看見挨餓兒童的照片，總令我們心感不安。大約十五年前，我們對貧窮的理解大概只有這些從非洲來的照片、故事和數據。今天貧窮的情況已經大相徑庭。第三世界中的赤貧情況在過去二十年已急劇減少，因為有大型的國際慈善組織推行了大規模的糧食和健康計劃。「讓貧窮成為歷史」（Make Poverty History）運動預計，到了二○三○年，赤貧將不再存在。今天仍然有很多討論探究這種由海外提供大量援助的方法是否能長久地有效舒緩貧窮，因為這樣會造成受助者的倚賴。然而，相對於赤貧所帶來的潛在災難，這種做法確實能舒解某些困難；若然往後能推動有效配合當地發展的計劃，則可以幫助這些貧窮國家慢慢走上自給自足之路。
今天我們大部份人都受過教育、過著中產生活，確實沒有多少機會接觸赤貧。我們會傾向跟與自己有相同興趣和背景的人建立一些相對舒適的社交關係。貧窮似乎跟我們的日常生活沒有多大關係。因此，要為貧窮下個定義，或用一幅圖畫去表達貧窮的概念也許不容易。當我們更仔細、更有目標地去看見社會裡的貧窮情況，我們就會明白到「貧窮」的定義並不是那麼「一刀切」地劃分的。然後，我們會意識到社會中貧富懸殊的嚴重性，原來有五份一的香港人活在貧窮線下。我們會開始留意到「貧窮人」很可能就是一些在街上看見、在地鐵車廂裡坐在你旁邊的人。我們需要找一種新的方法回應這些每天跟我們擦身而過的人。
在聖經的時代也如此。耶穌說「常有窮人與你們同在」（可十四7），並不是說這是個不能解決的問題、所以不用處理，而是說這是個重要的、持續的問題，需要得到我們的正視和回應。當時用以應對社會窮人問題的社會保障之法就是多行施捨，然而上帝的律法和耶穌的教導不止於此，他們所強調的是對待窮人的態度以及個人的責任。我們已明白到公義就是要發現真理，並且實踐出來。這裡我們要明白的真理就是：上帝愛貧窮人。這種愛不只是「神愛世人」的愛，而是上帝特別注視窮人的需要，因為貧窮人正處於社會的邊綠、被鄙視、被忽略，他們也最容易因此而受到不公義的對待。
聖經也告訴我們貧窮人得到上帝特別的注意！「耶和華啊，困苦人的心願你早已聽見；你必堅固他們的心，也必側耳聽他們的祈求，為要給孤兒和受欺壓的人伸冤。」（詩十17-18，《和合本修訂版》，下同）而更重要的是，上帝要求我們、需要我們去執行祂的公義。「我所要的禁食，豈不是要你鬆開兇惡的繩（to loose the chains of injustice）……把食物分給飢餓的人，將流浪的窮人接到家中，見赤身的給他衣服遮體。」（賽五十八6-7）有時我們會覺得提供社會福利和關心貧窮人是政府的責任，但聖經清楚說明了我們的態度和行動都很重要。在神眼中，祂正正就是要透過富人來讓窮人能活得有尊嚴；祂沒有將這視為與基督徒生活分割的部份，而是將這看為我們靈性敬拜的一部份；缺乏這種心腸的話，我們對神的忠誠都有點站不住腳。
舊約裡有一個關於個人責任的好例子。除了要施捨窮人，神也吩咐以色列人收割莊稼的時候，不可割盡田角，而要留給窮人，讓他們拾取所遺落的莊稼。除了直接供應給窮人，這種做法同時鼓勵他們運用自己的勞力自給自足。比起施捨捐贈，這樣更能保全窮人的尊嚴。然而，這也要求地主有一份責任心，願意關注並供應給那些沒他那麼幸運的人。這正是我們追求上帝公義的方式——為那些被忽略和邊緣的人，給予一點個人的關注、負起責任。
當鄭家輝牧師開始在新界建立教會時，他發現年輕的會眾很難單憑他在講道裡談及公義，就願意向老人家伸出援手。然而，上帝透過一個關於教會事工有效性的問題向他說話：「如果你的教會結束了，社區裡會有人發現嗎？」於是，他首先由自己所開植的基督教迦南堂所位於的粉嶺屋邨開始，做了一點調查研究。他發現沒有人關心邨內的長者，因此便開始在星期日提供免費早餐和午餐，又遊說了幾位姊妹幫忙在教會內提供免費的剪髮服侍。漸漸地，教會有幾位弟兄姊妹都願意幫忙，而其他教友亦開始適應常有老人家一同在教會裡。教會關懷貧窮網絡幫忙為教會提供培訓，又連繫上一些能提供資源和援助的非牟利機構。
然後，鄭牧師帶著一群年輕人探訪附近劏房和板間房的居民。當年輕人看見這些惡劣的居住環境，又看見街坊多麼喜歡他們的到訪，便漸漸建立出一顆憐憫的心，也開始想出一些有創意的外展方法。兩年前鄭牧師開展事工時，只有十五位委身的探訪隊員；如今探訪隊已經超過一百人了，而且他的教會也增長得很快。現時他們會恆常地以小組形式教導學生有關貧窮、尊重長者、如何服侍社區，以及為社區舉辦不同特別活動的事情。鄭牧師再植了三間堂會，每一間堂會都同樣地委身服侍身邊的人。這正正活出了他教會的使命宣言：「非以役人，乃役於人」。
教會可以透過各樣不同的方法服侍社區，向被社會忽略的群眾伸出援手，不論是長者、窮人、尋求政治庇護的難民、露宿者、癮君子、弱勢社群、殘疾人士、慢性病患者，還是囚友等。鄭牧師發現，比起只被動地聆聽聖經教導而未有實踐，當教會的弟兄姊妹願意一同服侍社區，他們的生命都變得更為成熟。
（聶東尼牧師負責在灣仔葡萄藤教會促進公義事工，也是今年十月二十至廿一日亞洲公義特會的主席。大會誠邀讀者參與特會，詳情請覽www.thejusticeconferenceasia.com。本文資料和意念搜集自以下文章，謹此致謝：Good news about injustice（Gary Haugen）,The Justice Church（Jim Martin），以及跟鄭家輝牧師的個人訪談。英文原文請見下文。）
Poverty and Justice
By Tony Read
Pictures of starving children are never easy to ignore. About 15 years ago our understanding of poverty was probably defined by such pictures, stories and statistics coming from Africa. The picture today is very different. Abject poverty in the third world has fallen dramatically over the last twenty years due to large scale feeding and health programmes initiated by large international charity organisations. The ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign predicts that by 2030 abject poverty of this sort will have been virtually eliminated. Today there is much discussion calling in to question the long term effectiveness of bringing in large scale aid from overseas because of the dependency which this produces. However as an intervention in response to a potential disaster there is no doubt that this approach can turn around desperate situations and if followed by a well-executed programme of appropriate local development can lead countries out of a debilitating poverty mindset into self-sufficiency.
For most of us today living in fairly middle-class educated situations our day-to-day circumstances are not likely to come into contact with abject poverty. We are likely to develop fairly comfortable social relationships with people of similar interests and backgrounds. Poverty may seem rather more remote from our daily experience. In this situation it is a little harder to define poverty and to capture it with a single picture. We will have to look harder and be more purposeful in seeing situations of poverty in our own society and the boundaries of what might be considered poverty will be more blurred. We will then become aware of the large rich-poor gap in our society and of the nearly one fifth of the population in Hong Kong who live beneath the poverty line. In doing so we will begin to see that ‘the poor’ are many of the people we pass on the streets and sit by on the MTR. We need a new way of responding to the people we rub shoulders with everyday.
In biblical times it was very much the same situation. As Jesus said “the poor you will always have among you” (Mark 14:7) not to suggest that it was an insoluble problem so why bother, but to underscore that it was an important ongoing situation requiring a constant response. The official social security system of the day was almsgiving but God’s law and Jesus’ teaching looked far beyond that to an attitude of the heart and a personal responsibility. As we have seen justice is about recognising a truth and then doing it. The truth that we need to understand here is that God loves the poor. Not in the sense that God loves everybody but in the sense that his eyes are on the poor and needy because they are the outcasts of society, looked down on, not worthy of attention and because they are the ones most likely to suffer injustice by being overlooked.
However the bible shows us that it is the poor who have God’s special attention! “You hear O Lord the desire of the afflicted, you encourage them and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed” (Psalm 1017-18). And more than this it shows us that God requires us, needs us, to execute his justice. “Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice…to share your food with the hungry, and provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked to clothe him..” (Isaiah 58:8-7). We can sometimes think that it is government’s responsibility to set up systems of provision and care for the poor. But scripture shows us clearly that our own attitude and action is important. In God’s eyes it is the rich who are his means of enabling the poor to live with dignity, He doesn’t see this as a separate part of our Christian lives but as part of our spiritual worship without which the value of our devotion becomes questionable.
There is a very good example of personal responsibility provided in the Old Testament. Despite the official provision of alms for the poor, the Israelites were told not to harvest all the grain right up to the edges of their field but to leave the edges so that the poor could come along and glean what was left. This was both a provision and an encouragement for the poor to be able to exercise their own labour to help provide for themselves . It provided a sense of dignity which the handout denied. But it required the land owner to have a sense of responsibility, concern and desire to provide for those who were less fortunate than themself. This was how God’s justice is meant to be pursued - with a sense of personal concern and responsibility for those who are overlooked and marginalized
When Pastor Cheng started to plant small independent churches in the New Territories he found that it was difficult to get his young people interested in reaching out to the elderly just by listening to his sermons on justice. But God had impressed on his heart a statement questioning the effectiveness of church ministry ‘Would anybody in your neighbourhood notice if your church ceased to exist’. So he started by researching the public housing estate in Fan Ling where his Christian Canaan Church was planted and began to visit people personally. He discovered that no one was caring for the elderly in the estate, and began by first providing breakfast and lunch on Sundays and then persuading a few ladies to offer free haircuts in the church. Gradually a few people in his congregation started to help him and more people became comfortable with having the elderly around at church. The Hong Kong Church Network for the Poor (HKCNP) helped him with training and in connecting with ngo’s who could provide resources and assistance. Then he took a group of young people to call on people in surrounding areas living in small crowded sub-divided flats. When the young people saw the difficult living conditions and how happy people were to see them they began to develop compassion in their hearts and think creatively of ways they could reach out. Two years ago when he started he had only 15 committed to help now he has more than 100 and his church has grown very fast. Now they are regularly teaching groups of school children about poverty, how to respect the elderly, and how to serve, and holding many special events for the community. Pastor Cheng has planted three more churches and each one of them is committed to serve those around them. Not surprisingly his church vision statement is ‘To serve and not to be served'
There are many different ways in which churches can serve their communities and reach out to the those who are overlooked in society whether it’s the elderly poor, asylum seekers, street sleepers, drug addicts, the underprivileged, the disabled, the chronically sick, those in prison, and many others. Pastor Cheng observed that by reaching out together his congregation began to mature as christians far more effectively than by just listening to his bible teaching alone.
Tony Read is the Justice Advocate for The Vine Church in Wanchai, the host of The Justice Conference Asia on October 20-21 this year. We sincerely hope that you will join us in the conference this year. For more, please visit www.thejusticeconferenceasia.com. This article was written based on information and ideas grateful gleaned from ‘Good news about injustice’ by Gary Haugen, ‘The Justice Church’ by Jim Martin, and a personal interview with Rev Cheng Ka Fai.
