Do I have to take Isaiah 58:7 literally?.
It would be easy to dismiss this as specific to the people the author is addressing. We might add that homelessness is different in our time: Organizations are now the best way to help. There are numerous organizations and ministries worth financially supporting and serving as a volunteer or employee. (If you can't think of any, check out Love Wins Ministries.)
And collective efforts are fitting. After all, the prophetic author of Third Isaiah is addressing a people about what God desires as a moral way of life. Through organizations, people with and without homes are part of the same circles of concern. That’s like bringing people into one’s house, right?
I was more-or-less satisfied with such a response. Then a member of the homeless poor became more of a part of my life.
In the past couple of years my husband has struck up a friendship of sorts through conversations on the street in downtown Chicago. ("Friendship" may be the wrong word for a connection created from such an unbalanced situation.) After starting my job at the Century, I began sharing my husband’s commute four days a week, and I got to know the man as well. (I omit his name for the sake of his privacy.) We would help him get food and inquire about jobs, but mainly we listened to his concerns. Like friends, maybe.
A couple of months later, the man became ill. It was lung cancer, and he has had several stays at the public hospital near our house. We visited and prayed with him. He had reconnected with his family and was staying with them sometimes, though there has been continued conflict. When a relative called the room, he said we were his "friends from downtown."
Perhaps ironically, in growing closer to this man I have felt more strongly indicted by the words from the book of Isaiah. Why don’t we bring our friend from downtown into our house? Why have I been satisfied with collective responses without being willing to also make a personal sacrifice?
We have reasons for not inviting this man to live with us, some of them good ones. And we don’t know that he’d accept if we invited him. I got a reference for hospice care should the time come, care that would be better than what we could provide.
In the end, such reasoning doesn’t seem to be what I ought to take away from this passage. Isaiah speaks plainly, and it causes discomfort. God doesn’t call us to be wracked by guilt, but perhaps we are supposed to live with the discomfort rather than seeking the ease of rationalization. We are not excused from wrestling with the words of the prophets, words that resonate in our own time.
We are doing something. We could be doing more. We live in between the two.
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Going Only So Far
A wonderful piece, which I believe reflects the feelings of many who want sincerely to help those who are on the margins of our society. The very fact that your husband (and then you) approached this man and became acquainted (yes, I stop short of saying "friendship," which carries deeper connotations) with him, communicates concern, care, a kind of love. How many people would do that? We should not self-flagellate because we can go only so far; we do have to protect ourselves, our home, and, if they are part of the picture, our children. Organizations exist in part for that very reason: individuals can go only so far in caring for the homeless poor. God ultimately looks into the heart of people such as yourselves and is better able to discern the authenticity of our motives and the depth of our love.
living in between
Such an interesting and sharing paper. I read your verse and surrounding ones in both The Message and the Amplified Bible. You will notice an accent is also on family needs, one which resonates to the NT question, do we as parents give a stone when our child asks for bread. No. I have always taken that very seriously. When a child asks, we give on the positive not neutral or negative side.
Hospitality was practiced by the Good Samaritan, though it led to an inn, not his home as such. ( A possible comparison, hospice.)
My reading from both Bible translations brought quotes I want to remember:
Peterson doesn't number his verses but in Is. 58:8, The Message begins: "Do this and the light will turn on." (Possible needs of others have been enumerated for us to take care of.)
Ps.90, same trans., begins, "God it seems you've been our home forever." It may be the Holy Spirit is leading us to bring someone into our present physical home. It would be possible, I would think likewise, to bring the person we want to help into the warmth and dependability of our Christian love, walk, talk, concern, which might or might not include our home setting at present.
From the Amp. v. 6 the summation is "that you break every {enslaving} yoke." We are given, it seems, an opportunity to be creative and meet the needs as we are led. To be sensitive and discerning. God bless us all as we try to be more open and obedient.
Terrific consideration. A tension we live in.