Your words today, Lord Jesus, are disturbing, even shocking, jolting us to our very core of being because they are very true, and happening among us.
Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom that he promised to those who love him? but you dishonored the poor. Are not the rich oppressing you? And do they themselves not haul you off to court? Is it not they who blaspheme the noble name that was invoked over you?
James 2:5-7
Lord Jesus, what is most disturbing in James' letter is not his indictment of the rich for their greed and other sins; what is very shocking is how most of the people who have shown partiality to the rich, allowing them to oppress the poor.
This sad reality continues among us, dear Jesus when we are shocked and refuse to accept, when we prefer to be blind than to see your true person as a suffering Messiah, when we insist in recognizing you as a royalty of the world who must be served and honored, not realizing that true wealth is being poor before God, trusting only in him. Amen.
