Rollins Chapel
November 2, 2006
Richard R. Crocker, Ph.D, College Chaplain
Matthew 5:1-3, Luke 6 20 and 24, Amos 8:4-8
I continue to speak about the subject of happiness - not superficial
happiness that passes, but true happiness that endures - the kind of deep
happiness described by the Greek term makarios, which is also translated as
blessed I am using the beatitudes to focus our thoughts, because the beatitudes
are Jesus' central teaching about happiness. In a culture where everyone claims
to be seeking happiness, these chapel services are a time when we can think
about what Jesus taught his disciples on this subject.
There is something wrong, isn't there, when we are all so desperately
interested in a subject like happiness, searching for it everywhere, reading
self-help books by the ream, and yet disregarding the words that many of us
regard as the word of God on the subject? Somehow there is a disconnect here.
Part of the disconnect, as I have explained, is that the words of Jesus on this
subject are so preposterous that we can not believe he meant them. They must be
"spiritual" and therefore irrelevant. Such seems often to be our
attitude. But I am pleading that we consider Jesus' words on happiness
seriously, as if they meant something, as if they actually were and are
instructions to those of us who seek to be his disciples.
And so we begin: as Matthew has it, "Blessed (or happy) are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Or Luke, more simply: "
Blessed (or happy) are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."
Poverty and happiness are subjects that in our mental world are only
inversely related. The poorer one is, the unhappier. The richer one is, the
happier. So we often think. But Jesus says otherwise. I recently received an
invitation from a Dartmouth graduate who, shortly after graduation, joined the
Jesuits, which, as you know, is a Roman Catholic order. This student invited me
to be present as he made his vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Although
I could not be present at his ceremony, I thought how absolutely opposite those
vows are to the values that seem to guide most of our graduates. Instead of
poverty, we value wealth; instead of chastity, sexual license; and instead of
obedience, independence. Most parents do not send their children to Dartmouth
to become monks; they send their children top Dartmouth to become, as we say,
whatever they want to be, as long as it makes them happy. But, judging from the
path taken by most of our grads, we seem to believe that wealth is the road to
happiness. If Jesus says otherwise, well - either Jesus did not know what he
was talking about, or he must have meant something else.
Now let me be clear. When Jesus spoke of poverty - whether simple poverty
(as in Luke) or "poverty of spirit" (as in Matthew), I do not believe
he was advocating the kind of grinding poverty that so many people in the world
experience, and that the prophet Amos condemns. It is no blessing to starve; it
does not make anyone happy to see their children starving or naked or unable to
receive medical care or any semblance of education. No one is advocating
grinding poverty. That may be why Matthew calls it poverty of spirit. As Amos
proclaims, the God of justice condemns those who trample on the poor. The
frustration of never having enough, and of having no way to change that
situation, is an awful thing; it is not a blessing; it is a disgrace - not to
the person who is grindingly poor, but to the nation, the society, the world
that allows such things to happen. And in the United States, the richest nation
in the world by some measures, 13% of our total population, and almost
18% of our children, live in poverty.[1]
Of course poverty is a relative thing. The poverty rate in the US for 2005,
for a family of four people, was $15, 735.[2] This is of course, about one-third the annual
cost of attending Dartmouth. But in terms of the world, it is high; the
"middle" income range for the world is approximately $1500 per
person,[3] or $6000
for a family of four. In other words, the family of four that is below the
poverty line in the US is actually two and a half times as wealthy as the
world's average family. Now if course we know that conditions vary from place
to place. Purchasing power is different in different places. But isn't it
interesting that while we can define the poverty rate in our nation - we can
define how much is not enough - we do not define the wealth rate - how much is
too much? Is there any amount of money that is too much? In Luke, Jesus says
that there is: "Woe to you who are rich. You have already received your
consolation." (Luke 6:24)
Most of the world is poor. The average family in the world, if they devoted
their entire income to paying for it, would be able to afford one month at
Dartmouth. The average American family would have to devote its entire income,
with nothing left over, for one of its children to attend Dartmouth. Now I know
about financial aid, which of course is the only reason that Dartmouth and its
peers have any moral claim to exist. I am simply trying to point out that we
are so immersed in a culture of privilege and its perpetuation that we may be
blind to the reality of the world.
I do not believe that when Jesus proclaimed the poor blessed, he meant that
poverty was acceptable. Every person in the world deserves enough to eat, a
place of shelter, and medical care. Rather, he was countering, I think, the
false belief that wealth is the basis of happiness - a false belief that we
continue to hold and to perpetuate.
I say false belief. Who says it's false? Well, Jesus, of course, But if you
want corroboration, you can ask the social scientists. Consider these words
from a social scientist summarizing research on the subject: "Try to
imagine yourself changing places with either Bob or Mary. Bob is thirty five
years old, single white, attractive, and athletic. He earns $100,000 a year and
lives in sunny Southern California. He is highly intellectual, and he spends
his free time reading and going to museums. Mary and her husband live in snowy
Buffalo, New York, where they earn a combined income of $40,000. Mary is
sixty-five years old, black, overweight, and plain in appearance. She is highly
sociable and spends her time mostly in activities related to her church. She is
on dialysis for kidney problems. Bob seems to have it all .... Yet, if you had
to bet on it, you should bet that Mary is happier than Bob."[4] The reason: almost
every factor that Bob enjoys and that seems to compromise Mary is, on the basis
of "objective research", wrong. You can check it out. I can give you
the reference - chapter and verse.
So you can believe either Jesus or social science. In this case they agree.
They both cast doubt on our assumption that wealth makes us happy. So what else
do we need to know before we reconsider the direction of our life?
One more thing: recently Mohammad Yunus won the Nobel peace prize. Probably
most of you have heard of him. He is the father of microfinance - a practice of
lending very small amounts of money to entrepreneurs - mainly women - in third
world countries. The amounts of money are so small that traditional banks would
not deal with them, yet they have proved so successful that Yunus says he hopes
in 25 years we will have to build a museum to see poverty. In a recent
interview,[5] he
explained how his idea of microcredit arose. He said: "In 1974, there was
a famine in the country (Bangladesh). I felt empty because my knowledge in
economics meant little to the people suffering. Villagers had to borrow from
loan sharks on terrible conditions - some even becoming slave labor for the
moneylenders. I made a list of 42 people most seriously in debt who, all
together, owed no more than $27. I went around the village according to the
list, giving each of them the money they owed with no conditions other than
they concentrate on their work and repay me when they could." Such was
born an idea that now involves over 100 million people, and that Yunus believes
has the capacity to make poverty extinct. May it be so. Amen.
copyright©2006
Richard R. Crocker
[1]
http:://www.poverty.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty04/pov04hi.html
[2] US Census
Bureau; http://www.census,gov/poverty/threshld
[3]
http://www.finfacts.com/biz10/globalworldincomepercapita.htm
[4] Jonathan Haidt,
The Happiness Hypothesis, New York, Basic Books, 2006. p 87.
[5] "Mohmmad
Yunus", Time Magazine, October 31, 2006, p. 21
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