{"id":20627,"date":"2023-03-10T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotion-10th-march-2023"},"modified":"2023-03-10T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T06:00:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-10th-march-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-10th-march-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion 10th March 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

Then someone came to him and said, \u2018Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?\u2019 And he said to him, \u2018Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.\u2019 He said to him, \u2018Which ones?\u2019 And Jesus said, \u2018You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honour your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.\u2019 The young man said to him, \u2018I have kept all these; what do I still lack?\u2019  Jesus said to him, \u2018If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money  to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.\u2019  When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then Jesus said to his disciples, \u2018Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.\u2019 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, \u2018Then who can be saved?\u2019 But Jesus looked at them and said, \u2018For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Then Peter said in reply, \u2018Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?\u2019 Jesus said to them, \u2018Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name\u2019s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflection<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Working with children and young people this passage always confuses them. What an odd analogy! Who on earth would even bother trying to get a camel through the eye of a needle? It obviously won\u2019t fit! It seems to have confused and confounded Biblical scholars throughout the ages too: Is \u2018camel\u2019 a mistranslation of the word \u2018rope? Was \u2018The Needle\u2019 the name of a very small gate into the walled city of Jerusalem?<\/span><\/p>\n

But does it matter? The point is still the same – being rich makes it difficult to get into heaven. Why? Because individual wealth is almost always the result of the exploitation of others. I\u2019m typing this on my iPhone which was probably assembled by someone who was paid pennies per hour for their labour. Maybe you\u2019re reading it on a screen, or listening to the audio version on a device, which has a similar origin. Workers aren\u2019t paid enough so that others can ensure good profits and accumulate personal wealth. Profits are the unpaid wages of the working class<\/span><\/p>\n

So what can we do? We can all make choices about what we buy. We can make ethical choices about what we wear. We can stand up for the exploited by using our own riches to make ethical choices – and an ethical choice as a consumer is almost always more expensive than the non-ethical option. It will make us poorer. I doubt it will make us poorer to the extent that we can comfortably fit through the eye of a needle and get into heaven. To get that poor, I\u2019ll need to buy the latest iPhone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prayer<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Loving God, I don\u2019t want to be poor.<\/span>
I\u2019ve seen the misery being poor causes<\/span>
I\u2019ve seen homeless people and refugees<\/span>
I\u2019m aware of people struggling to pay bills or feed their children<\/span>
I don\u2019t want that for me and my family.<\/span>
Could you let me know of an easier way to get into heaven? <\/span>
Please?<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Then someone came to him and said, \u2018Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?\u2019 And he said to him, \u2018Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.\u2019 He said to him, \u2018Which ones?\u2019 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “URC Daily Devotion 10th March 2023”<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}