We don’t want to hear about it.
When we do, it is received with disbelief.
Not us!
Something is wrong…here…it has to be!
What about the “others?”
We challenge the statistics…
We fight them tooth and nail.
“Others” need to step up!
You can’t put this on us!
This is unfairly pointing the finger “at us!”
You see: A “big,” “huge” “mistake” of American Christians is to forget that “we” live in one of the “wealthiest nations in the world.” We do. That’s a fact. There is no escaping it!
Our standard of living is “higher” than 95% of people in the globe. That, whether we like it or not, happens to be a truism.
Here in America, we have routinely pointed at “others” – those who are more rich, maybe even mega-rich or “uber” rich, like for example the 1%. They have become an easy target for us and by us.
What about them, we cry?
Who is there – to call “them out?”
But recent statistics are now saying that “the middle class” in the United States is wealthier than 95% of the “Christians” living on planet earth.
Just the middle class.
Even the poorest of our poor are wealthier than a vast majority of the people on the face of this planet.
We are not the rich, we protest, as if, it were some kind of a mantra.
The tendency among a great many of us is to the think that “the rich” people are people like Bill Gates (Microsoft), Warren Buffet (CEO of Berkshire Hathaway), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Jack Dorsey (Twitter) and Lynsi Snyder (IN and OUT Burger.)
They are the rich, not us! They are multi-billionaires. They are the folks in Forbes Business Magazine, not us!
We are still eeking out a living. We still go from paycheck to paycheck. We are only a paycheck or two away from being in serious financial difficulty. One major medical emergency away from utter chaos…
You surely must mean someone else!
We are not rich by any stretch of the imagination.
Then, the tendency is to forget completely about it, and to simply go on with our life and living.
We are not the rich. We are not the rich. Point your fingers, elsewhere…
Let the billionaires help out those in need.
We don’t want to be responsible…there are people with so much more…than we ourselves have…
We are not the rich, we cry out in protest! We don’t have that much money…
It is said, that it is easy to fall in love with money. Money and wealth is seductive, as is the accumulation of things…
It is more than possible to be addicted to money or to our possessions. They are ours. We own them. It is my stuff. I cannot part with my stuff. Like with most addictions, we initially do not realize that we are addicted.
It is said, that wealth creates a false sense of security. We think that wealth will protect us from the disasters of this life and then, we find out it doesn’t! It’s not true!
Ask the people who lost everything in the wake of our most recent hurricanes, no homes, no jobs, no modes of transportation…no food, no water, no electricity, no nothing…often times with only the clothes on their backs…
Money often makes people more selfish, so that the purpose of time, talents and energy is to serve ourselves rather than others, to preserve our wealth rather than to share the wealth that God has entrusted to us.
Oh, to be like children again, when sharing came so easy!
Now we simply horde and hang on to everything…and anything…
Something tells me, that when Jesus was talking to the rich young man, he was talking to us, as well.
Some of you will say that’s a stretch…Some of you will do anything to not see yourself in this scripture.
This text is about the professional athletes or the Hollywood movie stars…the text is about them, not me.
We will do anything to deflect this away from ourselves and on to others…
It is not about us, we say to ourselves…
It’s not.
It’s really not!
Amen.