Thursday, August 24, 2017

THE GOSPEL OF GREED - Part IV

THE GOSPEL OF GREED – Part IV

The key question for today is “What is the litmus test for determining whether (or not) we are utilizing church or personal funds appropriately?”  According to the Time Magazine article, “Does God Want You To Be Rich?” the Christian church is largely ‘split’ on the issue of prosperity teaching because (from the authors’ perspective) the scriptures are vague or inconclusive regarding money matters.  Co-authors, David Van Biema and Jeff Chu, state the following:

“Scripture is not definitive when it comes to faith and income.  Deuteronomy commands believers to “remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth,” and the rest of the Old Testament is dotted with celebrations of God’s bestowal of the good life.  On at least one occasion—in the parable of the talents---Jesus holds up savvy business practice (investing rather than saving) as a metaphor for spiritual practice. Yet he spent far more time among the poor than the rich, and a majority of scholars quote two of his most direct comments on wealth: the passage in the Sermon on the Mount in which he warns, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth ... but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” and his encounter with the “rich young ruler” who could not bring himself to part with his money, after which Jesus famously comments, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Both statements can be read as more nuanced than they at first might seem. In each case it is not wealth itself that disqualifies but the inability to understand its relative worthlessness in contrast with the riches of Heaven.  The same thing applies to Paul’s famous line (as most people erroneously quote it), i.e. “Money is the root of all evil,” in his first letter to Timothy.  The actual quote is, “The LOVE of money is the root of all evil.”

So, the Bible leaves plenty of room for an honest discussion on the role (positive or negative) that money should play in the lives of believers.  However, it’s not a discussion that many pastors are willing to have. “Jesus’ words about money don’t make us very comfortable, and people don’t want to hear [them]” notes Collin Hansen, an editor at Christianity Today.” [This concludes the Time article quote].

From my perspective, the message of scripture is never muddled or unclear.

All the teachings of Jesus emphasize advancing the Kingdom of God.  John the Baptist, the cousin and forerunner of Jesus, declared prior to Christ’s public ministry, “Repent…for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2) It is no accident that Jesus echoed these same sentiments (for they are originally His): “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17) Fact is, most Jesus’ parables focus on establishing the Kingdom of God in the earth. (Matthew, chapter 13) Even The Lord’s Prayer (The Disciples’ Prayer) emphasizes this concept.  “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” was the model prayer of Jesus Christ. (Matthew 6:10)

At this precise point, the so-called ‘prosperity preachers’ skid off the tracks and collide with eternal truth.  Their emphasis on ‘the here and now’ directly contradicts the Pauline prescription for true Biblical prosperity: “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:2) For in the words of Jesus Christ, “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21)

While some Church leaders busily tout and display material success via burgeoning bank accounts, palatial mansions, private jets, helicopters, etc., there is a veritable host of hurting and dying people that we fail to serve!  I am not a ‘hater’—not at all—as some readers could conclude from my commentary.  However, sometimes I scratch my head and wonder aloud: ‘How much is too much?  Do we really need to line our pockets and live in the lap of luxury to affirm our worldly status or to confirm divine blessings?  Are we more about ego gratification than about serving fallen humanity and ushering lost souls into the Kingdom of God?’

A few decades ago, I was the Minister of Outreach at a large urban church in a southern state.  One day, an elderly and infirmed lady called the church and asked for help.  Her caretaker (an adult daughter) was traveling on business and had forgotten to buy groceries.  The caller needed someone to assist her by driving her to the bank and supermarket to pick up necessary food items. I responded affirmatively and was on the way out the door when the senior pastor called out: “Where are you headed?”  I explained the elderly lady’s dilemma and my intended mission to help. The pastor’s response totally shocked me.  “We don’t do things like that,” he remarked rather casually.  So, I returned to my office and decided that my wife and I would respond to this woman’s urgent need (on our own dime and time) at the end of the workday.  John, the apostle of love, stated it more eloquently that I ever could: “Whoever has this world’s good(s), and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?” (I John 3:17)

I must pose two serious questions to the leaders and laity of The Church:
1)        What is the biblical reason for our existence…Kingdom-building or personal empire-building?
2)       If our greedy quest for wealth sacrifices the salvation of even one soul…what will CHRIST say to us?

This is entirely a matter of motives and priorities, i.e. what we decide to “seek first.” (Matthew 6:33) Christ indeed promised to add overflowing blessings to His people, whenever and wherever we seek the good and growth of His Kingdom.  Nevertheless, at the beginning of this devotional, I posed a strategic question: “What is the litmus test for determining whether (or not) we are utilizing church or personal funds appropriately?”  The Answer: If whatever we are doing with our blessings builds God’s Kingdom (not ours), we are most assuredly on the right track. 

If there is indeed to be an end-times redistribution of wealth, as many prophets and prosperity preachers emphatically decree, what will the church DO with it?  Bottom-line: We are divinely blessed…to BE a blessing!

Why not let Jesus Christ have the last word? 

Matthew 6:19-20
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust do corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust do corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

As God honors and favors your life with GENUINE PROSPERITY (inclusive of spiritual, material, physical, emotional and financial components), PLEASE REMEMBER TO USE YOUR BLESSINGS TO BUILD THE KINGDOM OF GOD.  In the process, you will be demonstrably and doubly blessed.

Sisters and brothers, be continually blessed, and please (above all else) MAKE SURE YOU ARE READY TO MEET OUR SOON COMING KING.  Maranatha!

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