Prosperous Followers of a Humble God

Courtesy hellemanworld.blogspot.com

Although still far from the ideal, when it comes to living simple lives, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and their Evangelical counterparts seem to be going in different directions.

An Early Contrast

A favorite story of mine from the Protestant Reformation talks about an anonymous painter who painted what could be considered an early form of a political cartoon. The painting made a comparison between the "Triumphal Entry" of Jesus and a papal procession. As many of you know the "Triumphal Entry" was the time when Jesus entered Jerusalem shortly before his crucifixion. At that time, Jesus rode in on a borrowed donkey wearing his relatively simple clothes while the people honored him by waving palm branches (from where we get the term "Palm Sunday"), and placing some of their clothes on the path in front of Him. Alongside this depiction, the painter showed a customary medieval papal procession with the many cardinals and bishops in their rich robes astride highly-adorned show horses surrounding the pope on a decorative cart wearing his tailor-made robe and golden triple-miter crown.

Papal Reforms

A lot has changed from those days when the papacy seemed quite content to show everyone how much riches and wealth it had acquired. With the installation of the newest pope, the papacy has taken a different tack in appealing to the masses. Much has been written regarding Pope Francis' aversion to pomp and extravagance, so I will not rehash the details other than to say he goes to great lengths to at least appear to be like one of us. The pope strives to apply this philosophy to all levels of Roman Catholic leadership, and led to the resignation of the infamous "Bishop of Bling", as well as an apology from an Atlanta, Georgia archbishop who built a $2.2 million Tudor-style mansion for himself. No such apologies will be coming from Evangelical leaders here in the United States. In fact, one would get quite the opposite response.

Proponents of Private Prosperity

In case you haven't already figured it out, I'm referring to proponent of the so called "Prosperity Gospel" or "Prosperity Theology". Wikipedia defines the belief in this way.

". . . a Christian religious doctrine that financial blessing is the will of God for Christians, and that faith, positive speech, and donations to Christian ministries will always increase one's material wealth. Based on non-traditional interpretations of the Bible, often with emphasis on the Book of Malachi, the doctrine views the Bible as a contract between God and humans: if humans have faith in God, he will deliver his promises of security and prosperity. Confessing these promises to be true is perceived as an act of faith, which God will honor."

What makes this even more interesting is that many of the major organizations that promote such theology are registered in the United States as a "church" which not only gives them tax-free status, but also frees them from any legal obligation to disclose how they use money that they receive. (This is compared to being registered as a "religious organization" which still allows them to be tax-free, but they would have to file an IRS Form 990 to disclose their financial information.) Some Christians went even further and formed the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (EFCA). Accreditation with the EFCA gives a church or non-profit an opportunity to be even more transparent because members are listed on its website. (In case you are wondering which organizations do what, you can view a list of the thirty leading religious broadcasters here.) Sadly the majority of these "churches" shun transparency which leaves many wondering what they have to hide, and which God they truly follow.

A Much Different Picture

More importantly, which God do we follow? The humble itinerant preacher who had no place to call home, or the God who supposedly states that we should get as much wealth on earth as we possibly can? Although we may shake our heads in disbelief at these examples of extravagance, do we secretly wish that we had more money and possessions? Do we strive to be comfortable or seek to sacrifice? If a painter were to paint a picture of our life in comparison to the lives of the majority of today's society, how would we compare?

Spiritual Hotspotting

Can an innovative approach to dealing with people's physical health translate into the spiritual realm?

I recently watched a relatively short (13 min) video about a doctor named Jeffrey Brenner in New Jersey who has taken upon himself the task of dealing with the sickest people in his city of Camden.  He found these people through analyzing medical billing data and by doing so mapped out "hot spots" where people incurring the highest medical costs lived.  He developed the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers as a means of helping improve these people's lives.  While innovation is definitely needed in the healthcare system, should we implement such innovation in our dealings with people's spiritual lives?

First off, how would we determine people's level of spirituality?  Dr. Brenner found his high cost patients through analyzing medical billing records.  Similar records showing spirituality simply do not exist.  Sure, we could go such organizations such as The Association of Religion Data Archives and find all sorts of data on religious attendance and adherence, but as we probably all know, a high level of spiritual health and regular church attendance do not always go together.  We could go to the impoverished, high-crime areas in hope of finding those with the greatest spiritual need, but as I mentioned in a previous post, Jesus did not have many positives to say about the spiritual health of rich people.  Simply put, it is virtually impossible to get an accurate picture of someone's spiritual health by focusing on the externals.  Sure, a man who systematically abuses his wife is definitely not one who has a high level of spirituality, but Jesus made it quite clear in His famous Sermon on the Mount that it is what is on the inside that matters most to God.  So, since our lack of the ability to accurately determine spiritual health (even, oftentimes our own) prevents us from spiritual hotspotting, what about the One Who is able to accurately determine spiritual health, does He target only high-need individuals?

No, and Yes.  Jesus was the best representation of how God deals with people, and we read about Him dealing with everyone from the profligate Samaritan woman to the well-behaved Nicodemus.  God does not demonstrate a favoritism in regards to how He deals with people.  So, then where does the "Yes" come from?  The "Yes" comes from the fact that "all have sinned" and therefore all need to be saved.  "All" means "all", from the person who systematically commits open sins, to the person whose sinning resides only between their ears, nobody can save themselves, and therefore everybody need a Savior.

So if the temptation comes to deal with the spiritual needs of only a specific group, remember "hotspotting" may work for the physical life but does not work for the spiritual life.

Hoping but Not Receiving

One of the reasons we don't receive God's power in our lives is that we are looking for the wrong kind.

The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.  Luke 24:20-21a

This statement comes from the conversation between Jesus and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (read it in its entirety here).  People often overlook this part of the conversation in a rush to focus on other aspects of the story like "the good part" where Jesus reveals His identity and everyone gets all excited.  However, we do the story a disservice by neglecting the hoping part because therein lies the reason for the "downcast" faces, and, in a way, the reason they were so excited after the reveal.  They misunderstood the reality of Jesus' mission, but why?

These disciples, along with most of the Jewish people at that time, which, sadly, included the twelve, thought that the Messiah was to come and deliver the nation of Israel from Roman bondage so that they could have the easy life like back in the good old days of David and Solomon.  Despite Jesus' many statements regarding the true nature of "the kingdom of heaven", and His refusal to be crowned as an earthly king, they couldn't rid themselves of the idea that He "was going to redeem Israel", and set up an earthly kingdom.  Sadly, that concept, and ones similar to it, still hold sway among many of the current professed followers of Christ.

One modern departure from Jesus' true mission on earth exists in "prosperity theology" which promotes the belief  that all one needs to do to receive anything is "name it and claim it".  Adherents to this belief system use texts from the Bible as a means to receive anything from good health to a new house.  Interesting thoughts coming from professed followers of one who was essentially homeless, and spoke of riches as a hindrance to entering God's kingdom after telling a rich man to sell all of his possessions.

A more subtle, and therefore more dangerous, variation on this theme also exists.  That being the concept that the life of a Christian should be for the most part, free from problems and sacrifice.  This view continues despite statements from Jesus to the contrary like the one found in Luke 9:23-24 which states that His true followers "must take up their cross daily."  Apparently many of his followers today suffer from the same tendency towards selective hearing as did His disciples back then.  I say this because prior to making that statement, He told His disciples, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." (v. 22)  It doesn't get much plainer than that, yet not long after hearing that statement, we find the two disciples walking to Emmaus all downcast and such, saying "The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped . . ."

In short, we don't receive God power in our lives because we look for His power to eliminate our problems (something He never said He would do) instead of to help us through them (something He often said He would do).

So if you start sensing the lack of God's power in your life, you should stop and ask yourself, "Am I looking for the right kind?"

Senseless Men and Wicked Grass

Psalm 92:4-7 For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD; I sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts! The senseless man does not know, fools do not understand, that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.

The Bible speaks many times about how things will end up for the wicked, and the Psalms are no exception. Here the author states that you would have to be a senseless, foolish person not to understand that concept. Those statements become even stronger when I remember that at the time the psalms were written that the amount of available scripture was very small. I can refer to many Bible texts talking about the final demise of the wicked, but many of those texts come from the New Testament. Even those texts in the Old Testament were centuries away from being written and publicized. So what I get from this is that one simply has to use common sense to figure this out.

Another layer is added when I consider the fact that, according to the subtitle, this psalm was written "For the Sabbath day." What better time to talk about evildoers flourishing than on the Sabbath day. Those who keep the Sabbath, especially those who grew up learning about the Sabbath, undoubtedly heard stories about how people were blessed financially, etc. by keeping that day holy. Observation of the world around us tends to run counter to that thought. The world is full of people who do not keep the Sabbath, yet are doing quite well financially. So quite possibly, the author wanted those who read and hear this psalm to remember that despite all this temporal prosperity, that in the end, the wicked will be "forever destroyed."

So as we go about our days, and especially the Sabbath day, let us remember that the prosperity of the wicked is temporary, and that their destruction is forever.