Why beggars at the church?

It was a strange sight to see . . . police at the church! In this culture, the only police you are likely to see at church are those spies who want to disrupt, disturb and destroy the peace. But these police were in their uniforms and clearly there to keep the peace. Now you might ask why were policemen required to keep the peace? Well because while there are always beggars hanging out at the Orthodox church, this was Orthodox Easter Sunday and the beggars were out in droves! They were clearly aware that many more people than normal were going to be attending church on this given Sunday.

Now why do you have beggars hanging out at Orthodox churches? Why do you have beggars coming into the muslim barber shop where I get my hair cut? Why do you have beggars at most street corners? It's because in Orthodoxy and Islam, good works are the only way one has to gain favor with God. And even then there is no confidence that their actions actually gained them anything. As my muslim barber told, "I can only hope that Allah is watching and will grant me favor." When I suggested that God already loved him as much as was divinely possible, that He had given His very life to show the depth of His love, Riki was not sure all my cards were firmly in my deck!

But I am getting off the subject again, the point here is that all good Orthodox Christians and all Muslims give alms to the poor, e.g. money to the beggars. Now us Evangelicals think that to be generally bad stewardship. You lose control of the money once you give it to a beggar and you are just certain that they are going to buy booze or cigarettes with your money. And none of us want to stand before God and have Him tell us that we should be ashamed for letting His blessings to us be spent on beer or cigarettes!!

Actually . . . I think the point that He will make is that the pagans are much more generous than we are. The beggars prove my point . . . they don't hang out around our churches . . . because experience has taught them that they will get nothing. I wonder what Jesus thinks about that?