STEP 18 MATERIALSIM – THE ROTTEN CORE


As grevious as is the previous sin of omission by collective Christianity it is a symptom of a much deeper and more malignant cause/condition. While maintaining the words, symbols and traditions of that which was dedicated to doing the WILL of the God of love and the Creator of all things, the soul of western churches has long been firmly in the hands of the god of materialism. I am not breaking new ground here in this declaration. Any person, church goer or not knows this. Turn on the TV evangelists. Look at a congregation's budget. Listen to what church boards discuss. Review the stats on how the average church goer spends their money. Listen to the great void, the lack of sermons (let alone discussions and debates) of how we, the wealthy and priviliged of the world can faithfully spend/share that over which we have control.
In most worship gatherings the congregation eventually join in saying The Lord's Prayer in which they recite “give us this day our daily bread...” which of course, is the minimum of what we each need. Jesus didn't suggest that we were due or deserved or we should pray for four eight course meals per day. We should pray for just enough to live and to do God's WILL.
We need to know the difference between what we need and what we want. The sad truth God calls us to share (give away) what we do not need. That's what the early church did. They really did share. Their coats. Their homes. That's what got them attention, caused others to become curious and convinced of their truths and caused the early movement (The People of the Way) to grow so that it challenged the power and assumptions of Rome. Rome eventually won much of that battle and MAMON (greed) has certainly won over LOVE today.
A great song from Gilbert and Sullivan's MY FAIR LADY goes “All I want is a room somewhere, far away from the cold night's air, with one enormous chair, now wouldn't it be lovely? Lots of chocolate for me to eat. Lot's of coal makin' lots of heat. Warm hands, warm face, warm feet, now wouldn't it be lovely?” It was sung by a street person dreaming of having the basics of life, a warm room, basic comfort and enough food, even a treat or two. These are needs. These we deserve. This we can pray for. This we can faithfully strive for and even demand. But not for more.
If we have more than this basic ENOUGH we can only faithfully strive for, pray for and demand the same ENOUGH for others. To spend time, prayer and effort striving for even more for ourselves or even maintaining an excessive condition is not only a waste of our time, etc. it is an act of sin and unfaithfulness, not only hindering and stopping the WORD of God but of poluting it and lying to the world by implying to others that that is what God , through Jesus, has to say. A congregation deciding to hire another staff person instead of training volunteers: stupid and unfaithful. Or to fund a new organ “for the glory of God”: the same (Wouldn't God be given more glory by ten thousand Africans having mosquito netting around their beds?) Most church attenders actually feel that when they are supporting their churches they are giving to others! Instead they are perpetuating the belief that God believes in what they believe in. They are creating God in their own image, the oldest and most acceptable of sins.
Conrad Black has nothing personal to pray for accept for God to be with him, as God of course is already. Very few of us has any physical needs. We all want more, always have and always will. The churches should (and can) be the place to help us figure out the difference but they won't and don't. So they shouldn't even be.

There is some good news, GOSPEL in this for all people. For many generations the early followers of Jesus of Nazareth kept mainly faithful to his WAY, to the point that the fundamentals of Roman might were threatened. If we allow the Christ Child to not only be born among us but to be raised within us, we too can be strengthened guided, and enabled to confront the power and habit of gross materialism and greed that has so captured our society and churches. We CAN become the light we are called to be. It will take a new paradymn, new imagry and above all, action. It will require the death of much we have long taken for granted. Christians must become disciples and not mere believers. (I am certainly not a Christian, but that is for anther STEP.) And the newly born will most certainly be branded as radicals, non-believers, communists or whatever other names people use when they run out of reason. We must realize once more that we are to take the Gospel seriously when we are reminded that Jesus never thought that his WAY would be a majority movement, that it was to be SALT to the stew of the world,
and LIGHT for the valley. It will be nearly impossible for individual congregations to lose their desire to be popular and successful and to be instead, faithful. Most will die in their attempt to survive unfaithfully. Such waste. Such sadness.
But what room for resurrection! What opportunity for some crazy disciples to band together enough to attempt faithfulness in this materialistic and cold culture! This would be as radical, newsworthy, frightening and wonderfully loving as were those People of the Way nearly two thousand years ago who lived in an empire of materialism and militarism. (Sound familiar?)
What do we do? If you are in a church, pray for it. But then DO it. If you “pray for the world” and then hop into your gas guzzler and drive home, DO something about it! Make a change! If you pray for the poor and put an extra ten dollars into the plate, pray for forgivenss most certainly, but more importantly, curb your wants and give MUCH to the needs of those who seriously have needs (probably not in North America). If you pray for those in power, in government, and DO nothing, you are being a stupid hypocrite. There is plenty you can DO. So DO. If you pray for the homeless and there are three hundred (pick any number) empty bedrooms in the houses of the congregation, shudder and be truly fearful for your churches (and your) lack of love and faithfulness. You truly deserve to die as a so-called People of God.
Most congregations will eventually will/should die but just maybe your church
congregation has within it enough of the faithful to enact change, to search, to pray, to do, to let die and to nourish new life to enable resurrection within it. Don't count on it but miracles do happen.
Christianity has made a huge mistake in understanding the concept of resurrection. Because one example/experience of this created our faith the whole idea has been relegated to that event or to some heaven/last day occasion. If we open our eyes a bit we can see that resurrection is not a miracle: that is the way that God usually to works. It usually takes death to allow for new life. Look at the world around us. That's how it works. True newness is in the genes of the newborn. Call it evolution or just LIFE. Look at the seasons. View the mini life and death of night and the new day. To make life the circle has to be completed by death. Death and resurrection is what we should expect. It is a miracle if we see God within and through it. That we must also do. We can always count on the cycle of life/death and shouldn't be surprised and/or disappointed to see that this truth is alive and visible with an institution especially one that claims to be of God. On the other hand, to have change demonstrated within a live, now that's really against the odds. A true miracle. In that we can really see God at work. There we can truly meet God, Emmanuel.
I have rarely been part of that reality but I know it is possible. Where a church is open to this, HALLELUIAH! Let's search for these rare examples and give them what they need. And let's equally recognize those what are just going to die and help them along speedidly. I would be honoured to be a resourse in either situation.

"If any would follow me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and do so... For what would it profit any it they gain the whole world and waste their life?"-Jesus of Nazareth (Luke 9:23-25)

"This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." - Jesus quoting Isaiah (Mark 7:6)