This last Easter Sunday morning at St. Paul's is bitter-sweet, as have been the services of Holy Week. This day begins as a little death for me, an almost farewell (April 14th is my last Sunday.) Yet what a privilege to affirm the power of Christ's resurrection with this congregation, and to declare the hope in this life and the life to come which the empty tomb represents.
Christ Came Juggling: An
Easter Sunday Poem
Christ is Risen. Christ is Risen Indeed!
Last year St. Paul's suggested to our neighbours at Trinity United that we come together for our Good Friday worship and they graciously agreed. By the time the service happened the folk at St. Andrew's Presbyterian were on board too.. It went so well that we extended the invitation to St. John's Anglican congregation. They accepted, and after on open invitation to the local ministerial the Salvation Army corp asked to join us. In the end people from two of the Christian Reform congregations decided to come along as well.
The service this year was at St. Paul's and on a lovely morning more than two hundred Christians gathered to ponder the crucifixion and all it means for us as Christians. We had participants in the liturgy from all the congregations, we heard the powerful story of God's redeeming love on the cross, we sang hymns both old and new.
At the door many commented on how the service touched them. Probably half of those in attendance were from St. Paul's, which meant that Good Friday services in the other congregations would have been small on their own. Many of the comments were about singing the grand old Good Friday hymns with that many voicees, and it was true. People sang with gusto.
There is an old expression "it's an ill wind that blows no good." We could apply that to Good Friday itself as an unfair execution becomes the power of forgiveness and sacrificial love. But it also could describe what has happened in the different expressions of our Christian faith realizing the importance of coming together as one. In another day we could live smugly in our own little camps. In our increasingly secularized society we need mutual support and a common witness.
Were you in attendance yesterday? What do you think about joining together in this way? Is it about time we smartened up?
Graham Sutherland
Last week on Palm Sunday morning my wife Ruth taught Sunday School with a group of nine and ten year olds. The lesson plan called for a walk through Holy Week with the kids, which she did. She told me later that she felt honoured to have the discussion with them. They are bright and old enough to really start "connecting the dots" with the events of the week. At the same time they are still young enough that they are unsettled by the story which seems to end so tragically at Calvary. As the years go by we become conditioned to the unfolding events so that the drama diminishes. "Why do they call it Good Friday?" one of the boys wanted to know, because it sure didn't sound good to him.
Ruth talked about the possible origins as "God's Friday" and how this story of sadness becomes truly Good News on Easter morning. There is an article in today's Globe and Mail newspaper asking What's So Good About Good Friday? http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/whats-good-about-good-friday/article10508775/ These kids are theologians!
Last night a group of ten teens attended the Maundy Thursday service and then slept overnight in the church. They prepared to take a part in today's ecumenical Good Friday service, gathering their thoughts about the crucifixion. All these children and young people are learning the Christian story and making it their own.
Again, I am so impressed by the commitment of our Sunday School teachers and youth leaders, with Laura's strong staff support and direction.
Comments?
I'm a CBC radio guy but I dabble in some commercial stations from time to time for music in the car. Yesterday I turned on the rock station to hear the gushy commercial for the One of a Kind artisan and craft show in Toronto this weekend. "Open Good Friday and Easter too!" the ad trumpeted. I understand that the majority of Canadians are not religious and not Christian but I still get a jolt with stuff like this. In the supposed very religious States Good Friday is just another day, open for business, so I shouldn't be surprised. Still, these few days are so profoundly important to me I am unsettled and saddened.
The weather report on the TV news this week has a hyperactive pink bunny bouncing up and down on Easter Sunday and this bugs me as well. Would any other religion be subjected to such a disrespectful image for its most holy day? I phoned the newsroom during the broadcast last night and told them I found the bunny offensive!
On Palm Sunday I spoke about the marginalization of Christianity in our culture and our need to follow a path of discipleship which may become lonelier with time. I suppose I should heed my own words. We choose to follow Christ even as the culture changes around us.
What are your thoughts about all this? Bothered or resigned? Okay with being in the minority?
As we worked with a realtor earlier this week to put an offer on a house I was totally useless as to the day of the month. Normally I'm good at knowing the day and the hour but Holy Week has a strange effect on a minister. Colleagues confess they too become disoriented with all the upcoming services, some of which don't fall on a Sunday.
This week we will make our way through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, then two services on Easter morning. The Thursday worship is rather mysterious with foot-washing and communion around a table. Good Friday brings us close to the cross, and this year we will be joined by St. John's Anglican, St. Andrew's Presbyterian, the Salvation Army, and our United Church neighbours from Trinity. I am delighted by this ecumenical turn of events.
A group of teens will be camping out in the church from Thursday evening until after our Good Friday worship, keeping their own energetic vigil. I don't know how staffer Laura and volunteers do this, but they tell me it is a meaningful and holy time.
As many of you know, I thank God that our early service on Sunday morning is not outdoors but in the warmth of our sanctuary. If God had intended for us to have outdoor services this far into the Northern Hemsiphere Easter would be in May. After early worship the men of St. Paul's will feed us pancakes, the only unleavened batter of the day, then we will join in the great feast of Easter.
As discombobulated I am by the calendar and home-buying and farewells I want this week to be God-blessed, for all of us to open our hearts to receive the living Christ.
Are you ready to participate in the drama of Holy Week and Easter, wherever you are?
For the record, I think pandas are cute and cool. Two of them arrived yesterday at the Toronto Zoo and will reside there for the next five years. Who knows, they may be fruitful and multiply. The Prime Minister looks comfortable with this panda encounter from an earlier trip, but he should because he's been cuddling up to the Chinese government for a while now.
I think China is great as well, except for its lousy human rights record, and religious persecution, and internet espionage, and rapacious consumption of foreign fuels, and unfettered pollution of water and air. Some pundits have offered that something as seemingly benign as playing host to the pandas indicates a familiarity with this nation espousing very different values which should make Canadian citizens very uncomfortable.
As we move our way through Holy Week which contrasts imperial power with God's reign I wonder if we make the connections between empires of old and those which flex their muscles today. Pandas look cuddly, but they can be very dangerous because they are powerful.
What do you think? Should we be poking our government to ask why it is so cozy with China, given all the concerns listed above? Is resistance futile, including from the Christian community? Will you go see Er Shun and Da Mao?
This evening is the beginning of Pesach, or Passover, the eight-day commemoration and celebration of deliverance from slavery in Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. The Seder meal is probably the longest held event in human history. Not bad for a bunch of slaves who spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness and who worshipped a God they couldn't see. The "passover" in the Exodus story is by the angel of death who left the Israelite households unscathed while destroying the firstborn sons of Eyptian families. The meal the Israelites ate was hasty enough in its preparation that the bread was unleavened. There wasn't enough time for it to rise before the slaves left their oppression behind. Every year observant Jewish households observe the Passover, repeating the questions, retelling the story. It is intended for all ages and it is a child who asks the questions at the table.
Jesus was steeped in the Passover tradtion and his last meal with the disciples was the Pesach Seder. He took two of the elements of that meal and transformed them into the commemoration of his impending death and resurrection.
It is important for us as Christians to respect the Passover celebrated by Jews as part of their living, continuing relationship with God. Our sacrament which will we call Holy Communion, the Last Supper, the Eucharist, does not supercede that Passover. It takes us in a different direction, opens us to a unique spiritual reality. But it never gives us the right to disparage or dismiss this cherished Jewish tradition.
Every year I hope that St. Paul's member Adam will offer his thoughts about Passover and he often has done so. He was born and raised a Jew, and while he is a Christian now I have encouraged him to cherish Pesach and his Jewish roots.
Any thoughts about Passover? Do you have Jewish friends who observe it. Do you "get" the connection between Pesach and Communion?
This morning Christians around the world will enter into Holy Week with Palm/Passion Sunday. At St. Paul's we will actually have our children enter into the sanctuary with palm branches, something we can do because our congregation still has kids! We also have an impressive array of balloons, the modern-day equivalent of the celebration palms represent.
The tone of our service will change from beginning to end, and we will depart in silence and darkness to acknowledge the passion of Christ. Then we will progress through this week with services on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, considering the abandonment and betrayal Jesus experienced on his way toward execution by crucifixion.
I read an article in the newspaper yesterday about the mentality which allows us as humans to ignore the bullying and persecution of others, even when we know it is wrong. The writer used the example of sitting on the top of a London bus years ago and doing nothing while four teens verbally harrassed another young woman. No one else responded to her plight except for a German man who was then intimidated by the teens.
Mob mentality is such that those who are cheering on their sports team one moment can become an unruly and violent gang the next. As we make our way through Holy Week we will hear and see how one crowd shouts "Hosanna!" during the parade of palms while another yells "Crucify him!" a few days later. Many more are reluctant and fearful bystanders. Human nature.
How do you respond to the events of Holy Week? Does worship help you move more deeply into the meaning of these events? Do you see the connection between bullies and bystanders, then and now?
President Obama finished up his brief trip to Israel with a visit to Yad Vasham, the Holocaust Museum. Those of you who have been there know it is a sobering place, a grim testament to the depths of human cruelty in the destruction of six million Jews during World War II. Mr. Obama walked along the lane of trees commemorating the Righteous Gentiles, those who somehow found the courage to defy the Nazi regime to protect Jewish friends, neighbours, even strangers.
A number of those commemorated are Christians who demonstrated not only bravery but an ability to see Jews as human beings when every attempt was made to de-humanize them. We might assume that we would stand up for the truth and protect the vulnerable if we were faced with this sort of choice, but I wonder what I what I would do to protect myself or my family.
Have you been to Yad Vashem? Do you know about the Righteous Gentiles? Do you think you would have the courage to act according to your conscience and faith if your life was at risk?
We were at the home of St. Paul's folk recently for a pleasant evening and while we were chatting the husband pulled out a ticket given to him by a neighbour. It was for a presentation at their church over the Easter weekend including Easter evening. As you can see, it is an invitation to avoid hell and attain heaven, presumably through the grace of Christ.
Just to be clear, I believe in the redeeming grace of Christ, and I believe in a resurrection life beyond this life. I can't say there is no hell, although I certainly don't dwell on the possibility of it's existence or live in fear. I shake my head, though, at making a presentation on Easter Sunday that looks more like a horror flick with bad production values. The trailer which one can find online actually warns against allowing children to see it because of the frightening content. I find the ticket to be fascinating in that it is equally divided between heaven and hell and hell is bolder and easier to see!
Is this really the gospel of Jesus Christ? Of course the danger of liberal churches is to turn Christianity into a service club with a halo, but long ago I decided to give up on "ooga booga" religion that tried to literally scare the hell out of me. We can do better.
The Jesus of the gospels invites us into radical discipleship and abundant life. The gospels themselves all include the startling revelation of an empty tomb and a risen Christ. Sign me up for this message and hold the hell, at least as a scare tactic to get me to choose heaven.
Has anyone else been invited to this presentation? What are your thoughts?
When Cowboy George, aka President George W. Bush attempted to bully the world into invading Iraq more than a decade ago Canada, under Prime Minister Chretien, politely declined. We received a great deal of criticism from the States and even from within. My mother's evangelical Christian boss spluttered away about our moral cowardice and my gym partner from those days, a congregation member, scolded me (mildly) for taking a pacifist stand. He has since apologised, which was gracious on his part. I have no idea whether mom's boss, who had two American sons-in-law who were conveniently safe in Canada, ever changed his tune.
Earlier this week the Globe and Mail newspaper had a front-section centrefold (they call it the folio) on the cost of the Iraq war. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/iraq-a-decade-later-the-invasions-heavy-toll-in-lives-and-treasure/article9937412/
It gives the number of civilian deaths in Iraq at a staggering 110,000 while 800,000 more have been wounded. Some say these figures are low. More than 4,000 US soldiers died, and tens of thousands were injured. One million Americans served in Iraq, and don't try to tell me that any of them came back unscathed, even though they are not counted amongst the injured. Financial cost to the United States? A trillion dollars was spent by the military, although the total cost was more like three to four trillion.
God, what is wrong with us as human beings? We fight and kill and glorify it all. To what end? What was accomplished in Iraq.
Our scales of economy are different in Canada but many families lost their young loved ones and billions were spent on another war in Afghanistan, one we just couldn't resist and with a murky outcome at best. Now the government which cheer-led for our troops is cutting back military spending drastically and our veterans are wondering why the country which sent them to war is so miserly in supporting them on their return.
Christians have long had a theory or philosophy of "just war" but it is hard to actually find a conflict which fits into the category.
Thoughts?
A few weeks ago one of our octogenarians was in a fender bender. St. Paul's staffer Laura came upon the scene and kindly supported her until everything was cleared up. While the woman was not injured I popped over to her home just to check in that she was okay. We chatted and in her feisty fashion she mentioned that she figured I would preside at her funeral, but since I would be gone in a couple of months she had changed her plans!
I laughed of course, but this is no laughing matter for many when the minister announces that he or she is leaving. It may sound a bit strange because --hey-- the person will be dead, although who knows what they may be aware of as part of the cloud of witnesses mentioned in scripture. A number of our members have expressed similar sentiments since I announced my departure, including a man whose memorial service I will conduct later this week.
Rick was a remarkably decent man who was death-defying when cancer struck him two and a half years ago. I prayed and prayed and prayed some more for him because he was an active and youthful 58 at the time. Still, he wasted away to nothing, and I have to admit that I was astonished that he fought his way back to health, although he was not cured. Rick and Barb made the best of those two years and three weeks ago he visited his oncologist where they laughed together about his remarkable stability. The next day he was in distress and we watched him decline with breath-taking speed.
He told me that he wasn't afraid of dying but he didn't want to go through prolonged suffering. Then he asked me the tough question. Would I come back to do his funeral if he died after I left? I was honest and told him that the expectation of clergy is that when we move on we move on. We take on a new role with a new family of faith and there are many reasons we shouldn't return in official roles, even for those with whom we have built strong relationships because of a shared journey through "the valley of the shadow of death." He listened with characteristic calm, but I sure didn't feel great about the conversation.
Yesterday at 6:30 AM I got the call that he was gone. The day before I went in to see him and read the Easter story from John's gospel, knowing he was not going to make it until then. We will mourn his loss and give thanks for his life later this week and affirm our resurrection hope. His wish has been fulfilled and I wish it wasn't. But that is the way of life and death and eternal life. Our prayers are with his wonderfully supportive family.
Any thoughts about this? Do you understand why clergy must say farewell firmly?
Many observers felt that the best documentary did not win in this category at the Academy Awards this year. This is always somewhat subjective but they felt that The Gatekeepers, a remarkable film by an Israeli director, should have won. It is essentially interviews with six of the former heads of the Israeli security agency known as Shin Bet. These men are all fiercely loyal to the state of Israel, they understood the threats posed by their enemies, and they were willing to do whatever was necessary to eliminate those threats, including torture and murder.
This should come as no surprise, but what makes this film stunning is that they all concede that the Israeli strategy is not working. One, an elderly man now looking kindly in a flannel shirt and suspenders was known for his ruthlessness. He offers that there really has been no political strategy with the Palestinians, only tactics. He muses as well on the lack of morality in the response to the Palestinians, as do others. They point out that many errors have been made in the relationship with the more than one million residents of the West Bank and Gaza and that talking, negotiating, making peace, establishing two states are necessary.
I found the film, which I saw in Toronto Sunday afternoon, to be stunning. Shin Bet is obviously a secretive organization gathering intelligence, rounding up terrorists, executing those who pose the greatest threat. Yet these men are so frank. One of the six admits that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, while another acknowledges the futility of responding to the enemy who is coming at you this moment instead of considering the bigger picture. At the end one says that it may be possible that Israel wins all the battles and loses the war.
As I watched and listened I pondered the more than forty-year attempt at tightrope walking by the United Church when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians. On one hand we support the existence of the state of Israel and its need to defend its citizens. On the other we have called attention to the injustices which have been inflicted on the Palestinian people, including those who are Christians. We have been roundly criticized as recently as last August as our General Council met. But The Gatekeepers convinced me that we may not be right on every aspect of this issue, yet we are not far astray.
Comments?
I was not the worship leader at St. Paul,s yesterday because of a week of continuing education leave. It meant that we were on the road early (7:30) for a unique worship experience at the Art Gallery of Ontario. About 150 of us gathered in the spacious area beneath the massive spiral staircase for what is known as Artists Lauds. This was a joint effort of Regis College, a Roman Cathloic college of the Toronto School of Theology and the AGO. Lauds is one of the offices or services of the day in the monastic tradition. This lauds service was designed to coincide with the opening of the marvelous new AGO exhibit called Revealing the Renaissance: Stories and Secrets in Florentine Art. The exhibit, created in conjunction with the esteemed Getty Museum in California, brings together exqusite pieces from around the world which exemplify the flowering of art in fourteenth century Florence.
Why worship in the setting of this exhibit? By far the majority of the pieces were created as devotional art, whether altarpiece triptychs or illuminated (illustrated) prayer books. As Florence became a mercantile powerhouse the wealthy merchants became increasingly nervous about the state of their souls. Commissioning art from guilds of skilled craftsmen was a way of winning eternal favour with the church and ultimately with God. So much for the grace of Christ!
Yesterday we sang and prayed together for most of an hour in a style that reminded me of stays in monastic communities through the years. There is a haunting quality to music written for an entirely different era, and the small choir leading us in this strange stuff was excellent. Then we were given free admission to the exhibit where we meandered about viewing artwork created nearly 700 years ago. It was wonderful.
Do you know much about the history of devotional art? Does the subject pique your curiosity or bore you to tears? Do you think you might visit the exhibit?
Begone and Begorrah. I had no idea what that phrase meant until I beGoogled it, but I figured it was Irish because whenever anyone uses it they employ what is usually a lousy Irish accent. It is Irish, and lo and behold it is a mild, jocular oath. The "begorrah" part means "by God." This is interesting because a lot of silly stuff will happen today, St. Patrick's Day, which will be quasi-Irish and have nothing to do with St. Patrick nor the God he served. Now St. Paddy's Day is all about green beer and Kiss Me I'm Irish tee-shirts and other nonsensical revelry.
This is an excellent occasion to ponder the Celtic Christian tradition which has its roots with an escaped Welsh slave who returned to the land where he had been held in order to share the good news of Christ. As I have shared other years, Patrick and his earliest followers did a fine job of adapting the Christian message to be appealing to the pagan druids who already viewed the number three as sacred.
While the Roman empire was collapsing and the church of the rest of Europe was becoming more hierarchical, Celtic Christianity took an egalitarian turn which included women. Some feel that Brigid was a bishop of the Celtic church, which as recent events in Rome have reminded us still hasn't got any traction in the Catholic tradition.
The Celts were more earth-honouring in worship and practice and there are many lovely prayers which celebrate the beauty of creation and the simple tasks of everyday farm life. There are many legends of the Celtic saints and their relationship with creatures of the wild; otters and herons and salmon. They have been described as Green Martyrs for their willingness to live austere lives as hermits in wilderness settings.
For a while in the early 90's we were in love with all things Celtic, and I led a number of study groups on Celtic faith. I have a Celtic cross tatooed on my forearm, with the traditional cross overlaid with the circle, symbolizing the Son and the sun, or earth. Then the trend seemed to pass, which is the way of our culture.
Begorrah, by God, we need to revive it, and all it stands for, it seems to me.
Any thoughts about this day? Have you explored the Celtic Christian tradition?
Many of us remember the dark days when the Berlin Wall separated the east and west sides of the city and those attempting to escape over the barrier were regularly shot and killed. From 1961 until the wall was breached in 1989 the official death toll was 136, but there may have been many more unreported deaths. You may also recall the jubilant smashing of portions of the wall in '89, a global symbol of old divisions coming to an end.
It may surprise you to hear that there is now an effort in Germany to save a section of the wall which still stands but is scheduled for demolition. Those who want to keep it intact feel it is an important symbol of the Cold War era and what was overcome. They may be right.
Last weekend the book club talked about Guy Delisle's Jerusalem, a graphic memoir in which the artist/illustrator depicts the Separation Wall between Israel and the West Bank repeatedly. This barrier, a combination of concrete wall and high fence snakes 700 kilometres through the region with about 70 kilometres of actual wall. It has reduced the number of suicide and other attacks on Israel. It has also caused great hardship for ordinary Palestinians. Some have seen their farms cut in two by the wall and access denied to a portion of livlihoods. Others struggle to get to medical care or to visit family.
Walls aren't a long-term solution to hatred and division. And eventually they all fall, even those that seem impregnable. It seems to me that the metaphor for Christianity is bridge-building rather than wall-building, whether we are speaking of actual physical barriers or pscyhological barriers. The two seem interwoven.
What are your thoughts about walls as a means to segregatiion and protection? Do you think it is a good idea to preserve a portion of the Berlin Wall, or should it be demolished? Have you seen ancient barriers such as the Great Wall of China or the Separation Wall in Israel? Any Berlin Wall stories?
Francis, the namesake of the recently elected pope, lived in the thirteenth century and created a movement and a religious order which grew like wildfire. It called on its members to emulate its founder, living in radical simplicity, caring for the poor, respecting all creatures. The legends tell us that Francis would do yucky, saintly things like kissing lepers. He negotiated with a wolf to protect a village --it could happen! Francis is the patron saint of animals and the environment. In some respects Francis was anti-establishment, far from the hierarchical model of the Roman Catholic church. But he wasn't antagonistic, and after his death he was canonized with unprecedented speed.
Francis the pope, the first with this adopted name, is a cleric friom Argentina whose life of simplicity and concern for the poor is well documented. He is part of the establishment, but his election is unprecedented in that he is from the Americas and from the global south. Even after his election he chose to ride the bus back to the hotel and he paid his bill.
Francis certainly follows the doctrine of the church on women's ordination, abortion, and homosexuality, so there will be no revolutionary change under this pope. And he is an old man. At seventy six is is more than thirty years older than Saint Francis was at the time of his death. Surely those cardinals could have given consideration to the reasons Benedict resigned in the first place. Francis will also need to address the ongoing tragedy of sexual abuse in the church.
What is your reaction to the election of Francis. Same-old, same-old, or hopeful? Don't care?
The CBC radio show The Current did a piece yesterday on the return of hitchhiking and invited listeners to call in with their own stories.One was from a helicopter pilot who many years ago was delivering a helicopter out West. On his way he spotted a young couple hitchhiking and on a whim put down and beckoned them. They were reluctant, thinking he was a police officer but he convinced them otherwise. It turned out they were on their honeymoon, heading for Banff. He was flying to Banff and offered them a lift, which they took.Very far out man.
I did a fair amount of hitchhiking in my teen years and could tell some strange and wonderful stories of those who picked me up. When I was first ordained and sent to Newfoundland I became the hitch-hikee rather than the hitch-hiker. You just didn't pass people by on some of those lonely roads. I gave up stopping when we started a family.
Wife Ruth and I hitchhiked once -- her only occasion -- at the end of a canoe trip in Lake Superior park. We had to get back to our vehicle at our put-in spot. She was surprised that so many cars passed us by, until a couple of young women in a beat up old sedan gave us a ride. I found that it was often the people just a step or two removed from needing to hitch who would extend mercy to someone with his thumb out.
There is a risk to hitchhiking, both for the thumber and the driver. That's probably what brought the considerable wave of hitchhikers in the sixties and seventies to an end. Picking someone up is an act of hospitality and most hospitality has a cost of some kind. But the New Testament book called Hebrews encourages hospitality because we may end up entertaining angels.
Did you ever hitch-hike? Would you pick someone up? Would you consider yourself hospitable?
Yesterday I chatted with a congregation member who is much in demand as a home renovator and contractor. He and his partner are much in demand, entirely through word of mouth. He has done a fair amount of work on the manse, and it is all excellent. Our conversation came around to an elderly couple he has somehow got involvcd with in recent month due to a request from a physcial therapist, also in our congregation, who saw that they needed some work done in their home to keep them there.
Since that job this old pair has called him to help out with things not really related to his work. Recently they bought a treadmill because they just don't get out and need the exercise. Would he come over and assemble it? Not only did he put it together, he spent time teaching them about the attachable device which will automatically turn it off should one of them fall.
I know that he has helped other elderly people in our congregation, installing equipment to help them in their homes. One of our seniors who died recently was so grateful that at the end of the job he sat and just talked for a while.
While I am a minister in Christ's name, so is he. I commented on what a great guy he is, and he deflected the complement, but I am convinced that his practical kindness is as important --if not more- than anything I offer. He is one example among many in our congregation of people living out their faith.
Doesn't it lift your spirits to know folk like this are out there, quietly helping others? Have you found your niche of faithful service?
Forbes magazine has come up with a list of fictional billionaires, based on their estimates of wealth generated by the characters since their introduction. Yup, Jed Clampett of the Beverly Hillbillies is worth close to nine billion now. Forrest Gump is a billionaire as well. Remember how Forrest was convinced to invest his shrimp boat money in a fruit company called Apple?
There are plenty of real billionaires out there, about 1400 by some estimates. Think about that. An exclusive but growing club of those whose personal wealth exceeds a thousand million dollars. Among the women are Oprah, the talkshow host made good, along with the inventor of Spanx. Mark Zuckerberg came up with Facbook making him a multi-billionaire in his twenties. Carlos Slim is the richest man in the world at over seventy billion, while Bill Gates has slipped to a dismal sixty-seven billion from a high of ninety-plus at one time. How does he manage to get out of bed in the morning?
I have mentioned before that a number of billionaires have committed to divesting their wealth for charitable purposes before they die, an initiative fo Warren Buffett, at fifty-plus billion. Zuckerberg and Gates have signed on, but Gates is already underway. The Gates Foundation, which receives strong input from Bill's Roman Catholic wife Melinda, is doing impressive work in Africa combatting AIDS.
Is it morally wrong for any person to accumulate such wealth? Are we okay with individuals making the choices about their acts of compassion? What about Jesus' cautions about storing up treasures and the problems of the rich getting into heaven?
