Rich and Poor

My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet," 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you? 8 You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 11 For the one who said, "You shall not commit adultery," also said, "You shall not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. 14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (James 2:1-17 NRSV)




From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25 but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." 28 But she answered him, "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." 29 Then he said to her, "For saying that, you may go-- the demon has left your daughter." 30 So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. 31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32 They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." 35 And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak." (Mark 7:24-37 NRSV)



The 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B



“REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH”



I had perfect attendance in grade school. It wasn’t that I never got sick; I just only got sick on weekends and holidays. I was very careful about it. One year it was the day before Christmas break. I felt fine in the morning and the teacher gave us each a Mounds candy bar. A whole Mounds bar! I started to feel ill. I finished the school day out. On the way home I started to feel really ill. By the time I got home I was in horrible shape. It was obvious to everyone. One of my brothers said, “You still want your candy bar?” Redistributing wealth is on our minds a lot. Statistics are saying that those with wealth are getting wealthier at a rate never heard of before in our history. Inequality is becoming greater. That is very clear.

Let’s talk about wealth for a minute. In organic chemistry there is a rule, called Markovnikov’s Rule. “The rule states that, with the addition of a protic acid HX to an alkene, the acid hydrogen (H) becomes attached to the carbon with fewer alkyl substituents, and the halide (X) group becomes attached to the carbon with more alkyl substituents.. Or, as my college textbook stated, “Those that have, gets.” In life as well, those who have, have the means to make or have more. Those who don’t have, have little with which to make more. I believe we have become confused that wealth is some kind of virtue. We are getting the idea that those who have money are somehow better people. At least in many cases, they are treated better. There are even those who are hinting that wealth is a sign of special favor from God. Wealth is not virtue, it is using common sense, using opportunities. Virtue is what you do with the wealth you have.

The passage from James has to do with inequality. He says that favoritism shows that their faith is not genuine. How one treats people is based on faith, to James. It seems that the wealthy came into the gathering, into church, and got treated well, treated specially. A person of lower economic means comes in and is treated differently, not as well as the wealthy. James tells them that this is not to be so. This is an example of how the Early Church had the idea of equality in a society which was very unequal, ranging from the Emperor all the way down to slaves. It threatens to ruin this equality when people start treating others based on their social status. James reminds them something: God has chosen the poor also. Their riches are of a different kind. They can be the riches of faith. And one last thing, James points out how the rich treat them in the marketplace, in daily life. So why are they so eager to curry favor with them?

An example of faith is found in the Gospel reading. It is the story of a woman, not a Jewish woman, but a gentile, who came to Jesus seeking healing for her daughter from an unclean spirit. She had heard about him. When she begged for this, his answer was that favor was to be given to the people of Israel. They were the special people. She responded to this challenge with the idea that there is so much favor from God that it can even come to those who are not the chosen people. Her faith was demonstrated in her confidence in God’s goodness.

The reality is that wealth, while it appears to give comfort, can be dangerous. It is that when we make money, gain our wealth, we can lose the other things. There are things in life that are greater than financial gain. One is peace of mind. I had a friend in Iowa City whose anxiety level went up and down daily based on the stock market. Money changes our lives. Henry David Thoreau, raised the question, as did others, of whether we own our possessions or our possessions own us. Wealth can make us see people as objects to be used in some way. When getting money is the only object, people can forget how it is gained. It matters how. Wealth has an addictive quality. In a survey they asked people how much money felt like enough. The answer was over 7 million dollars. Wealth can make us think we are self-made people and forget all that we were given by others to make what we have possible. The problem with having some is that there can always be more to have. Money can also cause us to forget at times it doesn’t solve life’s problems. They require something else—character, or patience, or kindness. Wealth isolates people. When we depend on others less, we stop thinking about them, their lives, their needs. Money typically turns us inward. We talk about the American Dream as if it is only making money. That is only part of the American Dream. The American Dream starting out was for a classless society, one based on the equal dignity of persons from one which was very unequal, kings and peasants. Is the American Dream about making money or about living in a society which values all persons?

The reality of wealth is that it does make some of life easier. Health care, but not health; living arrangements, but not life; enjoyable activities, but not joy, all depend on money. So it is not nonsense why people would want more. There are things you can do with money. Those things can be good things or not so good things. Money by itself is not a virtue. The danger is that we forget that money is only a means. People forget that and money becomes the goal of life. The Bible never says that money is all bad. Our society says, nowadays, that there is nothing bad about it. The reality, both in life and in the wisdom of God, is that it is something which can be used well. But can also be a destructive force. It can use us.

Real virtue is not the same as wealth. The real wealth is something other than money. There are things that money, by itself, cannot provide. The Week recently reported that former Army medic Augie Angerame began to visit a fellow resident in the nursing home. Because of illness they can’t communicate. His son John found that the men had both served in the same unit in the Korean War—and that his father had cared for the other when he was wounded. “‘Sixty years later,’ said John, his dad is ‘still checking on his guys.’” There can be honor and commitment, valuable things in life, that have nothing to do with financial success.

The pursuit of wealth and status is part of human life. Many think it is an unquestionable good. The Gospels and the Early Church remind us that it is not. Scripture gives us a larger vision of life. In a world which increasingly confused over the meaning of life, we have some ideas. Pick character over money. Pick love over wealth. Those, and other things, like fellowship, are closer to the meaning of life than riches. James tells the church not to forget that. If they do, the character of the church will be destroyed. The question before we rush off in pursuit of gain is, “What will we lose?” We would do well to remember this prayer:

God, make us wise to see

What’s passing, what’s for eternity.



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