Wealth and Poverty … which would you choose? March 19, 2007
Posted by rupertward in Church, money, Poor, preaching.19 comments
Yesterday, I was preaching in church again, and in light of discussions in a previous post and comments, here is a summary, to allow comments, thoughts or experiences from anyone, whether you were there or not. It is part of our money series we have been doing this year. An MP3 should be available here by Wednesday if you fancy having a listen.
In our protestant tradition, poverty is not something that we have really thought about much, except to say it is bad and should be avoided at all costs (and occasionally to say that it is obviously a sign of not following God, having faith, or being blessed in some way!). But in other traditions, a vow of poverty or making poverty a virtue, has been a strong emphasis (eg. in the ascetic movement, Monastic movement, and in the Catholic Church. Mother Theresa is a classic example of someone who took a vow of poverty, to give herself to serving the poor).
There is much in the Bible that would advocate this course of action: “sell your possessions and give to the poor” say Jesus (Lk 12:33. See also: Lk 14:33; Mt 6:19; Mt 19:21). It is easy to “reinterpret” those verses, to make them something that doesn’t apply to us today, but before we do, lets consider some of the warning the Bible gives us about the dangers of lusting after or having riches and wealth:
- We can fall into temptation, ruin and destruction (1 Tim 6:9)
- We can wander from faith (1 Tim 6:10)
- We can become arrogant and not trust God (1 Tim 6:17)
- It is hard to enter in to the Kingdom (the fullness of live now, rather than heaven) (Mt 19:23)
- We can become unfruitful (Mt 13:22)
These are serious warnings, and as I was writing the sermon and speaking I was feeling challenged and uncomfortable about my riches and comfortable lifestyle. This was no finger wagging time, but was sobering about what the Bible seems to be saying about poverty.
But there is also stuff in the Bible about wealth and prosperity. It is harder to find in the NT, but there are some seriously rich people in the Bible (Abraham, David, Solomon, Zacchaeus) for example. There is also verses about prosperity as a blessing for those who walk with God and are obedient (eg. Dt 30).
So how do we reconcile these two streams of teaching and understanding? Well, perhaps neither poverty nor riches is right or wrong, but it is more about our attitude to money that is most important. God might call some to poverty, some to riches (which is perhaps the harder journey!), or there may be different seasons in our lives where we experience both. So what would Jesus say is the most important attribute to have concerning money?
I suggested that there was a ladder to climb. At the bottom of the ladder, when we are first grappling with our attitude to money in a society that is continually lusting for more, is contentment. This word is mentioned 7 times in the NT, and 6 of them are about money / possessions (eg. Phil 4:11-12, where Paul says he has learned the secret of being content in any situation, whether has loads, or nothing!).
The second rung of the ladder is generosity. I suggested that generosity is not the same as giving. Giving is good, but it becomes generosity when it costs. For example the Macedonian churches in 2 Corinthians gave generously out of there extreme poverty (2 Cor 8:2).
But the thing that Jesus seems to value more than anything else is being faithful or trustworthy (eg. Mt 25:21 & Lk 16:10-12), which we learn through contentment and generosity. This is when He trust us with Kingdom resources, knowing that we will use them wisely. This is when God can trust us with more money (tricky issue as we can’t give to get, otherwise we haven’t really learned the lesson of contentment!), and trust us with “true riches” … riches of the Kingdom: influence, power, fruitfulness etc.
Mother Theresa followed the path of poverty to come to this place of being truthworthy, and she was then trusted with Kingdom riches of influence and power. God could trust her, knowing that she wouldn’t abuse those riches, but use them for the Kingdom, as she had proved trustworthy with money.
What do you think? What are you experiences of poverty or wealth, and what did you learn? Does it surprise you to learn that Jesus talks more about faithful or trustworthy with money than anything else? Or perhaps you don’t agree?
Different Types of Loneliness March 5, 2007
Posted by rupertward in Church, Loneliness, preaching.17 comments
Yesterday, I had 20 minutes in our Sunday church gathering to communicate something meaningful and helpful about loneliness! An impossible task, especially as I was so aware there were bound to be folks for whom this wasn’t an interesting topic, but a painful and present reality. In the end I thought I did well, but did feel a bit rushed; I didn’t want to give trite answers, but wondered if I had left us with enough hope at the end?
So, as promised at the end of my sermon, and prompted by some great comments in a previous post, Preaching as Community?, here are some brief notes of what I said. Please feel free to comment, agree or disagree (in the spirit of generosity and love!), and post your reflections … and if you weren’t there, you would most most welcome to join this online learning community!
There are some previous reflections on Loneliness here, that contributed to what I said. I won’t repeat those things here.
Loneliness is more that wanting to be around people, but is a feeling of feeling disconnected or alienated from other people. It is vastly different from solitude, which is chosen and helpful. As Paul Tilich (a theologian) says:
Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word solitude to express the glory of being alone.
One of the most helpful things is to realise there are different types of loneliness. If you read different books or articles, people will categorise differently, but here are three different types that I see:
1. Situational. This is type of loneliness that is caused by the situation you find yourself in. A spouse dies, a relationship breaks up, you move house or location, friends move away, you change church etc etc. Although a painful reality for many people, this can be alleviated by finding new friends, starting a new relationship, joining a club or finding another group to belong to. This is probably the kind of loneliness that many old people find themselves in, as well as others at other stages of life eg. going to university.
2. Internal. This type of loneliness is not dependent on our situation, and would still be present even if the circumstances of our lives changes. It springs from a longing to know others fully, and be known. To be authentic, and transparent. It is longing to return to kind of relating to others in the story of Genesis 2 in the garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve are naked and unashamed. We can be seen for who we really are, and know that another accepts us and loves us unconditionally. We see that sin or selfishness (in the story in Genesis 3 of “the fall”) alienated us from God and each other. As Jesus begins to heal our woundedness and brokenness, and we move towards God, we can learn to move towards others. We can find profound and real change in this type of loneliness, but we will, in this life, always still be hiding to some extent, and therefore living with a disconnect between our revealed self, and authentic self.
3. Restlessness. I have taken this type of loneliness comes from Ronald Rolheiser’s book, The Restless Heart. We are travellers in this world. Deep inside each human being these is a “memory of having once been touched and caressed by hands far gentler than our own” or “before being born, each soul is kissed by God and the goes through life always, in some dark way, remembering the kiss and measuring everything it experiences in relation to that original sweetness” (Rolheiser p. 55). We long for eternity, which we glimpse now, but the full realisation is to come. Mostly we keep so busy or distracted to connect with this deep core of our personhood, but when we do we connect with a cosmic aloneness, that this life is not we were meant for. We are destined for so much more. This kind of loneliness or aloneness is constantly present, but probably many people are never still enough to truly experience it.
Our hope as Christians, is that Christian Community, despite its imperfections and failures, is a place where we can find hope and friendship No 1; Jesus does come to heal our woudedness to move us forward in No 2, and although No 3 will be always (and maybe we become increasing aware of this) in this life, our HOPE for the future is for a life where we don’t “see in glass darkly” and we find rest, peace and a home with God and other people.
Anyone find this helpful? Or got things to add? Or to disagree?
Loneliness: our constant companion and friend? February 26, 2007
Posted by rupertward in Church, Community, Loneliness, preaching, society.11 comments
Next Sunday, I am speaking at church on Loneliness, and in light of a previous post, Preaching as Community?, I am hoping for some help! Here are a few thoughts, I hope will generate a bit of discussion or some comments (so go on, stop lurking and add your thoughts!):
Loneliness is one of the greatest human problems, especially so in our modern society with the fragmenting of community & family and the migration of people from the country to the city. It is not to be confused with being alone, but is more a feeling of being cut off or separate from others. The old cliché that you can feel most alone in a crowd definitely has some truth in it.
I think it is something that most people grapple with at some point in our lives, and for some it is something they live with pretty much constantly. There are probably lots of reasons why people feel lonely, but I want to suggest here that there is something inevitable about feeling lonely.
There is a longing deep inside us to be fully known and to know others fully; for other human beings to look at us, as we really are, and to accept us, to love us, to move towards us. We are longing for a deep connection with others, and anything less, leaves us feeling very alone in this world.
But as we learn from the Genesis story of Adam and Eve, our selfishness has led us to live in ways that are self-protecting; we metaphorically put fig leaves over our sin and our shame, which leads to separation from others. While we move towards God and find his love and grace for our brokenness and shame, and therefore move towards others in vulnerability and honesty, we will never be free of our selfishness. At least not this side of death, and a full realisation of the Kingdom.
So loneliness becomes our constant companion, reminding us that we are meant for so much more. It tells us that we are works in progress, being restored and healed. We experience longing for real and authentic relating to others, that we occasionally get glimpses of and which only awakens a hope for more.
What do you think? Is loneliness inevitable? Is it our friend? Or is it something that Jesus does come to set us free from? Is it our enemy? Does it really show up our lack of authentic community? What have you experienced or learnt about loneliness?
To finish, a quote from Mother Teresa:
When Christ said: “I was hungry and you fed me,” he didn’t mean only the hunger for bread and for food; he also meant the hunger to be loved. Jesus himself experienced this loneliness. He came amongst his own and his own received him not, and it hurt him then and it has kept on hurting him. The same hunger, the same loneliness, the same having no one to be accepted by and to be loved and wanted by. Every human being in that case resembles Christ in his loneliness; and that is the hardest part, that’s real hunger.
Preaching as Community? February 21, 2007
Posted by rupertward in Church, Community, Emerging Church, preaching.12 comments
There has been a fascinating conversation that has been happening in the comments section on a previous post, Dancing in the Aisles. After a number of comments going back and forth about how the church should critique society for its attitude to sex, Paul Ede left the following comment:
“This really could make a fascinating sermon. Is this a post-modern way to write a sermon? Have an actual talk shaped by discussion on-line. Certainly there is a host of good things that Rupert could use here for a very engaging talk on the subject. Seriously, this is good stuff. Maybe monologue preaching can be “saved” by being created in dialogue like this…an alternative to introducing a dialogue format in a church where this might be less practicable because of the size of the congregation. Also, encodes idea of us all having the voice of the Lord. Preaching becomes a sort of oracle of what the community thinks the Lord is saying, mediated through the appointed leadership – bottom up rather than top-down sermons. Finally, its a lot less work for the preacher.“
Well said Paul. Not sure I agree about it being a lot less work (just look at the debate in the comments!), but I agree with the rest. It was one of my hopes from blogging … to engage in conversation, dialogue, to get other perspectives. And in the process, learn together.
I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with preaching. I love teaching. I love it when others get that “aha” moment, see something new, or find that the truth really does set them free. But so often I am frustrated about the context in which that happens. The real goal of preaching isn’t that we go away knowing more, but go away changed, Christ is a bit more formed inside us, we are shaped a little bit more like God. Knowledge isn’t bad, it is just the start of the learning process which brings about change.
Some people clearly have a gift for preaching or teaching. It is not only that they have good things to say, but they also have an ability to say them in a way that really communicates. So there is definitely a place for that in a church. But so often the work starts and finishes with them. I read, get ideas, study, try to get a sense of what it is God is wanting to do or say, and then take my finished piece to deliver on a Sunday morning. And that, generally, is where it stops. Often there isn’t much ongoing dialogue or feedback. I’ve done my bit, and now its for others to individually respond to God (or perhaps we might have a discussion in a small group in the middle of the week!).
Well I just don’t think that is good enough. Its not good for me and its not good for others. Its what Doug Pagitt calls it “speeching”, and it is pale reflection of Biblical Preaching. Learning is best done together. It isn’t an event, it is process. Its ongoing. And it happens in life. It happens in relationship with people.
So I guess my question is: how can we really help people learn and be changed?
Money, Money, Money January 17, 2007
Posted by rupertward in Church, money, preaching.14 comments
This Sunday we are starting a series about money in church. So often when we preach about money in church (at least when we church leaders do it) we talk about giving. Clearly there if we are going to speak about money, giving is part of the story, but Jesus seems to have SOOOO much more to say.
So we are looking at wealth, poverty, debt, saving, consumerism, environmental use of money, giving, faith & finances. But this week, I am kicking off the series, starting by talking about our attitude to money: Who is in charge? Does money work for us or do we work for money? It seems to me to be a fundamental question that Jesus poses:
No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
[Matt 6:24 – NLT]
Who is it going to be? God or money? And Jesus gets to the point once again. He is pretty much saying: if you want to know how much you love Jesus, then look at our bank statements. How much of our spending is influenced by Jesus and His Kingdom, and how much by other influences? It is a tangible record of our commitment to Him.
So if you were going to be speaking on this subject, what would you want to say?
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