James 5: 1-5 How The Other 90% Live

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=james%205:1-5&version=65

What responsibility do we have for the amazing wealth we live in? Perhaps we don’t consider ourselves wealthy – but when you consider your wealth by world economic standards;

Perspective:

· In 1998, 20 percent of the world's people living in the highest-income countries accounted for 86 percent of total private consumption expenditures while the poorest 20 percent accounted for only 1.3 percent. That's down from 2.3 percent three decades ago.

· At present, 3 billion people live on less than $2 per day while 1.3 billion get by on less than $1 per day. Seventy percent of those living on less than $1 per day are women. With global population expanding 80 million per year, World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn cautions that, unless we address "the challenge of inclusion," 30 years hence we will have 5 billion people living on less than $2 per day. (source http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/inequal/gates99.htm) 1998 numbers.

The richest 50 individuals in the world have a combined income greater than that of the poorest 416 million. (http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/inequal/2005/10compendium.pdf )

For 90 plus percent of the world’s population, our wealth is unimaginable, and extravagant. Our problem is that we compare ourselves with .05% of the world’s richest people, but the reality is significantly different. I want you to re-read this passage in light of these thoughts. Not in order to hear God’s condemning voice, but seeing with His Global eyes what we hold in our hands, and what we are doing with it.

I look at my own life, the things that I have invested in over the years that are rotten or rusted. I felt so convicted when we made our last move. My wife and I had decided that we were not hauling the ‘junk’ with us, so we radically went through things that we had stuck in cubby holes, back closets and the garage rafters. We pulled it all into the backyard to decide what was ‘to the dump’, ‘to the goodwill’ and ‘to the garage sale’. As we stood in the middle of the piles, I roughly estimated the investments made in these products, and was ashamed. Games and toys that had been played with once or twice – that now where unplayed, bits lost or broken. Small appliances and electronic gadgets that were ‘must haves’ when they were first came out – that now hadn’t been used in years. Piles of ‘in’ clothes that went ‘out’ just as fast etc etc etc.

Consider the vast majority of expense on your mounting credit cards – doesn’t it feel like we have horded and our wealth has corroded?

This morning on Canada AM, a Doctor was discussing ‘Smart Diet’s, and showed us 5 lbs of the fat that we carry on our bodies, announcing that most Canadians carry 20 or more lbs of this stuff around on their bodies. Our problems is excessive weight and our attentions are focused on weight loss – while the majority in the world are focused on just trying to find enough – or anything that will prevent them or their children starving today.

We are rich beyond imagination – the problem is we have allowed our culture and our ‘commercialism’ to convince us otherwise.

The purpose of James, I believe, is not to ‘condemn’ rich people for being rich, but to consider carefully what they do with their wealth.

Ø His intent is not to make us feel bad for having wealth, but to feel bad for wasting wealth
Ø The problem is not because prosperity is enjoyed, but that our prosperity is focused
and spent all on ourselves.
Ø The problem is not that we have ‘saved’ or ‘invest’ our wealth, but that we have ‘horded’ and ‘hidden’ our wealth
Ø The problem is the selfishness, greed, and hard heartedness that often associates itself with wealth.

Jesus does not condemn the rich young ruler for being wealthy, but he does expose that wealth is the young man’s god – not that he had wealth, but, his wealth ‘had’ him. The motto for many American is “In God we trust”, what they do trust in is very close to this, so close yet so far, for the addition of one pen stroke changes the motto from “In God we trust” to “In Gold we trust”. I do not mean to this only a USA problem, for it is as true for us Canadians.

God asks us to look honestly at our wealth, and look beyond ourselves and consider the ‘workman’ living, dying in the fields around the world and the ‘pay’ that we have withheld from them. We do need consider our responsibility to the world – God does. We need to honestly look at our lives and the ‘piles of things that rot and rust’ that we have created around us.

We must not think the cries and suffering of the poor and broken do not fill the ears and heart of God. He has not forgot them, or rejected them. He calls and calls and calls to us to respond to His voice – but our riches often stop up our ears.

I believe that we have to stop thinking what our government should do, or our church and hear the voice of God speaking to our own heart, “What should I do”. Certainly we need to be involved in petitioning governments and our churches, but it must begin with understanding the words of Jesus “where our treasure is, is where we will find our hearts”. Where is our treasure? What is our treasure? What would God have us do with it?

I close this morning with the words of that Old Hymn, let it become our prayer.

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.


Neil