"A rising tide..."

“A rising tide floats all boats.”

…if you have a boat. 

I’m told that Jack Kennedy said, “A rising tide floats all boats,” in reference to the nation’s economy, and at the time I took it as a wise and pithy saying.  But no more… 

Jack, good as he was, was a rich man.  No matter how charitable a person is, there can be no genuine understanding between the rich and the poor.  I’m sure that Jack had a boat, a big boat.  His big boat probably even had a little boat of its own.  It was past his comprehension that someone might not have a boat of any kind, and that the rising tide could cause that person to struggle to keep from drowning. 

Have we forgotten what Jesus said?  In one of those rare texts present in all three of the synoptic gospels, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”  (Matthew 19:23-24, Mark 10:23-25, Luke 18:25)  Three times.  Three biblical authors thought this saying of Jesus sufficiently important to include it in their writing.  Three nails in the coffin of the Prosperity Gospel. 

And no, the verses that follow are not an invitation to a cop-out.  In them, Jesus said that, with God, all things are possible.  He did not mean that those privileged one-percent can cop out, pervert spirituality, by joining a church and playing religion.  God isn’t stupid. 

Jesus meant, I believe, that rich people are people too and have the capacity for the Spirit of God to lead them to repentance.  Repentance is a change in the way we think. 

Having great wealth puts a person in a corrupt system.  It’s addictive.  It’s destructive.  It divides society with impassable barriers.  On one side there is this powerful urge to protect one’s wealth against any perceived threat, and on the other side there’s just despair and fear that resistance will only cause the loss of what little one has now. Both attitudes prevent change.  

It’s sad for both sides.  My generation has seen the evils of fascism and communism.  And yet, both of those systems have some things to commend such as individual accountability in fascism and the call to work in community in communism.  But out of control, both turned evil. 

Now it’s the turn of capitalism.  Competitiveness, out of control, has morphed into a form of warfare that’s destroying economies, peoples, and the planet.  Human institutions and systems just don’t cut it, and never will, even if they are ours. 

There’s still time to repent.  If the rich can’t understand, they can still give to the community.  The act of giving, even with reservations, changes people.  If the poor can’t hope, they can still bless.  And both can gain that greatest of values, love.  It’s sugary but it’s true.  Love does conquer all, and this greatest gift of God can make us all see that we’re in the same boat, even if some of us have to be pulled out of the water.