I find it most interesting that none have really mentioned the important part of riches. Everyone keeps talking about "blessings" and "rewards" and how it’s OK to have lot’s of money because that means the Lord has blessed you.

But has he? Is the 15 year old kid who sells drugs and has lot’s of money blessed? Or the CEO who makes 200% or more than the janitor, or the auto company who makes a car that will explode but decides that "it is cheaper to pay a few wrongful death claims than to recall all the vehicles". What about the receptionist who has to say her boss is "not here" when he is standing right in front of her (or worse yet coming in from his lunch rendevous with his adultress) or the salesman who sells you the diet pills (or viagra, penile enhancement, and the rest which are so popular now) which turn out to kill or seriously harm you.

We tend to seperate our work from our faith. I hear it all the time. "well, I need a job to provide a good life for my family, so if I have to lie, cheat or steal a little it’s OK, cause it’s for my job and I will get fired if I don’t do it".

I’m from the nuclear weapons capital of the world, New Mexico. Many people here who are "rich" or well off spend their days devising ways to kill thousands or millions of people more efficiently and quicker than we can now. Our main economic activity is the production of "weapons of mass destruction" denounced by the pope and even our own president as "evil".

Yet these people see themselves as saviours and protectors of their country and are looked up to as leaders and people to aspire to be like. They are richly rewarded and assured they are doing "the right thing" by most everyone, including the church. I do not know if they are doing the "right thing" or not. That is for the Lord to decide, but I find it interesting that anyone whose business is death could believe they are "blessed" by the rewards of their efforts.

It might not be a sin to be rich, but it sure depends on how you make those riches and what you do with them that’s important. I think it would be wrong for me to buy a BMW, a large screen TV and a giant house if my neighbors were starving. Yet that’s exactly what happens each and everyday.

Rich and poor are the real dividers in our society and the gap becomes wider and wider each day, particularly in America. The Lord calls us to help each other, not make as much money as we can so we can enjoy all those wonderful things money can buy that we don’t really need anyway. Just because you have a lot of money does not make you a good person and because you do not does not make you a criminal or someone who is not to be trusted or shunned by the well off. Yet this is the reality, just as it has been since the invention of money.

Make all the money you want, just don’t say it’s a blessing when you had to earn it through sin.