{"id":7888,"date":"2018-10-14T00:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-10-13T23:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/turski.me\/?p=7888"},"modified":"2018-10-14T00:00:39","modified_gmt":"2018-10-13T23:00:39","slug":"28th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/?p=7888","title":{"rendered":"28th Sunday in Ordinary time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Money can\u2019t buy happiness, but neither can poverty.<\/em> This rather catchy phrase by a German-born teacher and academic, Leo Rosten, has a ring of truth about it. But it also goes against today\u2019s gospel, where Jesus gives a jaw-dropping piece of advice to a wealthy man: \u2018Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven; then come, follow me.\u2019<\/em> The man is gobsmacked by Jesus\u2019 proposal and departs, prompting Jesus to comment publicly: \u2018It\u2019s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.\u2019<\/em> So, essentially, it seems that we are all doomed, damned and condemned unless each one of us makes ourselves as poor as a church mouse. No, I\u2019m not going to tell you that giving all your money to me is the perfect solution to finding happiness!<\/p>\n

In fact, today\u2019s gospel has very little to do with money or with being wealthy in a narrow, financial sense. So, what is it all about? In order to find out, we have to look more attentively at today\u2019s gospel. The main character, an unnamed man, seeks Jesus\u2019 advice. His question has two distinctive elements: \u2018What must I do<\/strong> to inherit<\/strong> eternal life.\u2019<\/em> It hints at the man\u2019s mindset; eternal life can be acquired as a reward, a payment for his good deeds. It\u2019s a transaction: life eternal in return for good deeds. Jesus\u2019 opening line sends a warning signal to the man: \u2018No one is good but God alone.\u2019<\/em> To back up this assertion, Jesus lists a number of Commandments; those that most people tend to breach. The man\u2019s response \u2018I have kept all these from my earliest days\u2019 <\/em>causes Jesus to look at him steadily and with love. But Jesus\u2019 next sentence is a sucker punch. The call to give away all his possessions to the poor is a step too far for the wealthy man. Saddened, he goes away. Subsequently Jesus makes a comment that astounds his followers: \u2018How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s too easy to jump to the superficial conclusion that – in Jesus\u2019 opinion – financial wealth is bad, purely and simply. Such a conclusion is as easy to reach as it is mistaken. The phrase \u2018those who have riches\u2019<\/em> used by Jesus in this context actually refers to a boastful, arrogant attitude and an air of condescending superiority. Some of you may be aware that I play video games. As in real life, you need to earn virtual \u2018currency\u2019 or \u2018resources\u2019 or \u2018abilities\u2019 in order to progress in a game; and, just as in real life, it\u2019s a hard and time-consuming activity. As in real life, you are called upon to use your virtual gains judiciously. But there comes a point in a game when you have amassed enough of them to feel rich; and \u2013 almost imperceptibly – you become arrogant and lazy because you can \u2018buy\u2019 your progress! Virtual reality is a reflection of real life.<\/p>\n

When Jesus refers to those who have riches<\/em> he might well be talking about you and me: whenever you look down upon others, feeling pompously or snobbishly better than them; whenever you\u2019re smug about their underachievement; whenever you take the judgmental high moral ground – it\u2019s you<\/strong> who have riches.<\/em> You can consider yourself rich morally, or rich spiritually; you can possess extraordinary talents or skills, or you can wield power or influence; the list can be very long indeed. None of those riches is good or bad of itself, in its own right; each one is neutral. What you do with those riches, and how they affect your attitudes, makes them either a stumbling block or a springboard on the way towards the kingdom of God. As Suzanne Necker aptly noted: \u2018Fortune does not change men; it unmasks them.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Photo by\u00a0Chronomarchie<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Money can\u2019t buy happiness, but neither can poverty. This rather catchy phrase by a German-born teacher and academic, Leo Rosten, has a ring of truth about it. But it also goes against today\u2019s gospel, where Jesus gives a jaw-dropping piece of advice to a wealthy man: \u2018Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven; then come, follow me.\u2019 The man is gobsmacked by Jesus\u2019 proposal and departs, prompting Jesus to comment publicly: \u2018It\u2019s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.\u2019 So, essentially, it seems that we are all doomed, damned and condemned unless each one of us makes ourselves as poor as a church mouse. No, I\u2019m not going to tell you that giving all your money to me is the perfect solution to finding happiness! In fact, today\u2019s gospel has very little to do with money or with being wealthy in a narrow, financial sense. So, what is it all about? In order to find out, we have to look more attentively at today\u2019s gospel. The main character, an unnamed man, seeks Jesus\u2019 advice. His question has two distinctive elements: \u2018What must I do to inherit eternal life.\u2019 It hints at the man\u2019s mindset; eternal life can be acquired as a reward, a payment for his good deeds. It\u2019s a transaction: life eternal in return for good deeds. Jesus\u2019 opening line sends a warning signal to the man: \u2018No one is good but God alone.\u2019 To back up this assertion, Jesus lists a number of Commandments; those that most people tend to breach. The man\u2019s response \u2018I have kept all these from my earliest days\u2019 causes Jesus to look at him steadily and with love. But Jesus\u2019 next sentence is a sucker punch. The call to give away all his possessions to the poor is a step too far for the wealthy man. Saddened, he goes away. Subsequently Jesus makes a comment that astounds his followers: \u2018How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!\u2019 It\u2019s too easy to jump to the superficial conclusion that – in Jesus\u2019 opinion – financial wealth is bad, purely and simply. Such a conclusion is as easy to reach as it is mistaken. The phrase \u2018those who have riches\u2019 used by Jesus in this context actually refers to a boastful, arrogant attitude and an air of condescending superiority. Some of you may be aware that I play video games. As in real life, you need to earn virtual \u2018currency\u2019 or \u2018resources\u2019 or \u2018abilities\u2019 in order to progress in a game; and, just as in real life, it\u2019s a hard and time-consuming activity. As in real life, you are called upon to use your virtual gains judiciously. But there comes a point in a game when you have amassed enough of them to feel rich; and \u2013 almost imperceptibly – you become arrogant and lazy because you can \u2018buy\u2019 your progress! Virtual reality is a reflection of real life. When Jesus refers to those who have riches he might well be talking about you and me: whenever you look down upon others, feeling pompously or snobbishly better than them; whenever you\u2019re smug about their underachievement; whenever you take the judgmental high moral ground – it\u2019s you who have riches. You can consider yourself rich morally, or rich spiritually; you can possess extraordinary talents or skills, or you can wield power or influence; the list can be very long indeed. None of those riches is good or bad of itself, in its own right; each one is neutral. What you do with those riches, and how they affect your attitudes, makes them either a stumbling block or a springboard on the way towards the kingdom of God. As Suzanne Necker aptly noted: \u2018Fortune does not change men; it unmasks them.\u2019 Photo by\u00a0Chronomarchie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermon","category-year-b"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}