Eastertide
April 7, 2015
Scripture Reading: Acts 4:32-35
There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. –Acts 4:34-35
Much of the injustice in the world directly relates to the distribution of wealth. Poverty has a direct relationship to crime and crime has a direct relationship to poverty. It is a vicious circle, which the mass incarcerations of recent years have made worse.* Women are routinely paid less for the same jobs than men. In 2010 in the United States the female-to-male earnings ratio was 0.81.** In 2012, CEO’s made 380 times more than the average salaries of their workers.***
I do not envision a world where everyone is paid the same. I don’t think Jesus did either, but I do think the inclusion of assuring that no one was needy at the beginning of the church was crucial to Jesus and that is why the disciples move to make it so. Everyone deserves to earn a living wage. Everyone.
My mother would describe what we do here in the United States as cutting off our nose to spite our face. The vast majority of adults receiving food stamps work. If you want to cut the number of people receiving food stamps, increase the wages of the recipients. Increased wages are directly related to decreased crime, which would cut the heavy costs of the mass incarceration we are practicing today. Putting people in prison who have families increases the number of people who live in poverty back home.
While Jesus never talked about many of the behaviors that we identify as sin, he did talk often about greed and the miss use of power as being factors that separate us from God. God loves all of God’s children and all people are God’s children. We are called to love them too. We are called to work toward a world where there is not a needy person among us.
Prayer: Lord make us a society that lives your love among those who are needy by standing with them as we seek justice for all. Amen.
*http://www.poverties.org/poverty-and-crime.html
**U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2009. Report 1025, June 2010
***http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/19/news/economy/ceo-pay/
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.