to be preoccupied with astronomy or to become a pianist. They also have come to feel dissatisfied or reproachful about themselves now. In other words, they carry in themselves a profound sense of their own present inadequacy. They are instilled with shame.
In one of its characteristics, shame involves the wish to hide an inadequacy which we may find in ourselves. For many middle-class young people in the United States, however, this shame applies, not to some specific act which they did, but to their sense of themselves. Unfortunately, when they get a job, when they reach the point for which they are now striving, this self-dissatisfaction does not go away. It is too deeply embedded. When they secure a position, they keep on climbing up the ladder, working always ahead of themselves, in the flight and shame over themselves. And for the rest of their lives, whenever the flight into interests or the future has to stop, they feel undone.
We cannot compare this suffering involved here with the agony of the South American poor. But here too we find operating a peculiar insensitivity to one’s own suffering. For by living into an interest or into the future, these young people can keep their consciousness directed away from their unpleasing selves, and therefore they do not address, in fact, are hardly aware of the subtle suffering which they carry. This fear of failing may provide them with a sly reminder.
When Jesus relates a need and suffering to love, when he calls people into the life of love, this call is not a call for people to give love. It is also a call for people to receive love in connection with their suffering. Just at this point the power of the mind to hide our suffering from us comes into play. Because the mind is the greatest narcotic, it is extremely difficult for any of us to know our suffering, especially the deep suffering that belongs to our daily life. Therefore, to know our own suffering, much less to discover the meaning of love in connection with that suffering, involves a work and a constant learning the whole rest of our lives.
1 The manuscript gives neither place nor date. Lucy McGill has sought to fill in probable dates, noting, “Dates which are not on the manuscripts have been supplied as approximate time of the delivery of the sermons by L. O. McGill.” The suggested time of “Beatitudes” is 1975–1976. No scriptural text is included, but the sermon clearly depends on Matthew 5. The first twelve verses are included here.
Sermon 3: Possessions
Sermon delivered at the Congregational Church
Plainfield, New Jersey
January 16, 1966
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart.”
Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:18–31)
For us in the United States, with our high standard of living, possessions absorb a good deal of our attention. We are always buying them, using them, servicing them, replacing them and improving them. But this is no peculiarly American preoccupation. Not only the New Testament, but Jesus himself speaks repeatedly of wealth and poverty, and a good deal of the morality which our Lord teaches refers to this question of possessions.
I
Let us begin with our own experience. What are possessions to us? We must say two things: they are a great burden but a greater blessing. We can sum up their way of burdening us in two words: care and responsibilities.
Possessions of every kind are a care. There is the problem of securing and paying for them which in our credit-happy society can go on and on and on. There is the further problem of keeping them useful, keeping them in repair. The refrigerator refuses to work. The house needs another paint job. In the car motor there is an ominous plunk, plunk. Our possessions cause us so much care, so much worry and thought and time.
In addition, possessions are a serious responsibility. A person who has things cannot be indifferent to his neighbors. Whatever wealth he has imposes on him the task of using it well, not only for himself, but for his neighbors.
This is the basic law of every society, whether that of the pigmies of Africa or the ancient Chinese. An Indian has received his wealth from an environment and land, a situation which properly belongs to all the people of his tribe or nation. It is his private property only in a temporary and relative and minor sense. And if it means the preservation of the life of the people as a whole, his society will take his so-called property away from him without a moment’s hesitation. The pigmy with his hut on a hill that is needed for observing possible enemy attacks loses his hut. The American businessman with his factory along the approved route of a superhighway loses his factory. The reason behind this practice is clear in every human society throughout history: in the last and final analysis, possessions are to help and nourish the common life in which each individual shares.
Therefore, a person with possessions not only feels care, he also feels responsibility. With his $50,000 house and three cars and swimming pool, he cannot be indifferent to the hungry and the destitute. His wealth imposes a special obligation on him. As we have found out from the experience of the peace corps, when rich parents do not feel this responsibility, their children do. And we know how the feeling of guilt over the way their families have been with their wealth has driven many a young man or woman into the peace corps.
These, then, are the burdens. Yet however severe they may be at times, everyone seems to agree that it is better to have possessions than not to have them. In other words, wealth is a blessing, and whatever anxieties and torments and responsibilities and guilt wealth may bring, at least it keeps us from a worse evil, the evil of poverty.
Behind the experience of all men with their possessions stands this fear of poverty. Why? Why are men afraid of it? The answer’s obvious: frustration, fear and shame. To be poor means to be incapable of getting what you want. You don’t have the means to realize your will, to achieve your values. Poverty means frustration, and it means all those diseases of the soul which arise from frustration—spite and envy against others who are more fortunate, self-pity towards oneself.
To be poor also means to be helpless in the face of threatening circumstances. It means to be unable to pay a taxi and get to work during a transit strike. It means to be unable to hire a lawyer to sue to recover damages from someone who has cheated you. It means to be unable to travel to Nevada for a divorce, or to Texas for that special heart operation needed to save your life. Poverty means fear, not momentary fear now and then, but the constant dread of knowing that there are no resources to fall back on, no financial cushion to claim the help of experts, knowing that with the least shift of circumstances you will go under and drown.
To be
