Last Monday night a handful of community service groups filed into the Maple Valley City Council meeting for their annual handout from the city. Officially, it carries the title of “community service grant funding,” but we can save seven syllables if we phrase it my way (and syllables aren’t cheap these days).

It’s hard to talk about anything money-related without mentioning the phrase “challenging economic times.” I’m about ready to declare it off-limits, just like the phrases “game changer”, “think outside the box” and e-anything. If I had to take a shot of whiskey every time someone says it, I would have been dead from alcohol poisoning within an hour of that meeting.

If I sound a little cynical, it’s because I’m slightly disgusted with the process. Not because I’m against cities giving money to groups that benefit the community, but because they have to at all.

Think about how these services are funded today. Governments provide a lot of money for health and human services, to alleviate hunger, provide shelter, public health services, drug counseling, basic skills for new parents, senior care, mental health and emergency services. Governments see these issues as a problem for the general public, so they’re obligated to “do something about this”.

However, most of these areas could be handled by other civic or religious groups, with the exception of mental health and drug counseling, which is best left to the pros.

But the rest of them are partially government funded because we have failed to do that on our own. Some people are hungry and homeless because we don’t care about them. The myth persists that people are poor because they are lazy, and that makes it easy to ignore them.

If you are an atheist, this isn’t a problem for you. Lookin’ out for No. 1, baby! If you are a humanist, then it’s a problem because your fellow man is hurting. Your response may vary based on your personal moral code, which is sort of where we are today. Funding for these issues is sporadic, based on which way the political winds are blowing, and how guilty or sympathetic the donors are made to feel.

If you are a Christian, then I think you have to admit that the church has failed. I say this as a frustrated Christian who is disgusted with our response to poverty and justice in America. I’m also disgusted with myself, so this is me pointing the Finger of Shame at all of us.

I’ve spent the last two years trying to reconcile the way we hoard our incredible wealth in this country with our direct obligations to help orphans, widows and the poor. I can’t do it. Christians are given these commands from Jesus himself; not some minor prophet with seven K’s in his name.

Here’s an example: In Luke 16, Jesus tells a parable about a rich man living each day in luxury. Outside his gates, a poor man named Lazarus waits for scraps from the rich man’s table, while dogs lick his open sores. When both men finally die, the poor man is in heaven and the rich man is in hell. The rich man sees the poor man, and begs for relief, but he is told “Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish.”

The rich man asks if he can warn his brothers of the torment that awaits them, and he is told “If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen even if someone rises from the dead.” We’ve been warned. Again and again.

If you believe in God, and you arrive in the afterlife, do you think he’ll say, “Gee, I really wish you had acquired more while you were on Earth, although I am glad that you upgraded to the S-class Mercedes.”

Christians, we need to admit that we have failed. We need to take up the cause of solving poverty, and not just for people who have signed up for church membership. A food drive is not enough; it requires a drastic change in thinking about our purpose and what we do with the money we are given.

I need to do the same, and I’m still looking for a church around here that feels the same way. There are thousands of people like Lazarus in our backyard and billions around the world. How will we respond?