One particular issue I find myself growing angry about is the substitution of money for God. Or rather, the elevation of wealth to a godlike status: if you have money you can be beautiful; if you have money you will have friends, if you have money you will be happy (whatever definition “happy” is given in that context); if you have money you will have respect, admiration and praise. If you have money, you can be unfaithful, gross, offensive and untruthful and still people will admire you and follow you. Money, in this new proto-religious movement is the goal and end of our endeavors. You can be intelligent, cultured, principled and kind and still be worthless because your worth is weighed in dollars. Do write about this in the context of Christian teachings. Love, Lupe
Kerry wrote:
When Jesus tells his disciples that it’s harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to gain the kingdom of God, they are amazed – literally, “struck wholly out of their senses” (ἐκπλήσσω / ekpléssó). “Who then can be saved?” they ask one another.
Why are they so gobsmacked? Because in the ancient Jewish world, prosperity was reckoned a sign of God’s approval. Remember poor Job, who lost all his wealth? The friends who came to “comfort” him wound up chiding him instead, convinced as they were that his loss of property was because he’d somehow displeased God. Wealth meant God’s favor; poverty meant God’s anger, or at least indifference.
Clearly, Jesus has no patience with this way of thinking. In the passage just before this one (which we examined last week), Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God belongs to those who are child-like in innocence, trust, and open-heartedness. Ownership of property and money has a way of fostering quite different attitudes. At the very least, it can encourage anxiety about loss and accumulation. Think of that wonderful passage in the Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 6:25-34 – where Jesus urges us not to fall into this trap.
That’s why the so-called gospel of prosperity preached by folks like Joel Osteen is so contrary to the teachings of the Lord. But all of us, not just Osteen’s followers, are susceptible to the temptation of confusing our own material comfort with God’s approval and the material discomfort of others with God’s disapproval. Being well-off is not in itself a virtue, nor poverty in itself a sin. If we presume otherwise, we invoking a horribly wrong standard to measure our own and others’ relationship with God.
Next week, I shall attempt to examine the ways that the Bible offers to understand the unique way modern industrial capitalism presents a challenge to Christian life.
