Several years ago, the body of a baby was found on the side of the road near where I live. There was an enormous public response. Religious rites were performed not once, not twice, but three times over this tragic figure. The media came out in mass. Photos were plastered in the papers and film footage filled the news on TV. A local folk singer wrote a song about the event. Four different churches were involved in the burial and the placement of a cross beside the highway.

All of this served as a vivid metaphor for the limited role of Christianity today.

I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if the mother of this probably poor and certainly Hispanic child had appeared at any of our church doors or for that matter, any of our own front doors, seeking help and assistance. Would four churches have mobilized together to help? Would the press have given a damn? Would a song have been written or any tears shed?

Shamefully, probably not.

It is easier for the church to bury the dead poor than help the poor who are living. It is safer to show how concerned we all are for a dead indigent than for a living tramp.

When Jesus said, "Let the dead bury the dead", I wonder if he wasn’t concerned about this very issue, about how easy it is to perform public acts of piety and how difficult it is to work for social change.