c. 2005 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) Goodwill Industries, it turns out, will be happy to accept the free-standing basketball goal that my son no longer needs. Three of us _ neighbor, son and self _ load it into a pickup truck and carry it to Goodwill.
This is what “help” is about. Something I cannot do alone becomes possible when others pitch in. Our effort, in turn, will help another child to shoot hoops.
The world works better when families and neighbors work together. Socializing is fine, but I have never found better relationship-building than shared work. When you help a neighbor clear a field, clean up after a storm or deal with grief, friendship blossoms and a pass-along of goodness continues.
Last Saturday, for example, my son and four schoolmates performed string music at a pre-symphony party for young professionals. The event helped the students by affirming their developing skills. They helped the symphony build bridges to its next generation of moneyed patrons. They, in turn, will help a civic-minded orchestra pass along the gift of music in special programs.
The giving and getting balance out. But if any participant stops the flow, the pass-along fails. For example, if the kids had taken the opportunity too lightly, they would have offended their host. If the guests had dismissed a student quintet as quaint or their due, they would have disgraced themselves. If the symphony forgets its stewardship of music itself, their venture and their community are impoverished.
As fundamental as this might be, we all need reminding that helping others is essential to a healthy community, that everyone needs help from time to time, and the only disgrace lies in refusing to help or in absorbing help without passing it along.
Our American economy seems mired in me-first, all-mine attitudes, in which the wealthy absorb more and more at the expense of the poor, and then look down on the poor, even lobby against them, for needing help. In a rapacity that seems reminiscent of the 1880s, indeed of the final 200 years of the Roman Empire, the privileged press relentlessly for more government benefits, for fewer restraints on themselves and a tighter web of restraints on all others. The transfer of wealth into a few hands is staggering. We will be decades climbing out of the budgetary and ethical pit caused by these greedy attitudes.
Like any community, the ancient Hebrews got it right sometimes _ honoring the mutuality that was embedded in the Mosaic Law, caring for the poor and vulnerable, sharing wealth, forgiving debts, allowing the needy to glean their fields. At other times, they forgot their calling, and the few prospered at the expense of the many.
Prophets like Isaiah arose periodically to remind Israel of its higher calling. The people rarely welcomed this reminding, even when they were in exile. Greed and pride are powerful forces. But Isaiah understood: God helped him, so that he could help his people. Those who heeded his call to return to Zion would help the redeemed nation become, at last, a beacon to the nations, helping many to know God.
Or so it would go if they received help and passed it along.
MO/PH RNS END
(Tom Ehrich is a writer, consultant and leader of workshops. His forthcoming book, “Just Wondering, Jesus: 100 Questions People Want to Ask,” will be published by Morehouse Publishing. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C. His Web site is http://www.onajourney.org.)
