{"id":6763,"date":"2012-10-16T16:46:23","date_gmt":"2012-10-16T21:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?p=6763"},"modified":"2014-12-26T16:02:08","modified_gmt":"2014-12-26T21:02:08","slug":"o-you-fools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/10\/o-you-fools.html","title":{"rendered":"Your Money or Your Life — On Camels and Needles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here\u2019s an excerpt from today\u2019s gospel, and there is something there I had never noticed before:<\/p>\n

The Lord said to him, \u201cOh you Pharisees!
\nAlthough you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish,
\ninside you are filled with plunder and evil.
\nYou fools!
\nDid not the maker of the outside also make the inside?
\nBut as to what is within, give alms,
\nand behold, everything will be clean for you.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before this was the famous \u201ccamel through the eye of a needle\u201d quip. Notice that Jesus is dealing with the Pharisees, and he comes up with a solution for their hypocrisy and self righteousness that really nails it: \u201cGive alms and everything will be clean for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

From time to time I will preach about what we politely call \u201cstewardship\u201d, and what a lot of \u00a0blather we do churn out. All this talk about \u201ctime, talent and treasure\u201d. All this talk about \u2018stewardship of God\u2019s resources\u2019. Jesus didn\u2019t talk like that. He said, \u201cIt is very difficult for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. That is to say, \u201cIt is very difficult for a rich person to be saved.\u201d or to put it another way, \u201cIt is very easy for a rich person to go to hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

See what we don\u2019t want to do\u2026REALLY don\u2019t want to do is offend the rich people or they will tootle off to another parish along with their check book. So we tiptoe through the minefield and talk about \u201cperhaps giving a bit more seriously to the Lord\u2019s work.\u201d Even when you tiptoe you still get people grumbling\u2026. \u201cMeh\u2026All Father does is talk about money!\u201d which being translated is, \u201cHe\u2019s not getting any money from me I\u2019ll tell \u00a0you that much!\u201d<\/p>\n

I want to cry out with the Lord\u2013\u201cYou fools!\u201d You don\u2019t get it. I don\u2019t give a camel\u2019s hump whether you give your money to me or not. It\u2019s not about me. It\u2019s not even about our parish or the bills we need to pay. It\u2019s about your and whether you are headed up or down. There\u2019s only two ways, and if you\u2019re not climbing up you\u2019re headed down. It might be a slow, gentle, lazy decline, but the direction is still down.<\/p>\n

On the money thing we miss the point entirely. The point of giving alms is not because the church needs a new roof or because we have to pay Father\u2019s insurance or even because we should feed the hungry. We are supposed to give alms because it is the cure for our hypocrisy and self righteousness. The problem with rich people is not that they\u2019re rich, but that they don\u2019t think they need anything. The problem is not having nice things and being wealthy. The problem is that these things are obstacles to loving God and furthermore, they tend to make us feel not only self sufficient, but self made. We\u2019re proud of how wealthy we are. It makes us feel good about ourselves, and these are the building blocks of becoming the kind of insufferable, self righteous, fools that Jesus condemns.<\/p>\n

Do you want to make spiritual progress? Give more of your money away to help the poor. That\u2019s the fastest way to move forward and it\u2019s also very effective. When you give your money away you tell the money who\u2019s in charge. You take control rather than the money taking control of you. When you consider the poor you also start to become humble and you can\u2019t be self righteous for long if you get involved in giving money and time to the poor.<\/p>\n

So forget all the image stuff, all the nice respectable Catholic stuff and do something radical for once. Give alms. Then everything will be clean for you.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s an excerpt from today\u2019s gospel, and there is something there I had never noticed before: The Lord said to him, \u201cOh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[88,35,104,44,38],"class_list":["post-6763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-culture","tag-bible-study","tag-catholic-faith","tag-radical-discipleship","tag-spirituality","tag-wisdom"],"yoast_head":"\nYour Money or Your Life -- On Camels and Needles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here's an excerpt from today's gospel, and there is something there I had never noticed before: The Lord said to him, "Oh you Pharisees! 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