“ IT IS EASIER FOR A CAMEL TO GO THROUGH THE EYE OF A NEEDLE THAN FOR A RICH MAN TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD”
October: Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.
October:  This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in.  The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.  ~Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar for 1894
The lesson to day about the rich is one of the most conscience pricking that I know.  Young man.  Jesus liked him but when he told him to sell all that was too much. 
Very hard.  Jesuit friend who sold all: and gave his stuff to me.  It didn’t last. Business success. He now lives in a rather nice place in Kent. 
Last night I heard about the Lottery roll over £20 million.  £3 million an hour.  and bought a ticket.   I felt slightly guilty.  But I didn’t win. 
Contradictions:
Money does not buy happiness they say. And the other side of that coin is Albert Camus comment that   “ It’s a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.” 
And as Woody Allen said   “ Money is better than poverty if only for financial reasons” 
As a result of what Jesus said some people have chosen to regard the possession of wealth as almost a sin.   It was not a new concept:  Ancient Greeks. After all Midas and Croesus got into trouble. 
Croesus and the Persians a great empire will fall.  
To be burned alive. Solon
“I count no man happy until his death. For no man can know what the gods can have in store for him. “ 
Somehow poverty became equated with virtue.  Medieval monks etc.  
Can’t get eternal life without it, as Our Lord said.  And when told that seemed a bit hard he goes on to say  “with men it is impossible, but not with God. For with God all things are possible. 
That idea of salvation only by God’s grace at the basis of the Protestant religion and one of the issues that brought about the Reformation.   Luther’s view that only God grace can save us. Whilst the Catholic Church taught that we could buy our way into Heaven. 
Diet of Worms.  Indulgences and need for Pope to get money for St. Peter’s. 
So poverty good: riches no good?  Primitive society where people live a simple life, free of the pollution of materialism.  Hippy commune. 
“ When I have money I get rid of it as quickly as possible lest it find a way into my heart “ - John Wesley.
However: 21st century we live in a Capitalist society, we are progressing and to do that we need money – if only to reach that pretty Christian goal of eliminating poverty.    “More resources” is the cry.  To day Programme. 
Where the acquisition of wealth is a good.  Our leaders tell us that.  Hard work can bring rewards.  Gordon Brown and David Cameron talk all the time about  “ hard working families. “ 
So we are not going to get anywhere by reducing our GNP.  
We need to compromise I believe.  No point in giving it all away and letting the poor have it.  They have the welfare state, paid for by our taxes and after all Jesus taught that we should render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s).   
So taxes are to be paid for the general good.   Conscience clear! 
Anyway my wealth, such as it is, would be a drop in the bucket: like those people who want to relieve the National Debt. 
So the answer is not to give it all away: but to give away a reasonable amount. Each of us decides that.  A tenth of our annual income?  
Extraordinary generosity of the Americans.  Their Christian beliefs: American dream = success= money= give it away.   Annenberg; Stanton Avery; John Lovelace.  
Not so here: David Beckham Foundation?  Jonathan Ross Trust?  Richard Branson and Cliff Richard better known (perhaps unfairly I concede) for their West Indian Islands than generosity to British causes.
Little people give: viz the Tsunami and the British millions that poured in then.  
There are many charities with Christian aims.  We can support those with our money and still, I think, adhere to the sentiments of our collect to day that we should “withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil.”  And remember that the real measure of wealth is how much we’d all be worth if we lost all our money. In the final analysis it’s what’s in our heart that counts not our bank balance. 
So let’s be content with what we’ve got; be as generous as we can.  I pray that most of us will get through the eye of that needle.
