Wealth and Poverty, Part 2
My sermon is coming together nicely, but I'm still feeling a bit intimidated by the task. My work on this topic, both biblically and historically, has been very personally rewarding even though a lot of what I've uncovered won't actually make it into the sermon. But that's part of why I thought it would be fun to put some of those things here on the blog. Today's thoughts come from a great early theologian from around the turn of the 3rd century, Clement of Alexandria.As the gospel spread during the early centuries of the church’s existence, there were some Christians who interpreted the words of Jesus regarding the difficulty of a rich person entering the kingdom to mean that all who were rich were excluded from the salvation available in Christ. In response to the turmoil such an interpretation caused, Clement of Alexandria composed his treatise Who is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved? Clement insisted that the attainment of salvation does not depend upon external matters, such as wealth or poverty, but on the internal condition of the soul. The soul, therefore, must be purified of all disorders which distract it from God. Passionate attachments, such as the attraction of possessions, are among the foremost to be removed. According to Clement, it was not wealth but one’s attitude towards wealth that was destructive. He writes, “He [the rich man] is to banish those attitudes towards wealth that permeate his whole life, his desires, interests, and anxiety. These things become the thorns choking the seed of a true life.”
For Clement, the wealth of the rich was in fact of great benefit if they could overcome this passionate attachment to their possessions. The value of possessions lay in their employment as “alms,” gifts given to provide for the poor. Early Christians had a heightened sensitivity of the need to care for the poor through the giving of alms. Clement writes, “Therefore, we must not throw away the riches that benefit not only ourselves but our neighbors as well. They are possessions because they are possessed, and they are goods because they are good and provided by God to help all people. They are under our control, and we are to use them just as others use materials and instruments in their trade. An instrument, used with skill, produces a work of art…. Wealth is such an instrument. It can be used rightly to produce justice.” He goes on then to address those who have wealth, saying, “Do not regret your possessions, but destroy the passions of your soul that hinder you from using your wealth wisely. Then you may become virtuous and good and use your possessions in the most beneficial ways. The rejection of wealth and selling of one’s possessions is to be understood as the rejection and elimination of the soul’s passions…. It is difficult to keep ourselves from becoming enticed by and dependent upon the life style that affluence offers, but it is not impossible. Even when surrounded by affluence we may distance ourselves from its effects and accept salvation. We center our minds on those things taught by God and strive for eternal life by using our possessions properly and with a sense of indifference toward them.”
Hey glad you found my blog(s).
There was one quote you used in your sermon that was great I though it was from Clement about wealth as a tool.
Do you remember which one that was?
Posted by
Stephen, Haley and baby Isla |
9:56 PM
Hey Barry,
Not sure if you remember me.. DTS, friends with Chris McGregor.. came across your blog through Jeremiah Betron's.. Looks like you already preached this message. Here's another cool quote from the early church on wealth..
“Whom do I injure,” [the rich person asks], “when I retain and conserve my own [wealth]? Which things, tell me, are yours? Why have you brought them into being? You are like one occupying a place in a theatre, who should prohibit others from entering, treating that as one’s own which was designed for the common use of all.
Such are the rich. Because they were first to occupy common goods, they take these goods as their own. If each one would take that which is sufficient for one’s needs, leaving what is in excess to those in distress, no one would be rich, no one poor.
Did you not come naked from the womb? Will you not return naked into the earth? (Job 1:21). Why then did you have your present possessions? If you say, “By chance,” you are godless, because you do not acknowledge the Creator, nor give thanks to the Giver. If you admit they are from God, tell us why you have received them.
Is God unjust to distribute the necessaries of life to us unequally? Why are you rich, why is that one poor? Is it not that you may receive the reward of beneficence and faithful distribution…?
Do you think that you who have taken everything into unlimited compass of your greed, thereby depriving so many others, have done injury to no one? Who is greedy? One who is not content with those things which are sufficient. Who is a robber?One who takes the goods of another.
Are you not greedy? Are you not a robber? You who make your own the things which you have received to distribute? Will not one be called a thief who steals the garment of one already clothed, and is one deserving of any other title who will not clothe the naked if he is able to do so? That bread which you keep, belongs to the hungry; that coat which you preserve in your wardrobe, to the naked; those shoes wich are rotting in your possession, to the shoeless; that gold which you have hidden in the ground, to the needy. Wherefore, as often as you were able to help others and refused, so often did you do them wrong.
If that were true which you have affirmed, that you have obeyed the commandment of love from youth (Mark 10:20), and have given to everyone as much as to yourself, why, I ask, do you have all this wealth? For the care of the poor consumes wealth, when each one receives a little for one’s needs, and all owners distribute their means simultaneously for the care of the needy. Therefore, whoever loves the neighbor as oneself, will possess no more than one’s neighbor.
Yet it is plain that you have very many lands. Why do you have all these? Undoubetdly you have subordinated the relief and comfort of many to your convenience. Therefore, the more you abound in riches, the more you have been lacking in love.
God has poured the rains on a land tilled by greedy hands; He has given the sun to keep the seeds warm, and to multipy the fruits through his productivity.
Things of this kind are from God: the fertile land, moderate winds, abundance of seeds, the work of oxen, and other things by which a farm is brought to productivity and abudance…But the greedy one has not remembered our common nature, has not thought of distribution…
-Basil the Great
I used it in a sermon i preached on wealth at Irving Bible.. to the college group. God bless, man,
Philip Heidt
Posted by
Anonymous |
5:28 PM