Pentecost 14 (Year B)
But you have dishonoured the poor.
Robert Peston, the Economics editor for the BBC, in his book, “Who
runs Britain & who’s to blame for the economic mess we’re in” sets about trying
to provide some insight into what, for many, has been a shocking state of
affairs as this country & more particularly, her banks plunged into crisis and
chaos. The events of last autumn, coming as they did almost a year after the
collapse of Northern Rock in 2007 seemed to hint at judgement upon the banking &
economic system of the western world especially Britain & the USA & was
invariably spoken of in quasi -religious language hinting at apocalypse.
The great & the good, the high priests of economics & the powerful decided upon
a course of action that would please the goddess capitalism & so in time assuage
the impending judgement. The boys, those people who work for the central banks
that is, alongside the politicians, worked out their solution that would in time
(a long time) eventually return us to a time of plenty. It is so very ancient
near east, isn’t it?
The interesting thing is, Peston, who is considered such an astute
operator, that the Commons Select Committee charged with looking into the
crisis, credited him with revealing some information that helped exacerbate the
situation claimed he was only reporting the events as he saw them. They were
desperate to shift the blame for what had happened on to someone or some group,
so much so that this economics journalist was the one favoured for sacrifice.
Peston, on the other hand, had his own theory & he was prepared to put it into
print. He put the blame upon those who liked wealth, were impressed by it,
cultivated its holders & sought to help them create even more. Peston blamed a
govt,. that wanted to prove they loved wealth creators in the same way the other
major political party of govt. in this country did and so in the intervening
time the poor have become poorer and the filthy rich even more obscenely so. The
people who really took the squeeze on this tho’ were the decent folk who don’t
earn a fortune. You might ask what has all this to do with us? Read the
scriptures...............
Our bible is filled with comment about the use of wealth in society &
what redeems it before God. This letter of James is fascinating in that it is
about right relationships & part of that is our attitude to wealth. James & we
are not certain which James this is as the experts cannot agree altho’ James the
apostle is favoured, addressed the Christian community scattered as it was
around the Mediterranean world & dealt with the issues that were obviously
troubling them. One concern was their relationship to wealth, something the
church is still trying to work out. In James the warnings about wealth which are
given fall very firmly within the Jewish tradition of be careful. The O T
prophets had a great deal to say about the people of Israel’s relationship with
money & power. They invariably condemned its misuse. The prophets, possibly more
than others, understood the capacity of wealth to corrupt humanity not only in
the secular sphere but more importantly in the sacred so much so that people
were treated with contempt just because they were poor – some things haven’t
really changed, have they? The prophets denounced this behaviour as being
contrary to the Royal Commandment – “love your neighbour as yourself” & so
Israel struggled with how they would deal with the rich & concomitantly
powerful. Some of the prophets, most notably Amos condemned wealth not because
it was an accumulation of great fortunes but rather because it seemed to lead
the holders of this great fortune down the road of contempt and corruption thus
separating them from God’s desire to see justice in his kingdom. The wealth per
se was not the problem but rather what kind of behaviour it gave rise to. Our
attitude to wealth is a kingdom issue. Look at Jesus and his conversation with
the rich young man, the parable of the banquet when the poor & the outcast is to
share at the table; the Pharisees over paying taxes, the widows mite & his
teaching about kingdom people we now paraphrase as the Beatitudes........
Wealth impresses, not just because of the obvious manifestations of it
that we see, multiple house ownership, invariably spread across the globe; large
yachts; private jets; access to other rich individuals & the power dealers of
the world and the ability to control the agenda. We see all this & think, yes,
this is good. The press sell it as real life & we are all meant to want it. The
equivalent for James was the rich individual who turns up at the gathering of
the people with his fingers bedecked with gold rings & his flashy clothes. I
cannot help but think of one of those caricatured characters wearing sunglasses
& weighed down with bling. The thing is the people would be impressed & they
would show they were impressed by treating this wealthy creature in a way they
would not treat others, namely the poor. It is the sin of showing partiality or
favouritism that James is challenging here because he knew the teaching of
Christ in this matter & possibly that of Paul when he tells the churches of
Galatia in Christ there is neither male or female, Jew or Greek & on it goes.
James was concerned for their salvation & this sin was an affront to the God who
created all humanity in his own image.
The church compromised was what he was saying & it has done so down
thru’ the centuries – look at our connivance with the slave trade throughout the
17th, 18th, & 19th. centuries; the elites of many countries some of whom have
behaved in a decidedly unchristian way as they misused the poor for their own
ends & the times when she has actively worked with godless philosophies such as
Nazism & communism because they held power. Yes, the church has an appalling
record of compromise with those who hold power & wealth despite the teachings of
the scriptures & our Lord himself. It is almost as if the teachings of the
scriptures have been ignored.
So what happened, according to Peston, that we found ourselves in the
mess of the banking system on the brink of collapse & with it the whole western
economic system? The politicians in love with the idea of wealth & having
successfully sold it to the electorate in successive administrations as the only
game in town forgot the pursuit of wealth without morality is another great sin
- greed and when this sin is indulged it denies others. Jesus would have been
appalled at a system which demanded less of the corporate giants & the obscenely
rich individual because that is what happened: their almost departure from the
tax system & their avoidance of sharing in the burden for providing for the less
fortunate, the poor & the pensioner for example led them to thinking that these
people were not their concern therefore they could pursue their goals at the
cost of the pension funds, of the tax system and the social cohesion of the
country. Their morality demanded of them that they provide for themselves & if
that means playing those who have the power to make their lives more wealthy
then play them. Peston catalogues the ways the super rich in this country
exploited the system thus denying govt the means by which to help people in many
conditions. His critique is devastating & thoroughly moral. When you play this
game you compromise even democracy itself because you end up in that dreadful
charade of peerages & seats in the legislature being bought.
James however doesn’t go on to castigate the wealthy. He knows, like
all people of sense, that wealth is of itself neutral. The possession of money &
great financial resources does not make you a bad person: it is your attitude to
such or relationship with wealth that determines where you stand. The church is
in error when she condemns wealth & wealth producers because of the inbuilt bias
toward the poor that holy scripture espouses but she is equally in error when
she ignores how those with great wealth use that wealth for the benefit of
themselves & the few around them. In this letter James tells them that if they
profess faith then they have to give tangible evidence of that faith & one of
the easiest ways is to help others. It almost brings us to the controversy over
how are we saved, is it by faith alone or as was believed in the pre-reformation
church by many, by good works? James is in no doubt. You cannot buy your way
into heaven unlike the perception you can to the upper chamber of this country
but you can as a consequence of your faith show your faith in action by helping
those who need help. The super wealthy can do it & on occasion do, believe me.
The names Carnegie, Rockefeller, Gates (& in our own wee country Farmer) come to
mind: all names associated with vast fortunes but equally names which have
realised that wealth of itself means nothing unless used for a good purpose.
James wrote to the early church be careful with your attitude to wealth
otherwise you will not consider the poor.
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