Two months ago, a good friend sent the following question over email:
I've been mulling something over lately, and wanted to hear your take on the subject. In particular, I've been thinking on the passage from Matthew: "it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” I've heard plenty of people trying to interpret this verse in such a way as to weaken it, but I personally feel that it should be taken literally. While I certainly am not wealthy by American standards, according to the Global Rich List I am one of the richest men on earth, and this worries me. My question for you is: If the people of the United States are so fantastically rich, is America a nation of the damned?
I spent five days thinking about his question before I replied. It's a significant question. I disagreed with a few things about how the question was posed, but there was something incredibly important at its core.
When I did reply, I tried to detail out not just my own "answer" to his question (though I didn't feel it should be answered directly), but also why I thought things were this way. Why does Christ tell this parable, and other things like it? Why does a similar theme appear at several points in the Bible? Why is the world the way it is, why is America the way it is, how would the Kingdom of God look different, and what should we be doing about it? I put a lot of myself into that reply.
My friend had a positive reaction to what I had to say. I asked him if I could reproduce his question on my blog, and he said he'd be flattered. But....I couldn't do it for a long time. I couldn't figure out the right time to post it. And so I procrastinated. Now I'm running out of time to procrastinate, so here it is.
I'm not going to post my reply. If you're interested, I want to send it to you. My reply isn't the most important thing anyway, unless you really trust my "wisdom" on such a subject. I think the most important thing is the passage and the questions it leads to for you. We can't get around the fact that this is something Jesus meant us to take seriously.
When I did reply, I tried to detail out not just my own "answer" to his question (though I didn't feel it should be answered directly), but also why I thought things were this way. Why does Christ tell this parable, and other things like it? Why does a similar theme appear at several points in the Bible? Why is the world the way it is, why is America the way it is, how would the Kingdom of God look different, and what should we be doing about it? I put a lot of myself into that reply.
My friend had a positive reaction to what I had to say. I asked him if I could reproduce his question on my blog, and he said he'd be flattered. But....I couldn't do it for a long time. I couldn't figure out the right time to post it. And so I procrastinated. Now I'm running out of time to procrastinate, so here it is.
I'm not going to post my reply. If you're interested, I want to send it to you. My reply isn't the most important thing anyway, unless you really trust my "wisdom" on such a subject. I think the most important thing is the passage and the questions it leads to for you. We can't get around the fact that this is something Jesus meant us to take seriously.
