The Good and the Bad

The Good and the Bad
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
October 8, 2006
Job 1:1, 2:1-10; Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16

Job 1:1, 2:1-10 There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the Lord, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." The Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason." Then Satan answered the Lord, "Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face." The Lord said to Satan, "Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life."
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes. Then his wife said to him, "Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die." But he said to her, "You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere, "What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet." Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, "I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you."

Mark 10:2-16 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her." But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."
Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."
People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

BEGINNING

You know the greatest thing about being a Christian? It's that everything works out for you perfectly. Isn't that wonderful?

You always get the best parking spots. You never get into fights with people. You get the best jobs, with rapid promotions. You get straight A's in college. Your love life is always great. You never get sick. You never get sad. It never rains on your vacations. Your favorite team always wins.

Yes, indeed. The life of the Christian is one non-stop joy fest.

You don't look convinced. Is that not true? Oh, thank God. I was beginning to think it was just me.

There are however, a surprising number of people who think that if you're Christian, everything is supposed to work out for you. Or at the very least you'll be happy.

THE TEXT

That has long been a strain of thought that has run through the faithful. The idea that faithfulness would lead to happiness or success is an idea that wound up in ancient Jewish thought as well. It was referred to as the 'wisdom tradition' --a tradition that equated righteousness with being wise. You find a lot of wisdom theology in the book of Proverbs and sprinkled throughout the Psalms. It basically said, that if you are wise (i.e., righteous) you will prosper. If you are foolish (i.e., wicked) you will not. It was a very common belief and owed itself to the influence of other cultures and ways of thinking upon the people of Israel.

But standing against this tradition is the Book of Job. The Book of Job has long been a mystery to us. It is not known who wrote it or when. Job is not a Hebrew name and neither he--nor his friends--are Israelites, despite the fact that Job worships YHWH. We don't know where Uz is supposed to be and a number of the turns of phrase used in the text are unclear. And yet, there is one thing that is very clear about the book of Job: it rejects utterly this idea that if you are faithful everything will work out for you.

Job is actually the object of a wager between the Lord and Satan. Now, it should be pointed out that Satan as he appears in this book is not the bogeyman of later Christian belief. He is one of the 'sons of God'--one of the divine members of the heavenly court. In fact, in the text he is referred to as ha-Satan, the Satan--the accuser, the adversary. His name is not so much a name as it is a title: the District Attorney. The Prosecutor. He is the one who tests God's people with their own free will. It is the Satan's belief that the only reason Job is faithful is because everything has gone very well for him. The Lord believes that Job is by his nature faithful. And so the two have a wager. God authorizes Satan to afflict Job as a test of his faith, which he does.

The Satan takes all of Job's cattle and camels and even his children. When it is clear that this has not caused Job to waiver in his faith, the Satan says that if he is harmed in the flesh he will lose his faith. God permits him and the Satan afflicts Job with painful sores on his skin.

Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes. Then his wife said to him, "Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die." But he said to her, "You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

And Job never does. Now, Job's friends are operating out of the wisdom tradition way of thinking. So they later tell Job, basically, that he must have done something wrong, he just doesn't know it. Job, too, is influenced by this way of thinking, and since he knows he hasn't done anything wrong, he maintains that God must just be unaware of what is happening, and that if he could get an audience with God, everything would be sorted out.

When Job finally does get his audience with God he is disappointed if he was seeking answers :

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements--surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7)

Job never gets an answer. God pulls rank and reminds him of the mystery of faith. The next few chapters of the book of Job are an extended discourse on the awesome majesty of God and the mystery of the creation. Its message: there are things you cannot comprehend.

There are no guarantees. God does not promise that if we are faithful, everything will go our way. Nor can it be said that you can know a righteous person by how successful they are or an unrighteous person by their sufferings. Job himself states that both good and bad come from God, both are part of the life of the faithful: "Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?"

THE GOSPEL OF PROSPERITY

And yet, this idea is very hard to get rid of. It keeps coming back. In its most recent incarnation, it has shown up as a very pernicious doctrine that states that God in effect wants people to be prosperous and that those who are faithful have prosperity and wealth waiting for them. This Gospel of Prosperity, as it is called, all but equates faithfulness with blessing and blessing with wealth and success. In short, if you are faithful God will bless you and you will be successful. If you give to the Church, God will bless you and you'll receive riches.

A recent article in Time Magazine entitled "Does God Want You to Be Rich?" had reported:

In a TIME poll, 17% of Christians surveyed said they considered themselves part of such a [prosperity] movement, while a full 61% believed that God wants people to be prosperous. And 31%--...--agreed that if you give your money to God, God will bless you with more money. [1]

Boy, it would be nice if I could bring myself to use that tactic. We could have that extension on the Kay Chapel that the University keeps telling us it will build.

I am loath to use this word, for all that it has meant and all the suffering that such a word like this can cause, but there is a word that comes to mind whenever I hear the Gospel of Prosperity: heresy. The heresies of the past have always involved issues that could not be proven one way or the other or that were contemplations of the mysteries of God: was the pre-existent eternal word of God or was he a creature like the angels? Is God a Trinity or a Unity?

This idea undermines the foundations of Christian faith. Not because it teaches that wealth is a blessing of God--it is-- but because it practically teaches that wealth is the blessing of God. Christian faith is, then, the greatest get-rich-quick scheme. You get to go to heaven and you get to be fabulously wealthy. What could be better?

Perhaps if that were all this "gospel" said, it might not be a problem, but as usual, the problems are not with the ideas in and of themselves, but with how they are worked out. For it becomes exceedingly convenient to tell people that they should give money to receive economic blessings of God, and then point to your own wealth as a result of them giving this money and say, "Look how blessed I am by God!" That seems just a little too convenient.

Many, many people will report that tithing and giving to the church has been a blessing for them. But they are not talking about it in terms of an investment strategy. "Hey, Bob, I was going to invest all my money in a venture capital firm but then I realized that I could get twice as much return on my dollar if I just gave to the church." No, people are blessed by giving because it helps to center them, helps to create spiritual disciplines, and helps them to feel connected to others. Not because it will make them wealthier.

Even more problematic than the investment strategy/line the pockets of the clergy side of things, what does such a "gospel" say about the poor? All this time I thought the poor were people we as Christians were responsible to take care of. It turns out that they could be rich--if they had more faith.

Or what about those who are unsuccessful? Or unhappy? Or oppressed? Are we to understand that if only they prayed harder, or gave away more money, they would be successful, happy, and free.

A more patronizing and insulting doctrine I would be hard pressed to find in the church.

The Christ that one finds in this way of thinking is little more than a mascot, little more than a financial cheerleader, a divine Tony Robbins, smiling and saying "Believe in yourself and you can have everything you want!"

This is not the Christ of faith. This is not the Christ who says, "Take up your cross and follow me." This is not the Christ who died on the Cross to reconcile God to the world. This is not the Christ of Christian faith.

In St. Luke's telling of the Gospel, Jesus begins his ministry in Nazareth by reading from Isaiah in the synagogue: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor..." In the Prosperity Gospel's telling, that good news is this: "God wants you to be rich."

The Gospel of Prosperity sees no problem with wealth. Jesus warns that you cannot serve two masters: God and money. The Gospel of Prosperity says that money is how God rewards you. There is no longer any reason to be suspicious of wealth or the power it brings--it is just a blessing by God.

Far from being a challenge to the social order, the idea that inverts the reality of the world, the idea that the first shall be last and the last first, this gospel affirms the status quo. God is no longer seen as powerful and threatening to earthly power. God is like the big rich friend who backs up earthly power financially.

HAPPINESS AND GOODNESS

The signature verse for this way of thinking is quoted as being John 10: 10: "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." [2] That's a nice interpretation, to be sure, but evidences a fatal flaw: it defines abundance according to human terms. God's abundance and our abundance are not the same thing. Jesus is talking about having life more abundantly. Not about having stuff more abundantly.

This movement represents the latest step in a long line of accommodation to the modern world that the church has made. Far from being the counter-culture to the Western world, the Church has often adapted the church to the Western world. We don't always make a distinction between American and Christian. We don't make a distinction between the Bill of Rights and the Ten Commandments. We imagine that God stands for Truth, Justice, and the American Way (that's Superman, by the way, not God). We imagine that at the core of Christian faith is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And it is this last part that gets us into the most trouble.

For it is commonly accepted that the aim of human life is happiness or the pursuit of happiness --a very common post-Enlightenment idea. The Utilitarians defined ethics by that which achieved the greatest good for the greatest number--where greatest good was usually defined by happiness or pleasure. Prior to that, however, it was generally accepted that the aim of human life was not to be happy, but to be good.

Because while it may be an accepted norm in Western societies, the Bible does not concern itself with happiness very much, and when it does, it has a very different definition of happiness:

The very first Psalm states:

Happy is the one who does not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks what our tradition refers to as the 'Beatitudes'. Traditionally, they begin with 'Blessed are..." but the Greek word can also be translated 'Happy':

'Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
'Happy are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
'Happy are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
'Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
'Happy are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
'Happy are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
'Happy are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
'Happy are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
'Happy are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

This is not the kind of happiness that involves getting a new boat or a 24-acre ranch. The happiness the Psalmist talks about is the joy of living righteously, the joy of following the law of God. It is not the happiness of getting a new plasma TV. It is the happiness that comes from knowing that we are living lives faithful to the covenants of God--lives of peace, lives of fellowship, lives of compassion, lives of worship, lives of justice.

END

There are no guarantees for the Christian. Perfect faith does not guarantee success or happiness. The cross is the proof of that. Rather, we understand that the life of the Christian is to share the love that God has shared with us with those who are in need.

In the cross of Christ we see not only the brokenness of the world, but the love of God who is willing to undergo the brokenness of death for our sake. And so we understand that we encounter God not only in blessing, but also in tragedy. God is in the suffering. God is in the sorrow. God is in the good and in the bad.

We cannot prevent bad things from happening to us. No matter how hard we pray and how faithful we might be we are not assured that we will get the things that we want. God has never promised us that we will lead lives of perfect bliss and success if we stay faithful. Far too many Christians have died as martyrs or suffered for the sake of the Kingdom or gone without in order to provide for others for that to be the hallmark of Christian faith. God has not promised us that we get what we want.

God has promised to be with us.

In the blessings we receive and in the good fortune in our lives we can see the majesty, the Providence, and the wonder of God. But it is in the tragedies, in the brokenness, that we see the heart of God --that heart that heard the cry of the Israelites in bondage, that wept for the Egyptians at the Red Sea, that moved the prophets to cry out for justice for the needy, that wept over Lazarus, that mourned over Jerusalem, and that gave its all on the Cross. It is on account of the heart of God that we know that God is with us through it all.

And that is what gives us hope, whether in sunshine or rain, in times of plenty and times of drought. It is was gives us the hope and the courage to testify to the reality of God to a world too often told that the blessings of God are far removed.

When other 'gospels' and philosophies say that God wants you to be rich, or that faith is the way to personal, financial, and material fulfillment, the implication is that those who are not happy or well-off or satisfied are somehow outside the blessings of God. And yet Christ says to us from the Cross, "In your sufferings I am with you. In the brokenness and hurt of the world, there I am in your midst."

[1] Time Magazine, Does God Want You to be Rich?, 9/18/2006

[2] Id.

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*The Good and the Bad* Rev. Mark Schaefer Kay Spiritual Life Center October 8, 2006 Job 1:1, 2:1-10; Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16 Job 1:1, 2:1-10 There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the Lord, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." The Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason." Then Satan answered the Lord, "Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face." The Lord said to Satan, "Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life." So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes. Then his wife said to him, "Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die." But he said to her, "You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere, "What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet." Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, "I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you." Mark 10:2-16 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her." But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery." People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them. BEGINNING You know the greatest thing about being a Christian? It's that everything works out for you perfectly. Isn't that wonderful? You always get the best parking spots. You never get into fights with people. You get the best jobs, with rapid promotions. You get straight A's in college. Your love life is always great. You never get sick. You never get sad. It never rains on your vacations. Your favorite team always wins. Yes, indeed. The life of the Christian is one non-stop joy fest. You don't look convinced. Is that not true? Oh, thank God. I was beginning to think it was just me. There are however, a surprising number of people who think that if you're Christian, everything is supposed to work out for you. Or at the very least you'll be happy. THE TEXT That has long been a strain of thought that has run through the faithful. The idea that faithfulness would lead to happiness or success is an idea that wound up in ancient Jewish thought as well. It was referred to as the 'wisdom tradition' --a tradition that equated righteousness with being wise. You find a lot of wisdom theology in the book of Proverbs and sprinkled throughout the Psalms. It basically said, that if you are wise (i.e., righteous) you will prosper. If you are foolish (i.e., wicked) you will not. It was a very common belief and owed itself to the influence of other cultures and ways of thinking upon the people of Israel. But standing against this tradition is the Book of Job. The Book of Job has long been a mystery to us. It is not known who wrote it or when. Job is not a Hebrew name and neither he--nor his friends--are Israelites, despite the fact that Job worships YHWH. We don't know where Uz is supposed to be and a number of the turns of phrase used in the text are unclear. And yet, there is one thing that is very clear about the book of Job: it rejects utterly this idea that if you are faithful everything will work out for you. Job is actually the object of a wager between the Lord and Satan. Now, it should be pointed out that Satan as he appears in this book is not the bogeyman of later Christian belief. He is one of the 'sons of God'--one of the divine members of the heavenly court. In fact, in the text he is referred to as ha-Satan, the Satan--the accuser, the adversary. His name is not so much a name as it is a title: the District Attorney. The Prosecutor. He is the one who tests God's people with their own free will. It is the Satan's belief that the only reason Job is faithful is because everything has gone very well for him. The Lord believes that Job is by his nature faithful. And so the two have a wager. God authorizes Satan to afflict Job as a test of his faith, which he does. The Satan takes all of Job's cattle and camels and even his children. When it is clear that this has not caused Job to waiver in his faith, the Satan says that if he is harmed in the flesh he will lose his faith. God permits him and the Satan afflicts Job with painful sores on his skin. Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes. Then his wife said to him, "Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die." But he said to her, "You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips. And Job never does. Now, Job's friends are operating out of the wisdom tradition way of thinking. So they later tell Job, basically, that he must have done something wrong, he just doesn't know it. Job, too, is influenced by this way of thinking, and since he knows he hasn't done anything wrong, he maintains that God must just be unaware of what is happening, and that if he could get an audience with God, everything would be sorted out. When Job finally does get his audience with God he is disappointed if he was seeking answers : Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements--surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7) Job never gets an answer. God pulls rank and reminds him of the mystery of faith. The next few chapters of the book of Job are an extended discourse on the awesome majesty of God and the mystery of the creation. Its message: there are things you cannot comprehend. There are no guarantees. God does not promise that if we are faithful, everything will go our way. Nor can it be said that you can know a righteous person by how successful they are or an unrighteous person by their sufferings. Job himself states that both good and bad come from God, both are part of the life of the faithful: "Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?" THE GOSPEL OF PROSPERITY And yet, this idea is very hard to get rid of. It keeps coming back. In its most recent incarnation, it has shown up as a very pernicious doctrine that states that God in effect wants people to be prosperous and that those who are faithful have prosperity and wealth waiting for them. This Gospel of Prosperity, as it is called, all but equates faithfulness with blessing and blessing with wealth and success. In short, if you are faithful God will bless you and you will be successful. If you give to the Church, God will bless you and you'll receive riches. A recent article in Time Magazine entitled "Does God Want You to Be Rich?" had reported: In a TIME poll, 17% of Christians surveyed said they considered themselves part of such a [prosperity] movement, while a full 61% believed that God wants people to be prosperous. And 31%--...--agreed that if you give your money to God, God will bless you with more money. [1] Boy, it would be nice if I could bring myself to use that tactic. We could have that extension on the Kay Chapel that the University keeps telling us it will build. I am loath to use this word, for all that it has meant and all the suffering that such a word like this can cause, but there is a word that comes to mind whenever I hear the Gospel of Prosperity: heresy. The heresies of the past have always involved issues that could not be proven one way or the other or that were contemplations of the mysteries of God: was the pre-existent eternal word of God or was he a creature like the angels? Is God a Trinity or a Unity? This idea undermines the foundations of Christian faith. Not because it teaches that wealth is a blessing of God--it is-- but because it practically teaches that wealth is the blessing of God. Christian faith is, then, the greatest get-rich-quick scheme. You get to go to heaven and you get to be fabulously wealthy. What could be better? Perhaps if that were all this "gospel" said, it might not be a problem, but as usual, the problems are not with the ideas in and of themselves, but with how they are worked out. For it becomes exceedingly convenient to tell people that they should give money to receive economic blessings of God, and then point to your own wealth as a result of them giving this money and say, "Look how blessed I am by God!" That seems just a little too convenient. Many, many people will report that tithing and giving to the church has been a blessing for them. But they are not talking about it in terms of an investment strategy. "Hey, Bob, I was going to invest all my money in a venture capital firm but then I realized that I could get twice as much return on my dollar if I just gave to the church." No, people are blessed by giving because it helps to center them, helps to create spiritual disciplines, and helps them to feel connected to others. Not because it will make them wealthier. Even more problematic than the investment strategy/line the pockets of the clergy side of things, what does such a "gospel" say about the poor? All this time I thought the poor were people we as Christians were responsible to take care of. It turns out that they could be rich--if they had more faith. Or what about those who are unsuccessful? Or unhappy? Or oppressed? Are we to understand that if only they prayed harder, or gave away more money, they would be successful, happy, and free. A more patronizing and insulting doctrine I would be hard pressed to find in the church. The Christ that one finds in this way of thinking is little more than a mascot, little more than a financial cheerleader, a divine Tony Robbins, smiling and saying "Believe in yourself and you can have everything you want!" This is not the Christ of faith. This is not the Christ who says, "Take up your cross and follow me." This is not the Christ who died on the Cross to reconcile God to the world. This is not the Christ of Christian faith. In St. Luke's telling of the Gospel, Jesus begins his ministry in Nazareth by reading from Isaiah in the synagogue: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor..." In the Prosperity Gospel's telling, that good news is this: "God wants you to be rich." The Gospel of Prosperity sees no problem with wealth. Jesus warns that you cannot serve two masters: God and money. The Gospel of Prosperity says that money is how God rewards you. There is no longer any reason to be suspicious of wealth or the power it brings--it is just a blessing by God. Far from being a challenge to the social order, the idea that inverts the reality of the world, the idea that the first shall be last and the last first, this gospel affirms the status quo. God is no longer seen as powerful and threatening to earthly power. God is like the big rich friend who backs up earthly power financially. HAPPINESS AND GOODNESS The signature verse for this way of thinking is quoted as being John 10: 10: "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." [2] That's a nice interpretation, to be sure, but evidences a fatal flaw: it defines abundance according to human terms. God's abundance and our abundance are not the same thing. Jesus is talking about having life more abundantly. Not about having stuff more abundantly. This movement represents the latest step in a long line of accommodation to the modern world that the church has made. Far from being the counter-culture to the Western world, the Church has often adapted the church to the Western world. We don't always make a distinction between American and Christian. We don't make a distinction between the Bill of Rights and the Ten Commandments. We imagine that God stands for Truth, Justice, and the American Way (that's Superman, by the way, not God). We imagine that at the core of Christian faith is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And it is this last part that gets us into the most trouble. For it is commonly accepted that the aim of human life is happiness or the pursuit of happiness --a very common post-Enlightenment idea. The Utilitarians defined ethics by that which achieved the greatest good for the greatest number--where greatest good was usually defined by happiness or pleasure. Prior to that, however, it was generally accepted that the aim of human life was not to be happy, but to be good. Because while it may be an accepted norm in Western societies, the Bible does not concern itself with happiness very much, and when it does, it has a very different definition of happiness: The very first Psalm states: Happy is the one who does not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks what our tradition refers to as the 'Beatitudes'. Traditionally, they begin with 'Blessed are..." but the Greek word can also be translated 'Happy': 'Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 'Happy are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 'Happy are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 'Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 'Happy are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. 'Happy are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 'Happy are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 'Happy are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 'Happy are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. This is not the kind of happiness that involves getting a new boat or a 24-acre ranch. The happiness the Psalmist talks about is the joy of living righteously, the joy of following the law of God. It is not the happiness of getting a new plasma TV. It is the happiness that comes from knowing that we are living lives faithful to the covenants of God--lives of peace, lives of fellowship, lives of compassion, lives of worship, lives of justice. END There are no guarantees for the Christian. Perfect faith does not guarantee success or happiness. The cross is the proof of that. Rather, we understand that the life of the Christian is to share the love that God has shared with us with those who are in need. In the cross of Christ we see not only the brokenness of the world, but the love of God who is willing to undergo the brokenness of death for our sake. And so we understand that we encounter God not only in blessing, but also in tragedy. God is in the suffering. God is in the sorrow. God is in the good and in the bad. We cannot prevent bad things from happening to us. No matter how hard we pray and how faithful we might be we are not assured that we will get the things that we want. God has never promised us that we will lead lives of perfect bliss and success if we stay faithful. Far too many Christians have died as martyrs or suffered for the sake of the Kingdom or gone without in order to provide for others for that to be the hallmark of Christian faith. God has not promised us that we get what we want. God has promised to be with us. In the blessings we receive and in the good fortune in our lives we can see the majesty, the Providence, and the wonder of God. But it is in the tragedies, in the brokenness, that we see the heart of God --that heart that heard the cry of the Israelites in bondage, that wept for the Egyptians at the Red Sea, that moved the prophets to cry out for justice for the needy, that wept over Lazarus, that mourned over Jerusalem, and that gave its all on the Cross. It is on account of the heart of God that we know that God is with us through it all. And that is what gives us hope, whether in sunshine or rain, in times of plenty and times of drought. It is was gives us the hope and the courage to testify to the reality of God to a world too often told that the blessings of God are far removed. When other 'gospels' and philosophies say that God wants you to be rich, or that faith is the way to personal, financial, and material fulfillment, the implication is that those who are not happy or well-off or satisfied are somehow outside the blessings of God. And yet Christ says to us from the Cross, "In your sufferings I am with you. In the brokenness and hurt of the world, there I am in your midst." [1] Time Magazine, Does God Want You to be Rich?, 9/18/2006 [2] Id. Back to Sermons page Back to AU UMC Home Copyright © 2006. Mark A. Schaefer No part of this text may be reproduced or otherwise disseminated without the express written consent of the author.

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