Luke 6:20

"Blessed are you who are poor. . . "

Reflection by Donna Schaper

As we face the so-called debt crisis, and its debt "service," I keep thinking of the beatitude that says, "Blessed are the poor." It obviously means a blessing for those in debt.  Being "under water" in our own homes, being out of pocket, paying off  credit card debt or national debt are all more like curses than blessings. The curse comes from the exaggeration of the economy's importance in our lives.   It is important, but it's not as important as it thinks it is.

One of the hardest things I face now as a pastor is the way my unemployed congregants blame themselves for being out of a job.  Strangely, our cultural economy has decided that people who are poor or unemployed are "bad."  Their poverty must be their fault, which is one of the most convenient myths bankers and billionaires ever fictionalized.

Forgiveness of debt might be the route to the blessing Jesus promised.  It might start at home, as the Lord's Prayer wisely means when it says, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."  Blessing might be something that has to start in your heart first, before it goes to S and P or Equifax for a rating.  Our debts, in the form of self-blame and over-use of economic language, are forgiven.  What is bad news for bankers is good news for the poor.

Right now I feel the energy of most Americans resembles an unexploded bomb, a barn-bound horse, a root-bound plant.  We are all wound around the economy as though it were our lifeblood.  We are looking for a rebirth of wonder and blessing.  What might change us would be to understand debt as fundamentally a spiritual problem. How do you pay off debt?  You forgive it in another.  You receive the blessing, then, of the poor.  Maybe you even stop being so afraid of being poor and become poor.  Your favorite word is "Blessed."

Prayer

God of debtors, we pray for a release from banks and blame for blessing.  Amen.

About the Author Donna Schaper is the Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church in New York City. Her latest work is 20 Ways to Keep Sabbath, from The Pilgrim Press. Check out her work at www.judson.org.

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