Transforming Riches
AM Psalm 25 • PM Psalm 9, 15
2 Chron. 6:32-7:7 • James 2:1-13 • Mark 14:53-65
There is nothing inherently wrong with choosing fine things to honor and exalt God. Stained glass windows and silver, beautiful flowers and painstakingly crafted vestments. But what happens when these things get in the way? We place value on earthly things depending on how valuable we perceive them to be. Gold rings over dirty clothes and the like. We put wealth in the seat of honor and poverty at our feet. Jesus teaches us otherwise and our reading from James today explicates this lesson. “But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” What are we to do? Shatter our stained-glass windows? Melt down our articles of the Eucharist?
I once took a group of youth on a service trip to a suburb of Philadelphia, a food desert where half of the buildings in town were boarded up. We worked with an Episcopal church that was hosting another church’s community pantry and summer program for kids in the neighborhood because that church’s building was deemed uninhabitable. The basement where the program was held was locked off by gate to the upstairs sanctuary. When a member of the church gave us a tour, they were proud to boast of their Tiffany windows and endowment while kids in the basement struggled to name a vegetable.
I recently read an article about a church in Baltimore that is auctioning off a chalice and paten that is of great value, so great it is stored away in a safe and not used. They will use the proceeds to endow a scholarship fund to improve access to a private school for low-income families.
How can we take those things in our own life or in the life of our church that we place great value upon and put them to the greatest use to bring about the kingdom of God? What do we need to take off of the highest shelf or out of secure storage to aid in the liberation of others? You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Written by Samantha Clare
Samantha Clare loves Jesus, fresh cut flowers, and baby snuggles.