Pastor’s Corner – October 13, 2024
Mark 10:17-31
How Do We Measure Wealth?
For most people this question of wealth is simple. It’s about money and lots of it. The more you have, the more power and freedom you have. I mean, imagine if you won a billion-dollar lottery. You don’t have to spend it all on yourself, you can help build schools and hospitals, become a philanthropist and start an endowment for the church you love! Well, looks like a great way to measure wealth to me, no? In our culture and society wealth is often reduced to possession of material goods that can translate into power and money.
However that’s not the way Jesus sees it. As a matter-of-fact Jesus says give up all your possessions and give it to the poor and follow his way to enter the kingdom of God. The gospel story for this coming Sunday is about a rich man encountering Jesus, concerned with what he should do to inherit the kingdom of God. But the rich man was disappointed by the answer Jesus gave him, and walked away. Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said a proverb that went viral among Christians through the centuries: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
How are we going to wrestle with this text today? Where is the good news in all this? But first let me be clear — Jesus didn’t say money was a bad thing. He said give it to the poor who don’t have much. And what if the rich man did give away all that he had to the poor, wouldn’t that make him poor without any possessions? Did Jesus really mean to give up everything? The words of Jesus seem extreme. Who can take his words literally? And what’s this encryptic saying that it’s impossible but possible with God? What is the point Jesus is making in the gospel story and how would he measure wealth? Look around our world; people fight over possessions, whether they be land, oil, or any other material goods. The whole point of colonization and its history was for that sole purpose, exploitation for material possession of land and people. What’s happening in the Middle East is more than just a response to “terrorism” to eliminate Hamas and Hezbollah (groups that emerged in response to military occupation of Israel as resistance fighters for their homeland). We would be naive to think that’s all there is when you have oil and gas rich land, an ideal geopolitical location and cheap labor by colonized people. We have to ask ourselves, if we really want to understand Jesus’ point, who was on his way to being executed by Roman Imperial power (an empire that covered vast land and peoples) with the message that was diametrically opposed to empire building and dominance and oppression of peoples. If Jesus had anything to do with wealth, his possession and measure was truth in one hand and the other, an imminent death on the cross. What do I mean by this? Come to church this Sunday and find out. Let us worship God. Amen.
Pastor Dae