Shouldn't The Church Be Doing This?

One of my primary projects for this summer is organizing the storage rooms of Martha’s.  This week a handful of very dedicated lay volunteers and I cleared out these two storage rooms, cleaned the space, installed new shelving units, sorted the various canned and non-perishable foods, and finally restocked the shelves.  In typical Katie fashion, I assumed I could take care of most of this task on my own.  Thankfully, one of our frequent volunteers, Miss G, saw through my ambition/arrogance/stupidity and brought her teenage grandkids to help with the task.  I spent 11 of the past 30 hours lifting, moving, and cleaning in that un-air conditioned triple wide trailer.  There was a lot of sweating, laughing, frustration, cursing, and the occasional paper cut; but we pushed through and finished it. 

Today, during our post-work pizza luncheon of celebration Miss G’s grandson asked me why more people didn’t come help us.  I told him was because I didn’t tell a lot of people about it and then attributed the especially low turn out to the 100 plus temperatures.  He looked at me with the brutal honesty of a teenager and asked, “shouldn’t the church be doing this?  I mean, all of the church members need to be more involved in helping out with this stuff.  Why don’t more church people do more to help others?”  My interactions with this young man are limited to church functions.  I know very little about his personal life, and I have no idea what he has learned in church and Sunday school.  All this being said, he gave voice to the frustration I’ve wrestled with for several months now, “shouldn’t the Church be doing this?”

It is interesting hearing people’s reactions to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act.  My Facebook and Twitter friends range from sheer euphoria to seething anger, please note most of these people come from upper-middle class families and have at least a college education.  Here in Cameron, NC, very few people fit the descriptions of my peer group.  Many of them voiced their concerns and pleasures of the law being upheld, but in the midst of these conversations I keep thinking, “how did we let it get to this point where 20-30 million people are unable to get quality and affordable healthcare?”  The “we” I think about is the Church, the Christians in the United States.  Shouldn’t the Church have done more?

This Sunday’s Gospel lesson from the lectionary is Mark 5:21-43, the story of Jesus healing the hemorrhaging woman and raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead.  Some may call it a coincidence that the Supreme Court would announce their decision during this particular lectionary week, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a Spirit-led coincidence.  John Wesley often referred to God as “the Great Physician.”  Time and time again in scripture we’ll see stories of God healing people whether it be via the prophets, the apostles, or Jesus Christ.  God cares about our well being, and I think American Christians are severely mistaken if we don’t care about the health and well being of ALL of our neighbors.  I’m not saying ACA is perfect or it’s what Jesus would do for healthcare, but as Christians we can’t settle for a system that sends the message “I take care of me and my own, everyone else is on their own.”  Christians of all stripes: clergy, laity, doctors, nurses, PA’s, NP’s, and non-medical folk need to prayerfully reflect on the question, “shouldn’t the Church be doing this?” as we look at the gaps and disparities of our healthcare system?