Embracing an Outlook of Hope: Rick Steves

One of the great blessings of my life is the inspiring people I have come to know during my long career fighting against hunger and poverty. Rick Steves is one of those people. I feel fortunate to call him a friend.

I was delighted when I opened the New York Times last weekend to see a feature article titled, “Rick Steves Refuses to Get Cynical About the World.” I urge you to read the uplifting interview.

What an appropriate headline! Optimism is one of the things I really admire about my friend. He sees possibility instead of despair, approaches the world with curiosity instead of cynicism. To me, that is a faith-filled perspective that we all should strive for. It strikes me that this is also the formula that advocates have been using to make progress against hunger and poverty for years. I’ve been lucky enough to travel with this good man and be inspired by his optimism. I have seen the way he looks at the world as a place of possibility—an outlook we share.

A few years ago, Rick released a documentary titled, “Hunger and Hope: Lessons from Ethiopia and Guatemala.” The program is full of examples that show how innovative solutions reduce poverty. 

In the program, Rick says, “When we act collectively, we do make a difference.” I know this to be true. My life’s work has been alongside hopeful people—like Rick—who refuse to let cynicism stand in the way of action. And the good news? There’s always room for more people to join us. 

P.S. It’s the holiday season and each year, Rick helps raise money for Bread for the World. Help spread hope this year with your year-end donation.

God and Poverty, according to St. Luke

Eastman Johnson. The Lord is My Shepherd. 1863, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

This is a season of waiting - in our country, waiting to see what President-Elect Trump will do; on the church calendar, waiting for the coming of Christ. I’ve been studying the biblical books of Luke and Acts, both written by the same author.  

Jesus’ main message was that the kingdom of God is coming into the world, and he was clear that God’s purposes include liberation for poor and needy people.  Luke stresses the theme of poverty in Jesus’ teaching.

Jesus uses a messianic passage from the prophet Isaiah to announce his mission:  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor”  (Luke 4:18).

Jesus healed people with terrible diseases, freed people who were out of their minds (possessed by demons), and fed hungry people.  His miracles are signs of the coming kingdom.

Luke’s wording of the Beatitudes is clear that the kingdom of God will include radical political and social change:     

“Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. . .

 But woe to you that are rich” (6:20, 24).

Jesus instructed devout, well-off people to give their money to the poor. That was almost always  a conversation stopper. But Zacheus, a wealthy tax collector, was an exception. Tax collectors were seen to be crooks, but Jesus befriends Zacheus, and Zacheus responds by giving away half of his wealth and making reparation payments to people he had cheated.

Jesus was executed because he posed a threat to religious and political authorities. The Roman Empire extracted wealth from conquered territories, relying on local authorities to collect taxes. The collaborating authorities in Jerusalem were the High Priest and Sanhedran, supported by tax collectors and soldiers. They all enriched themselves in the process of collecting taxes.  Jesus repeatedly spoke out against the religious establishment, partly for taking money from widows and other needy people. 

Three of the four gospels conclude with the resurrection of Jesus, but the gospel of Luke leads into the Acts of the Apostles. Acts recounts how the post-resurrection message of God’s forgiving love and the presence of the Holy Spirit spread from Jerusalem throughout the known world, and even to Rome itself.

Help for poor people and other people in trouble spreads with the Christian gospel - the early Christian community sharing their goods in common, the appointment of deacons to care for people in need, Christian individuals who are cited in Acts as models of charity.  When the church in Jerusalem was under persecution and in great need, the growing global community of Jesus followers took up a collection to help them. 

Justice for people in poverty is not the main message of Luke and Acts.  But from beginning to end, it’s clear poor and needy people are close to the heart of God and that their liberation is part of God’s purpose for humanity.

This is a Good Time to Read the Bible

President-Elect Trump has made some frightening Cabinet choices. He and his team, including Elon Musk, are saying frightening things about what they want to do. Our country and the world are still confronted by interlocking crises - extreme weather events, massive hunger and poverty, aggressive authoritarian powers, and many violent conflicts. I wish our incoming government well, but it seems unlikely that they will make things better.

It’s a good time to read the Bible, and I’m now making my way through the gospel of Luke. The first chapters are about Jesus’ birth, John the Baptist, and the early days of Jesus’ public life.  What most strikes me as I read them now is how much they refer to the Roman Empire and to the kings and priests who served as its local agents. 

“In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria” (Lk. 2:1). Rome imposed oppressive taxes on the people it had conquered, and this empire-wide enrollment was designed to make sure everybody paid. For lots of families, that meant going without their daily bread. Many peasants were driven into impossible debt.

Luke’s account of John the Baptist starts with a detailed list of the governmental leaders of the day: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrach of the region of Ituraea and Trachnonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of the God came to John the son of Zachariah in the wilderness.”

This verse makes me smile - a wilderness preacher among all these powerful men. Yet the word of God came to John the Baptist.

After Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness he announces that God’s kingdom is at hand, “God has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

The promised kingdom of God will supplant the Roman empire, but the kingdom is also present right now. Sick people are healed. Blind people are given sight. Fisher folk are called to become missionaries. 

We’re like those fisher folk. We have relatively little power, but we carry the word of God and hope for a better world.  

I’m dealing with the stresses of our time by focusing on God’s forgiving love for humanity and on things I can do to make things better.