When Jesus leaves his trade as a common laborer, he starts traveling as a preacher among mostly poor working people. He has very few things. What he does have he shares with others; his spirituality, his wisdom, his storytelling. Others share their gifts with him; home, hearth, food. Amidst this shared life, a man says to him: “tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” Jesus’ response goes to the core of the problem with inherited wealth: “Take care to guard against all greed.” Jesus then tells a parable of greed, about “a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.” Rather than receiving the bounty of the land as a gift to be shared, the man claims it as an inheritance. He takes it as a right to use and store up for himself, saying: I “have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!” But as the man shall die that very night he is described as a fool. He has hoarded gifts and given himself to an empty life. He has inherited riches and bequeathed a life without substance or meaning.
Greed is the vice promoted by the financial system of military justice, capitalism. It orders inequality. It decrees wealth to the owner class and poverty to the worker class. It includes heirs who may not genuinely receive wealth as a gift but, while knowing it is extracted from others, claim it as a right. It results in the circumstances portrayed in the Gospel; stored wealth for a very few and poverty for the rest. The land, and the people who work the land, both of whose energy is extracted, are used as disposable objects and rendered meaningless. As a poor man, Jesus knows their plight. He changes it through a living witness to mutual sharing. Jesus thereby rejects capitalism and the inequality it mandates through inherited and hoarded wealth. Even so, most capitalists defend their system as Christian / Christ-like. Such defense shows capitalists treat Jesus as they treat the land and workers – he is used and rendered meaningless by them. Institutional Christianity defends and supports capitalism. It makes potential followers of Jesus’ Way heirs of capitalism; it prioritizes the Old Testament belief that wealth is a sign of God’s favor; it prioritizes Paul’s belief that it is not wealth itself but the love of wealth that is the root of all evil; it prioritizes cultural propaganda that it is not capitalism but communism and socialism that are godless; it prioritizes capitalist think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute that fund endowed chairs at state and religious colleges; it theologically justifies lower taxes on those who are rich and fewer services for those who are poor along with high salaries, perks, and stock options for CEO’s, and unlivable wages for workers. Institutional Christianity has inherited the riches of capitalism and is storing them in its empty churches. In turn it is bequeathing a life without substance or meaning. “Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.” Which is it for us; capitalist fools or people who share?
“From Christ to Gandhi appears this truth – St. Francis of Assisi proves it, too: Goodness becomes grandeur Surpassing might of kings. Halos of kindness Brighter shine Than crowns of gold, And brighter Than rich diamonds Sparkles The simple dew Of love. (Wealth – Langston Hughes)
Prayer: Spirit of Gratitude, may we appreciate and share the many gifts we are given and become rich in acts of love.
Question: What am I sharing and who will benefit from it?
July 31, 2016 Gospel Luke 12:13-21 Eighteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time