On being rich and religious

Only Andrew Carnegie knows the actual facts. We know that he apparently was a devout Presbyterian. He accumulated vast wealth in the steel business off the labor of poorly paid and abused workers. At one time he was the richest man in the world. Carnegie became one of America’s great philanthropists. Like other wealthy industrialists of his era, he became very rich without having much regard for his employees. After all, is not wealth a sign of God’s blessing?

The Bible carries a mixed message. There are passages in the Bible that indicate wealth is a sign of God’s blessing. Jesus challenged this and took up the cause of the poor. Jesus was from a poor family, who lived in rural poverty. He never accumulated wealth and was buried in a borrowed grave. His teachings are full of warning about being rich. His theme was clear. Where your treasure is stored, your heart can be found in the same location.

Andrew Carnegie became aware of a key Jesus teaching. It is very difficult for a rich man to get into heaven. It is reported that Carnegie took the words of Jesus seriously and decided he needed to get rid of a lot of money before he died. He built libraries across the country. One of America’s finest universities, located in Pittsburgh carries his name.

The story of Andrew Carnegie, true or apocryphal, presents one of the great dilemmas for Christians and Christian churches in America, the wealthiest nation in the world. Are wealth and Christian Faith incompatible? Can the teachings of Jesus be superimposed on a very different set of followers 2,000 years later? Jesus instructed his followers (Luke 12) to sell their possessions and give away the money.

The serious Bible interpreter is faced with more than translations from one language to another. He/she is faced with the task of cultural translation. I suspect that money and wealth are not the real issue. I strongly suspect that the real issue is sorting out life priorities. Jesus made it clear what the first commandment had to be. Love God with heart, mind and soul. Any priority that comes ahead of love of God, must be eliminated.

Many Christian churches have side-stepped the issue by teaching people to tithe. A tithe is one tenth of a person’s income. The implication of the tithe is that people can do anything they want with the remaining 90 percent. It is a formula for hypocrisy

The tithe has a long history among the Israelite population and is a part of the Old Testament story. The tithe was a required tax to be used specifically to meet the needs of widows and orphans. Support of a priesthood was a later addition for the use of the required tax.

Jesus never endorsed the tithe. In the Gospels Jesus speaks of the tithe twice. Both times he is being very critical of those who carried on the practice. On the other hand Jesus was an advocate of establishing a year of Jubilee. According to the Law of Moses, every seven years all debts were canceled and all slaves were set free. Then in the 50th year, the year of Jubilee, all wealth was turned back to the Temple priesthood for redistribution. The ultimate owner of all things was God.

The year of Jubilee was never observed. Jesus thought it should be observed. Renunciation and sharing was at the heart of the revolution advocated by Jesus. I cringe every time a pastor calls for the bringing of tithes and offerings. It is a practice that is offensive to the teachings of our Christ and a denial of Christian practice.

This is an issue that every serious Christian must ponder. How are we as Christians to handle our wealth? Jesus told a story about a master giving money to his servants. It was the task of the servants to invest/use the wealth for the benefit of the master. In the story the servants knew that the wealth was not theirs. The money was always an asset of the master. The servants were never owners. They were servants. This ties to another key teaching of Jesus. If any among you would be great, let him be the servant of all.

I have concluded that we human beings own nothing. Everything has been placed in our stewardship. Stewardship is not about ten percent. It is about 100 percent. We will be forever servants, who have been given a grand stewardship.

The End

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.