TheyCallMePastorBryan

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve wrote anything of substance on the blog, and as such it feels like I have a need to explain myself.  I had been writing about issues of Christianity and wealth, I was planning on a few more posts exploring teachings in the New Testament and early church about wealth.  I got really sick the week I was planning on doing that and have been trying to get back into the swing of things since then.

I’m not going to have time to visit all the verses and quotes I wanted to, but there are two quotes that I’d like to put forward as a thought about how the early church approached Jesus’ teachings about how we handle our money.  Both of these quotes are from St. Augustine.

“Failure to share one’s surplus with the needy is like theft.”

“The surplus goods of the rich are the necessities of the poor.  When you possess surplus goods, you possess the goods of others.”

Both of these quotes from St. Augustine reflect a Christian mindset about money that I don’t really hear from Christians today.  Augustine viewed the riches of wealthy individuals as being provided as an opportunity to care for the poor.  I cannot think of many examples of preaching today that would put forth this idea, although I do know a number of Christian Financial minded people who talk about how Christians can amass wealth, and I can almost get the impression that we are more willing to talk about the surplus of the rich being used in a way that might someday trickle down to the poor, than we are to speak of wealth as the provision for the poor.  It is this mindset that leads me to advocate living simply, because most of us can live more simply than we do currently and have more money with which to be generous.

It’s easy for me to launch into criticisms of the rich and how I think it’s tough to remain rich if you take these Christian ideas seriously. I too many times build a false dichotomy between the intentionally poor and the arrogant wealthy who amass their wealth for themselves. It’s easy for me to point out the flaw in that sort of rich, which is about self and earning more and more money for their own purposes. I’m pretty sure that Augustine would say that they are robbing from the poor to give to themselves(to turn the Robin Hood phrase of robbing the rich to give to the poor). But the wealthy person who realizes that their wealth has been given to care for those who are less fortunate, that’s the type of rich I can get behind.

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Dear my poor neglected blog,

I have been ignoring you too much, I’m sorry that I’ve been sick and busy, but I promise you I will give you some attention with the upcoming holiday.

That’s it.
Bryan

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I know that it’s easy to feel like everyone is out to get prosperity gospel right now, it’s an easy target.  Before I decided to do the retelling I did(my story, The Televangelist), I had actually been thinking about how we might subvert the movement of the prosperity gospel into something more like the gospel.  As I was thinking about that though, I got drawn back to the passage in Mark’s gospel about Jesus and the rich young ruler.

¹⁷ As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’ ”

²⁰ “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

²¹ Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

²² At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

²³ Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

²⁴ The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶ The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”

²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “With human beings this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

As I read the passage, I realized that the reason the disciples were shocked about Jesus saying that it’s hard for the rich to enter the kingdom is because they understood a system where those who were favored by God and righteous were usually rich and those that weren’t favored by God, there was a good chance they might be sick or have been born blind.  This comes up in the gospel story when Jesus is asked if a man is born blind because of something he did, or something his parents did.  Jesus pointed out that it had nothing to do with sin and then healed the man.  Jesus had been poking at holes in a health and wealth approach to what it meant to be living in relationship to God.

That’s why the disciples are so shocked! Their expectation is that the rich man is rich precisely because he has been faithful at pursuing righteousness, so it is a shock to hear his wealth is actually in the way of him entering the kingdom.

@branford asked a great question in the comments on the televangelist, which is worth a response.

i like your modern re-telling of this. my biggest fear is that it applies 100% to me as well as the televangelist, and that i will not be able to submit to it and obey.
do you think it applies (literally and in its entirety) to everybody? (all followers of Christ)

To start with, I totally agree that this story is applicable to everyone and not just the televangelist.  One common interpretive approach to this passage is to marginalize Jesus’ words by saying what is at issue is not really the man’s wealth, but his priorities. I don’t think that’s a fair reading of the passage and I think it’s one used to reduce the tension placed on us by Jesus’ words.  We want the story to end in one of two ways, either with Jesus chasing after the rich man telling him it’s okay and he can follow anyways, or we want the man to volunteer to sell his goods and have Jesus say “Surprise! I was just testing you to see where your priorities lie.”

The thing that is so informative about money is that how we spend it betrays where our priorities lie-if you want to see what someone values, look at their VISA bill and see what they buy. When Jesus asks the man to sell everything he has and give it away to follow, it reminds us of other stories about Jesus.  It reminds us that in the sermon on the mount, Jesus says that it’s impossible to serve both God and money- that you can only serve one of those things.  It reminds us of Jesus words that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

And ultimately it reminds us of Jesus’ parable of the pearl of great price. A trader is out looking for pearls to sell.  He finds one that is worth more than he could ever imagine, so he sells everything he has to buy it.  Jesus says that’s what the kingdom of God is like, a treasure that is worth so much that it is worth it to give away everything you have to get it. Jesus uses that same motif of treasure over and over – earthly treasure as compared to treasure in heaven.

With that in mind, I really haven’t come towards answering the question of what it means for us in a practical sense. I know I certainly don’t want to downplay the devotion of those who have intentionally embraced poverty in the service of Jesus.  I believe that people like St. Francis of Assisi give us great examples of following God’s radical call on our life.  I think though that there are other models than intentional poverty.  As Jesus continues to talk about things like how to host a party, inviting people who can’t invite you back and so on. One can only really host a party if they have the financial means to do so.

What I’m arriving at is the idea that following Christ brings us all to an existential decision close to what the rich young ruler faced. Jesus may be calling us to walk away from modes of living that we are comfortable with, and even to walk away from being comfortable.  For me, that has been reprioritizing why I do software development and how I spend the money I make.  I’ve chosen to live on a small budget and learn how to provide hospitality and be generous with everything that I have, which is more than I need.  I can’t say I have an overbearing idea on how it is worked out, but I know that’s what seems right for me.

I’d love to hear thoughts from some folks who read this though: how do you take Jesus seriously on this in the context of your life and your career?

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I have two examples of consumer church that I would like to exhibit:

Exhibit A: Safeway Fail

Exhibit B: Church Raffle!

A church in Chicago is giving away $500 and two gifts of $250 to random people in their service. By the pastor’s own admission, it’s to fill seats. While I admire that they are at least using their platform to help people realize the stupidity of getting deep in debt, I am not a fan of what the article described:

Willis concedes the cash prize is a gimmick to fill the pews. But he’s unapologetic about the plan, because it’s working. On a typical Sunday, his church draws about 1,600 people to its three Sunday services. But since the money giveaway started, about five weeks ago, the congregation has grown to about 2,500 each week, he said. The money for the giveaway comes from the church offering. Lighthouse is a non-denominational church.

On the lighter / less critical side, maybe I will see you in Chicago on Sunday

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