James on Wealth and Exploitation

Reflecting on the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Two Days after Sunday (Year C)

Scripture (semicontinuous)

Psalter: Psalm 119:49-56

Old Testament: Jeremiah 32:36-44

Epistle: James 5:1-6

Scripture (complementary)

Psalter: Psalm 62

Old Testament: Hosea 10:9-15

Epistle: James 5:1-6

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Prayer

God of power and justice, like Jeremiah you weep over those who wander from you, turn aside to other gods, and enter into chaos and destruction. By your tears and through your mercy, teach us your ways and write them on our hearts so that we may follow faithfully the path you show us. Amen.

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Reflection

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts on a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you (James 5:1-6).

by Rev. Bryan Findlayson

In this small section of the letter of James, the writer takes time to denounce the exploiting activities of the rich. He is not denouncing wealth as such, rather he is attacking wealth obtained by corruption. He attacks ill-gotten gains and the motivations that drive us to these ends. So, the passage again exposes unrighteous behavior, behavior which is the product of a “useless” faith.

The first decade of the 21st. century will go down in history for spawning the fruits of a greed is good philosophy. The Global Financial Crisis, generated by corrupt merchant bankers, most of whom still ply their trade, virtually brought the world's banking system to its knees. Then, as a consequence, Western governments, weakened by unsustainable debt, and now further weakened by taking over the debts of their banks, were paralyzed in the face of a world-wide recession. And all this, down to greed.

Only in the kingdom of heaven will greed no longer drive us. None-the-less, our passage for study has something to say to us for the here and now:

1. The stupidity of hoarding, v1-3. The things of this world are subject to decay, so it is best to wisely use what we have before we have nothing to use. cf. Matt.25:25-30, Luke.19:20-27.

2. The sin of legal theft, v4. It is not a nice situation to find people who proclaim their religion, but who don't even pay their staff a fair recompense. They do not fulfill their honest obligations because they want to get more of this worlds things. Such behavior does not go unnoticed by the Judge of the universe.

3. The trap of pleasure, v5. As Richard Holloway puts it, “The pursuit of pleasure for its own sake is always ultimately unsatisfying ... and becomes addictive.” The reason for this is that if we “pursue pleasure we fail to get it”, and this because you cannot “separate pleasure from the act that gives it.” The person who exploits does so for self-pleasing. Such is selfish greed and, in the end, is not satisfying.

4. Exploitation is as good as murder, v6. To manipulate the structures of a society from a position of power, eg. the legal system, so as to deprive the poor of the little they have to add to the excess of the rich, is as good as murder. In God’s eyes, it is that serious.

It is not easy for a believer to function untainted from the materialism of this world. If we do find ourselves in the greed-trap, willing to exploit for self-pleasing, then we need to humble ourselves before the Lord. “Come near to God and he will come near to you” and “he will lift you up.”

PRAYER: As you heard the prayer of Isaac and Rebekah, O God, and guided them in the way of your love, so listen now to those who call upon you. Move us to praise your gracious will, for in Christ Jesus you have saved us from the deeds of death and opened for us the hidden ways of your love. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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