Gatherer and I stand beside a table where a grossly overweight man hunches greedily over a large plate piled high with brightly colored food.
He scoffs it down noisily, all the while preaching to a group of hungry children who look on in the hope of him tossing them a scrap or a morsel.
Greedy man:
“Now listen here children! You can enjoy this kind of luxury if you work hard and discipline yourself. Hard work makes your dreams come true and Jesus wants your dreams to come true!”
He wipes some grease off his chin with a napkin and continues.
Greedy man:
“An important principle for your dreams to come true is that you must give your food to me. If you give your food to me, God will bless you!”
A frail little girl groans with hunger and looks just about ready to pass out.
The greedy man throws her a sharp look, keeping his eyes on her as he continues.
Greedy man:
“Don’t groan, it shows your lack of faith!
Jesus himself was more impressed with the widow giving her last money to the synagogue than keeping it to herself. She was hungry too and still she sowed what she had. Jesus knew this and still He said she was doing the right thing. If you are hungry, go out and find something to give to me so that you can be blessed.”
My fists clench as hatred wells up in me. I cannot control the tears flowing out of my eyes as I watch the frail children scamper off to find food for this monster. I want to rip him apart with my bare hands and am about to do so but Gatherer lays a hand upon my shoulder and I stay put.
Suddenly the obese man looks up and spins to confront us, shocking me momentarily at his awareness of our presence. He fixes a piggish eye on me and smiles a brutish smile.
Greedy man:
“Courier! (he laughs)
You are powerless here, we own this argument in this region. I am the principality by right of ecclesia.”
Me:
“You vile pig! Are you demon or human?”
Gatherer:
“Do not insult any being son of sorrow. Lest you fall into their trap and become as they are.”
The greedy man laughs again.
Greedy man:
“Son of sorrow? (He scratches his chin). I have never heard them call a courier by that name before. You must be a whiny, pitiful little thing.”
Me:
“I carry a heart rend asunder by the vile choices of humanity, and a hatred for the injustice that your kind hath wrought upon mankind.”
Greedy man:
“Bla bla bla bla bla… All I hear is a whiny coward hiding behind an archangel. The reaper no less. I feel inspired to pen a soliloquy titled: ‘The whiner and the reaper’.
AND TOGETHER THEY CAME, STRENGTH AND WITLESS FOLLY, A COWARD ARMED WITH BIG WORDS TO SHROUD SMALL INTELLECT AND SMALLER HEART…”
He interrupts himself with an explosion of laughter which erupts each time he looks at me and as suddenly as we arrived, we are gone, once again upon the land beneath Michael’s calf.
Gatherer:
“You have just now witnessed the full manifestation of the spirit of the goat. A man so far gone that you can no longer tell where the principality starts and the man ends. He has given himself over to mammon completely.
You can tell by the level of commitment to poverty. Those who are filled with the love and compassion of God will be obsessed with helping those in need both physically and spiritually. Those who are filled with the spirit of mammon will put such things last on the budget or not at all. Indeed, they will offer spiritual advice but completely withhold physical aid. They are blinded by the arguments of the god of this world and their hearts are hardened by their quest for an opulent life.
Know this son of sorrow:
You will be hated for this message by people very dear to you. For the wisdom of God is foolishness to those who are perishing and those who pursue riches in this life will receive their reward in this life but will perish as their material wealth perishes.
They will laugh at you and hate you and they will hate all who preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ. For the gospel requires that you would die to yourself and turn your back upon earthly riches.
No, they will pursue opulence and preach wealth as if wealth itself were God. They hate the poor because the poor are a burden upon them and they wish economic development upon the poor so that they themselves may profit off the income of the poor as they become richer.
In doing this, they cause the poor to determine their self-worth by their economic worth. Such lies are from the pit of hell.
The only wealth that matters is love and the only strategy that will remove poverty is to teach mankind to live in community so that all may be exposed to the same spirit of wisdom.
Heed these words son of sorrow:
The kingdom is all. It is the only strategy that matters.
Advance the kingdom, work in unity to destroy poverty and you will make it on earth as it is in heaven!”
Me:
“The kingdom is all!”
I wake up.
