Tax The Rich AKA. 41,000 years. (Mark 10.17-31, Hebrews 4.12-16)
There are 171 Billionaires in the UK. Just to put that into perspective a billon is a thousand million pounds. That’s only slightly less than a clergy person earns.
The
average salary in the UK is £23,760 before tax.[1]
Rounding that up to £24,000, to earn a billion pounds would take about 41.6,000
years.[2]
Now
2021-41,0000 is -38,979. So if someone on an average salary in this country
wanted to earn a billion pounds, they would’ve had to start work (spending
nothing) in the year 38,979BC.
That’s
long before the Bible was written, or Jesus spoke to that rich man.
The
oldest cave paintings in the world date to c.39,000BC.[3]
In
light of this when the Govt turns round and says we must cut Universal Credit
to the poorest and most vulnerable in society by £20 a month, a cut that will
make the already desperate even more so, I think that’s rubbish. There is
enough money, it’s a case of moral failure.
It’s
not supposed to be like this. This isn’t the kingdom.
There
are 171 billionaires in this country, with a combined wealth of £600bn that is
six hundred thousand million pounds (I think). I’m not very good at maths.
There
are 14 Million people living in poverty in this country. Those billionaires
could give £30,000 to every one of them, so more than the average yearly
salary, and still be billionaires. They’d still have 41,000 years worth of
money in the bank.
I
don’t know about you, but I find this grotesque.
It’s not supposed to be like this. This isn’t
the kingdom.
“How
hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
I
think that Jesus is speaking directly into how our society is structured and I
want to talk about a couple things this morning:
The
Kingdom and the Word and what that means.
What
does the kingdom look like? What do you think it’s like?
Jesus
speaks about this all the time in the Bible. The kingdom is both now, and not
now, here and not here.
It’s
partly in the future, but I think we need to participate in it, in God’s work
in order for the kingdom to come about.
Sometimes
the kingdom breaks in a bit, those wonderful moments of hope, when we’re truly
with one another, when we live in love, that’s when we live to fullness, and
become filled with the spirit of God.
One
of the things that made the early church so attractive and why it grew as a
movement was that the people lived differently to the world around them. They
kept their promises, they loved each other as much as they could, and they
helped those in need and those who were vulnerable. That is part of what it
means to live with Kingdom Values.
The
reason it’s so hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God is because they
are not living this way. The kingdom isn’t a
place, but a way of life.
They
have stored up for themselves more than they could ever possibly need, and yet
they share very little of it with those in need. They evade tax as the Panama
papers revealed.
For
some reason our society treats that as if it’s success and right for them to do
so. They profit off the labour of others.
They
do not care, if they did they would contribute out of their abundance, they
could give it away and still be unbelievably wealthy, but they choose not to. The
gap is widening every day between rich and poor. That’s just a fact.
In
Jesus’ time, much like today, there was a very wealthy elite of about 3% of the
population. The rest were subsistence farmers who struggled to survive. Many
died of starvation if the harvest was bad, they lived month to month. Many
today still live like that. I’ve heard many similar stories of people on UC.
Jesus
shows in our Bible reading that you can act personally as ethically as you
like. You don’t murder or steal, fair enough that’s good, but if like this rich
man, you hoard material wealth while the majority around you suffer, that’s not
living with kingdom values. That’s still moral blindness.
So
it’s clear, you’ve gotta go out and sell all your houses. Give away all your
possessions, and of course give them to me. I’m, not suggesting that we must
all go out and sell everything we own, you’ll be pleased to know. We’ve all got
to live, but there must be a balance and it’s clear that currently there isn’t
one.
Jesus
was speaking to a particular person, in a particular context. I think Jesus is
speaking to us now, that as Christians we must proclaim the justice of God and
the willingness to change our society to one that is fairer and more equal.
Because
every child of God deserves dignity. The dignity not to live in poverty, to
feed themselves, it’s part of the kingdom.
The
disciples were amazed at what he said, the reason is that in his day it was
understood that the wealthy were wealthy because God had blessed them. It was
their undeniable right and they were in that position because God was on their
side.
Similarly
today we hear all the time that we shouldn’t tax the wealthy, that their wealth
is given to them because they deserve it, but my question is do they deserve
41,000 years worth of labour? Can anyone ‘earn’ that?
So
for Jesus to turn around and say actually they’re not blessed, it’s those who
have little and who follow me who are blessed, that was an amazingly counter
cultural thing to say, that we take for granted. That we often fail to live
out.
This
leads me on to the word.
“For
the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double edge sword, it
penetrated even to dividing soul and spirit.”
There’s
a common misconception that when the Bible uses the phrase ‘The Word of God’ it’s
referring to itself, when it’s not. How could the writers be referring to The
Bible? It hadn’t been written yet, and even the Hebrew Scriptures weren’t properly
agreed until way after Paul died.
When
Paul or anyone else is talking about ‘The Word’ of God, they don’t mean
scripture, or the literal word, they mean the action of God. What God’s doing.
And
we know of course from John that the incarnate ‘word’ of God is Jesus. In the
beginning was the word, and the word was God and the word was with God.
It’s
another way of saying that Jesus is God, but also the incarnate action of God
in our world.
When
we follow Jesus and his teachings, we are following the action of God. God
demands us to be active in the world, and to seek his love and kingdom for
everyone, even dare I say it, the rich.
We
show the world who God is, through who we are and how we act.
And
the writer of the Hebrews reassures us that even though we sometimes fail, we
have a God of compassion, who knows us and loves us, and that in our time of
need we can approach Him and expect mercy, love and compassion.
That’s
what God demands us to act like, and to act upon. To seek a society filled with
mercy, love and compassion. These are the building blocks of the kingdom, and
we as Christians have a moral duty to demand fairness.
Preached St Augustine's Norwich, 10/10/21
[3] https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/pre-history/top-10-oldest-art-ever-discovered/
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels
Comments
Post a Comment