could be transformed into homes for homeless people.
In fact, the sort of response I think God is calling for is active commitment to creating a society where everyone has a home that truly meets their needs (which just happens to be the vision statement of Housing Justice).
This passage also has some fairly radical things to say about worship. The real meaning of worship, says God, through Isaiah, is not about outward show but about practical action. Perhaps he is telling us not to spend so much time in prayer and so much money on church buildings and our Sunday best clothes that there is nothing left to do the real work of serving and loving him.
We should ask ourselves what we can do to free people who have been unjustly imprisoned, to support and defend the abused, to give food and clothes, to open our homes to the homeless and to support our relatives. And then we should go and do it.
Alison Gelder
Chief Executive of Housing Justice