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A couple of days before we arrived in Jakarta, a family that lives just around the corner from our current house experienced an unexpected tragedy.  A young man who had been sick for a couple of weeks suddenly deteriorated.  His family rushed him to the hospital, but it was too late, and the young man died from complications of hepatitis later that same day.  He left behind a 20 year old widow, Euni, and a two-year old daughter, Silvia.

Anywhere in the world, losing a husband and a father is a terrible tragedy, but it is particularly so in places like our community, where families already teeter between poverty and destitution.  Euni and Silvia are now left without any source of income and without many options for how they’ll attain their livelihood.

A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting with Euni on the dirt road just outside her house.  As usual, Mika was the center of attention, and when Mika grew tired and began to fuss, Euni ran into her house – a one-room affair – and then came out with a dirty rattle that she handed to Mika to play with.  Mika was delighted by it, and her fussing quickly changed to smiles.  Later, after announcing that I needed to head home to cook dinner, I tried to hand the rattle back to Euni. 

“Oh no,” she told me, “My daughter has two toys, so Mika can keep this one.”

As I walked home, washed the thick layers of dirt off of the rattle, and then listened to Mika shaking it around with glee, I kept thinking about Euni’s gift.  I couldn’t help remembering the story about the time that Jesus sat watching people put money in the treasury (Mark 12:41-44).  Many rich people gave some impressively large amounts, but it was the widow, who put in next to nothing, whom Jesus pointed out, “for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty, put in all that she had.”

And then there was the time that people were asking John the Baptist what it looks like to repent, and John answers, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same” – an answer, which to be honest, has always made me more than a little uncomfortable.  Even here in the slums, I have a lot more than two sets of clothing, and I get uncomfortable thinking about giving away all but one.  And yet here is a woman who has almost nothing, and who seems so much more prepared to live out this principle than I.

We came here in hopes of being able to help this community, to give to them, and yet I’ve been reminded by Euni’s gift of how much I have to learn from these people about things like generosity and community – from these people who know what it means to give out of poverty, while I’m still learning how to give out of abundance.

One of the strangest contradictions that Jesus pronounces during the Sermon on the Mount can be found in Luke 6:20, “Blessed are the poor,” He says.  It is an absurd thing to say, because in so many ways, the poor are not blessed – they go hungry, they are looked down upon, they don’t have a voice, they are forced to live in squalor, they don’t have access to all the things that we rich take for granted – education, health care, insurance, travel…  And yet…and yet, they are often so much more ready to live by the values of the Kingdom than we are.

Have mercy, Father!  Have mercy on Euni and Silvia in their poverty and grief.  Have mercy on the poor, who cry out daily, but whom the rest of the world does not want to hear.  And have mercy on us, the rich, who see you hungry and turn aside, who see you naked and do not clothe you, who see you sick or in prison and do not visit you, who grow too comfortable to follow the costly way of your Kingdom.  Have mercy on us.