What Isaiah 58 and Proverbs 14:21 Ask of Us About Hunger

There are passages of scripture that are easy to admire and hard to live with. Isaiah 58 is one of them. Proverbs 14:21 is another. They are both on our Hunger page, and we return to them whenever we are tempted to treat hunger as a problem for specialists, far away from our own table.

We are not a food program, and we will not pretend to be one. We are an awareness effort, based in Seattle, and our job is to help people see their neighbor. Here is what these two passages ask of us, and some ordinary ways a family or a group can answer.

Proverbs 14:21 and the word “despise”

The proverb is short: “He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who is kind to the needy.” Most of us would say we do not despise anyone, and we mean it. But the word covers more than hatred. To despise is to look past, to treat someone as not worth our time, to let their need register as a mild inconvenience.

Set against that is a blessing for the person who is kind to the needy. Notice the proverb does not say kind in theory, or kind in opinion. It says kind. The blessing goes to the one who acts. Our Hunger page puts it in the first person, as if the hungry person were speaking: “I am your neighbor. Would you help me if I was your son?”

What Isaiah 58 says fasting is for

Isaiah 58 begins with people who are fasting and wondering why nothing seems to happen. The answer comes in a series of questions: “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter, when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”

The surprise is that the fast God desires is not mainly about the one fasting. It is about the one who is hungry. Giving up a meal matters when it becomes a meal shared. Then comes a promise: “Then your light will break forth like the dawn.” A little later, the passage says, “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”

Two phrases in there deserve a second look. One is “the pointing finger and malicious talk.” Hunger attracts blame, as if people had earned their empty plate. Isaiah puts blame in the same sentence as oppression. The other is “spend yourselves.” That is a costly verb. It suggests time, attention and effort, not only spare change.

Simple things a family or group can do

We do not have a program to offer you, and we will not name organizations here. Instead, here are ordinary ideas that families and groups in Seattle can start this month. You can adapt them to your own season and means.

• Give to an established, well-run food bank or meal program near you. Take a little time to look into who they are and how they use gifts, and then give steadily rather than once.
• Share a meal. Cook extra and invite a neighbor, a widow, a new family at church, or someone who eats alone. Isaiah’s language of sharing your food is not abstract.
• Volunteer together. Many established food programs welcome help sorting, packing and serving. Going as a family or small group makes the day more meaningful and less awkward.
• Pray as a household for the hungry people in your own neighborhood, and ask God to show you one person to help.
• Keep a bag or box for the pantry in your home all year, and let the children decide what goes in.

Start where you are

It is tempting to wait until we can do something large. The abolitionists did not wait. A medallion, a conversation, a small gift passed hand to hand: this is how movements begin. Our own mission says it simply: “Together we can make a difference, whether you are one person, a family, or a group.”

If you lead a group, you might spend one meeting reading Isaiah 58:6-11 aloud, then ask each person to name one specific thing they will do before the next meeting. Specific beats ambitious. “I will bring a meal to a neighbor on Thursday” will happen. “I will help end hunger” will not, at least not that week.

Care for the person, not only the problem

King Tribe’s conviction is that we need to reach out to the individual who is caught up in a hardship with love and compassion, not only to talk about the hardship. When you share a meal, learn a name. When you give, give with respect. The person who receives the food is the one the prophet calls your own flesh and blood.

If your family or group takes up one of these ideas, we would love to hear about it. Write to us at ken@kingtribe.com.