How much is rich. . .

Growing up there were some very lean years.  I well recall putting down on my college financial aid form that my family income that year was about $4,000.  It was not much money then and it has not increased in value.  It was a farming community and, though my dad was a businessman in town, the farms were not doing well that year.  The farmers spent the same no matter whether if it were a good year or bad year but they paid only in the good years.  My parents were never wealthy but we never went without either.  I lived in what I thought was a solid middle class home.  It may have been decidedly lower middle class but those who had money and those who did not were not so easily distinguished in that community.

Today the signs of wealth are all around us.  We carry phones that cost more than a month's mortgage or rent.  We buy things on a whim because Amazon can deliver the stuff to us tomorrow.  Within the last year, real estate in the city where I live has jumped considerably.  The value of the cars in any parking lot (including any church parking lot) is downright scary.  Our yard sales and thrift stores do not want for merchandise to sell -- cast offs we hardly used or wore.  It seems that we know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.  

A fairly recent Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances tells us that the Americans are not exactly poor.  Apparently the mean or average net worth of all U.S. families is $692,100.   Of course, this includes cash, stocks, bonds, and real estate.  Now the median net worth (that means half of the households are above and half are below) a much lower figure: $97,300. Obviously, it only takes a number of mega millionaires to skew the numbers for the average.

If you look at the mean or average net worth of U.S. families (everyone from the super poor to the super rich) listed by the age of the head of household, it looks like this:

• Age 35 or younger: $76,200
• Age 35-44: $288,700
• Age 45-54: $727,500
• Age 55-64: $1.17 million
• Age 65-74: $1.07 million
• Age 75 or older: $1.07 million

Those numbers are rather predictable.  Nobody expects the under 35 crowd to be in the same category as the over 65.  But the progression is rather impressive.  Things move up in multiples until age 64.  Then things remain relatively stable through the upper end of the age spectrum.

Strangely enough, Americans are not comforted with these numbers.  Survey says that Americans believe it takes more than double the average numbers or at net worth of $2.27 million to be considered “wealthy.”  Who knew?

So there it is.  We know now how much it takes to be rich.  But it does not matter how much we are rich in things if we are poor in soul.  That remains the problem.  The numbers look good on paper.  Combine those numbers with our immunity to responsibility for our thoughts, words, and deeds, our captivity to whim and desire, our empty hearts devoid of moral truth and values, and our insistence upon being the definers of truth and things look vastly different.  The empty pews are not simply reflective of dissatisfaction with the Church but a belief that people do not need God.  It stands to reason if they do not need God, they do not need the Church.  We have our work cut out for us.  Before the sweet grace of the Gospel can reach them, some honest reappraisal under the scrutiny of the law must take place.  It is not about preaching condemnation but a call to repentance that needs to sound into the world around us.