my good friend is out and about again, singing songs of incredible variety, turning tunes on everywhichscale, mocking at all comers, and gloriously so ..
'wine is a mocker' as per the good ol' Book ..
methinks there are others just as powerful
`|`
at the risk of generating internet searches on the topic (yea!)
Jesus (arguably) spoke more on the topic of money and wealth than anything else ..
uh?
yea, well, do the homework ..
when you consider who Jesus is and what he represents, that's a head-scratching thingy
because considering all the things he could have talked about ..
like heaven and hell, sin, death, judgement, injustice, poverty, israel, religion, politics, war, the 10(?) commandments, the prophets and prophecy, scripture, occupation, the future .. salvation ..
what's with that?
it bears mentioning that the people he was addressing were, for the most part, a people under occupation; israel was ruled by the iron hand of rome
the people were generally allowed to do their own thing, as long as they didn't upset the
staus quo and bother the roman 'peace' (
pax romana) - they had to keep their place; those that posed any kind of threat were dealt with brutally and finally - crucifixion was the preferred torturous death penalty, the victim/offender publicly displayed as they went through the process, a signal preventative, a terrible reminder to all ..
in the norm of that kind of life, living within the enforced boundary walls erected by the occupier, people earned a living and some became rich, and they paid taxes just like in any other society, bought and sold, made and constructed, peddled, shopkept, raised sheep and planted corn, taught and learned ..
..
Jesus, then, must have had good reason to speak as much as he did about the desire for wealth ..
although we can gain some insight into why he did from what he said, fact is the mere fact that he did should be enough to cause us to sit-up and pay attention .. something serious is afoot, surely
of course, everyone knows we need to live, and that takes a certain base level of wealth
we have to shelter and eat and clothe and ..
`|`
if we think about it, power via wealth and wealth via power certainly seem to play a major part in human history
kingdoms expanded through war, invasion, occupation, enslavement, commandeering the resources of the conquered ..
royalty maintained its status and promoted its wealth on the backs of the plebian
even at our level of advancement and 'sophistication' the very same applies today - read the news .. wait! read, 'read behind the news'
nation/states still indulge in power war to procure interests and to maintain their interests .. oil stand out ( water is the next 'oil' ) ..
aside from the big boys, we, the plebes, experience power plays at our own level, with people stepping-on other people to secure their own advancement - read wealth-security
and then there's the now ever-present in-our-face reality of the bought government that rules this 'democracy' in a manner not unlike rome of old, 'cept now the powers that rule the powersthatbe are secreted in their cloistered darkrooms, exerting influence by means of their darkmoney
same ol' thingy, different strategy
..
point is, the quest for power involves $, and the more wealth the more influence, because we humans naturally bow to wealth; somehow we esteem the wealthy to be better than we are; better intellectually, but also just better people - we aren't as 'good' as they are
we respect wealth
and that diminishes our humanity
look at it from the other side - we despise poverty and homelessness and people that can't afford to see the doctor or buy meds .. or buy an education
why is that ..?
worst of all, we esteem wealth in our religion, specifically within christianity
that's why the televangelists and the megachurches are so .. wealthy
that's why the roman catholic church is one of the wealthest institutions in the world, whose worth is greater than the vast majority of nation/states
that's why a renowned biblebelt christian university owns a massive art collection of unbelievable value
..
perhaps Jesus was making a point
a person is not valued by their wealth-value, the confusion of the abundance of things a person owns with their value as a human
perhaps this son of a carpenter and lowly village girl, the only person ever able to choose his parentage, was making a pertinent point from his inception, setting the scene for humanity ..
perhaps his normal reality of engaging the common person, his passion for the ordinary, his compassion for the sidelined and despised among us was indicative of his view of real human - the truth that we are the physical images of the Creator, and our value lies just there .. right there
..
of course, mutations we are
genetic rebels
off-cuts of the original, but with a rebellious determination to be gods on our own terms
money-power is the surest way to god ourselves
and the greed underlying this predisposition to godhood renders our humanity impotent, in need of rebirth
as long as we see ourselves and the people around us encased in some form of wealth-ranking machine, colouring our humanity by 'the abundance of the things we possess', we fall prey to the inhumanity in us, and refuse the life and testimony of the Son of Humanity, Jesus himself
..
i suppose that what drove me to this post is the longstanding understanding of the corruption that permeates our world, a corruptivity we like to point out in foreign governments, but that is probably most evident in the empires of the Great Britain and, more recently, the Great Democracy, both of which have massively raped and subdued and enslaved in the eternal name of God$, crossing oceans to do it
..
sometimes it's worth remembering what Jesus focused on
and the reasons for it
maybe we can find the place in ourselves that calls us back to our humanity and the truth that compassion is indeed the greatest passion ..
for it reeks of Jesus at every breath
and the breath of Jesus is the spirit of humanity at every turn
the spirit of the Divine, a breathy aroma of life
real life, valued by Creator God in Godcurrency
peace
or in a shop window
