I just watched a frightening news report on PBS Newshour about
a bunch of graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley who are
all studying wealth inequality. The
studies were fascinating and frightening.
The experiment I found most interesting was around a Monopoly game. The study required two participants and was
rigged. One player was allowed to use
both dice and was given $2000 money and the Rolls Royce as a playing piece. The other player was only allowed to only
roll one die (so no chance of doubles), played with the old shoe as a playing
piece, and was given $1,000 to begin the game.
At each passing of Go, the wealthy player was given $200 while the other
player was given $100. Before the game
began, a coin was flipped to decide who would begin in which position. After the game, a survey was done with both
players.
Now I assume most people have played monopoly. And I know it brings out the finest qualities
of competitiveness and greed in each of us.
Which is one of the reasons this study is so helpful. The group ran this study on hundreds of
college students. What was striking is
when they finished, they would ask the wealthy participants in a questionnaire,
how much the felt like they deserved to win.
Almost always, the winning students were entitled which is an amazing
insight into the human brain. The
participants began to attribute success to their own gifts and skills and less
attuned to the situation which caused the disparity in the first place, a coin
flip, and not any skills or talent. It
is possible that the wealth, or the idea of that one has wealth, false or real,
leads to entitlement which causes a greater gap between the two.
The Gospel reading today also talks about a gap. This week we hear of a rich man and a poor
man named Lazarus – not to be confused with our other friend Lazarus. The story sets up a series of parallels all
with what the text claims creates a chasm.
We have a rich man.
We have a poor man. We have a
person dressed in purple cloth and fine linen.
And we have a person dressed in sores.
The rich man has had a proper burial.
And the poor man is carried away by angels. And they are no more. We have a gulf that exists between the two
and just as the Gospel so often does, the entire story, the entire reality
experienced by both men is completely turned upside down. The rich man now exists in Hades looking up,
and the poor man, Lazarus, looking down.
And the text says, “Between them a great chasm has been fixed, so that
those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can
cross from there to us.”
In death there is no chance to bridge the gap. I find the concept of permanence in death
absolutely frightening. But it is
true. What we do here in the world in
our lives stays in the world. We do not
carry it with us to the grave. I think
the ancient Egyptians wished otherwise when they fill up tombs with gold and
riches hoping that what was here on earth will be carried forward. The messes we make on earth remain messes
when we are no longer here.
Which makes me wonder, is the gulf that exists between the
two only impassable in death? And is the whole reason of the talk about Hades
which seems out of place, unlikely, and disjointed, really pointing to the fact
that this divide between the ‘haves’ and the “have nots’ not necessary on
earth. Is it possible that some can move
across before death?
We know that on earth there seems to be an impassable gulf
between the rich and the poor. The richest 1% of our country have 34.6% of all
wealth in the US. The bottom 80% have
0.4%. There is an enormous gap and if
you have spent time driving around Memphis, you have seen it. If you have lived here long enough, you have
experienced it. Maybe this is why we
are so moved when we hear a story like the one of the young girl from Vance
Middle school in the poorest zip code in Tennessee who through the help of the
Emmanuel Center gets a scholarship to St. Andrews at Sewanee, then Wellesley College
in Massachusetts, and finally Harvard for graduate school. The story sticks
with us, it moves us, and gives us hope.
These stories are significant because they are so rare, uplifting
because they are so filled with grace, and it feels like someone has
accomplished what is not possible – a real miracle. The impassable gulf between the rich and the
poor is passed. It is crossed
over.
And as Christians, we
believe that Christ came to uproot the system and turn it upside down. We have been working through the Gospel
According to Luke for as long as I have been at Annunciation. Luke places great emphasis on the poor and
the marginalized. His whole premises is
the radically reversal the Christ creates in this system. As Christians, are challenge is to shorten
the gap. To help movement take place
over the gap. Jesus’ presence with the
poor and the destitute, the company he kept, the friends he made are all
invitations for us to shorten the gulf that exists in our world.
Although I am frightened by the studies of the psychology
department at University of California, Berkeley about wealth and entitlement, I
think it provides a suggestion to how we respond. While we may struggle with the need to save
for retirement, to provide for our families, to live in neighborhoods where we
feel safe and secure, these are all challenges, I would like to suggest, that
it might be possible that if we can lose the entitled nature that wealth causes
we may become more connected to people who our wealth has caused a divide
from.
The study suggests that to some extent our location at birth
is not far removed from the flip of coin.
Our location, how we were raised, our parents, have all had more impact
on us than any amount of work or merit we could claim. We don’t want to admit this because maybe we
believe it would be a blow to our egos, or it would diminish our self-esteem,
or that we might not see ourselves as good enough. If we take away all of our hard work what do
the pieces of paper we hang on our walls, or the race times, or records we set
mean or the competitions or games we have won?
What is their value to us if we acknowledge the role of chance, luck, or
societal location?
By trying to rid ourselves of entitlement we can shorten the
gap that exists because we begin to see the value in all. We can lose the cloud
of suspicion that questions peoples merit and return. We can believe in the words of Timothy which
say, “for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of
it.” We can see that what we inherit is
not of our own merit. We can work on
contentment knowing that God has blessed each of us. God has made each of us
holy. It is response to this to shorten
the gap that exists between God’s Holy people, and if we can just lose a little
of that entitlement, we can make leaps and bounds.
No comments:
Post a Comment