That Filthiest of Lucre

Last week, three men were in the news, and all in connection with money and wealth. Two are churchmen, and the third, an animation filmaker. For the first two, Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Pope Francisco, the issue has been reconciling the relationship Jesus had with money, with the enormous wealth that the two religious institutions they lead have to manage. How can the church truly represent the spirit and power of Jesus, when it’s so linked in to the powers of this world’s “mammon”, the financial institutions we’ve become so accustomed to regarding as the big bosses that run things.

For the Archbishop, the problems arose when he sought to challenge the obscene greed of just one aspect of our 21st Century system of usury, the so called “payday lenders” in the UK. The media immediately took him to task by digging around in some of the more dubious investment practices of the Church Commissioners, the organisation that manages Anglican wealth. Over on the other side of the world, and in a spot more known for its ostentatious wealth and luxury

than for a spirit of self sacrifice, Copacabana Beach the new Pope sought to direct the attention of the three million masses, to a life of simplicity and truth, and away from the more obvious excesses of the Vatican hierarchy’s wealth and corruption.

Interesting for me to compare the two men, and to see how, the one having arrived at senior Church leadership from having had a role in big business, and the other having come up from more lowly origins as a priest, yet both exhibit a similar impatience and, indeed, revulsion with the way that money, and greed for more money, grabs our attention, and ultimately corrupts, and turns us away from the way of Jesus.

The third man, in total contrast, is Sam Simon, the co-creator of the Simpsons cartoon series, along with Matt Groening.  Simon is currently dying from colonic cancer, and has been facing up to an eternity without a cash in hand bank balance, by practically divesting himself of the millions he won’t need on the other side, giving them to charitable causes. There’s no particular indication of a spiritual side to his philantropy, or any faith commitment there, but he does confess to the great joy giving money away has given him. Setting these three stories from last week side by side makes me think about how I am at managing the resources given to me.