If you have been following the news lately, you may have read about the proposed cuts to some of the essential programs like Food Stamps (SNAP), the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid that have been put forward by our House of Representatives.
If you’re in the 25th congressional district (Monroe County, NY), this is what some of those cuts would look like locally:
The 13,000 people who receive coverage under the Affordable Care Act in NY-25 would see their average premium go up by $1,900 per year — a 40% increase.
Many families would face even steeper consequences. A 60-year-old couple with a household income of $85,000 in NY-25 would see their health insurance costs increase by $5,208 per year — a 72% increase in premiums.
In NY-25, the 238,455 people on Medicaid are at risk of losing their health care under Republican budget plans.(This includes 95,106 children under the age of 19 and 26,000 seniors over 65 in NY-25).
Some of the more extreme budget plans threaten the 137,000 people in NY-25 who count on SNAP to put food on the table.
Sometimes when I read the scriptures, it seems like they could be written today as they address topics that seem to be in the news.
Isaiah 1 says to us today: “Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.”
“Orphans and widows” is the biblical language for saying “the most vulnerable in society,” and the Hebrew scriptures ALWAYS keep pointing to how we treat these groups as measures of how we’re doing as a collective.
The passage from Isaiah continues, “Come now, let us set things right, If you are willing, and obey, you shall eat the good things of the land; But if you refuse and resist, the sword shall consume you.”
As I mentioned in a previous post, I am not sure that this passage means that if we don’t follow God’s law, God’s going to come and get us so much as one consequence of not following this guidance leads to a situation of social unrest, fragmentation and inequality.
In 2009, academics Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson published their groundbreaking book The Spirit Level. In their book they argued very convincingly that greater levels of inequality in a society are bad for EVERYONE. A synopsis of their book states that “Almost every modern social and environmental problem – ill health, lack of community life, violence, drugs, obesity, mental illness, long working hours, big prison populations – is more likely to occur in a less equal society. The book goes to the heart of the apparent contrast between material success and social failure in many modern national societies.” I have found their work to be very compelling.
Isaiah knew this thousands of years ago, and thus gives us a “heads-up” about the “sword that will consume us.”
And indeed it has.
Well, at least maybe our religious leaders will be aware of this and acting to prevent it!
Jesus has something to say about religious “leadership.” In Matthew 23, he’s talking about the religious leaders when he says, “do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. The greatest among you must be your servant.”
Ouch!
Of course not all religious leaders in his time were like this, but many were. Just like in our age, so many religious leaders aligned with power and privilege instead of the needs of the people (the orphans and widows). They talked a good game, but they lived very differently. Justice was not their aim.
Lent continues to be a great opportunity for us to keep reflecting on our relationship to the modern “orphans and widows.” To what degree are we connected in meaningful ways to some of society’s most vulnerable people? To what extent do our economic and political decisions consider the needs of the most vulnerable? To what degree does our advocacy include their perspective, their priorities and their voices?
And if we are in leadership in any capacity, our Lenten reflections might turn our attention to our own actions as leaders (even if we are not religious leaders). To what degree are we servant-leaders? Are we asking people to do things that we are not prepared to do ourselves? How do we use our position and influence? To what degree do we exercise public courage to center the lives and experiences of people (even within our organizations) who have been marginalized?
As Isaiah told us, the present moment offers us the invitation to “come, let us make things right…make justice your aim.” No matter who we are or what position we hold in this world, we can take meaningful steps to make things right – personally, in our own relationships and in our collective. And as Martin Luther King once famously said, “Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.”
For today, in your quiet prayer time, talk to God about the vulnerable ones in our world. Ask if there are other ways that you might be of service. Talk to God about what needs to be “set right” in your own life or in your own relationships. And talk to God about your own vulnerabilities and needs. These are important too. Let your God, who loves you more than you know, hold you in the quiet and tend to you.