What is the responsibility of the church to elderly
women among their numbers? To widows? To
fatherless children? To foreigners/aliens in our midst? The list could
go on: the needy, the disabled both within and outside the church.
The question is: what is our responsibility to those
around us, especially to the family of God, those of “the household of faith”
(Galatians 6:10), who are the most vulnerable and dependent, those unable to
care for themselves?[1]
This question is, for us, not academic, not
theoretical. We have been staring at it for several months and it has a face
and a name. “Kay”[2]
is a sister in the Lord, now in her seventies, a real person, not a
hypothetical example. She is now well past retirement age, though she has kept
on working as long as she had good health, which, for most of her life she has
enjoyed. Now through a confluence of various circumstances she has been facing
frightening realities: She is alone in the world, never married, no family to
care for her as she ages, with health problems hindering her ability to work
and provide for herself as she has been accustomed to. Unfortunately, in our
society age discrimination is also against her employability. Her savings are
dwindling and she is afraid she will lose her little one bedroom condo in the
retirement village in which she has lived for 25 years. She imagines herself on
the street. We protest: this will never happen as long as we are here.
“We” are the members of our weekly small group Bible
study affiliated with our large church. Randy was asked to take over leadership
of this struggling group not long after we became members of the church. We
take this pastoring and teaching responsibility seriously. We are a “church
within the church”. We are called to “be the church” to others.
So what is our responsibility to our sister, a
single lady, who is facing such dire straits, who confesses to going through a
“crisis of faith”? First, we listen to her. She feels safe enough among us to
be vulnerable and share her fears. We
pray for her, laying hands on her and beseeching God to intervene on her behalf
to meet her needs as He sees fit, as has another prayer group from church of
which I am also a member. But we know we cannot stop there, for God works
through His people. We are sometimes the answer to our own prayers. Some of us
have looked into options in housing for her. We have assured her that if the
worst happens (i.e.: she loses her home) we would take her in. And we mean it.
Dear “Agnes”, 80+ years old, who lives in the same retirement village, was the
first to say it. For at least six months we have besought the Lord for wisdom
and direction for this particular situation.
The scriptures admonish us to bear one another’s
burdens, thereby fulfilling the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2). That law is the one
commandment Jesus gave His followers (John 14:34, 35). It is only one
commandment because love is the fulfillment of the Law of God; all the other
commandments, as well as the rest of scripture, are summed up in that one
decree (Matthew 22:36-40). And it is that by which the whole world will know we
belong to Jesus Christ, this love for one another—love lived out.
We meet on Thursday evenings for our small group
Bible study. Last night Kay shared an answer to prayer. We listened as she told
of a couple, longtime friends, who visited her and made the commitment to pay
her mortgage. God had blessed them financially and they wanted to use His
blessing to bless others. They are also paying another lady’s mortgage.
Were we rejoicing in amazement? Were we clapping our
hands in joyful expressions of thanks and praise to our God? You betcha! Randy
called us to worship our Lord for His great goodness, for His faithfulness to
His child, for hearing our prayers for our sister. We worshiped with tear-filled
words of gratitude and love for this God who is Love. What a way to start a
Bible study (the prearranged topic of the evening being the importance of the
local church and discipling)!
The couple who stepped out and made this commitment
(legally drawn up) is “being the church” to these ladies. Their act is
producing much praise and thanksgiving to God (II Cor. 9:12-13). We, too, in
our small group, are being the church to our sister in our small ways. Indeed,
we are the church, the body of Christ, to one another. And to others outside
our group, outside the church.
We are reaching out to a homeless couple, expecting
their first child next week ….
