I’m Not Getting My Money’s Worth?

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For a while now I have railed against the destructive effects of consumerism upon western culture in general and the church specifically. It seems that the (d)evolution of this culture has gotten to a point that it has imposed itself into the life of the church to the extent that even traditions that have long resisted these influences are now essentially shaped by them. Think about the story that consumerism tells and you soon see a community riddled by dysfunctional and self-centered behavior.

I am reminded of an episode of “3^rd Rock from the Sun” in which the main character, Dick Solomon (John Lithgow), was sitting at a table in a restaurant with a pile of money stacked in front of him. When the server came to wait on him he pointed to the stack and said (something to the effect) that this was the potential tip that was to be received. The unspoken message was that any mistake would reduce the pile. I must admit that I laughed and still laugh when I think of this scene. What is most brilliant about this scene is the profound cultural criticism that takes place through this satirical moment.

While the satire is aimed at our culture in general, it is unfortunately most relevant to the life of our church as well. This has become most evident over the past few years as the Church of the Brethren has meandered its way through an emotional debate about human sexuality. In response to perceived opinions (whether correct or not) some have threatened to withhold their giving to the church organization. In a real sense, much like Lithgow’s character, they are reducing (even removing) the pile because they are not getting the experience they paid for. What is most notable about this is that the effects of consumerism have affected both ends of the proverbial spectrum.

Even with all this occurring (regardless of baptismal vows), the effects have not been limited to the larger church organization. These effects most essentially occur in the home and local congregations. Somewhere along the line we have decided to let our pocket books do our voting (as if our faith is nothing more than an expression of democratic consumerism) so that if we don’t like the product we are receiving then we can return it for a full refund (or simply stop giving altogether).  This is simply a description of behavior that signifies how our relationships have (d)evolved in the church.

This has led me to wonder when the church stopped seeing itself as God’s family. When did the change come to seeing each other more in terms of patrons and clients than brothers and sisters? I know this is nothing really new. In fact I believe the change began in the early twentieth century when the church began hiring servants (pastors) to do the work they didn’t have time to do (I struggle with the reality of even having to write this sentence). It was this occurrence that began this wayward journey. Instead of people called according to spiritual giftedness, suddenly the church became employers. The essential nature of these significant relationships changed. It is what one might say was the “gateway drug” to consumerism. Within this new paradigm of relationship, power is suddenly wielded through money and influence. Ministry is shaped through the lens of “customer relations.” Evangelism is applied by sales. Corporate leadership is practiced by CEO’s and major shareholders (stakeholders?). All the while the church forgets what it means to be “God’s household.”

To be fair, I think that many in the church still desire to cling to the values of being “God’s family.” Unfortunately, we have learned through our experience in this culture that it is much easier to be in consumer relationship than real family relationship. In consumer relationships it’s not personal, “it’s only business.” In this type of relationship we make the decisions that save us money, make us money, or purchase a product we desire. Anything outside of those choices we can easily sever. On the other hand, with family we are stuck with each other. That weird uncle who has a disturbingly strange sense of humor at the most inopportune times (thus embarrassing everyone) is still uncle. That older sister who is always bossing us around, at the end of the day she is still sister. That younger brother who seems spoiled and gets all the attention, he’s still our little brother.

In the life of the church (at least in the Church of the Brethren), when someone is baptized, the congregation and the candidate take specific vows of commitment. I’ve often compared this event with a marriage. What these vows symbolize is that both parties are entering into a covenant relationship. Specifically, baptism signifies the candidate’s entrance into God’s family. And as we all know family relationships are messy endeavors. I suppose I’m wondering if we have it in us to go against the stream taking the path of most resistance and being God’s family.  Certainly the path of least resistance hasn’t worked so well.

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What’s God’s love all about? . . . It’s all about you!

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Recently I have been preaching a series of sermons that sets out to explore God’s love and what it’s all about. Over the next five weeks I will post summaries of this reflection. In this week’s post I will address how God’s love is directed toward human beings with a purpose.

One observation I have made over two decade’s worth of ministry is that people speak to each other in ways that express the distorted desires of their heart with an efficacy that separates the target of their words from the God who is calling them. Even as James K. A. Smith has pointed out in his text, Desiring the Kingdom, God created human beings essentially as creatures of desire. It is this desire that has been distorted and perverted from being directed toward God to becoming a self-centered and self-seeking desire. Even as Adam and Eve took the fruit with the desire to be like God and to become masters of their own destinies, such is the human predicament. One need only hear the messages that are given either explicitly or implicitly to children, young people, parents, employees, retirees, grandparents, etc. They are messages that seek to subjugate and destroy the image of the recipient. These messages can be either subtle ways of communicating a person’s inability to measure up or the harsh expressions that reject the recipient as unlovable (or unworthy of being loved). While it is easy to sit back and recognize the dysfunction in such messages and perhaps even doubt to what extent they are spoken, the reality remains that people (in a general sense) speak out of self-centered desires that either manipulate or oppress the other. Admittedly this is a dark perspective of human beings, but it is nonetheless the predicament in which we live.

If one looks through God’s metanarrative of promise, one observes the reflections of the human condition throughout. However the evident brokenness is not the end of the story. God provides the solution that can transform the desires of human beings in such ways as would change the world in which we live. Paul tells the Ephesians (1:4) that they have been blessed and chosen to be holy and blameless before God in love. M. Robert Mulholland Jr. offers an interesting exegesis of this passage, particularly regarding the word “chosen.” Citing its etymology as deriving from a compound Greek term (eklegomai) meaning “I choose,” he breaks it down further concluding that in the most literal sense it means to be “spoken forth.” Mulholland uses this understanding to posit that believers are words (with a small “w”) spoken forth from the foundation of the world by God.[1] These words spoken forth were meant to be holy and blameless before God in love. God reinforces the shape of these “words” with expressions of his love that determine the immeasurable value God has for each human being.

Unfortunately human beings have a remarkable propensity of being able to distort these words through contrary messages that serve to place the self in a position of primacy. Therefore it falls upon the disciples of Jesus to counter these destructive messages with the gospel of God’s reconciling love. What this ultimately does directs the desires back toward God that the person might experience the reconciled relationship with the Divine. It is only when people begin to re-imagine themselves as God has spoken them forth to be that the person’s desires are appropriately redirected toward God. This however is not a completed process, but a journey of transformation.

Two issues are problematic in this. First, often times it is in the place we call “church” that the most harmful words are spoken. Perhaps the church is perceived to be a family to such an extent that it reflects the dysfunctional behaviors of the households of which it consists. As such it is ever more evident that believers need to be reminded of God’s words for them so that they may embody more fully the “words” they are being called forth to be.

Second is that if the messages we speak betray the trajectory of our desires, is it not this target of our desire that which we worship? What follows then is the question of idolatry. If at base our desire is for self, then it is the self that we in essence worship. Thus it is necessary for the base human desire to be put right so that appropriate worship might take place (which is a fundamental aspect of being human). Ultimately it is God speaking forth the “Word” that makes this possible. I suppose I could have saved some space if I merely said “God loves you so much and wants to be in whole and proper relationship with you that he has made it possible (if only we allow it).”

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[1] M. Robert Mulholland Jr., Shaped by the Word, revised edition. (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 2000), 34ff.