The obscene extremes of wealth and poverty
I have just read an article
which had recently collated international statistical data on wealth and
poverty, and found that the richest 85 people in the world own as much wealth as the poorest
3.6 billion (i.e. approximately half of the world’s population). Dig deeper than the top 85 richest people and
the figures, in some ways, appear even worse. The wealth of the 1% richest people
amounts to $110 trillion (£60.88 trillion), or 65 times as much as the poorest half of the world.
Let’s not call these
extremes of wealth and poverty by any other name, than obscene! The bible is
abundantly clear about whose side God is on in such matters, repeated again and
again throughout both the Old and New Testaments. Given the dreadful poverty
that so many people in the world experience, we need to face these passages of
scripture afresh without blinking and giving ourselves no wriggle-room for
inaction. So, to start us off, here is one very familiar
story that Jesus told, found in Luke 16:19-31:
There was a rich man who was dressed in
purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.
At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores
and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even
the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the
angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.
In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham
far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him,
‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger
in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you
received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted
here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and
you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here
to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family,
for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will
not also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham
replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to
them, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and
the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’
Click on book cover image on this blog's home page for information on my book Nine Steps to Well-Being: A Spiritual Guide for Disconnected Christians and Other Questioning Journeyers - first three chapters are FREE!!
Click on book cover image on this blog's home page for information on my book Nine Steps to Well-Being: A Spiritual Guide for Disconnected Christians and Other Questioning Journeyers - first three chapters are FREE!!
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ReplyDeleteOK Donna - many thanks for your comment and I take your point, up to a point! One thought though, maybe our positions are not either/or but BOTH - for sure the condition of our hearts is crucial and what we do with our resources (however rich or poor we are) reflects this condition. However, I am not so sure that there is such a rigid distinction between the internal world (our hearts) and the external world (what we possess) - one feeds into the other; (and to put it more bluntly, the devil is able to exploit both domains). Regarding scripture, for me, there seems to be enough (easily) to demonstrate that the mere possession of wealth is problematic (and so, yes, all of us need to be on guard - and not just the top 85 or 1%) - BUT as you say God is also concerned about the internal condition; what I am struck by in the Lazarus story (as you have prompted me to think about it) is that he was left outside the gate - but this leaving out can come about in two ways - (a) via the internal world of the rich person not having compassion and indeed not even considering the poor person (b) but also so many of the poor are left outside simply BECAUSE rich people have access to so many resources. Think of what we are doing now - we can only do this, and, in the process, include many others because we have sufficient resources to buy computers. Regardless of our internal conditions this, necessarily, excludes those who do not have these possessions, and I believe is a problem for this reason alone (as well as the problems of our hearts as you point out).
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