Sunday sermon.
The following catechism on selfishness appeared in an article titled "Serious Questions of the Hour" in the November 1874 Shaker and Shakeress Monthly. A large portion of it was quoted in Richard T. Ely's The Labor Movement in America (1886). I have reformatted the text, breaking questions and answers into separate paragraphs.…Econospeak
Does Christianity admit of private property?
Sandwichman
This is absurd...
ReplyDeleteHere is Paul: "17 Those who are rich in the current eon be charging not to be haughty, nor yet to rely on the dubiousness of riches, but on God, Who is tendering us all things richly for our enjoyment;
18 to be doing good acts, to be rich in ideal acts, to be liberal contributors,
19 treasuring up for themselves an ideal foundation for that which is impending, that they may get hold of life really." 1 Tim 6:17
No mention of making themselves poor or redistributing their income...
In the scriptures, no one is ever described as poor away from the Israelite economic system... no one is ever described as poor in Greece or Rome because no one was....
Our economic system as administered by our institution of civil government has nothing to do with "Christianity".... or anyone's salvation in Christ...
The administration of our economic system is pure materialism....
When the top-enders in Christendom try to make it into a material maintenance and repair facilty, whatever their goals become, whatever they are trying to correct, it gets WORSE...
Stand by for rampant inequality and many, many more made poor among us....
16 Then someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”
ReplyDelete17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness;
19 Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
20 The young man said to him, “I have kept all these;[b] what do I still lack?”
21 Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money[c] to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
22 When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.
24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, “Then who can be saved?”
26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”
27 Then Peter said in reply, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”
28 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold,[d] and will inherit eternal life.
30 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
Mt 19:16-30 NRSV
He wanted him to divest of his POSSESSIONS Tom.... NOTHING said about his allotment....
ReplyDeleteIsraelites (under law) always had access to their allotments... possessions were that IN EXCESS of their basic allotments decreed in the law which were themselves robust...
So just because he would have had to divest of his possessions this in no way would make him poor as he would have done very well with just his allotment...
You and the Pope want everyone to make themselves poor with NO ALLOTMENT to fall back on... its misguided at best and insane at worst ... Christ in NO WAY recommended that to Israelites and then when that failed, Paul in NO WAY recommended that to we of the nations either...
The Israelites always had access to their allotments (borrow > default > forgive) for guaranteed means of subsistence and we Cainites always had access to our Temple systems and our daily doles (issue > redeem) for guaranteed means of subsistence...
Here:
24 Now He, answering, said, "I was not commissioned except for the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Mat 15:24
Dont conflate Christ's failed teachings to Israel documented in the accounts of the 4 authors (so called "gospels") with his commissioned Apostle Paul's teachings to we of the nations... the two systems dont mix... you end up with the psychopathic system we have now where our morons are trying to impose the "borrow > default > forgive" model on we who are made to operate under "issue > redeem"... it doesnt work....
Jesus was inviting that young man to discipleship.
ReplyDelete"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Mt 5:48
He tells the young man if you want to be a good Jew, keep the mitzvoth. But If you want to be perfect, on the other hand, become my disciple. He sets standards above the Law in Mt 5 through 7.
"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Mt 5:48
He tells the young man if you want to be perfect then give up riches and "follow me."
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 But Jesus[m] said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61 Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”
62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Disciples had a common purse.
John 12:6, John 13:29
"All who believed were together and had all things in common" Acts 2:44 (NRSV)
Sayings like these are called the "difficult sayings," or the "hard sayings." They tend to be either ignored or explained away. But some take them seriously, even literally.
So I don't think the Shaker reading of Jesus is absurd at all, nor the Desert Fathers, for example. A lot people harkening to those roots read the scripture in that light too.
I am not saying that there is one correct way of interpreting the scripture or teaching of any tradition, either. There are many interpretations that a text may supports, and also the context of the period to the degree it is known on the basis of evidence or can reasonably be reconstructed. Then there is the issue of the reliability of texts and historical evidence.
Paul was not Jesus and was not a disciple of Jesus. There is a huge controversy today over how Paul's teaching was viewed by disciples of Jesus in the flesh. As a scholar, I would not be relying on Paul to make a point if I was aiming at broad agreement.
Oops. Forgot a ref. The passage beginning 57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” is from Luke 9 (NRSV)
ReplyDeleteIt's not $, possessions, allotments that hold the disciple back. It's the Love of $, possessions, allotments, that hold the disciple back - keeps the attention focused on the bonds (not govt. issued) rather than the means to free oneself. It takes a disciple to know they are bonds: for everybody else they are desires (which is natural and normal until fatigue forces them to look for evolutionary fulfilment, learning, unfolding, development, and the energy of love that is more than the human persona, within); just as is the desire of the disciple natural, to free himself and look for union with that universal energy, which he knows has created both his Life and his consciousness. Both are divine and on the same path, just at different points on the way.
ReplyDelete