The Least of These

Red Skelton (1913 - 1997), was an American comedian who dedicated his life to making people laugh with clean comedy. He had a regular TV show in the 50’s and 60’s and ended every program by bidding his audience, “God bless.” Before TV came along he performed on radio and while there created a cast of characters which became his unique and signature claim to fame. One of these characters was Freddie the Freeloader (pictured above,) a hobo who lived in the city dump and often slept on a park bench.

How would the church receive such an individual should they appear at services some Sunday morning? I’m not talking about a Red Skelton character Freddie. I’m asking what if an actual hobo from the city dump came to a Sunday morning worship service? He might not be very clean. His clothes might be quite ragged and frumpy. It’s quite likely he wouldn’t smell very good. How would the church react to his presence?

This is not an easy situation, all black and white with simple choices. There is a lot to think about here. And really, the question for us to answer is not, “How will the church react?” The real question is, “How will I react?” All of us together with our individual reactions will be the determinant of how the church reacts.

James specifically addressed this issue. In James 2:1-13 (please read), he writes of two men coming into the assembly. One man is wearing a gold ring and fine clothing, the other is a poor man in shabby clothing. He points out how typical human nature is to “pay attention to the one who wears fine clothing and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ while you say to the poor man, ‘you stand over there,’ or, ‘sit at my feet [a sign of lowliness].”  Does that describe what you might do?

In verse 4 James tells us that the attitude of heart that brings about such behavior makes us “judges with evil thoughts.”  Behaving, actually thinking, in this way dishonors the poor (vs 5), disobeys royal law (vs 8), and is committing sin (vs 9.) Perhaps none of us will admit that we would do anything like this, and I hope we are being truthful, but at the same time we all know this kind of thing does occur, not always, but at times. James says it should never occur.

There are so many statements in the Old Testament about respecting the downtrodden it is difficult to choose one. So I’ll list three. Exodus 22:22-23, “You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. If you do abuse them I will surely heed their cry, my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword.”  Proverbs 17:3, “Those who mock the poor insult their Maker.” Isaiah 10:1-3, “You who . . . turn aside the needy from justice and rob the poor of my people  . . . that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey! What will you do on the day of punishment?”

It is a matter of interest that when Jesus presented a picture of righteous and unrighteous people assembled before God’s throne on the day of judgement in Matt. 25:31-48 (please read), he doesn’t mention their keeping of doctrinal matters, but instead talks about their treatment of “the least of these my brethren”. There are enough other verses that make it clear that doctrinal matters are of utmost importance, but it is still interesting that Jesus didn’t even mention them here. In this presentation the difference is how people treated Freddie the Freeloader.

There are many Bible verses containing the message of respecting the poor. It is a major message that God has for us. There is room for only a very few in a five minute blog. One is in Matthew 22:1-14 (please read), the parable of the wedding feast. In short, when the invited guests wouldn’t come to the wedding of the king’s son, to the point some even killed those who had invited them, the king made war on them and sent his servants into the roadways to invite whoever they might find, regardless of the type of people they were.

While the point of the parable was that Jews had rejected Christ and the message would be taken to the Gentiles, I think it does no disservice to consider it applicable to rich vs poor or the socially acceptable vs Freddie. God wants Freddie invited into and accepted by his church. James makes this point in James 2:5, “did God not choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?”

The church, i.e. the members of the church individually, must not become comfortable with being a middle-class organization with a de facto social structure that says to the poor, “stand over there (you don’t belong here)”. That church is not God’s church. It is not the church Christ spoke of in Matthew 16:18, “I will build MY church.”

The church - we, you, I - should be out in the highways and the hedgerows inviting people to come worship God with us. When they come we should be welcoming, maybe get out of our pew and go shake their hand and introduce ourselves. Invite them to lunch, to come back to the next service. Show a personal interest in them. Everything that happens to the lowliest visitor should make them feel good about their decision to be there.

I have recently witnessed a case in which a church behaved as described above. They knocked on doors in a shabby trailer park offering rides to their worship services. A man with a prison record said he would go. He was picked up Sunday morning, went to the service and was invited to stay for a church dinner. Members showed an interest in him, discussed his situation. He was not working and they offered him work in their yards, mowing, planting, weed eating, etc. They took care of his needs.  He now is one of them, though his past is very off-putting.

Have you felt like you’re not doing enough? You would like to be more evangelistic? The above church is a great example of how we all should be. We need to get out of our comfort zones and take even simple actions. They were simply compassionate and caring, but it turned out to work evangelistically as well.

And this shouldn’t be only when we are inside the walls of the building. Most of the Freddie’s will not be found there until we find them outside and invite them in. But the Freddie’s are out there and God wants them in His church, and He wants them accepted by His church.