I have to admit that in the past few weeks as I've been reading one devastating headline after another, I haven’t exactly known what to pray for. I have prayed against hate, that God would help me to be compassionate in my responses to others and to not let hate seed into my heart. But in terms of the country, I keep throwing my hands up and praying, "God, what are we supposed to do? Tell me what to do and I will do it."
Today, as I was reading yet another headline of yet again the wealthy taking money from the poor to fill their own coffers, it came to me: pray against the spirit of greed. I spent my entire commute doing just that - praying against the spirit of greed in our government right now. A spirit which steals from the starving in order to feed the overstuffed.
What is that anyway? What is that need to have more and more and more, even when you already have more than you could ever spend in a lifetime? In 100 lifetimes! When is it ever enough? Does hoarding money make people feel more secure? Is it compensating for a lack of love or for an empty heart? It is difficult to understand how ten people in our country own enough money and resources to feed all the world's starving children or house all the homeless or educate every student for free... and yet, they don't. Historian Heather Cox Richardson noted recently that in the last fifty years, 53 trillion dollars have passed from the hands of everyday Americans into the hands of the top 1% of our country. 53 trillion dollars. I can't even wrap my head around that number, and yet, the rich continue becoming richer every day, while the poor are only getting poorer.
It reminds me of Jesus' parable of the rich fool. In this parable, told in Luke 12, Jesus talks about a rich man who had such a great crop of produce one year that he decided to tear down his existing barns in order to build a bigger barn so he could store all the excess. Jesus called him a fool, because that very night his life would be taken from him and he would never have a chance to use what he had stored.
A lot of people miss in this parable that the reason why this was so abominable is because the Old Testament law commanded people to share excess with the poor. In fact, they are given very specific instructions about leaving certain amounts of their yearly crop for orphans and widows and foreigners, and anyone else who might need it. Therefore, by hoarding all of the crop for himself, this man was ignoring God's law to care for others, and also ignoring the ethics of that law regarding the type of community God designed.
In Matthew 19, Jesus says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the wealthy to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Previously in chapter 6 of Matthew's gospel, Jesus says we cannot serve two masters - for we will hate one and love the other. "You cannot serve both God and money" (Matthew 6:24).
These are warnings from Scripture which we should pay attention to. God's heart for the poor and the oppressed bleeds all over the Old Testament and throughout the words of Jesus. God calls for justice for the poor and the oppressed and warns those who do the oppressing of coming judgement.
Consider Proverbs 14:31, "Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but those who are kind to the needy honor him."
I had the privilege of hearing Shane Claiborne of the Red Letter Christians speak today, and he said, "Be careful as you are working your way up the ladder of opportunity - you might pass Jesus on His way down!" Jesus spends time with the oppressed, the lonely, the lowly, the poor, and the marginalized. If you want to find Jesus, you lean into the margins. That is where He will be.
Perhaps you will join me in praying against the spirit of greed in our country, and, at the same time, perhaps we should examine our own hearts, too. We may not be billionaires stealing from hungry children to stuff our portfolios, but we all have been given resources: our time, our talents, and yes, our income. How are we being faithful with that which God has given us? How are we being generous to aiding the causes which God cares so much about - to help the orphan, the widow, and the foreigner? To love our neighbors?
I don't think this is about our 10% tithe, per se. This is more about an attitude of gratitude and generosity. It's about a heart that wants to align with God's by leaning into the margins.
Let me close with these words from Basil of Caesarea, a fourth-century monk and bishop, who wrote, “I cannot persuade myself that without love to others, and without, as far as rests with me, peaceableness towards all, I can be called a worthy servant of Jesus Christ.”
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