The following article by Don Blosser, a CMC member, was published in the Goshen News on September 5, 2009.

PASTOR’S PEN

Something is missing!

I have been watching with great interest the discussions on TV and in the press about Health Care. The dominant concerns that people seem to focus on are issues related to self (what am I going to lose,--how can I prevent that), greed (what will it cost me,--how can I avoid that), and a very narrow sensitivity to the human community (I have good health insurance, why should I care about the health of others). Members of Congress have excellent health care, yet many in Congress seem very reluctant to provide for others what we are providing for them.

Can we temporarily (just for this discussion) lay aside the political wrangling and sharp- tongued hostilities to talk together about this issue on a more important level? What is missing is the spiritual dimension that virtually all of us in Northern Indiana say is central in our lives. We claim to be people of God, and we worship God regularly. But have we forgotten the scriptural foundations that give meaning and direction to our lives? When we “who have” focus only on keeping what we have, even though that means millions of others will continue to “not have,” how does the Spirit of Christ, the message of Torah, or the words of Mohammed come alive for others through us?

Hear what is said about compassion and healing within the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions. The Koran contains numerous texts giving a message of concern for health, for food and for mercy for the poor. The Jewish Scriptures have the prophets proclaiming God’s intentions for all people to be whole and condemns those who abuse or destroy the lives of others. The Christian Gospels tell many stories of Jesus feeding the hungry and healing the sick. Yet today in America, Jewish, Christian and Muslim persons alike are dismissing the teachings of their respective scriptures. We promote national policies which bless us, but deprive other innocent people of affordable health care.

From my own Christian tradition, there is a story told by Jesus in Matthew 25. People are standing before God waiting to enter into their promised land. God invites one group to enter because (among other things) “I was sick and you looked after me”(NIV). Another group is rejected because they did not have compassion for the sick. They tried to argue their innocence: “when were you sick and we did not care about you?” The answer is clear, “when you refused to help the poorest around you, you did not help me.”

We seem to forget the benefits of living in a healthy community because we can not see beyond our own front porch. When we ignore what our religious beliefs (whether Christian, Muslim, or Jewish) require of us in helping those who are less fortunate, we are replacing God as the Center of our being, and in God’s rightful place we insert ourselves and our own needs.

As a result, we have become selfish and greedy. That selfish point of view effectively restricts our ability to show God’s concern for the one who lives next door. This, in turn, blinds us to the heart-wrenching stories of people within our own community. These are people who are our neighbors, who have no health care, and who are struggling to care for themselves and their families. There are more of these struggling families in our community than we want to realize. And often, they are more like us than we think. We need to hear their voices. But we are afraid to listen to them because they might challenge the security and comfort of a life that has been very good to us. They worry about their health (or the health of their children). They face severe economic pressure, harassment and exclusion by the system, and many live in fear of losing their homes, their retirement and their dignity. It is their voice that God calls us to hear. Unfortunately, the current political discussion seems to be bringing out the worst in us.

God’s concern for the health and healing of every human being is a dominant theme in our religious beliefs, but it has gotten lost in our daily practice. The humanity of a nation is not seen in the military power it exerts over other nations, but in how they care for the weakest and the most vulnerable among their own people.

I pray that religious people: Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and all other religious communities, might come together in recognizing that how we are responding on this issue grieves the heart of God and defies what we claim to believe. I pray that we would return to the core tenants of our separate faiths! I pray that we might recover our vision of God and determine to put the legitimate needs of others who suffer ahead of our selfish demands for the protection of our own abundance in well-being. Perhaps then, we might all live without fear of what will happen if we or one of our children ever gets sick.

We have allowed this discussion to become a divisive political issue of money, greed and self protection, rather than seeing it as a religious issue of health and wholeness for all people. We want health care for ourselves, but if helping my neighbor receive health care means that we will have to share our doctor, our hospital access, our essential drug benefits, or even a small bit of our own money, we set our faith aside and put ourselves at the head of the line, refusing to heed the struggles and stress faced by our neighbors (all the while telling them that God loves them, even though we effectively ignore them)!

With this approach of self-centered protection of what we have, and lack of concern for what others don’t have, is it any wonder that many in the world look upon Church, Synagogue and Mosque as being irrelevant, and even un-Godlike in our message and our treatment of others?

Let’s reflect again on the generosity of God that we have received in abundance, so that we will reach out to the poor and the uninsured around us. Let’s show our community that the people of God care about others with the same self-giving intensity that God shows in caring about us. Health Care is not just a political issue---it is a God issue, a matter of faith in God and obedience to God for us all.

We have lost something wonderful! I pray that we might recover it!

Rev. Donald Blosser, PHD is a retired pastor in the Mennonite Church , a former Professor of New Testament at Goshen College, and an active member of College Mennonite Church.