"The poor and oppressed are sacramental," Tony Campolo began his speech to a crowd of eager students and educators clinking forks on plates in the University of San Diego's conference hall. He went on to explain, eliciting exclamations of "preach it!" and "Amen!" from the mild-mannered crowd, that being involved with the poor should be just as foundational to faith as the act of communion. To illustrate his point he related an experience a few years ago when he became involved mentoring and learning from the students who, with Shane Claiborne, began living in solidarity with the homeless who were in jeopardy of being evicted from a run down cathedral they had been living in (a story that can be found in Claiborne's book The Irresistible Revolution). As the college students lived and took part in communion with the poor, Campolo says, they were changed; they began to understand Christ’s vision of loving the poor. I would argue that this act of getting to know and serving with the poor was probably more of a communion with Jesus than the taking of a piece of bread or sip of grape juice ever could be.

This was not a new story, I had read it in The Irresistible Revolution and it had inspired me then. Today, however, it hit me in a new way. Intermingled in my brain with my recent re-reading of Mortensen's Three Cups of Tea, it formed some kind of healing paste to the rigidity of my thinking, much like Jesus’ healing mud and spit salve was to the blind man. Relationships are the key to really being able to bring about true social change. Relationships with local Pakistanis, for Mortensen in rural and very foreign Pakistan, were the key to rearranging the social structure of the small villages with small schools (they also helped keep the costs the costs down.) Close and honest relationships are also the same thing that makes Shane Claiborne’s simple way so effective and so inspirational. His group lives among the poor and serves them, not from a distance with all the answers to make their lives better, but from within, valuing their ideas and empowering them to begin change on their own.

I was taught in church year after year that it was about relationships, but despite that we continued to create programs to serve our needy students. In my high school everyone knows that relationships are the backbone to teaching, but walk into a classroom and you won’t see most teachers really relating to and conversing honestly with their students. (This year that has been my focus, with good and bad results, but that will be the subject of another post.)

So the question then, is what do we make of Campolo’s and Jesus’ charge to meet the poor and needy head on? His suggestions: First, live together to support one another. Check. And secondly, this one made me cringe a bit (I stick my head in the ground like an ostrich with the mention of anything confrontational), was to go out into the community and simply ask to talk with and “pray for a blessing on people.” Whether that is the solution or not, it had a rather pleasant ring to it. Meet people, and as they talk to you, consider their needs and wants and see what our community can find out about connecting them to groups or organizations that could help them (find jobs, get food stamp assistance, find a handyman, get homework help, learn sweet soccer skills). It does sound rather ideal and also uncomfortable, but it sure appealed to my naïve and idealist nature. Share with me your thoughts…