A certain diseased beggar named Lazarus was laid at the rich man's gate, but never once was he fed from his sumptuous table

 Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want.

 

-- Jonathan Swift

No fine people on either side

 While I am a beggar, I will rail,

And say there is no sin but to be rich:

And being rich, my virtue then shall be,

To say there is no vice but beggary.

-- William Shakespeare, History of King John, Act 2, Scene 1

Remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things

 

The true king does much with little

 This small inheritance 

Contenteth me, and's worth a monarchy.

Sufficeth that I have maintains my state
And sends the poor well pleased from my gate.

-- William Shakespeare, Henry VI, part 2, Act 4, Scene 10

. . . and the two fishes divided he among them all. 

 

-- Mark 6:41

Grand Rapids, Michigan, where you're not much unless you're a rich Calvinist, once put beggars in jail 211 times between 2008 and 2011

 The ACLU said Grand Rapids enforced the state law 399 times between Jan. 1, 2008, and May 24, 2011. James Speet and Ernest Sims were among those arrested. They filed the original lawsuit. Speet held a sign, while Sims asked for spare change. ... 

The appeals court said that striking down the law was “appropriate because the risk exists, that, if left on the books, the statute would chill a substantial amount of activity protected by the First Amendment.” It noted that Grand Rapids police produced 409 incident reports related to begging. Thirty-eight percent of those stopped by police were holding signs, requesting help, with messages such as “Homeless and Hungry: Need Work.” The others involved verbal solicitations. In 43 percent of those cases, police immediately arrested beggars. In 211 cases, those convicted were sentenced directly to jail time. 

More.

Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. 

-- Luke 6:30

Baba Ramdev, the face of yoga, ayurvedic products and patriotic nationalism in India, is poor in name only

From the story here:

It might seem like an impossible arrangement—observing an oath of poverty while also being one of India’s top entrepreneurs. ...

Ramdev’s home is on the outskirts of the city—in a walled garden he shares with bees, butterflies, and armed security guards. I entered the estate through two huge gates with golden lion-head door knockers, and drove down a brick path toward a complex of tidy white buildings. Ramdev received me in a comfortable parlor, with an ample porch and several couches and armchairs. “Nowhere in our religious books and scriptures is it written that a sanyasi should be a mendicant,” he said, referring to the kind of beggars I’d seen along the Ganges. ...

Stuart Ray Sarbacker, a professor of comparative religion at Oregon State University who’s studied Ramdev’s career, calls him “the most prominent face of yoga in the entire nation.”

The fox tells the ape that the life without toil is freest "uncontrolled of any"

For without gold now nothing will be got,

Therefore (if please you) this shall be our plot:

We will not be of any occupation;

Let such vile vassals, born to base vocation,

Drudge in the world, and for their living droil,

Which have no wit to live withouten toil;

But we will walk about the world with pleasure

Like two free men, and make our ease our treasure.

Free men some beggars call, but they be free,

And they which call them so more beggars be;

For they do swink and sweat to feed th' other,

Who live like Lords of that which they do gather,

And yet do never thank them for the same,

But as their due by Nature do it claim.

Such will we fashion both our selves to be,

Lords of the world; and so will wander free

Where so us listeth, uncontroll'd of any:

Hard is our hap, if we (amongst so many)

Light not on some that may our state amend:

Seldom but some good cometh ere the end.

-- Edmund Spenser (1553-1599), Prosopopoia: Or Mother Hubberds Tale

On the children of the wicked

The son, bred in sloth, becomes a spendthrift, a profligate, and goes out of the world a beggar.

-- Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.

-- Job 21:13

Can't dig ditches, too ashamed to beg

Then the manager said to himself, What should I do, since my master is taking my position away from me? I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm too ashamed to beg.

-- Luke 16:3

Paul knew how poor Jesus was: "For you he became a beggar on the street, despite being rich"

δι’ ὑμᾶς ἐπτώχευσεν πλούσιος ὤν -- 2 Cor.8:9.

Jesus didn't even become a πένης, a poor person who actually worked for his living, a paycheck to paycheck kind of guy. You know, like Paul was. No, Jesus became the jobless poor, πτωχός, so poor he had to beg for his daily bread. 

You might almost say that even Paul would agree with Luke that Jesus himself "said goodbye to everything that he owned" (Luke 14:33).

Because the Master would not ask the disciple to do what he himself had not done.

Does your theology have room for people who don't celebrate "Easter"?

One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

-- Romans 14:5f.

But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

-- Galatians 4:9ff.

The (First) Council of Nicaea (325) established that the date of Easter would be the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox.

Christ Mad? Perhaps. But Still Right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 But is there anyone here, right now, who can explain to me . . . Is Christ a myth? A madman's whim? Some say Christ can cure our sin. Is there a way to contact Him? Or will I die not knowing how? Listen, I only came to church to see if they could offer hope, but everything that happened there was way outside my scope. Like afterwards, outside . . . was a beggar on the grass. He held out his hand, and people'd smile, then they'd pass. I'm sure he reached for something real, for something more than cash. He begged them for a little cheer, and they all pretended . . . not to hear. I get the message, loud and clear: Church is middle-class.

-- Larry Norman, "Poem", Street Level (1970)

Christmas is Vanity: Had St. Paul Known of Christmas, Would He Have Approved?

"[H]ow can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days, and months, and seasons, and years! I am afraid I have labored over you in vain."

-- Gal. 4:9 ff.

"One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man esteems all days alike."

-- Rom. 14:5

"Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ."

-- Col. 2:16 f.

That said, and quite apart from the well-known atheist war on Christmas, there is now some competition, or is it help?, from a small band of Christian extremists in Arkansas who think we're all guilty of idolatry in celebrating it.

Video here. 

Woe Unto You, Pastors! Hypocrites!

All their works they do for to be seen of men:

they make broad their diplomas on their walls, adorned in oak and glass, which they do use to command a higher salary but prove every Sunday from the pulpit, that they are worthless;

and they seek ever to enlarge the size of their ride, which they do wash and polish until gleaming but inside is full of dead men's bones;

and love the choicest spots reserved for them in the parking lot;

and to be visited by the sheep which was lost, in a large private office in the church, during office hours only;

and greetings in the restaurants, and the country club, and at the boat dock;

and to be called of men, Reverend, Doctor.

Woe unto you, pastors, hypocrites! for ye extort the tithe and devour women's houses, and for a pretence make long prayer for the poor, and the sick, the unemployed and the homeless: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

Woe unto you, pastors, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one convert, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves, while the beggar on thine own street do ye refuse and turn away, and teach men so to do.

Woe unto you, pastors, hypocrites! for ye build excess square footage at great expense, which lies vacant and warm most of the day, and mistake its desolation for the kingdom of God. You have your reward.

Woe unto you, pastors, hypocrites! for ye bind on men heavy mortgages, grievous to be borne, and then do run away to take another call.

Woe unto you, pastors, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men.