Readings Deuteronomy 11:13-15, Matthew 19:21-26

One of the main stories in the news this week is of the recent budget changes to inheritance tax rules for farmers. The changes would force thousands of farming families to give up their businesses in what is, in essence, a repossession of the land by government.

The question we must ask, as citizens living in a democracy, is whether this is in the best interests of the country, which is to ask if this is for the common good, or the good of a few.

If our farmers are forced to give up their land, not because they want to, but because they have to – where will our food come from? Would we have to import this food from abroad, thereby reducing the national carbon footprint but increasing our dependence on other countries? Or will large corporations declare themselves saviours of the day, and take over the land for their own profit? If government or corporate farms takeover this is bad news, for we will put ourselves at greater risk of no farmers, no food, and be left with no alternative but to grow our own.

The bible is clear that we have a right to ownership of property, the ten commandments explicitly states that it is wrong to steal from our neighbour (Exodus 20:15), which is to take without consent. Yet all property, even that of our bodies given to us by the fact of being born, all property natural or claimed is ours only for a time – for every one of us, whether poor, or rich, elders, priests or kings – we are born and we die – so this property is under our stewardship, for when we depart these earthly bounds we can take nothing with us.

In our Hebrew scripture today, we have the words of blessing through the work of our hands, that through our work we may gather a material harvest which are the blessings for faith and obedience. The implication is that a worker has the right to claim a recompense for his or her deeds.

This claimed right is social fact – a fact established through being visibly true, and it gives us rights that are essential for our human flourishing, such as the right to work, and property, shared information and education. These rights are directed to a common good, though not belonging to a law of nature over which we hold no power, these instead belong to a moral law, that is they are what we ought to do.

For freedom exists within us, a freedom to choose exists within that place of solitude found in the consciousness of all mankind, the place where life happens to our own perception and no other – therefore, liberty is a natural right that comes under Natural Law. A natural right is such that it exists by the fact of existence in itself, and therefore can be considered ‘unalienable,’ not transferable and self-evident. This means it is the place that we alone are held accountable for our responses to the changes and chances of this life we are given by birth.

Therefore, as social creatures who do not live alone but have a great need for cooperation through effective altruism, or love. Love, as all things working together with and for each other, protects the freedom of another, it does no harm, and it does not seek to act prejudicially against a neighbour.

The rich man in our Gospel reading has kept all the laws, and been obedient to all the commandments of God, so Jesus asks him to voluntarily give up his property and to follow him. Now, the man is sad at first because he had much, but I personally always hold out a hope that without our knowing he went away and in the end, he had a change of heart. Contrast this, however, to the disciples who dropped everything without delay at the call of Jesus to ‘come and see’, and to follow him they left all property and material inheritance behind.

So when we ourselves wrestle with God over what we ought to do by the example given to us in the person of Jesus Christ, we are like the rich man who goes away sad – perhaps just simply a little slow to respond.

Be a cheerful giver writes St. Paul, ‘give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion.’ (2 Corinthians 9:6-7)

‘Who then can be saved?’ if it is so hard, the disciples ask. For the example given of a camel passing through the eye of a needle is impossible – it is so obviously impossible that the disciples are stunned – are not the successful and the wealthy blessed? Have they not received an abundance because they are looked upon favourably by God? No.

Jesus takes us beyond the evidence of our eyes, that it is not the strongest, the richest, or the fittest who win in the eyes of God an entry into the kingdom of heaven. It is not by outward appearances that we are saved, but by what is hidden within our hearts working alongside that which is a sign or witness to our faith. Yet, this does not mean the rich are discarded and consigned to hell, no – this is not the case. Jesus came to open the kingdom of heaven to all people, and He tells us plainly that what is impossible for us to do, is possible for God. Therefore, the key is not turned by being either rich or poor, but by our dependence on God.

Scriptures says: ‘From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.’ Luke 12:48.

The blessing is not in what we are given, but in what we choose to do with that given to us – like marriage vows, we are to love whether in sickness or in health, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, until death do us part. Love is the treasure of heaven.

There’s a garden in our hearts, a perpetually shining sun can be found there. People may remove that spiritual light of God from their hearts; and the dust of the earth, that is our flesh, may form a shadow upon the moon no longer reflecting the sun’s light. But the LORD is still with us – His presence remains, even when our senses, and reasons fail us – have faith, for Jesus has told us this be so.

Negating circumstance does not negate our common humanity, or our common needs – when we make our imperishable soul and perishable body one, when we see souls not objects, we have within us a heart of flesh. When we realise our deeds to the other are done to ourselves, that his hand is our hand, her eye is our eye, his foot our own – then we shall enter the kingdom. (Gospel of Thomas 22.).

Our trespass, or debt, is to have not given out of our abundance, to not have given freely out of our spiritual wealth to others. Sin, therefore, is not always what we do, but what we have failed to do.

We do not need a one size fits all law of force that simply takes from one and gives to another, we have a right to stewardship with our right to have property, ‘a worker deserves his wages’ (1 Timothy 5:18). Instead, we must incentivise to create a culture of loving our neighbour as ourselves by giving people choices: to reinvest, to provide for charities, to build in our communities, to use their talents, to diversify, to have varied interests. The more people have; the opportunity to the ownership of their work (1 Corinthians 9:7-9), and to take responsibility for the common good, the more motivated people are to do that work.

Everyone has a right to pass on an inheritance to their family, not to build great store houses for themselves, but to portion the fruits of their labour for the common good. A shrewd manager is a good steward; in rewarding others we store up for ourselves the spiritual treasures in heaven. (Luke 16:1-14).

The laws of nature, and of God, belong to a higher court than the laws of mankind that are made solely for himself, for the nature to which we belong is a system beyond that which is wholly under our control. We are given the privilege of this stewardship for a while; we can create and shape our place within the world in which we live – to shape and change this earth that hangs in quiet solitude within a vast universe.

As the will of humanity can move with or against this order according to nature, human will must have a direction and purpose to which it is oriented over time. So let this be toward our God who is love, to love that is living with and for the other, and may the gift of God’s grace that came to us by one man, Jesus Christ, may His grace overflow from us who are one into the lives of many.

Amen.