Download a digital copy (1.5 MB) - Open Door Community

90 ˜ A Work of Hospitality, 1982–2002
waiting in lines. We have arrived at a point in this country of feeling that we
have been too nice to the poor. The poor, this way of thinking says, need to feel
the pain of being down-and-out in order to get their lives in order.
None of this, I must say, is new. In fact, we can look at this view as a modern
version of the idea that poor folks are lazy. This way of thinking represents
a mean-spirited and morally bankrupt value system that flows from values this
culture promotes. Chief among these values is the idea that the individual controls
their personal well-being. That is, society and the “haves” are not to share
any blame, or responsibility, for the presence of homeless people. Therefore, as
“haves” we should not be placed in a situation in which the “have-nots” can spoil
our enjoyment of privilege by begging or smelling bad.
I want to close by quoting one of my favorite addresses by Dr. King:
Jesus told a parable one day, and he reminded us that a
man went to hell because he didn’t see the poor. His name was
Dives. He was a rich man. And there was a man by the name
of Lazarus who was a poor man, but not only was he poor, he
was sick. Sores were all over his body, and he was so weak that
he could hardly move. But he managed to get to the gate of
Dives every day, wanting just to have the crumbs that would
fall from his table. And Dives did nothing about it. And the
parable ends saying, “Dives went to hell, and there was a fixed
gulf now between Lazarus and Dives.”
There is nothing in that parable that said Dives went to
hell because he was rich. Jesus never made a universal indictment
against all wealth. It is true that one day a rich young
ruler came to him, and he advised him to sell all, but in that
instance Jesus was prescribing individual surgery and not setting
forth a universal diagnosis. And if you will look at that
parable with all of its symbolism, you will remember that a
conversation took place between heaven and hell and on the
other end of that long-distance call between heaven and hell
was Abraham in heaven talking to Dives in hell.
Now Abraham was a very rich man. If you go back to the
Old Testament, you see that he was the richest man of his day,
so it was not a rich man in hell talking with a poor man in
heaven; it was a little millionaire in hell talking with a multimillionaire
in heaven. Dives didn’t got to hell because he was
rich; Dives didn’t realize that his wealth was his opportunity.
It was his opportunity to bridge the gulf that separated him
from his brother, Lazarus. Dives went to hell because he