(…continued) Salee learned that Christians feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and we do so because our Lord Jesus has commanded it. Sam Kinison wondered why the photographer didn’t just give the child a sandwich. That is what Christians are always doing, all over the world, through international relief organizations and in each congregation. In my own congregation we, in fact, did make sandwiches, hundreds of them, one night a month. The boxes of sandwiches were then picked up and handed out to the homeless and hungry on the streets of Minneapolis that very night. We also hosted and managed the local food shelf, offered a free clothing day each week, and helped support an orphanage and school in Haiti. Our congregation was not unique. This is what Christians do.
Of course, we also spend some time looking at what God’s Word says about the problem of evil and suffering. God has told us a few things about that, some things that might have helped Steve Jobs when he was 13 years old if he would have stayed around long enough to ask a few more questions. But Christians don’t just search for abstract answers. We try to be a part of the answer. All of those sandwich makers, clothes sorters, and contributors in our congregation were like Steve Jobs in that they didn’t know either why children have to suffer in a world made by a loving God. But we do what we can, and one by one, people are fed and clothed in the name of Jesus.
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Luke 3:10-11 — “What should we do then?” the crowd asked. John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”
Galatians 5:14 — For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 10:42a — (Jesus said), ” If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”
Matthew 25:34-40 — (Jesus said), “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
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John 21:15b — Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
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Oh God, help us not to despise what we do not understand.
–William Penn
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O Lord Jesus Christ, who when on earth was always occupied by your Father’s business: grant that we may not grow weary in well-doing, and give us the grace to do all in your name. Amen.
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We beg you, Lord, to help and defend us. Deliver the oppressed, pity the insignificant, raise the fallen, show yourself to the needy, heal the sick, bring back those who have gone astray, feed the hungry, lift up the weak, and take off the chains of those in bondage. May every nation come to know that you alone are God, that Jesus Christ is your Son, and that we are your people, the sheep of your pasture. Amen.
–St. Clement of Rome, First century A. D.
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“The problem is I’m older now, I’m 40 years old, and I now realize this stuff doesn’t change the world. It really doesn’t. I’m sorry, it’s true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We’re born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It’s been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much — if at all.”
–Steve Jobs, 1996
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