FROM MISSION....TO MONEY-LOVE
The Western Church has sold out to a consumerist and selfish ethos which has all but taken away its radical edge, argues Ian Callard
“ON A VITAL mission venture, you can't afford confusion. Some diehard has to tell it like it is, and risk all." It's the strap-line of blockbuster fictions.
Say we're such a team, resolving the best course to advance the gospel in this challenging and inhospitable Island. We'd better have our facts right. What is the nation's high god? "Appeals to God, sacred scriptures, and salvation are replaced by a new deity that views 'good' as that which moves towards economic progress." (David A Krueger, The Christian Century 2002). "The most vital religion of the modern age has been economic progress." (Richard Reeves, Management Today 2003). Unanimously: economic progress.
How did money-love idolatry consume a missionary-sending nation? It's the cuckoo-in-the-nest predicament. Two hundred years ago, Christians promoted all our worthwhile values: thrift, industry, solidarity, moderation. A hundred years ago, they underwrote the socially worthwhile programmes: education, health, welfare.
Then, opinion shapers told the public it could be equally well done without God. Leaving only "the ethics derived from faith influence. "(Interview with Tony Blair, Financial Times Magazine 2003). Secular motives dislodged the divine wedge of self-denial.
Churches were left with no distinctive voice. Their members became just as smart consumers as their neighbours. The gospel was tossed aside and replaced with the consolation prize of "privatised beliefs", "therapy spirituality". Even God's massive condescension in sending the charismatic renewal, the Spirit insisting that Christians put people before things, is frittered away.
Economic progress reality check. "Court rulings settle the human body as a commodity, with a market value, and rights to ownership and transfer (sale). Blood types sell for £4,000 a pint, kidneys can fetch from £6,000-£30,000. A woman's egg is worth more each year. Sperm has stabilised at £25 an ounce." (Bible Society, Bible In Transmission 1999).
The church must escape her dual allegiance. Jesus gave a discipleship call that ruined accumulation. (See box: Financial Principles in the Gospels.) No confusion on this point. He called for a single allegiance against a known spiritual opponent – Mammon.
If our imaginary mission team commissioned spiritual mapping to nominate the Islanders' strongholds, Jesus just saved them the trouble! Possessions.
The conflict isn't neutral. Our hearts don't naturally go along with Jesus. "Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, and his injunction to 'love your neighbour as yourself' are subversive to the market gospel." (Michael Prowse, Financial Times 2002).
Either we abandon wealth for the sake of spiritual clarity, or it sabotages the whole venture. Judas and the Pharisees , Ananias and Sapphira , and Simon all found out. "Peter said 'To hell with your money. And you along with it.'" (Acts 8:20; The Message).
Too extreme? Then choose where you stand. Another reality check. "The House of Bishops offered the following opinion on the cause of the September 11th attacks: 'The affluence of nations such as ours stands in stark contrast to the other parts of the world wracked by crushing poverty which causes the deaths of 6,000 children in a morning.' The bishops' opinion is a variation on a theological theme: poverty is the source of evil; salvation is contained in the wealth of nations. This view is not Christian. It is based on a competing religion whose creed replaces original sin with scarcity, and paradise with prosperity. That religion is economics." (Eileen Ciesia, Competitive Enterprise Institute 2002).
For the sake of clearing one more confusion, let's nail the widespread church mis-practice of tithing. Giving a tenth of one's income isn't new covenant, and it wasn't part of the early church. (See box: Financial Practice in the New Testament Church.) Jesus refers to it twice , and parallel in ; also Luke 18). He's putting the record straight with the Pharisees, and instructing his disciples to beware of it! As generally practised by Christians, tithing isn't even true to the Old Testament. There were two tithes: support for the Levites and priests and royal taxes
. First fruits , too, could have been a tenth. Disposal, distribution, and sacrifice marked out the first disciples. Where is today's church's honesty and integrity, displaying Jesus's Kingdom of Heaven economics?
Do Christianity's followers, hindering, not advancing the gospel, become the first obstacle our mission must shift? Theologian Craig Blomberg writes: "The greatest transfer of wealth in human history has begun, from the post-war generation of the West to its heirs. Will it go to fuel the greatest round of consumer spending ever? Or will we recover a biblical perspective on stewardship of material possessions?" ('Neither Poverty Nor Riches' 1999). The apostle Paul spoke of giving financial aid to the poor in Jerusalem as "enriching liturgy" . In today's churches, affluent worshippers prefer something Celtic or ethnic, poetry or dance. 'Pass round the collecting-tub', says Paul!
We'll be held to account, sooner or later. Final reality check. "Islam has long argued that Jesus was a great religious leader, but a transitional figure, whose truths were overtaken by the prophet Mohammed. Economics as the claim to ultimate truth, if ever finally and fully established, would amount to the arrival of yet another word of God, his new chosen instrument for communicating his design to all mankind." (Robert H Nelson, 'Reaching For Heaven' 1998).
Ian Callard is a Senior Leader of the Jesus Fellowship Church.
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