TimSpivey.com

Why Not Blame Christianity?

I was strolling through Barnes and Noble a week or so ago. Near the coffee counter, the cover of the Atlantic read, "Did Christianity Cause the Crash? How Preachers are Spreading a Gospel of Debt." At first, I thought, "Terrific, one more thing people want to blame on Christianity. Next, it'll be the bad weather in Des Moines." I could guess that the article was going to focus on "Heath and Wealthers," perhaps portraying them as typical of Christian teaching on money and possessions.

I was right.

Let me say at the outset that the article is not brutally unfair. It is simply misguided in portraying the smattering of health-and-wealthers as somewhat typical of Christianity's teaching on the subject. And, if we are going to be fair to even the health-and-wealthers…a couple of points should be made:

• Even if health/wealth pastors encouraged people to buy houses they couldn't afford because "God wanted them to"—a bank still had to lend them the money. So, the lenders are at least as much at fault as the customer.
• By far, most people who took out bad loans weren't members of the so-called Christian health/wealth movement. But, even if they were…a bank still had to loan them the money.

So, blaming the housing crash on the marginal health/wealth movement within Christianity seems somewhat illogical to me. I'm sure the title of the article was designed to get people to read the magazine and blog about it (mission accomplished). However, the Atlantic should be held responsible for the implications of their headlines and the substance of their journalism.

The well-written article reads like an investigative report. However, it's really an editorial piece in investigative dress. There's even an odd shot at Sarah Palin's family life and an attempt to link her to health/wealth toward the end—and a contrast between the promises of health/wealth and the "sure hope" offered by Presidents Obama and Clinton. Hmmm…

Here is a smattering of thoughts on the claims of the article:

• In truth, health/wealthers are a fringe group. To imply somehow that they speak for the majority of Christians is factually inaccurate.
• Swap in another religion like Judaism or Islam for Christianity on the cover and try to imagine the same magazine being put on the racks. Highly unlikely, given today's sensitivities.
• Most pastors I know of, whether in the mainstream (and even most of the fringe), hold a highly negative view of debt and incorporate it into their teachings on stewardship.
• In fact, the NY Times published an article in March of this year, asking, "Did Evangelicals Curb the Housing Bubble?" They found: Yes. Check it out here.
• I am well aware that the practice of religious quackery by those in the health/wealth camp has been damaging to those under it's influence. That is why a healthy biblical theology of money and possessions must be taught in every church in every place. Jesus talked about it constantly. So, it should be talked about more frequently than the annual Missions Sunday or Capital Campaign season. It is an integral part of discipleship.

As frustrated as I am at the way the Atlantic portrayed Christianity both on the cover and between the covers of their magazine, I cannot fault them for finding fault with the health/wealth crowd. I simply lament their limited understanding and representation of Christianity as a whole.

It pains me to think that virtually every person getting a cup of coffee at Barnes and Noble in Escondido will see that cover and think, perhaps de facto, that the current global malaise is a by-product of "Christianity." At the same time, it pains me that some people's lives have been ruined by those trafficking in the things of God for their own gain.

Here's a question: What does more harm to people's theology of money and possessions: Health/Wealth teaching, or no teaching at all? I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

 

Tim Keller on How He Prepares Sermons

Hopefully, my colleagues are not doing primary preparation for their sermons right now...or heaven forbid, late tonight or tomorrow morning. Nevertheless, here are some thoughts from Tim Keller on How He Prepares Sermons.

Please Forgive

Elizabeth's Strout's collection of short stories, Olive Kitteridge won this year's Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In quite sophisticated fashion, Olive Kitteridge takes us inside the hearts of those getting older. One of the themes that runs throughout the book is that of reconciliation (or lack thereof). After a horrible scene in which a husband and wife are in a hostage situation and say the ugliest things to one another, the narrator says:

"They would never get over that night. And it wasn't because they'd been held hostage in a bathroom—which Andrea Bibber would think was the crisis. No, they would never get over that night because they had said things that altered how they saw each other. And because she had, ever since then, been weeping from a private faucet inside her…"

Thanksgiving is a holiday that brings many of us into proximity with loved ones and not-so-loved ones that may have wronged us in grievous ways. Something may have happened during your childhood or just last week that has built a barbed wire emotional fence between you and those you will break turkey with soon.

A word of encouragement for the holidays: It doesn't have to stay that way. Please forgive.

It's easier said than done…by far. Yet, it honors Christ. It also allows us to move on. Ron McManus was right when he said, "Bitterness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." Anger pollutes our spirits, and distances us from the God who forgives us our sins, and of the wrongs that we do to others. This Thanksgiving, lean on God's Spirit…and forgive. Experience the freedom that comes from letting go and trusting God. It may only reduce your "private faucet" from a gusher to a drip, but it's a start.

Shout Thanksgiving

I grew up serving Thanksgiving Dinner to others on Thanksgiving Day. My parents and the church I grew up in had this crazy idea that serving on Thanksgiving would be a good way to give thanks to God. So, while everyone else got to watch football, I was getting up at 7am to go to the Long Beach Senior Citizen's Center on 4^th and Orange to begin setting tables, rehearsing songs we kids were going to sing and bring joy to the elderly. I helped brew the coffee and greet the needy as they waited to enter. Once they entered, I helped take hot plates of food to them—eventually graduating to gravy server :)

We had our family thing as well…in the afternoon. However, even then, mom and dad had people over to eat who weren't part of the family…but needed to know they were loved. You know—the college kid away from family, the little old lady whose kids had forgotten her or had lost her husband, and others who simply needed to be with people on such a holiday.

When I was younger, I must admit, I resented it. Not the serving the needy on Thanksgiving part. It was the "family" Thanksgiving dinner I resented it because it meant I had to sit in the cheap seats…mom and dad gave "them" the good seats at the table. My parents' home also wasn't very big, so it was always overcrowded. And, if I thought long and hard I could probably think of a host of other selfish reasons I just wanted a Thanksgiving where I knew everyone sitting at the table. I would like a padded seat for once…so I could focus on how thankful I was for all God had done for me. As you'll notice, there are a lot of personal pronouns in this paragraph.

And that was the problem.

It wasn't until I got to at least High-School that I started to realize that I had it backwards. Mom and Dad had it right. I was wrong. Dead wrong.

It's OK, I suppose, to say thank you to God through a Sabbath day of sorts celebrated with family and food. It's OK to sleep in, and to spend the day relaxing…thanking Him during the mealtime prayer. However, it's also wonderful to thank him by caring for the needy and by showing hospitality to those who are lonely. I'm so thankful for that tradition and what it taught me. I'm thankful that I was taught by example not just to remember that I'm thankful on Thanksgiving, but to demonstrate my thankfulness to God through service.

On Thanksgiving morning, we'll be up early again. I'll wake up in the same house. I'll get my own kids up and dressed. We'll drive through central Long Beach, past Poly (my old high school) and see the football team practicing. We'll see the people pushing shopping carts, the graffiti and the shop signs in Cambodian. We'll make our way to the corner of 4^th and Orange, where I have nearly every Thanksgiving for 30 years. Anna and Olivia will now sing the songs for the elderly and pass out food. They'll come home to grandma and grandpa's house, where a house full of relative strangers awaits them. We'll all eat with them joyfully. In doing so, we'll show God we're thankful. Words are OK. But, actions speak a louder word of thanks.

May the actions of Christians this holiday season shout Thanksgiving to God, who has given us more than we can thank him for in this life or next.

Be Our God Yet Again – A Saturday Evening Blessing

A Saturday evening prayer courtesy of Walter Brueggemann. To those who preach, let Him rise tomorrow.

Do your mysterious, majestic God-ing with our hearts: 

reclaim, renew, re-enliven, 

that we may leave your presence 

transplanted, 

transformed, 

transposed, 

become by your attentiveness whom we have not yet embraced, 

open and receptive, honest and undefensive, unafraid and committed to obedience. 

Let the pulse of our heart throb now, according to the cadences of your rule; 

command and we will obey, overrule and we will yield, 

lead and we will walk where we never thought to go. 

Unto you ... not unto each other, not unto our pet projects, 

not unto our favorite charity or passion. 

Unto you ... our hearts are open; we are yours; be our God-yet again.

Thank God for Food

On Tuesday, NCCC gave away 300 turkeys to the needy. That went along with hundreds of bags of food from the local food bank. The line went around the building from both directions (see cell phone pic left).

When was the last time you REALLY thanked God for your food? I know many Christians do it with each meal. But, I mean...when you really thought about what a blessing it is to not have to wonder where your next meal will come from or whether you can feed your children healthy food because of money?

Honestly, it had been a while for me. For that, I owe the Lord an apology. I'm thankful for NCCC and it's servant heart--though I'm biased :). I'm thankful for Christians all over the world who labor to make sure that people can eat.

Just a moment ago, a man and a woman came by the office. He said he hadn't eaten in 24 hours, and her face was swollen with a tooth infection. She couldn't talk. He said she had been a given a prescription that they couldn't fill because they didn't have the money. Now her mouth was terribly infected...so much so that she couldn't talk or eat.

We were able to help them, and it reminded me again to thank God for food. Let's all thank God for food through our actions on behalf of the poor. Let us thank God...

"who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!

---Psalm 146:7-10