Psalm 90.12-end
OT Reading: Amos 5.6-7, 10-15
NT Reading: Hebrews 4.12-end
Gospel : Mark 10.17-31
Text: Jesus said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10.23)
Do you feel uncomfortable when you hear the story of Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler. I know I do. We may not feel very rich, especially at the end of the month, some of us are no longer young, not many of us are rulers, even on a wide definition of what that means. Nor do I see many camels in church this morning. Yet many of us know in our hearts that we are rich enough and influential enough to have trouble threading ourselves through the eye of Jesus’ proverbial needle. In 1992 Richard Harries explored this difficult territory in a book entitled: Is there a gospel for the rich? Some 14 years later, I think I was the first to borrow it from the library of the LSE, and what I have to say this morning owes a good deal to what Bishop Richard had to say. Of course, as academics always say in these circumstances, any errors of fact or judgment in what follows are mine and not his.
Why does Jesus appear to regard wealth as an obstacle to those who are serious about the quest for eternal life? If wealth is such an obstacle, what are we to say to a modern society, which depends on investment and enterprise to create and sustain employment? Is that not a good thing? When we come to church on Sunday, do those of us who work in the City have to be apologetic, even ashamed about what we do during the week? In short, is there a gospel for the rich?
First, Jesus is not always so negative about the rich for example, in the parable of the talents Jesus praised the faithful steward who put his five talents to good use and made five more. But there is certainly a bias against the rich and towards the poor in much of the Biblical tradition, from the prophets of the Old Testament Amos not least among them through the ministry of Jesus to the saints of the Christian era. There needs to be. The poor have always been pushed to the margins of a society which is run by the rich and powerful. If we take seriously the Biblical assertion that we are all made in the image of God, and we are all of equal value in his sight, then we must expect to find a counter-balancing bias in the gospel towards those who are generally marginalised, disadvantaged, and too often dismissed as failures. That strand of the Biblical tradition is as valid to-day as it was in the days of Amos the prophet.
But some things have changed. The Bible was written against the background of primitive pastoral or agrarian societies in which there was little or no economic growth, so that the accumulation of riches by some was almost certain to mean the impoverishment of others. Justice was done in public at the city gate, and Amos rightly inveighed against those distortions that drove the poor further into poverty. We still have to protect the integrity of our judicial system, but we have to dig a little deeper to discover the principles which might be applied to a modern society in which the creation of wealth for some is not necessarily at the expense of others.
Harries is no Marxist. Noting that the market economy expresses and safeguards freedom of choice, encouraging initiative and enterprise, with all the concomitant risks involved, he notes that these characteristics are consistent with the creative activity of the God who made us in his own image, and took the risk of giving us the freedom to go our own way. In this context Harries argues that wealth can and should be seen as a force for good, as a means of human flourishing, and even that self-interest’, the driving force of wealth creation, is an essential and God-given feature of human nature’ (Harries: 91).
Of course, self-interest can all too easily tip over into greed and exploitation. That is why he goes on to argue, in company with most other Christian observers of the modern market economy, that all economic activity should operate within a moral framework to ensure the physical and spiritual well-being of societies. Self-interest, which often takes warped and distorted forms’ (Harries: 92), should be balanced and complemented by the constraining influence of other moral values, including justice, integrity and fair dealing. These values need to be exercised both by individuals directly engaged in economic activity, by those who regulate them, by the politicians who establish frameworks of law and regulation, and ultimately by all of us as we engage with the political process. For example, many markets depend on codes of fair dealing and good practice with which a Christian can be entirely comfortable. On the other hand, the market alone cannot be relied upon to police cartels for example, or to make adequate provision for healthcare and education, not to mention external defence and internal security or at least to do these things in ways which respect the needs of rich and poor alike. Nor will the market economy on its own necessarily support the wide range of voluntary and charitable organisations which are needed to defend a just and fair society. There is a need for these things to be supported by laws and tax provisions which engender a climate in which they can do their job, and by good people who will put time and effort and resources into operating these essential features of our complex society, which complement the market.
So, yes, there is a gospel for the rich. The creation of wealth is not sinful, nor is it sinful to enjoy the moderately comfortable standard of living for which many of us can give thanks. Within a complex economic system which in itself has been massively beneficial, our first duty is to do the very best we can in the task to which we have been called whether it is as a teacher, or a home- maker, a financial analyst or an IT consultant. However, we do need to guard ourselves against the temptation to be greedy. As individuals we need to behave justly, fairly and with integrity in all our dealings; as a community we need to be continually aware of those aspects of our society which bear down on the poor, to be attentive to their needs, and to respond to them. This applies both directly, in the support we should give to those who are most vulnerable, and to the many charitable organisations that exist to help them, and indirectly in the choices we make as consumers, as investors, as travellers, as trustees of our rich but fragile environment. Being relatively rich is not wrong in itself, but it does give us a lot more choices to make about how we use our time and our money. These are hard choices, and as we make them, we need to ask ourselves continually whether we are following Jesus or following the herd.
Like the rich young ruler, we are attracted to Jesus, we want to inherit eternal life as citizens of his kingdom. We have probably managed to get through life so far without committing too many of the grosser sins. We pay our taxes without grumbling too much or looking for the loopholes. We give time and money to good causes. Most people would probably look at us, and think well of us. Yet we come to Jesus because we know that isn’t enough. What more must I do? And Jesus looks at us, as he looked at the rich young ruler, with love in his eyes. But he puts his finger on whatever it is that is more important to us than following him. It may very well be our possessions, but it may be something else our status perhaps, or our reputation, our appearance even, or our pride. And he says, that’s what you have to disregard, that’s what you have to put at risk, that’s what you may even have to give up for my sake. Then come and follow me.
Handley Stevens