Recently I've been thinking about how the Church typically approach ministering to the poor. I think our first problem is that we are "ministering to the poor." This automatically sets up a dichotomy between ''us'' and ''them'', with us standing in a position of privilege, status and overall better-ness, holding out our helping hands to those we deem to be in need. I think the way of following Jesus calls us to a different approach- I think that the Church should stop ministering to the poor and start becoming poor. How could this not be one of the central implications of the Incarnation?

Jean Vanier, in his book, "Living Gently in a Violent World," says the following: 

We must not get caught up in the need for power over the poor. We need to be with the poor. That can seem a bit crazy because it doesn't look like a plan to change the world. But maybe we will change the world if we are happy. Maybe what we need most it to rejoice and to celebrate with the weak and the vulnerable. Maybe the most important thing is to learn how to build communities of celebration. Maybe the world will be transformed when we learn to have fun together. I don't mean to suggest that we don't talk about serious things. But maybe what our world needs more than anything is communities where we celebrate life together and become a sign of hope for our world. Maybe we need signs that it is possible to love each other.

I don't think taking your youth group to the downtown core to pass out sandwiches and socks to homeless people is all that convincing a sign of hope. I don't think volunteering at a soup kitchen is going to get people excited that there's a love strong enough to ignore financial and hygienic status. We need to get to the place where we're able to live in community with the poor- not visiting the poor communities, and not inviting the poor to visit our own communities, but rather building communities alongside them, as equals. This will have implications for where we build or buy our buildings, what kind of buildings we use, whether or not we'll have for-profit, Starbucks-wannabee coffee shops in our buildings- it might change a lot of what we do. But I think that's the message of the Incarnation: God became poor- this changes everything.