Gainfully Ruined

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051916.cfm

James 5:1-6
Mark 9:41-50

We probably consider today’s first reading from James to be a primer on the principles ignored when rich people concentrate on their ill-gotten financial gains. Taken as it stands alone, the context of Chapter 5, verses 1-6 appears written for the 1% of the population who are filthy rich, and not us good folks. James seems to justifiably malign the ostentatious, gated community elite; those who live at the behest of slaves who must cater to their every whim. Bernie Sanders loves this guy.

Marginalizing the wealthy is a good way to excise guilt from our conscience, imagining that God’s warnings have to do with money, status, and possessions for those who are dripping in money, status and possessions. James’ reading is meant for a different group of people than we and our friends. Whew. We're safe from God's wrath, aren't we?

Let’s say that is true. Let’s consider that through James God castigates the wealthy and debunks their false premises. What are the failed principles leveled against the 1%, then? What improper concepts have we escaped from by not being wealthy brutes? 

• Wealth brings misery to those who believe their luxury is permanent. 
• Wealth cannot stop rot and corrosion from destroying their precious items, even the clothing on their back. This rule is true no matter how many times they buy new stuff. 
• Any belief that wealth elevates them beyond others, protecting them from the plight of the poor, indeed death itself, will be found false.
• The inability to reconcile the continuous corrosion of their hoarded wealth will eat at them physically, until they are also destroyed.
• Stored up wealth as a preserved treasure for their end of time will come to nothing.
• Further, storing up treasure for themselves reflects a disregard for full payment to those who assisted them in their wealth building. The poor who weep over the poverty of their lives, ignored by the wealthy, will be heard by God.
• A life of luxury and pleasures will ultimately fatten their arteries and result in slaughter. The crying of the insolent rich does not please God who turns his ears to the cry of the poor. 
• Their disagreement with Jesus’ call to provide living wages to those who work for their benefit translates to striking out to God. God will accept their violent blows and angry disdain without argument. They will think unreturned arguments means that God acquiesces to their anger. Or worse, God’s silence is their victory over God’s feeble attempt to humble them.

Most shocking, is that for all of James' seeming derision of the wealthy, God has no retort. The scripture verse says, "he offers you no resistance." From my wealth-measured view of the world, I hate this reading. There is no honest back door for those of us focused on treasures, however small. Even as I place myself at arm’s length from those dastardly wealthy folks, I feel the hot breath of warning. I find myself confused in my efforts, seemingly frozen by scripture in not knowing which way to go with the treasures I own and the treasures I seek. Is poverty the only way to be safe from temptation? Not if I will spend all my time whining about not having any wealth.

Anything I apparently do for my own gain — from coupon shopping to coin collecting — appears to be selfish and unworthy. My worldly reading of James is annoying. His fire and brimstone gives me no comfort, and God's lack of resistance to wealth-based efforts is disturbing. I want to be assured that the context of the wealthy does not include me, but I have difficulty with my baseline, my foundations for financial freedom and earned income. 

For instance, what about my retirement coffers? Are they just stored up treasures that mean nothing? How do I reconcile my focus upon money and my focus upon God, especially if God does not reject our efforts? Well, let us look at the verses previous to and after 5:1-6. Let's mine scripture for assurances that my meager gains, my personal financial efforts escape scrutiny.

The previous chapter in James berates us with warnings against presumption. I wonder what this will suggest.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town, spend a year there doing business, and make a profit” — You have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears. Instead you should say, “If the Lord wills it,* we shall live to do this or that.” 

Consequently, if the Lord wills that I become wealthy, then I shall live a life of convenience and luxury? If my investments work out, then God looked kindly on me isn't exactly the way we think God works. Getting rich is simply like winning the lottery? That can't true if God is intimately involved in our lives. 

It's not God's view, then. It must be ours that James is talking about. If our point of view of life determines what we consider to be success, and if we measure the world by wealth, then that's how we'll see our morals, our politics, our national character, and so on. In fact, if we hold a wealth-focused view, then all God's actions are weighed by wealth considerations too.

Chapter five continues with verses 7-8:

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You too must be patient. Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Oh, dear. A dagnab farmer analogy, idealizing the fruit of the harvest. The farmer sits on his porch watching his garden grow. In fact, I know personally how hard that farmer works — the long days, early mornings, tedious patterns, and dirt under the fingernails. It’s more like exhaustion than patience. So, James is surely not talking about the hard work required. His analogy is about trusting in God as the farmer trusts in the cycles of the seasons.

Back to our money-based brains. What’s so bad about a passive revenue stream? We save up our money and put it into a vehicle that pays out dividends. On the other hand, what’s wrong with working hard to create a nest egg? In fact, nothing is wrong with any of it. Why? Because poor or rich, we are the same. Both financial situations in life have a problem with wealth. One has it and wants to keep it. The other wants it, and is afraid of being left out.

The problem James speaks about is not really the wealthy few, our stored up savings, purchasing finer things, or planning for retirement. It’s not even a problem to work ourselves to the bone, perform tedious duties, or to avidly exercise a healthy lifestyle. James isn’t really concerned with any of these things. He’s concerned with our eye upon the wrong prize. The prize is God, not wealth, success, position, or reputation.

James writes, preaches and urges us to be certain about the premise of our lived lives, and not the physical results of our lives. Even though he appears to be focused on matters of social conscience and economics, his message is truly about concentrating on God’s hand in our circumstances, be we rich or poor.

We all know that even the finest of things wear out. We know that cancer pops up among both the wealthy and the poor. We also know that when we take advantage of anyone’s situation to our benefit, when we leverage gain for ourselves to the expense of someone else, we have accomplished nothing of permanence and only made everyone’s life, including our own, miserable.

James surely makes good points about consequences, but his message comes down to joy in our perseverance in whatever condition we live. If we have our eye upon wealth, we take our eye off of God. Our constancy in God means that God is with us no matter what our situation. 

Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

No matter what our lives give us, we must persevere in our faith knowing that God loves us and will take us to himself when we leave this world.

Everything James talks about in his brimstone terms, condemning the wealthy who ignore the poor, comes down to a perseverance of faith that both the rich and the poor must consider. James speaks about the temporary nature of the wealthy for both the benefit of the poor man or woman and the wealthy gentleman or lady.

The brother in lowly circumstances should take pride in his high standing, and the rich one in his lowliness, for he will pass away “like the flower of the field.” For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass, its flower droops, and the beauty of its appearance vanishes. So will the rich person fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

The rich do not pine to be poor, but worry about their wealth. The poor pine to be rich, and worry they may never have anything. Nothing is permanent about wealth, though, whether we have it or want it. Both holding onto wealth, or dreaming about getting it lead to the same end. It disappears. It disintegrates. 

Everything in this world fades away, but God does not. If we are but our possessions, then we also fade away. Our desires to be wealthy are as much an allusion that detracts us from God as the wealthy person’s consuming ownership.