40acts: Ready to ActSample

Act 20: Be Prepared

Wanting to help is one thing; being equipped to do so is another. With a particular eye on the homeless, today you’re going to go out all set-up for offering help. So, before you leave the house, fill your bag with every conceivable item that will fit. Think of packets of tissues, a phone charger, vouchers for food and drink. Be imaginative. Be kind. Be on your way.

We have endless questions about the homeless people we come across in our lives. What about those who’ll use our money for drugs? What do we do about systemic solutions? When do I stop giving money? These are all real questions. But ultimately, we are called to be generous. When our questions get in the way of the concrete help we could be giving, we’re missing the point.

Isaiah 58, along with the loud, consistent cry of the rest of scripture, calls us to recognise the poor almost as if they were our own family. ‘What is the kind of fast God wants?’ Isaiah asks. ‘Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh’ (58:7)? It invites us to bring the poor into spaces we usually keep for our closest and most loved: our house, our meals, our monthly budgeting. 

All over the Bible, from didactic prophets like Isaiah, to wisdom books like Proverbs, to the very words of Jesus himself, our generosity to the poor is front and centre. It’s not just a nice idea for when we have a bit of extra pocket money to give away. Isaiah gives it a higher value than ‘spiritual activities’ like fasting and interceding. It’s treated with a priority we might not accept and might not give it ourselves. It is the rallying cry of major and minor prophets, the persistent heartbeat of Jesus’ ministry. 

Through Isaiah, today, God is opening up an invite to a way of life that puts the poor front and centre, and gives us a prized position as the givers of life and bringers of hope. Will we take the invite?