Dana Reardon - 'Go in peace! Serve the poor!"

'Go in peace! Serve the poor!'

I have told people before that just as Jesus stood at the treasury box and watched people putting in their offering, so I believe Jesus stands at the voting booth and watches people vote.

I am not convinced that Jesus is a Republican or a Democrat. What I think Jesus looks for is to see in whose interest we are voting.

At a colloquium on hunger I attended recently, the president of Bread for the World was talking about which candidates in both parties had done the most for the poor and the hungry. Do You know who they are?

While I have been following the national election, I must confess that I have not gotten to know the state and local candidates and their stand on the issues. I intend to do that in the next few weeks.

As I stood in back of church today and dismissed the congregation with the words that I borrowed from the intern at the congregation across town, "Go in peace, serve the poor," I got flack from a member who told me that I was supposed to say, "serve the Lord."

I told him it was the same thing. I believe that it is. And I believe that one way we do it is by looking out for those who need it the most. God has so richly blessed us that we can afford to care about those who need caring for. And that is precisely why God has richly blessed us.

Abraham was told that he was blessed to be a blessing and so are we.

Go in peace, Serve the poor

Thanks be to God!

The Rev. Dana Reardon is pastor at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Warwick, RI. A lifelong Lutheran, she came to ordained ministry after 21 years in nursing, mostly in pediatric intensive care. She graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1998 and served 4 ½ years in Upstate New York before becoming a New Englander. She is still trying to understand the accent. While in the Upstate New York Synod she chaired the Stewardship Team. That began her fascination with what makes stewards -- and more, what makes for generosity. She has three amazing daughters: Pastor Reardon says much of what she knows of life she learned from them.