Anyone care to discuss today's reading from 2nd Chronicles?

[hedgehog]

How about the part about the land being left to rest until it had made up for all of its lost Sabbaths? I thought that was a bit apropos in light of today's concern over global warming. What were the sins Jeremiah warned against? Putting your faith in your army instead of God, failing to care for the earth, failing to care for the poor, cheating the working man, concentration of wealth. Sound familiar?

[Beer Snob-50]

1. Today's conservative Christians tend to forget that

this stuff about caring for those less fortunate is mentioned in the Bible a couple of thousand times. Also about caring for the earth.

[leftyladyfrommo]

2. I made an Evangelical really mad at me once when I stated

that feeding the poor might be more important than getting loans for the wealthy. Oddly, I was just speaking to myself - not her. I was fighting with trying to figure out how to live a Christian Life in this society. I had been in mtg. loans most of my life and had come to feel that this was most probably not "right" life.

Many Evangelicals believe that if they do "right" they will be rewarded monetarily. Strange when that seems to be what Christ was addressing when he was speaking of the poor being blessed by God. The ruling priests believed that riches came from following the law and believing "right" ideas. So for him to state that the poor were blessed by God was very radical.

[Beer Snob-50]

3. deep down we all feel we will be rewarded monetarialy (sp)

if we do right. but we get rewarded spirtually instead. i think that no matter the profession, okay maybe not abortionalist or terrorist or porn star, you can do gods work and live a christian life.

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. I am not sure.

Business is a pretty hard place to actually be ethical. That is where I have been low these many years. Being ethical and honest is not something that employers really cherish.

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. That is a very strange phenomenon I have encountered. They

seem to have a "hang-up" about money. If that were so, why is it the very Apostles, themselves, were, as St Paul, states, regarded as the "off-scourings of mankind, the scum of the earth" (not to say, extremely penurious).

In this world, "respectability" (however shallow or even entirely specious) and money go together; a pretty constant theme in Christian scripture, even the Old Testament.

[Joe Chi Minh]

6. Some other points re Evangelicals, in my observation:

I have found some strange paradoxes in relation to Evangelicals. Perhaps, I've been fortunate, but the few I have encountered, I have found to be passionate, deeply committed Christians; yet, apart from this general propensity for coveting money (and apparently grossly misinterpreting the general (though evidently not invariable) significance of the wealth of the rich, in the stronger attraction exerted over them by the Charismatic movement, I suspect there is something in their soul akin to that in the soul of the innocent young drug addict: a desire to get Heaven into their head, instead of their head into Heaven. Or rather, in the case of those concerned, a slightly inordinate desire for the former in relation to the latter; which speaks of a certain superficiality, with the love of money, a desire for short-cuts - with the former reminiscent of the karma principle of the Hindus, instead of Christianity.

Roger Bacon, the medieval scholar-monk, once observed, "The blessing of the Old Testament was wealth; the blessing of the New Testament is adversity." However, while the Holy Family including, of course, Christ himself, make the second point very clearly and emphatically, a cursory perusal of the Old Testament reveals that Roger Bacons' first assertion is by no means the rule there, either. The apposition of wealth with evil and oppression, and poverty with virtue, goodness, the true Israel, etc, is an almost constant refrain throughout the Old Testament, particulary apparent in the writings of the Prophets.

Of all the women referred to in Scripture, it seems noteworthy that the two women closest to Jesus' own heart, and indeed to each other, seem to have been the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene. I think we can assume that, as regards Mary Magdalene's evident wealth, to quote Mae West, "Goodness, my dear, had nothing to do with it". But, nothing is set in stone, and though she had sinned much, she had a love, a heart, the size of which none of us is ever likely to come close to possessing. I think we can safely assume that, with God's grace, like many others, Mary Magdalene was able to transcend the demeaning influence over her of her wealth, just as she was able to overcome that of her past professional activities, both evidently, in her case, very closely connected. Or is it only "in her case"? Is it conceivable that high status in business and, at least in the UK, the highest and/or most remunerative reaches of the Law, entail a prostitution even worse, since it is spiritual. And not only since it is spiritual, but also because it is so gratuitous, indeed, VOLUNTARY; while most prostitutes have always tended to be poor women from a background of poverty. Frequently, for the very survival of their family, particularly their children. Today, this has all been compounded by the trafficking in drugs enabled and even directed by the rich, whether actively or complicitly - and however, in many cases, reluctantly.