October 11, 2015

John Salmon

Ordinary Sunday 28     Mark 10:17-27 (31)

Video available on YouTube, Facebook

Introduction

Pope Francis is attracting people’s attention.

It’s not just Catholics – or even Christians – who look to him as a voice of common sense from what is, perhaps, a surprising source. Despite his continuing conservatism in key areas such as the role of women and aspects of sexuality, he’s seen as a leader, as a clear voice on current issues.

Yet, he says little that is new.

• His challenge on climate change in the encyclical Laudato si’ has been issued by many others for some time.

• His call to give hospitality to refugees from Africa and Syria echoes many other voices.

• His approach to poverty and the impact of wealth inequality is widely discussed in the UN and in economic circles.

So why is he listened to when others have not been?

I suggest that’s because he is a symbolic figure in a symbolic position – when the Pope speaks, he is heard as speaking on behalf of something much bigger than himself. He is one individual, but represents and points towards things beyond himself.

1. The Symbolic ‘One’

Even in relation to huge seemingly impossible issues, one symbolic individual can focus attention, shift the ground, revise our world-view – and keep on doing so beyond their lifetime. Think Nelson Mandela, Kate Shepherd, Martin Luther King.

A while ago there was a lot of talk in NZ about “doing something” about refugees, about increasing the numbers we might take, with little effect.

Then we saw the pictures of the small body of Syrian boy Aylan washed up on a Turkish beach – that one image, the plight of that one small boy, resulted in almost immediate Govt action as a result of the ‘noise’ made in protest.

Symbolism around an individual – or a single image – can make a difference, can raise the pressure, can help people change their minds and Governments change their policy.

It is easier for us to imagine the significance of a damaging situation when see it focused on one individual than we can from a set of huge statistical numbers. One matters.

2. Jesus worked this way

If you look at Jesus’ parables, they almost always tell the story of one person. He recognises that a point about compassion is best expressed in relation to a single individual – as in the story we call ‘the Good Samaritan’.

That’s not simply about the individuals in the story. It’s a challenge to Jesus’ hearers to shift their ideas, a challenge to all of us who hear to shake off our prejudices, to enact compassion towards all around us – and it’s a challenge to religious leaders, too, to change ingrained rules and priorities. It’s focused on one symbolic figure, but it’s not about that one.

In this morning’s gospel, we have Jesus focusing on wealth issues in response to one “good man” – then expanded, at least in part, by the gospel writer commenting on how hard it is for a rich person to live a fulfilled life – harder even than for a camel to get through the eye of a needle (that’s probably the bit that Jesus actually said)!

Biblical scholars are increasingly certain that Jesus was a wisdom preacher rather than a prophet. That he spoke in parables and short sayings, packed with insight, but making you think to get the point. These all aimed at shifting perceptions, ideas of life, priorities:

Do not be anxious about life... How happy are you who are poor... Many who are last shall be first...

And he adds humour:

• the camel and the eye of the needle compared with a rich person wanting a fulfilled life;

• a ‘good man’ needing to give away his wealth rather than following all the standard commandments.

Jokes, used to aid memory of his hearers.

And in these words, Jesus reflects a core biblical theme: economic justice is crucially important; how we deal with wealth and poverty is central in biblical ethics.

3. The impacts of wealth inequality

Most of us have heard many stories or seen lots of pictures of individuals suffering the effects of poverty, yet somehow those have not motivated us to action around the core issues of money, wealth, economics.

Perhaps that’s because all of us are entwined with money-issues, whether we’re wealthy or not. It’s very personal for us.

Yet, it’s important to recognise that this is not about me. Symbolic stories point to something more than any individual. Jesus’ story about the rich man is not telling us, individually, to give our money away. That’s not how Jesus’ stories work: they are designed, rather, to make us think, to review and revise our priorities, to shift our view away from ourselves and to the larger picture of community, of society, of the world in which we are a part.

In these stories Jesus is pointing up the impossibility of fulfilled lives for communities when some are very rich and others struggle.

Wealth inequality – usually defined as the gap between the top 20% in a society and the lowest 20% – and its impacts on persons and societies is currently a central concern for economic theorists. The form we have it today is seen to be embedded in capitalism, and that’s pushing for a re-shaping of the capitalist structure.    

What’s more, there is strong statistical evidence that the more unequal a society is, the lower its life expectancy, the higher its crime levels, the poorer the health of it population. That so whether the country itself is poor or wealthy, and the impacts affect even those who are well off.

So, many of the things we blame on the way individuals live or on poor performance by CYFS or the police, seem more likely to be an inevitable result of the wealth imbalance. More significantly perhaps, the wealth imbalance and the attitudes and policies that drive it, also underlie the issues we noted at the beginning:

• The conditions of conflict that produce the refugees seeking a better life;

• The disastrous effects of international poverty;

• Climate change and governmental inaction in making effective changes.

Conclusion

One difference we as individuals can make is to live and speak the gospel story about the “good man”.

If each of us and all of us together, building on the message of Jesus, recognise that specific rules of behaviour or particular items of faith are not as important for a good life as the way we approach money, that becomes a symbol of a different world.

If each of us and all of us together, recognising the challenge Jesus makes to the doctrines and structures of faith and church, seek to ask questions of our Christian community about priorities that favour commandments over compassionate use of wealth, that moves from symbol to action.

If each of us and all of us together, hearing Jesus’ wisdom about the ultimate impossibility of fulfilled life for a community while wealth inequalities exist, take courage to critique social and economic policies, that puts direct action at the heart of our life together.