Poverty, None of the Church’s Business … !?: Exploring the Theological and Ethical Significance of John Howard Yoder’s Discourse on the Practice of the Lord’s Supper

Poverty, None of the Church's Business … !?: Exploring the Theological and Ethical Significance of John Howard Yoder's Discourse on the Practice of the Lord's Supper

Vincent CP LAU

The discourse on the Lord's Supper by John Howard Yoder in his Body Politics specifies that both spiritual and ethical significance is indispensable. The latter pertains to the sociological implications of the practice that Jesus' disciples are required to share their possessions with others who are in need . This is an embodiment of Yahweh's order of Jubilee: “there should not be any poor among you …” (Dt 15:4 NET). Such kind of sharing and provision of basic daily needs with one another is a mark of the messianic age . The ethical significance of the Lord's Supper is that the church is called to pay close attention to and provide relief for the needy people as a matter of course. There is thus no excuse for the church to ignore the needs of people around us. The care and love of Christians should not be confined to “insiders,” but also include “outsiders,” not only locally focused but also internationally concerned. The Jubilee 2000 Campaign and the Jubilee Debt Campaign can be regarded as an embodiment of the Christian faith. More importantly, it can serve as an alternative paradigm for global economic practice.
The purposes of this essay are to explore the theological and sociological connotations of the Lord's Supper of Yoder's discourse in his book and to explicate the ethical significance of the church derived from the Lord's Supper on the issue of poverty and the actions of poverty alleviation. The essay consists of four parts: Firstly, the theological concepts of Body Politics are introduced briefly. Secondly, the discourse on and the significance of the Lord's Supper discussed by Yoder are examined. Thirdly, the theological conceptual relationship among the Lord's Supper, Jubilee, and messiah is analyzed. Finally, the ethical significance of the Lord's Supper is scrutinized.