Martin Luther King once reminded us that Jesus never wrote, owned property, or had friends with connections, yet he changed the world "with only the poor and despised." That is the central theme of today's readings. [Viz. I Tim. 6: 6-19, Lk. 16: 19-31]
The author of First Timothy advises us that no one brings anything into this world and no one takes anything out, and goes on to counsel that the love of money is "a root of all kinds of evil." And, as Jesus says elsewhere, you can't serve God and wealth. In our gospel reading today, Jesus tells a story about a poor beggar named Lazarus and a one-percenter who has traditionally been called Dives, which is simply a Latin word meaning 'rich.' . This wealthy man lives a sumptuous lifestyle and ignores the miserable, destitute man at his gate. Upon death, Lazarus goes to heaven to chill with Abraham, while Dives roasts in Hades. Martin Luther said that details about the afterlife in this tale are not to be taken literally; Jesus is speaking parabolically about the serious question of what the relationship of wealthy people to the needy should be for people of religious and moral persuasions.
Poverty is pernicious and persistent. More than twenty thousand people, most children, die every day from fully preventable causes. Sadly, we have the ability, but not the will, to address the tragedy. As Charlotte Low Allen has said, "Capitalism has no interest in the fate of those left behind." Obviously! And that is where we can come in as advocates of change. Economic Darwinism must be replaced with social mechanisms reflecting compassion. But it isn't happening; there is a great disconnect between our public policy and the allegations of some that we are a "Christian Nation." Nonsense.
A friend yesterday posted on Facebook her opinion that we should insist that "In God We Trust" be kept on our money (I didn't know it was under attack). My response was "Why? It isn't true." I was remembering that Jesus was a pacifist, an egalitarian, and considered accumulation of wealth to the biggest obstacle to human salvation. Our "Christian Nation" is militarist, imperialist, class-oriented and devoted to accumulating all the wealth possible. Until we the most powerful nation on earth change, the crisis of world poverty will not change, and our pretensions to be followers of Jesus will remain rubbish.
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