Peasants

Loving history as I do, I've just been reading about the state of life in the first part of the first century C.E. Almost all people were poor, therefore peasants. Antipas began urbanization and commercialization, which was a horrible shift for the peasants. Most of the peasants were rural, lived on small farms and grew their own food, yes they had to give a hefty portion to those who were in control, the dominators, but they had food and a roof over their heads. BUT the urbanization and commercialization lost many of the peasants their land. They had to become artisans or beggars. Families were broken. Hope moved to despair.

It was into the turmoil of a new kind of poverty that Jesus began teaching The Way. He had a different emphasis than his cousin, John the Baptist who taught an apocalyptic end to the world coming soon. Jesus taught the kingdom was present, NOW. He taught the end was to injustice, but the people and the planet would continue to exist. Of course, since only a tiny few were well-off, he spoke to peasants, his followers were peasants. He showed them how to share with one another and take care of one another as members of The Kingdom, the new family to those who lost their families, land and ways of life.

I was thinking about the problems in our inner cities - similar in many ways to the 1st century. No land, families broken, begging, welfare/dependency or crime a new way of life.

Would it work to reverse the trend to the city and find ways to give small farms, along with training on how to grow foodstuffs to those trapped in inner cities? Could new family units be created that offered care and support and shared work? Could people feel part of The Kingdom and therefore caring and sharing? Could we get some land to give and some volunteers to test it out? Could dignity be the solution? I wonder.

Think on this with me please