Faith and Deeds

Faith and Deeds
The writer wrote,

January 14th

Outside the air is a warm, seventeen centigrade, unseasonable for this time of year in this part of the world.
A soft, soaking rain is falling from the sky.  Cars made a swishing sound as they travel along the almost empty street.
All around there is the noise of the city, slowing, rising to a crescendo, then equally slowly dying to a momentary silence.
Before me, lays a picture of downtown edge.  At the corner, stands a service station.  Its bright lights illuminate the white wall of the restaurant across the street from it.  The smell of gasoline mingling with the smell of grilling meat permeates the still air.
My watch reads 2:00 am.
Near the corner an old woman, her torn dress visible below the dirty, shabby, gray winter coat, stumbles along, holding the wall for balance.
Finally, losing her fight to remain upright, she leans her back against the wall and slowly slumps down to the ground, coming to rest over a hot air vent.  Alone, she sits motionless as the rain falls.

Who will tell her of God’s love?

Who will love her?

Who?

The Apostle James writes,

“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?

 Can such faith save him?  

Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  

If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,”

 but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” 

Show me your faith without deeds, 

and I will show you my faith by what I do.  

You believe that there is one God. Good! 

Even the demons believe that—and shudder. 

You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?” 

                                                                                                                              James 2:14-20.
Dear Christian are your deeds showing your faith?
Are you doing all you can to help those in need around you?
Please think about it.

You and the Poor

You and the Poor

Jesus tells this parable,
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.  
At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores  and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 
“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.  
In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.  
So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ 
“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.  
And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ 
“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house,  
for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 
“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ 
“ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ 
“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ” 
                                                   Luke 16:19-31.
This parable is a warning to I believe rich and not so rich. It’s a warning to treat the poor respectfully.
There are a lot of wealthy people out there that are helping to poor Bill Gates, Warren Buffet just to mention two. There are over a hundred billionaires who have pledged to give away half their fortune before they die or upon death. These are honourable men.
The Jews have a concept called tzedakah. I got this brief explanation of Tzedakah from a Jewish website,
“The word “tzedakah” is derived form the Hebrew root Tzadei-dalet-Qof, meaning righteousness, justice or fairness. In Judaism giving to the poor is not viewed as a generous, magnanimous act, it is simply and act of righteousness, performance of a duty giving the poor their due....
The Obligation of Tzedakah
Giving to the poor is an obligation in Judaism, a duty that cannot be forsaken even by those who are themselves in need. Some sages have said that tzedakah is the highest of all commandments, equal to all of them combined, and that a person who does not perform tzedaka is equivalent to an idol worshipper. This is probably hyperbole, but it illustrates the importance of tzedakah in Jewish thought....
According to Jewish law, we are required to give one-tenth of our income to the poor. This generally interpreted as one-tenth of our net income after payment of taxes. Taxes themselves do not fulfill our obligation to give tzedakah even though a significant proportion of tax revenues in America and many other countries are used to provide for the poor and needy. Those who are dependent on public assistance or living on the edge of subsistence my give less but must still give to the extent they are able; however, no person should give so much that he would become a public burden...
The obligation to perform tzedakah can be fulfilled by giving money to the poor, to health care institutions, to Synagogues or educational institutions. It can also be fulfilled by supporting your children beyond the age when you are legally required to, or supporting your parents in their old age. The obligation includes giving both to Jews and gentiles;...”
Levels of Tzedakah
Certain kinds of tzedakah ar considered mor meritorious than others. The Talmud describes these different levels of tzedakah, and Rambam organized them into a list. The levels of charity from the least meritorious to the most meritorious, are: 

Giving begrudgingly

Giving less than you should, bu giving cheerfully,

Giving after being asked

Giving before being asked

Giving when you do not know the recipient’s identity, but the recipient knows yours

Giving when you know and the recipient’s identity, but the recipient doesn’t know yours.

Giving when neither party knows the other’s identity.

Enabling the recipient to become self-reliant. 

 As Christians and indeed anyone believer or not I think we need to consider the concept of tzedakah. It teaches us to show love in a tangible way to people.
The Talmud tells this story,
“Rabbi Akiba was asked by a Roman general, “Why does your God who loves the needy not provide for their support Himself?”  He answered, “God the Father of both the rich and poor, wants the one to help the other so as to make the world a household of love.”
                                                                                                            The Talmud.
Question: are you making the world a household of Love?
Please think about it.

An Obligation

An Obligation

“Not until the creation and maintenance of decent conditions of life for all men are recognized and accepted as a common obligation of all men and all countries—not until then shall we, with a certain degree of justification, be able to speak of mankind as civilized.”
                                                                             Albert Einstein
As soon as I’ve posted this I will be going to the Jesus festival held annually in our city. It’s a time when the predominantly smaller churches get together to celebrate Jesus in a park in the centre of our small city.
We give away free food and other things without obligation to anyone who comes.
As I prepared things for it I was curious to find out what Canada’s poverty level was. I knew it was in the teens.
According to the Canada without poverty website an anti-poverty website,
“1 in 7 (or 4.8 million) people in Canada live in poverty.... Marginalized Groups: Members of society that are especially vulnerable to poverty including persons living with disabilities, single mothers, Aboriginals, elderly individuals, and racialized communities
21% of single mothers in Canada raise their children while living in poverty (7% of single fathers raise their children in poverty).
People living with disabilities (both mental and physical) are twice as likely to live below the poverty line.”
The United States is not much better, according to one source
“In 2013, 45.3 million people lived in Poverty USA. That means the poverty rate for 2013 was 14.5%.” (That’s more than the population of Canada)
The same report says,
“Poverty does not strike all demographics equally. For example, in 2013, 13.1% of men lived in Poverty USA, but 15.8% of women. Along the same lines, the poverty rate for married couples in 2013 was only 5.8%–but the poverty rate for single-parent families with no wife present was up to 15.9%, and for single-parent families with no husband present over 30%.”
These are appalling statistics for two developed countries.
Sheldon Danziger  the director of the National Poverty Centre at the University of Michigan said  he was especially impressed by a figure showing Canada and the U.S. have the same relative child poverty rate -- 25.1 The chart also showed that after government taxes, benefits and other social programs, Canada's child poverty rate drops to 13.1, while America's barely budges, hovering above 23.1 percent.
The thing is be it 13.1% or 23.1% this is an horrible statistic. That no civilized society should stand for.
I believe it was Saki Knafo writing in the Huffington post in 2012 quoted, Jane Waldfogel, a professor of social work at Columbia University, who wrote about how the labour government in the United Kingdom approached the poverty problem, she writes
“that the Labour Government's efforts to combat child poverty in the U.K. were "larger and more sustained than in the United States." Shortly after he became prime minister in 1997, Tony Blair found himself staring at a UNICEF report similar to this new one, except that England's child poverty ranking was much higher.
So Blair's government instituted programs modelled after former U.S. President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. The U.K. developed Sure Start -- an early-care program for low-income children similar to the U.S. Head Start. British families could apply for the Working Tax Credit, similar to the U.S. Earned Income Tax Credit.
The Labour Party spent more on these programs, even as the U.S. spent less, and within five years the number of children living in "absolute poverty" in the U.K. had fallen by half. According to the UNICEF report, 12.1 percent of British children now live in relative poverty -- nearly half the percentage of American children.”
Twelve point one percent is still high but a step in the right direction and it shows if there is a government will poverty can be reduced if not eliminated.
We as individuals need to be speaking to our Government representatives and urging them to do more. After all what better way to spend tax money than directly on the poorest members of our society.
I as a Christian ask Christian to heed the words of James when he wrote in his Epistle,
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?  
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  
If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.  
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. 
You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?” 
                                                                                                          James 2:14-20.
The Talmud states,
“When a man appears before the Throne of Judgment, the first question he is asked is not, “Have you believed in God?”  Or “Have you prayed and observed the ritual?  “He is asked: “have you dealt honourably and faithfully in all your dealings with your fellow men?”
                                                                                                                      The Talmud
Whether we are a Christians, a Jews, someone of other faiths or for that matter atheist, is not showing compassion and helping the poor anyway we can only the humane thing to do?
Is not helping the poor of our society a way of dealing honourably with our fellow man?
Please think about it.