Word to the Wise
Sunday, September 6, 2015 - 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
[Isa 35:4-7a; Jas 2:1-5; Mark 7:31-37]SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2015 TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [Isaiah 35:4-7a; James 2:1-5; Mark 7:31-37] "Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?" [James] Material wealth was regarded as a gift from God by people who lived in Jesus' time (and I suspect in almost any time). His teaching on the dangers of material wealth, however, astonished his disciples. His parables of the Rich Man and Lazarus, the Rich Fool (who tried to build bigger barns) and the Rich Young Man (who wanted to know how to inherit the kingdom) were and are vivid challenges to his disciples. The second scripture for today, from the Letter of James, offers an important insight. How does wealth impact the way we look at other people? What does wealth do for love of God and neighbor? In my years in campus ministry, I knew students who went on "mission trips" to Third World countries and experienced the (by our American standards) abject poverty of the people being served. It left the students visibly shocked. Yet, most of the world lives that way. We in American are shielded from that reality by the material wealth of our culture. There are areas of terrible poverty in the U.S.A. as well, but again, the culture of material goods can create a filter, so to speak, that shields us from that poverty. The recent increased awareness of immigration around the world brings the subject even closer as we examine just how welcoming we are to the poor who are trying to come to our country. Jesus challenges us to think about what our "stuff" (or lack of it) does to us. How does it make us think about others? Where do we find "security?" If we were in the position of welcoming the two people mentioned in James today, how would we behave? The answer may be sobering! AMEN
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