Saturday August 19, 2023
Theme: "Greed and its consequences in the life of a citizen" Text: James 5:1-6
1. Over to you, rich! Weep and groan, because of the misfortunes that will come upon you. 2. Your riches are rotten, and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3. Your gold and silver are rusty; and their rust shall be a testimony against you, and shall devour your flesh like fire. You have amassed treasures in the last days! 4. Behold, the wages of the laborers who have reaped your fields, and of which you have defrauded them, cries, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5. You lived on earth in voluptuousness and delight, you satiated your hearts on the day of carnage. 6. You condemned, you killed the righteous, who did not resist you.
Let's remember:
This text does not condemn the rich in general but those who got rich on the backs of others. He castigates the rich, swindlers and greedy. Many people get rich abusing their workers. They embezzle funds, seize workers' salaries, forcefully take other people's assets and end up building an empire on quicksand. All those who suffered this carnage weep and cry out to God. They worked in vain, they lost everything including their pension and their social security. Some have lost plots, businesses, various investments through the fault of crooks who want to get rich at all costs. This greed cannot go unpunished. God has a say in the detriment of such people who distill misery and spread poverty. These greedy ones will groan on the day of God's vengeance, they will only have their eyes to weep big tears with long sobs. Their riches will rot, and their garments will be moth-eaten. Their gold and silver will rust; and this rust shall rise up as a testimony against them, and shall devour their flesh like fire. Greed is to be avoided because the wealth of a greedy rises like a monument but when the Lord God comes knocking, all the ill-gotten gains that constitute this monument crumble like a house of cards. While people mourn for the havoc wrought by the greedy; it is time to right these wrongs. The Lord God gives mercy when the thief repairs his wrongs like Zacchaeus. Let's not frustrate people by taking away their due income. The Eternal God will be on their side to punish evildoers and other greedy people who have stones in place of their hearts. Excellent Saturday. Amen Alain Louz.-
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