Challenging the staus quo

"So, when was the last time anyone here sold something so that someone in need could eat?"

That was the question Steve asked as a group of us ate dinner together last month.  He was referring to Acts 2: 42-47 which reads: 

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common.  They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

 When Steve asked this, we all just stared at him and finally someone replied, "Never".  Someone else said something like, "I don't even think I have given up a luxory so that others could eat".  Ouch.  We all grimly agreed.  

I have been thinking about all of the excuses I make for not following the examples of the early Christians.  You know things like:

"It's a different time now"

"Didn't Jesus say that the poor will always be with you?"

"I mean I would end up poor if I gave it all away?"

"Be careful - you don't want to become a Communist!"

"Doesn't Jesus want me to have some happiness?"

"I worked hard for this possession!"

As Americans, we are the RICHEST people who have ever lived.  If you look at things from a global scale, evangelical Americans are among the wealthiest demographic in the world.  If this is true, why are their still children growing up on trash heaps in the Philippines?  Why are their still people dying of famine?  Why hasn't Haiti been rebuilt?  I know that the answers are complicated.  I know that some countries in the world have government structures that make it hard to give.  I know that there is corruption in many parts of the world.  I know that it's hard to know who to give to.

But I still think, that as a Christian, I can do more do help others.  I think that the real reason that we are not doing more is that we just really don't want to help people .  OR We are too consumed with our own  lives to really think about giving so that others can eat, have shelter/clothes etc.  

Here is a quote from Stephen Colbert - I don't agree with everything he says and I don't even know if how serious he was when he said this - but I think he is on to something here:  “If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”

Mr. Colbert is talking about us corporately as a nation - and I am looking at giving on an individual/voluntary level but I think he's right about something -  I don't give  because I am selfish.  Although I have dreams of being some sort of Mother Teresa - the truth that my budget often proves is that I want my best life now - even though the tenets of my faith teach that Jesus and HIS heavenly home are my reward.