God And Wealth
Sermon
There was a series of programmes on British television recently under the heading, "God Is Black." In the last programme in the series, the presenter looked at the rise of African Christianity and compared it to the present state of the Church of England.
The comparison seemed to be mainly in terms of numbers of people attending church and the sort of Christianity which encouraged massive attendance at church. Success was definitely considered only in terms of numbers of people attending Sunday services which meant that the comparison was pretty one-sided, since many churches in Africa apparently attract literally thousands of worshippers to each service, whereas most Anglican churches attract only the faithful few.
The Christianity preached in these African churches was fundamentalist, so expected people to keep very stringently to the rules laid down without the slightest deviation. One of the most disturbing aspects of this was that the reward which was frequently and explicitly offered for keeping the rules, was increased wealth and prosperity. Come to church here and follow Jesus Christ by sticking to rigid fundamentalist rules, was the message, and God will heap material wealth upon you. And it looked from video clips of the congregation, as if they were indeed prospering and growing in material wealth.
It all seemed very far distant from the Jesus who sent his disciples out to preach the gospel, taking no purse and no second coat, and who mingled with and loved those who were poor. It seemed like a very wordly practice of Christianity and a practice which was giving the wrong message. And it was a message which was extremely dogmatic, leaving no room for questions or exploration or doubt. Either you were in, with all that entailed, or you were out. There was no middle way.
Neither were questions asked about any who hadn't managed to become rich, or any who had become sick, or any who had fallen prey to ill fortune. Perhaps they are cared for by the congregation. Or perhaps they are condemned as falling upon hard times as a punishment from God, with the assumption that they hadn't been following his rules closely enough.
Nor was the point made that when some Africans become Christians, they give up their practice of polygamy to become monogamous, thus reducing the cost of multiple wives and families and inevitably increasing personal wealth. We were simply shown clips of relatively wealthy people rejoicing in their wealth and preaching that anyone who worshipped God in their way would receive the same.
It was rather unsavoury in many ways, yet in today's reading from the book of Deuteronomy, it seems that God promises precisely what those African preachers were promising.
"The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil," promises the writer, and goes on to say, "For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors, when you obey the Lord your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the law, because you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul."
Does this mean, as mainstream Ancient Israelites believed and presumably as fundamentalist African Christians believe, that the rich are especially good people and the poor are especially bad people? Does it mean that illness is a punishment from God?
Some illnesses such as AIDS are seen by some as a punishment from God for choosing an alternative lifestyle. But even if that was true (and most Christians would strongly refute it) now that AIDS in endemic in some parts of Africa, it's difficult to understand why monogamous heterosexuals need to be punished, and for what.
Perhaps some parts of modern Africa are similar to the Ancient Israel of the days when Deuteronomy was written, probably around 621 BC. In those days most people were poor, peasant farmers who survived only if they had a strip of land and a large enough family to farm the land. Hence the great emphasis in the Old Testament on land and seed. God's rules by which they were required to live, about diet and taking time out for local holidays to worship, made sense in both economic and health terms, so that those who kept the rules had the best chance of remaining healthy enough to work.
Those with a mind and heart and life centred on God are statistically healthier than those with no such centre, so are more likely to be fit enough to work and to have a positive attitude towards both work and life. And it is surely true that God longs for the best for his people, so God does indeed delight in prospering his people. But equally surely, that delight must be tempered by sadness when God sees some of his people being left out of the prosperity stakes because they are unable to work, or when God sees some of people being rejected and marginalised because they are unable to sign up to fundamentalist teachings.
As Jesus taught in the story of the Good Samaritan, it is often those who are rejected and marginalised and left out of the prosperity stakes who display more of God's spirit of love and generosity and compassion than those who are overtly religious. And many a Christian Aid collector will recount how the most generous offerings often come from the poorest families.
Of course God longs for his people to be prosperous, but God expects all his people to be generous and open-handed with their wealth. We are not given wealth in order to hoard it for ourselves, although we are expected to enjoy our wealth since it isn't given to us in order to make us miserable. But we're given wealth in order to distribute it fairly amongst all.
We in the West have had more than our fair share of wealth for generations, although few would look at the wealthiest amongst us and say that they were such holy people that they had been especially blessed by God. But compared with most of the people of Africa, we are supremely rich. Perhaps if we shared more of our wealth with those countries who desperately need it, the rather frightening rise of African Christian fundamentalism would slow down and other Christian voices would find space to be heard.
The comparison seemed to be mainly in terms of numbers of people attending church and the sort of Christianity which encouraged massive attendance at church. Success was definitely considered only in terms of numbers of people attending Sunday services which meant that the comparison was pretty one-sided, since many churches in Africa apparently attract literally thousands of worshippers to each service, whereas most Anglican churches attract only the faithful few.
The Christianity preached in these African churches was fundamentalist, so expected people to keep very stringently to the rules laid down without the slightest deviation. One of the most disturbing aspects of this was that the reward which was frequently and explicitly offered for keeping the rules, was increased wealth and prosperity. Come to church here and follow Jesus Christ by sticking to rigid fundamentalist rules, was the message, and God will heap material wealth upon you. And it looked from video clips of the congregation, as if they were indeed prospering and growing in material wealth.
It all seemed very far distant from the Jesus who sent his disciples out to preach the gospel, taking no purse and no second coat, and who mingled with and loved those who were poor. It seemed like a very wordly practice of Christianity and a practice which was giving the wrong message. And it was a message which was extremely dogmatic, leaving no room for questions or exploration or doubt. Either you were in, with all that entailed, or you were out. There was no middle way.
Neither were questions asked about any who hadn't managed to become rich, or any who had become sick, or any who had fallen prey to ill fortune. Perhaps they are cared for by the congregation. Or perhaps they are condemned as falling upon hard times as a punishment from God, with the assumption that they hadn't been following his rules closely enough.
Nor was the point made that when some Africans become Christians, they give up their practice of polygamy to become monogamous, thus reducing the cost of multiple wives and families and inevitably increasing personal wealth. We were simply shown clips of relatively wealthy people rejoicing in their wealth and preaching that anyone who worshipped God in their way would receive the same.
It was rather unsavoury in many ways, yet in today's reading from the book of Deuteronomy, it seems that God promises precisely what those African preachers were promising.
"The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil," promises the writer, and goes on to say, "For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors, when you obey the Lord your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the law, because you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul."
Does this mean, as mainstream Ancient Israelites believed and presumably as fundamentalist African Christians believe, that the rich are especially good people and the poor are especially bad people? Does it mean that illness is a punishment from God?
Some illnesses such as AIDS are seen by some as a punishment from God for choosing an alternative lifestyle. But even if that was true (and most Christians would strongly refute it) now that AIDS in endemic in some parts of Africa, it's difficult to understand why monogamous heterosexuals need to be punished, and for what.
Perhaps some parts of modern Africa are similar to the Ancient Israel of the days when Deuteronomy was written, probably around 621 BC. In those days most people were poor, peasant farmers who survived only if they had a strip of land and a large enough family to farm the land. Hence the great emphasis in the Old Testament on land and seed. God's rules by which they were required to live, about diet and taking time out for local holidays to worship, made sense in both economic and health terms, so that those who kept the rules had the best chance of remaining healthy enough to work.
Those with a mind and heart and life centred on God are statistically healthier than those with no such centre, so are more likely to be fit enough to work and to have a positive attitude towards both work and life. And it is surely true that God longs for the best for his people, so God does indeed delight in prospering his people. But equally surely, that delight must be tempered by sadness when God sees some of his people being left out of the prosperity stakes because they are unable to work, or when God sees some of people being rejected and marginalised because they are unable to sign up to fundamentalist teachings.
As Jesus taught in the story of the Good Samaritan, it is often those who are rejected and marginalised and left out of the prosperity stakes who display more of God's spirit of love and generosity and compassion than those who are overtly religious. And many a Christian Aid collector will recount how the most generous offerings often come from the poorest families.
Of course God longs for his people to be prosperous, but God expects all his people to be generous and open-handed with their wealth. We are not given wealth in order to hoard it for ourselves, although we are expected to enjoy our wealth since it isn't given to us in order to make us miserable. But we're given wealth in order to distribute it fairly amongst all.
We in the West have had more than our fair share of wealth for generations, although few would look at the wealthiest amongst us and say that they were such holy people that they had been especially blessed by God. But compared with most of the people of Africa, we are supremely rich. Perhaps if we shared more of our wealth with those countries who desperately need it, the rather frightening rise of African Christian fundamentalism would slow down and other Christian voices would find space to be heard.
