Setting Priorities

It took me a while to realize that my friends were deeply upset. In our Sunday morning worship we had just prayed for a team heading out on a service trip to Costa Rica. Those dedications are generally a feel-good experience. But my friends were troubled. They felt our priorities should be closer to home. Why are we sending people to Costa Rica when we have plenty of needy people in our own town?

I feel some sympathy for their point of view. We ought to be much more engaged with our local community. It’s not right to skip over local needs while heading to far-off places, which we do sometimes. It can be easier to get involved thousands of miles away than it is locally.

Nevertheless, I don’t think we ought to prioritize local needs. First, all human beings are made in God’s image and he cares for them all. As we are his agents, and members of his worldwide family, we are not restricted by geography. The whole earth is the Lord’s, and ours as well.

Second, prioritization can easily turn to elitism. Because where are the boundaries? Should I prioritize my street, where everybody owns a home? If I live in a wealthy community should I prioritize my town, which has very few poor people? Should I prioritize Americans, who are all wealthy compared to the average African?

Third, Jesus addressed this question rather plainly. A man asked him, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responded with the story of the Good Samaritan. The message is unmistakable: “neighbor” is somebody outside your tribe, somebody as far off as can be imagined. The Good Samaritan doesn’t say, “I need to use my resources to help needy Samaritans.” He responds to need as he encounters it. So we, in this globalized, media-driven culture, can’t help encountering wounded people by the side of the road in places far from our home.