The Place Our Possessions Hold in the Ordering of Our Lives

The earliest Church practiced something they called Ordos Amor in Latin— ‘the right ordering of the loves.’ There is a proper love for Peanut M & Ms; there is a proper love for medium rare rib-eye; there is a proper love for brick-oven pizza, California Zin or Australian Shiraz. But it’s not the same love we have for a faithful dog. And the love we have for a dog or cat, or whatever your pet is, is not the same as the love we have for our friends. And the love we have for our friends is not the same as the love we have for a husband or wife {or even our children}; and the love we have for friends, children, and lovers is not the same as the love we have for God. The right ordering of the loves, everything in its proper perspective. This reveals a strong soul, a healthy heart on its way to wholeness. Jesus said, “all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength… and love the other [which is what the word ‘neighbor’ means], those in your periphery, those immediately around you, as yourself,” Matthew 22:34-40. Nowhere in there does it say, “Love the things you own so that they end up owning you.” Or “love your bank account, love your bottom line, love the house you can’t afford with the entirety of your being!” It doesn’t even hint at that, does it?

Having seen the teaching of Jesus on the incredibly idolatrous place “treasures on Earth” can occupy in a human heart and life, what is the singular lesson to learn for our hearts and lives? It is this: that in the final analysis, all things belong to Abba. Scripture makes this abundantly clear: in Psalm 24:1; Psalm 50:1-4 and 9-12. Understanding this and, even more importantly, putting faith in this, has profound repercussions in how we orient ourselves to material reality. The ultimate ownership of all things belongs to God. There is nothing in the physical and material world— no matter how many warranties we have on it— over which you and I can say factually, “This is mine and mine alone.” Do we own certain things? Yes… but not exclusively. Our reality as the sons of God in a material world is that whatever ‘this’ is— car, home, clothes, land, accounts, possessions, retirements, five year business plans— belongs to Abba. “These belong to my Father, and my Father has allowed me to use them. My Father has entrusted them to me.” This is the basic reality of our lives, running completely counter to capitalism and a consumerist culture. We don’t, in fact, have ‘the right’ to say, “This is mine… and I’ll do whatever I want with it.” As those who owe allegiance to a higher Kingdom we say, “This is God’s, a gift of His grace, and I’ll do with it only what its Owner would want me to do with it.” This is the training of our souls to one Day rule with God!

How to Liberate Your Soul from a Consumerist Identity.

Released in the HJC Bulletin on 2.7.10.

So, how does Jesus’ rule, power, and authority liberate us from our mighty enemies, set our souls free to worship Him wholeheartedly? The first necessary thing is to acknowledge by our lives, as author Brian McLaren states, that “the Kingdom of God …is a revolutionary, countercultural movement— proclaiming a ceaseless rebellion against the tyrannical trinity of money, sex, and power.” As citizens of this Kingdom, we “resist the occupation of this invisible Caesar through three categories of spiritual practice.” These are disciplines borne out of desire. Uno, we “practice a liberating generosity toward the poor” and impoverished, those whom welfare was originally intended to serve: the broken of body, the scarred of soul, the aged, infirmed, and handicapped among us. And we start doing it now: “to dethrone greed and topple the regime of money.” Dos, we “practice a kind of prayer {the Disciple’s Prayer} that is a defiant act of resistance” to “the prideful pursuit of power, pursuing forgiveness and reconciliation, not retaliation and revenge.” Tres, we “practice fasting {yes, I said ‘fasting’} to revolt against the dominating impulses of physical gratification— so that the sex drive and other physical appetites will not become our slave drivers.”

There are many forms of fasting; fasting from food and drink is just one of them. It’s the form which has been practiced by apprentices of Jesus for 2000 years, but there are others. How about fasting from talking about yourself for 24 hours? Go an entire day without using terms like ‘I, me, my and mine.’ I’d like to see the pastors and Bible teachers who make fun of fasting as a spiritual discipline pull that one off! In fact, I dare them to pull it off, to go 24 hours without promoting themselves or their ministry. Any takers?  I didn’t think so.  If there are any intrepid souls out there, let me know how it went for you. 

You can fast from television for a week, fast from entertainment— it may be time to emerge from the ocean of entertainment and take a deep breath of the pure air of intimacy with Abba. You can fast from alcohol, if you happen to like it, and fast from just water if you’re a modern-day Pharisee.  Have that glass of wine with dinner; your husband or wife will love it. Fast from sweets, or chocolate, for a week. Fast from buying yourself new clothes for six months. What!? That’s insane. Is it? Fast from buying anything other than necessities for one month. Food, shelter, soap, etc. No new clothes, no new cars, no I-Pod, I-Phone, no new technology, no software, no shoes. Nothing, nada, zip, zilch. You are more than what you buy. Liberate your soul from a consumerist identity!

Self-Appointed Saviors....

Released in the HJC Bulletin on 1.17.10.

Not all Gospels are equal. How’s that for an intro? And not every approach to Life in the Spirit of Christ lines up with reality. We need to have the courage to say so.  Don’t just stay with something because it’s the only something you’ve ever known. Your loyalty is not to a ministry or movement, a denomination or doctrine, your loyalty is to Jesus Christ the King!

I love what Orwell said along these lines, “Sooner or later, a false belief bumps up against a solid reality.” Several months ago I found this quote by him, a writer who, beginning his career as a Socialist / Communist, understood very well the tyranny of those who are convinced they alone are right and thus, by default, everyone else must be wrong. And if wrong, must be corrected, herded, and directed by those who know better than they what's good for them. The last thing “they” need is a taste of Freedom and of Life. It reminds me of so many men and women I’ve known through the years within the Faith who were utterly convinced their ‘way’ of doing things— be it their theology, their attitude toward others who differed some way spiritually, or their very approach to teaching or worshiping or serving or praying— was the only way. There could be no other. “God cannot work in ways other than those of which I have personally approved.” Think about that mentality for a moment. Then get a nice, long, hearty laugh out of it.

How grateful we all must be that after two thousand years of getting it wrong, Abba has sent us a new set of saviors so we can finally ‘get it right.’ It would be hilarious, if not for the unbelievable arrogance it exemplifies. ‘O Lord, whatever You do in all our lives to break down the barriers between us and You, save us from ourselves. {And while You’re at it, save us from our self-appointed saviors… please.} Amen.

Is Greed the American God?

Released in the HJC Bulletin on 1.10.10.

Money, let’s face it, is about two things: values and control. You can read the level of control people have on their own existence by observing how they embrace money, materials, finances, how they use or abuse the wealth God has given them.

Now, is it wrong to own things? Of course not; and God never says it is. But it’s wrong to let your things end up owning you. If you spend more time polishing your speedboat, your car, or your computer screen than you do with your kids, it owns you. If you spend more time glorying in 21st century technology than engaging and interacting with real flesh and blood people with real flesh and blood problems {and sometimes solutions}, entering their soaring joys and crushing disappointments, it owns you. If you give more of yourself, your soul, your blood-sweat-and-tears to a business, to a corporation, to the Almighty Dollar and the pursuit of the American Dream {success, adulation, applause, luxury} than you give to your family, to a wife or husband, to your children, to the Community of Christians God has given you, your idol owns you. If you spend more time thinking about what you’re going to eat and drink than how you’re going to walk the Master’s Way by service and sacrifice, with faith and humility, a false god has you in its grips.

Maybe we should listen to Paul when he said to the Ephesians, “You can be sure of this: The Kingdom of Christ and of God will never belong to anyone who is impure or greedy, for a greedy person is really an idol worshiper— he loves and worships the good things of this life more than God,” 5:5 {TLB}. Really? Greed is the same as idolatry, worshipping at the altar of a false god, embracing a pseudo-security, deceiving myself into thinking everything’s good with my soul and spirit because my body is ensconced in layers of luxury? Do we …worship and love the good things of the world more than the One who ransomed us from it? Are we …the greedy people who bow down daily before economic idols and ideology? We better find an answer to those questions, and we better find one fast. Our lives in the Spirit of Christ depend on it.

For the Love of Money

Released in the HJC Bulletin on 12.20.09.

Two thousand years ago, the apostle Paul said, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” {NIV}, the “first step toward all kinds of sin....,” 1 Timothy 6:10a {TLB}. Thirty-five years ago, the ‘O Jays said: “For the love of money people will steal from their mother… rob their own brother… people will lie, they will cheat… people don’t care who they hurt or beat. Almighty dollar …does funny things to some people …can drive some people out of their minds.” Oh yeah, you think?

Ever heard people say, “Money does strange things to people? Money makes people act in some weird ways?” Ever heard that before? Here’s something I’ve never heard, and I bet you never have and never will. “Money has done some strange things to me. Money makes me act loony as a road-lizard.” Don’t you find this rather illuminating, that it’s always someone else who is greedy, money-loving, or materialistic? Not me. Never me, right? Money has never made me jealous of who someone is, envious of what they have or where they are; money has never caused me to act differently toward somebody, to treat them with deference or an undue amount of affection, become overly conscientious in their presence; money has never made me kiss up to a boss or stab someone in the back. Materialism and the lust for more has never seized my soul in an orgy of consumerist ecstasy during a half-price sale at my favorite clothing / sporting good / shoe / electronics / music / book / fill in the _____ store. Especially during Christmastime, which we were told as kids was supposed to be about the birth of Christ. Or have we missed that somewhere along the way? Aren’t the Holidays supposed to be Holy Days?

The birth of Jesus, God in human flesh, the King of all Creation submitting Himself to Creation, the Lord of Glory ‘away in a manger’ …this is the Reason for the Season. All we do to celebrate the Season is because of that, in view of that, captured in the glorious light of that single event. My concern, my fear even, is whether this will be the year we stop the ‘mad dash for more’ long enough to ask, “Whose birthday is this?” Really. Spirit of the Living God, whose birthday is this anyway? What would you have me do with that, about that? Everyone of us ought to be praying fervently, sincerely, earnestly, “Lord, light within me a firestorm of generosity and compassion for those who have not while I have so very much. Show me, teach me, train me, Jesus, in how to give generously— and even more important— how to live generously. In Your precious and powerful Name. Amen.”

The Power of the Cross or the Power of the Sword?

Released in the HJC Bulletin on 12.6.09.

The worst thing to ever happen to “the Faith,” as the earliest disciples called it {Acts 6:7; 13:8; 14:22; 16:5}, was when it became the ‘official religion’ of the Roman Empire… sanctioned by the sword and all that that implies. As one writer puts it: when “Constantine claimed to convert to Christianity in the early 4th century the Christian faith had gone from being an unknown religion to a misunderstood religion, to a persecuted religion, to a tolerated religion, to a favored religion, to the official religion of the Roman Empire.”1 

Do you see what’s happening here? It’s a stroke of genius by the enemy, a masterful countermove: can’t conquer it by persecution, can’t destroy it from within by falsehood and Gnostic fables, give it green-light status in the Empire’s arena and seduce it with wealth and luxury, prestige and power. We moved from faith in the power of the Cross to faith in the power of the sword. Why concern yourself with the Resurrection when you’ve already ascended the imperial throne? It’s a heady thing to finally have real, raw power in your hands, as any teenage boy in a Trans-Am will tell you. But the lust for power and prestige in the eyes of the world is a dangerous deception— one deadly to the Kingdom Christ told Pilate was “not of this world” and which He instructed His disciples did not operate like the kingdoms of this world.

In this Kingdom the only authority that counts is that exercised by the King, which supersedes all other authority. In this Kingdom, the only power that matters is the power of love: love for Abba with everything we are, love for others because of how He loves us, and love for our enemies because our Father is more merciful than we can ever imagine and in a world overflowing with petty conflicts, quarrels, hatreds and grievances, He is infinitely forgiving. In this Kingdom, the only example to follow is the Master’s Way of Humility; in His Kingdom, the last are first, the servants are the leaders, those who sacrifice— time, money, attention, affection, respect, compassion, mercy, tenderness in the Cause— may lose some things in Time but will gain all things in Eternity {Mk. 8:34-35; Lk. 18:29-30}.

“‘I tell you the Truth,’ Jesus said to them, ‘no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the Kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this Age and, in the Age to Come, Eternal Life,’” Luke 18:29-30 {NIV}. “Then He called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said: ‘If anyone would come after Me [this is what a disciple does, an apprentice to a master, he ‘comes after,’ he follows in the footsteps], he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me and for the Gospel will save it,’” Mark 8:34-35 {NIV}. …Amen.