Trust and Love

The scriptures referred to are Psalm 146 and James 2:1-17.

When Douglas Rushkoff was offered the equivalent of a third of his salary as a professor to speak on “the future of technology,” he accepted. He was flown to another state and given a 3 hour limo ride to a private desert resort. He was ushered into a green room, like those in which TV show guests wait before being called onstage. There were 5 other guys there: tech investors and hedge fund managers, two of whom were billionaires. He'd come prepared to give a speech but it turned out that he was just there to answer their questions. At first they were things you would expect from such a group, like questions on cryptocurrency. But then it got weird. They started asking him about what to do when civilization collapses. Where was the best place in the world to build a survival bunker? How would they maintain control of their security guards when the world's currencies, including crypto, were worthless? Should they instead look into robot guards? Rushkoff really couldn't help them. But it did inspire him to write a book: Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires. Their mindset is “how much money and technology do I need to escape the reality I'm creating...” So some are buying land in New Zealand, some are buying luxury underground apartments in converted missile silos left over from the Cold War, and some are trying to build floating cities in the international waters of the oceans. They are doing these things because, as Rushkoff told the Australian Broadcasting Company, “They see themselves as gods.”

If so, they are like the Greek and Roman gods who were just like the Mafia but with superpowers. People obeyed them because they didn't want them to rain down calamity on their heads. But their gods didn't care for the people who worshiped them. And the gods already had what these billionaires want: a retreat away from annoying humanity, Mount Olympus.

What's interesting is that these men, who in one year make hundreds or even thousands of times what the average American makes in their whole lifetime, never thought of using their mindboggling wealth to make things better so that civilization doesn't collapse. They didn't say, “Maybe I won't have to hide in a bunker surrounded by guards if I help people now so they won't revolt against the wealthy.” They didn't think of stopping their strip-mining of the planet for all of its resources. They didn't even consider increasing the wages of those frontline workers whose labor makes these CEOs and investors so rich.

None of these men who want to lord it over the rest of us want to be like the God of the Bible. The difference is that God loves humans, so much so that in the person of Jesus Christ he became one of us, told us to love one another and demonstrated the depth of his love by dying in order to save us. There's no self-sacrifice in the plans of these millionaires and billionaires.

One of the characteristics which made the God revealed in Jesus so attractive to people is that he doesn't prefer the rich over the poor or the powerful over the powerless. As it says in today's psalm, the God “who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them...gives justice to those who are oppressed, and food to those who hunger. The Lord sets the prisoner free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind; the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the just. The Lord watches over the immigrants; he sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he subverts the way of those who are evil.” (my translation) Unlike the pagan deities, God cares for the underdog.

Which is why in his letter James is scolding Christians who treat the poor differently than they do the rich. As Peter said, God does not show favoritism in dealing with people. (Acts 10:34) And while Peter was speaking of Gentiles, the same goes for everyone, whatever the nature of their differences. As Paul said, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female—for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) If slaves are as much one in Christ as those who are free, then the poor and the rich are one in Christ as well. And if they are one in Christ, they are to be treated equally.

James rightly points out that showing partiality to people based on whether they are rich or poor is a sin. (Leviticus 19:15) Early in my time as the leader of my first church, we had a dispute arise between two women who were pillars of the church. I went to each to get them to reconcile. But one woman emphasized how much money her family gave to the church. She expected me to favor her side of the dispute because of that. And that's when she lost me. There may have been other arguments to support her side but she didn't make those. And I was not going to make moral decisions based on how much money we stood to lose. And we did lose her and her family. But the church went on.

Why is it wrong to show favor to those who have more? Because we are all created in God's image. And Jesus died for all of us. He didn't shed more blood for the rich than he did for the poor. In God's eyes, we are all spiritually impoverished. We all are in need of God's grace. As St. Augustine said, man is a beggar before God.

Wealth is not a sign of special merit. People aren't rich because they are superior human beings. Studies have shown that the rich are not typically any smarter than other people. Other studies show that whether you are rich or poor as an adult is much more dependent on whether you were born into a rich or poor community. Rarely do the rich rise from poverty. Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Donald Trump were born into wealthy families. Warren Buffet's father was a stockbroker and congressman. They are richer than most of us because they had a huge head start. They would have been rich had they done nothing but leave their money in a savings account or an index fund.

Here's a Bible verse I imagine none of them have memorized. It's 1 Chronicles 29:14 and it comes from David's final public prayer before turning over the throne to his son Solomon. He prays to God, “All things come from you and from your own hand we have given you.” Or as the NET translates it, “Everything comes from you and we have simply given back to you what is yours.” Nobody creates wealth or abundance out of nothing. Our life, our resources, our intelligence, our talents, our abilities, our family, our teachers and mentors ultimately come to us from God. All that we have are gifts from him. And we cannot keep them. We must surrender them back to God one day. So we are temporary stewards of all these things. And we are to use them wisely.

And by wisely I don't mean to use any means possible to pile up more wealth for ourselves. As the book of Proverbs says, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.” (Proverbs 19:17) As Jesus said, what you do to the least of his siblings—those who need food, water, and clothes as well as those who are sick, imprisoned or immigrants—you do to him. (Matthew 25:40)

James invokes what he calls the royal law: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18) If someone you love needs something, and you have it, you give it to them. We are not talking about giving them all they desire but rather what they need. If you withhold something they need, that is not love. And as James says, that is a sign that your faith in God is not alive but dead.

Some people bristle at this. They think James is contradicting Paul, who wrote, “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast.” But they forget that Paul goes on to say in the very next verse, “For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has prepared beforehand so we may do them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10, my emphasis) We are not saved by works but we were created to do them. Good works are to spiritual health what vital signs are to physical health. If your temperature, breathing, pulse, or blood pressure are out of the healthy range, you are sick. If you are without any one of them, you are dead. In the same way, good works are the signs of spiritual health. If you aren't motivated by your faith in the God who is love to show love to others, your faith is dead. You obviously don't trust a loving God to take care of your needs so you have enough to take care of the needs of others.

And it's not enough to say you have faith. Nurses and doctors have people lie to them all the time about how healthy they are eating or how much exercise they are getting or how they've given up smoking or drinking. Their words don't make them healthy. And their tests will show it. As James said in last week's reading, “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” (James 1:22) Don't just join the gym; go there and work out. Don't just say “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill.” Give the person in need clothes and food. Make sure they have what they need. Or else your faith is as good as dead.

Which leads us to the question of why do some people receive more than others? Think of it as the handouts given to you in school. If you happened to be at the end of a row, you were given a stack of them, not to keep for yourself, but you were to take one and pass on the rest. That way everyone had what they needed. Those who happen to have more in this life are to use it to help those who have less. As Paul tells Timothy, “Command those who are rich in this world's goods not to be haughty or to set their hope on riches, which are uncertain, but on God who richly provides us with all things for our enjoyment. Tell them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous givers, sharing with others. In this way they will save up a treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the future and so lay hold of the life that truly is life.” (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

When God confronts Cain about what has happened to Abel, the man says, “Am I my brother's keeper?” (Genesis 4:9) A better translation would be, “Am I my brother's guardian?” And the implied answer is “Yes.” We are supposed to watch out for one another. We are supposed to protect and help one another. We are supposed to share what we have with others, especially those who have not received as much as we have. When God was about to lead the Israelites into the promised land, he said, “...there should not be any poor among you, for the Lord will surely bless you in the land that he is giving you as an inheritance.” (Deuteronomy 15:4) But God is a realist. So he says, “If there is a poor person among you, one of your brothers, within any of your villages in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you must not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother, but you must be sure to open your hand to him and lend him whatever he needs.” (Deuteronomy 15:7-8)

Jesus said that the world will know that we are his disciples by our love for one another. (John 13:35) And in 1 John we are told, “By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts off his compassion from him, how does the love of God reside in him? My little children, let's not love in word only, nor with the tongue only, but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:16-18)

There are people who say that ours is a Christian nation. They say that God will judge us on our attitude towards various sexual sins. They never seem to mention other Bible verses, like where God says he will execute judgment on those who enact unjust policies “to keep the poor from getting fair treatment, and to deprive the oppressed among my people of justice, so they can steal what widows own, and loot what belongs to orphans.” (Isaiah 10:1-2) They don't quote the passage where it says “See here—this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had majesty, abundance of food, and enjoyed carefree ease, but they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and practiced abominable deeds before me. Therefore when I saw it I removed them.” (Ezekiel 16:49-50) Ignoring the part about not helping the poor, they only focus on abominations, which are not defined here. But they neglect the fact that dishonest business practices are also called an abomination, as is lying, and people who sow discord or who mock others. (Proverbs 6:16-19; 11:1; 24:9) And while they are talking about judgment coming upon a nation, they forget that in Jeremiah God condemns those who have gotten rich and powerful through fraud and deceit. He says, “'That is how they have grown fat and sleek. There is no limit to the evil things they do. They do not plead the cause of the fatherless in such a way as to win it. They do not defend the rights of the poor. I will certainly punish them for doing such things!' says the Lord. 'I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this!'” (Jeremiah 5:28-29) And when Jesus talks about the last judgment he only mentions sins of omission, namely not helping the poor, the needy, the sick, the imprisoned and immigrants. (Matthew 25:41-46) That is what will bring judgment on us.

It comes down to faith, to trusting that God has provided us with enough to share. And he has. There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone on the planet, according to the U.N. Yet we waste a third of it—1.3 billions tons—and 733 million people go hungry. Some people are not passing on what they have been entrusted with. There are 15.1 million vacant homes in the US, more than 10% of the nation's housing inventory. And HUD reports that in 2023 there were 653,104 people who were homeless on any given night. We could house them all and still have 14 million + vacant homes left over. The real problem is that there aren't enough affordable homes available. And there is no state, city or county in the US where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford to rent a place to live. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. In Florida it is $13 an hour as of the end of this month. But the minimum wage would have to be $32.11 an hour on average to make it possible to rent a place in this country. Meanwhile, the average salary for a CEO in the US is between $630,000 and $1.6 million. The average for the CEO of an S&P 500 company is $17.7 million a year. So CEOs make anywhere from 10 to 272 times what the average worker makes. ($65,470) Some people are not passing on what they have received.

A truly Christian nation would try to get rid of these inequalities. As God said to Israel there should not be any poor among us. And if there are, we are not to shut off our compassion but open up our hands and give the poor what they need. Nor should we leave it to churches to do alone. There are 37.9 million poor people in the US. There are between 350,000 and 400,000 churches in this country. For the churches to handle all of the poor would require each church to adopt between 94 and 108 poor people and provide food, housing, and medical care for them. Some of the megachurches might be able to do that but the majority of churches in this country are small with 80% having fewer than 100 members. Half have less than 65 people attending.

Most of the clergy I know do try to help but their churches can only do so much. Which is why a truly Christian nation would accept that the government has a duty to help the poor and not begrudgingly but cheerfully because God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7) Remember the new commandment Jesus gave us was to love one another as he loves us. (John 13:34) He did not hold anything back. He trusted God to take care of him as he gave up his life for us. The least we can do is trust God to help us as we help others. And the least Christian thing to do is to take off with your wealth and hide from those in need, either behind a heavily guarded fence or in a luxury bunker.

Jesus said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle than for a rich person to enter God's kingdom. (Mark 10:25) He also said, “...woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort already.” (Luke 6:24) But when Zacchaeus gave half of his wealth to the poor and reimbursed others with 4 times what he cheated them out of, Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this household, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” (Luke 19:9-10) Zacchaeus gave up his riches to become rich in good deeds and lay hold of the life that truly is life: eternal life with the God who is love and who gives us all things for our enjoyment.