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Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues
Fruits of whose labour?
‘The world has enough for everyone's needs, but not everyone's greed’ – Mahatma Gandhi (cf. Luke 12.15).
Context
In June this year, the rate of inflation reached 9.4%, the fastest increase in the cost of living for 40 years. The effect has been a sudden increase in the price of items such as food, clothes and energy, as well as in the cost of raw materials and transport.
This wouldn’t matter so much if incomes were rising at the same rate as, or faster. But since 2010, average prices have risen while average incomes have remained the same or even fallen. Many people were already effectively poorer, therefore, even before this year’s sudden rise in inflation.
Some can adjust their spending to cope with inflation, by cutting down on luxuries. Some are struggling to maintain a decent standard of living. But those already economising now have to make serious decisions about eating less or living in colder homes.
Ideas for sermons or interactive talks
‘Money is the god of our time, and Rothschild is his prophet,’ wrote the 19th century poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) in 1841, after visiting Baron James de Rothschild in his private office at the Parisian Bank; ‘Even at the door of his cabinet many are seized with a shiver of awe, such as Moses once felt on Horeb when he realised that he was standing on holy ground.’
We traditionally attribute to God the quality of omnipotence or ‘all power’. At the beginning of the 20th century, the sociologist Georg Simmel (1858-1918) theorised that the accumulation of wealth is accompanied by a feeling of increased power, so that the value of wealth lies not in the money itself, but in its potential (Latin potentia = ‘power’): the power it gives its owner to choose and to act. Small wonder, then, if people who gather enough money to do pretty much anything they like tend to develop a ‘God complex’.
At first thought, who wouldn’t want to be able to do pretty much anything they wanted? If money is the means, then let’s grab as much as we can! The Sunday Times Rich List for 2022 revealed that there are now a record 177 billionaires in the UK. No one can simply earn a billion pounds; to do so, one would have to have been paid a salary of a million pounds every year since before the Norman Conquest! It’s hard to see, also, how anyone could possibly need a billion pounds; in fact, new products must be created just so that billionaires have something to spend their money on, like the three-billion pound gold-plated yacht called History Supreme.
This is hardly a Christian approach to life, however. We follow Jesus Christ, who accepted crucifixion rather than use his power for his own benefit. If willingness to suffer for the sake of others is the way to store up treasure in heaven, as Jesus taught, then rather than obsess about accumulating wealth, we should continually make sacrifices to improve others’ lives.
To live sacrificially, in a society that seems to have made money a god, is a huge ask. But it’s Jesus’ ask.
Questions for discussion
- Have some fun with the Bank of England’s inflation calculator which shows how the value of money has changed since the year 1209 when £10 today was worth over £14,000! See if you can guess what £10 would have bought you at different periods in history.
- Why do prices rise? Should incomes rise at the same rate?
- How does our Church use its money? Would Jesus think we have the right priorities?
Robert Beard works for the NHS and is also a Church of England priest.
Check-in
Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people
How much do you know about Northern Ireland?
It rains a lot?
Game of Thrones was filmed there?
They make potatoes into bread?
At the moment, anytime Northern Ireland is mentioned in the news it is usually accompanied by the word 'protocol' but there was a story this week that you might have missed.
Sadly, a man called David Trimble died on Monday. He was a Northern Irish politician who was key to the Good Friday Agreement being signed in 1998 – a key moment in peace coming to Northern Ireland.
David Trimble worked hard to get the Unionist community in Northern Ireland to give the Good Friday Agreement a chance. It wasn't easy; it involved tough compromises and difficult decisions and plenty of people weren't happy. He received death threats and lost votes and friends, but David Trimble didn't give up because he knew that these hard decisions could bring peace.
There is now a generation of people in Northern Ireland who don't remember the violence that used to be a constant part of life there. This peace is David Trimble's legacy (and others like him). The difficult moments were worth it in the end.
Jesus tells a story about a man who focuses on the wrong things. He spends his life getting rich rather than making his life rich with God. He misses out on the chance to have a lasting heavenly legacy.
Both the story of David Trimble and the parable of the rich man remind us that our decisions and actions have long-lasting consequences. The challenge is: will we make the right decisions even when it is difficult?
Chris Neilands is the co-founder of Play it by Ear drama company, based in Belfast.
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