I frequently find myself seeing people suffering from poverty on the news or around me and feeling utterly helpless. I keep thinking, I so desperately want to bring change into that, but what could I possibly do? Maybe I can buy a meal deal for the homeless man on the corner, but beyond that, I’m not of much use. At Worship. Works, one of our main priorities is to use our work to transform nations, and one of the indicators we use for a transformed nation is the elimination of systemic poverty. At first, that sounded really heavy to me! Surely the work of eliminating poverty could not possibly be achieved by us, and surely little old me had no part to play in such a mammoth goal! So, am I too small to make big changes?
Poverty, the fall, and the gospel
In the journey of exploring this aspect of life at Worship.Works, it was necessary first to understand how the gospel speaks into eliminating poverty. During the fall, when God curses Adam, he says “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil, you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food…” (Genesis 3:17-19a). It is clear to see here that poverty is a result of the fall, Adam’s curse included ‘painful toil’, the ground producing ‘thorns and thistles’ and rather than living in God’s abundant providence, the sons of Adam would eat ‘by the sweat of [our] brow’. It is clear to see then that there’s been a curse on how we work and a removal from God’s abundant providence. As Christians though, we know that’s not the end of the story! Jesus came to make all things new, and importantly, he empowers us to carry out his work of redemption and renewal. In Matthew 25, we get a picture of what that looks like. Jesus tells the parable of the sheep and the goats, wherein the King commends the chosen sheep for feeding him when he was hungry, giving him a drink when he was thirsty, inviting him in when a stranger, clothing him when he needed clothes, looking after him when he was sick and visiting him in prison. When the righteous ask when they ever did this, the King answers, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ After Jesus ascends into heaven, we see another glimpse of this in Acts 2:44-45, ‘All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.’ It is a clear narrative in the gospel that poverty belongs to a broken world, and in Jesus, it is to be redeemed and renewed.
Poverty and our part to play
Knowing this narrative of redemption and renewal in Christ leads me to think, maybe it’s true that I’m not too small to make big changes. At Worship.Works, that looks a few different ways. Firstly, it’s prayer! As marketplace ministers, we pray for our clients, who very much have the ability to effect change on a grand scale! We pray that through them, we might be able to bring God’s kingdom to different nations. We also give away a large percentage of our profits to help those in need. What a blessing to be able to effect change through our work! The question remains though, what about little old me? James 1:27 calls us to a true religion which looks like this, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” So to look after orphans and widows, or more broadly, those who are in need is the responsibility of all of God’s people. We can rest in knowing that God is using all the little things we do, and in His glory, using them to make a difference. I might not be able to eradicate systemic poverty on my own, but along with all of God’s people who are doing good works in faith, God will bring these to fruition. So I am able to see my part in it, being generous in time, prayer, and money, giving away what I can, and serving those in need wherever God has placed me. These works will ultimately be glorified, not because of me, but because of Christ.
Francesca Gan is a 2021 Worship.Works Graduate Intern. To find out how you could get involved, learn more about Worship.Works Graduate Programmes here.