Major Concept: Relief, Rehabilitation, Development
Gospel Connection: Luke 10:25-37
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Review of prior Sessions:
Definition of Poverty
Four Broken Relationships
Poverty Alleviation
God-Complex
Dependency
Opening Exercise:
5 minutes
Gather the class into groups of 2 or 3.
The task is to consider what the following scenarios have in common.
After a few minutes, ask for volunteers to share their answers.
A man is woken up in the night by his fire alarm. He removes the battery, the alarm stops and he goes back to sleep.
A woman is working in her home office when water drips on her head. She moves her chair to the other side of her desk and puts a bucket under the leak to catch the water.
A man comes home after an evening of drinking and trips on his dog once again. “I’ve got to do something about this,” he mutters. In the morning, he sells his dog.
A man goes to the doctor and is diagnosed with high cholesterol. On his was home, he stops at the pharmacy to pick up his Lipitor prescription, which he takes on his couch with his Biggie Coke and bacon double cheeseburger.
A customer complains about poor service at a store. The manager comes over to address the situation and tells the customer to leave and never come back because she doesn’t want complaints.
Reflection Question:
When we address symptoms instead of the problem, we leave the problem untreated and can often make it worse or cause new problems.
Choosing what type of help to apply to a situation is a matter of analyzing the causes and addressing that.
While watching the video, think about situations in which you have helped a materially poor person and try to determine what type of help you applied.
Video:
13 minutes - Lesson 3
Reinforcement:
Regarding the situations you were thinking about where you gave help to a materially poor person, what type of help did you apply? In light of the video, did you apply the proper type of help to the situation?
Do NOT do things for people that they can do for themselves.
Questions to determine necessity of intervention and application of relief.
Is there a crisis? If you fail to provide immediate help, will there really be serious, negative consequences?
To what degree is the individual personally responsible for the crisis?
Can the person help him or herself?
To what extent has this person already been receiving relief from you or others in the past?
Avoid Paternalism
Review Questions:
1. What is the difference between Relief, Rehabilitation, and Development?
Relief: The urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering from a natural or man-made crisis. Given to or Done for.
Rehabilitation: seeks to restore people and their communities to the positive elements of their pre-crisis conditions. Moving from Doing for to Doing with.
Development: a process of ongoing change that moves all the people involved – both the ‘helpers’ and the ‘helped’ – closer to being in right relationship with God, self, others, and the rest of creation. Walking with rather than doing for.
2. What are the three characteristics of effective relief?
Seldom
Immediate
Temporary
3. What are some types of Paternalism? (students may think of other types)
Resource – giving people resources they do not truly need and/or could acquire on their own.
Spiritual – taking spiritual leadership away from the materially poor, assuming we have more to offer than they do.
Knowledge – assuming we have all the best ideas about how to do things
Labor – doing work for the materially poor that they could do for themselves.
Managerial – taking ownership of change away from the poor, insisting that they follow our “better, more efficient” way of doing things.
Gospel Close:
Review the Gospel Connection verses
What is the purpose of Jesus’ story? (Jesus was confronting a man looking for loopholes in loving his fellow man. The lawyer wanted to test Jesus and justify himself and his selfishness. Jesus was showing him that all people are made in God’s image and have value. He was teaching the man that loving others is not to be limited to those we like or can get repayment from.)
Can you find relief, rehabilitation, or development in the story of the Good Samaritan? (Of course, this parable is teaching us truth about God’s Kingdom and is not a how to about working with the poor, but we want you to start evaluating situations and understanding where to apply each aspect of help.)
Relief – Bandaging the man’s wounds.
Rehabilitation – Engaging the Inn Keeper to help the man get back up to where he was.
Development – Not explicitly in the story, but the Samaritan says he will return. Perhaps he will form a relationship with the man and they will walk together in growing toward Christ.
Pray