For most of us the new year starts in earnest today since yesterday was the “observed” holiday; however, for a food pantry in Bound Brook it was back in full swing yesterday night. Set to open at 6 PM, people were already lined up by 4, mostly immigrants, some having literally arrived last week, people fleeing violence, poverty, or targeted due to their political activities.
Some were American out of work, struggling due to mental illness, lack of education, you know, the invisible poor we only see at pantries or social service organizations. The local health center was there, urging people to update their vaccinations, urging them to obtain health care, and listening to their health problems.
Poverty and its resulting social isolation doesn’t take a holiday or have the celebrations we associate with this time of year. A few months ago a person criticized our Old First website as focusing more on social justice than “the Gospel.” “But social justice is the Gospel,” I responded. The volunteers from the Bound Brook Presbyterian Church know that as, hopefully, should we all.
Prayer for the Day
Born into poverty, you, O Jesus, call us to care for the poor,
For you knew what it was to struggle to survive;
The princes and potentates cared only for their own power,
Casting aside the hunger of their people.
Grant, O God, that we work to change the world
So that the powerful will be brought down from their thrones.
In the name of the One who came to change the world,
Even Chrit Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Powerlessness and silence go together. We ... should use our privileged positions not as a shelter from the world's reality, but as a platform from which to speak. A voice is a gift. It should be cherished and used.
-Margaret Atwood, Canadian novelist
True compassion recognizes that a society that creates beggars needs to be totally restructured.
- Anne Braden, American civil rights activist (1924-2006)
The Lord has told you, O mortal, what is good,
And what does the Lord require of you,
But to do justice, and to love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6: 8