Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. James 5:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 14, 2014): James 4 & 5

Election Day in the United States may have brought defeat to a number of Democratic Party hopefuls, but in a move that all of those defeated Democrats may have supported, it also brought a voter mandated increase in the minimum wage for several areas of the country. Minimum wage hikes were approved for Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. And the city of San Francisco also approved a minimum wage hike. But the hikes also highlighted a vast difference within the country. For instance, Arkansas residents voted to raise the minimum wage to a lofty $8.50/hr., but the San Francisco hike of the minimum wage was to $15/hr. – tying the city with Seattle for the highest minimum wage in the United States.

Of course, the hikes are only the first move in what will undoubtedly be a complicated economic dance. The unfortunate next step is up to local businesses who may decide that they simply cannot afford to keep all of their employees if they are to pay them at the new rate. After the release of workers, there will be the frustration and hurt as both businesses and workers try to adjust to the new work environment.

Often we seem to think that such things as minimum wages have nothing to do with our faith. But James would disagree. Maybe because if his relationship with his half-brother, Jesus, James knew that Christianity had to be concerned with more than the just the spiritual lives of the people. The truth was that what was spiritual was intricately connected with the physical. It was the reason why Jesus had gone about healing and taking care of the physical problems of the people that he came in contact with. And it was the reason that the poor and the hurting and the sick ran to be with Jesus. All of this meant that taking advantage of workers simply could not be written off as an economically good idea; it was just a morally irresponsible one.

The reality is that we are supposed to be concerned about the wages of the poor, and to take advantage of them is a sin against God. God, and all those who serve him, are concerned about the justice issues of our society which includes the care of the poor. Whether or not there is a law mandating a certain wage, there is a moral obligation to take care of people and to endeavor to give a wage that reflects what they are worth.  And to not do that means that we have a real spiritual problem.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Acts 15