In the early 1990s a survey of expenditure revealed that Americans spent twice as much on cut flowers as on overseas ministry, twice as much on women’s tights, one and a half as much on video games, five times as much on pets, one and a half times as much on skin care, seven times as much on sweets, seventeen times as much on diet related products, twenty times as much on sports activities, twenty six times as much on soft drinks and 140 times as much on legalised gambling [C.L. Blomberg, Neither Poverty Nor Riches, Apollos, Leicester, 1999, p19].
It’s unbelievable isn’t it? Who’d have thought they spend that much on diets! I may also have found new ammunition for my argument that Christians shouldn’t own dogs! But I’m aware that I probably come undone on the sports category.
But I wonder what an analysis of our spending patterns would reveal. What do we do with our wealth? And what should we do with it? Given the current financial position of the church and the current economic climate you can understand why we need to address the issue of what we do with our wealth.
There are, I think, three broad principles to bear in mind.
1. We need to learn to be content
On the whole scripture has a positive view of wealth. It’s a covenant blessing that comes from God, often through the means of human effort (Deut 29:9, Job 1:21, Prov 10:4). The Apostle Paul reckons that if we’ve got food and clothing then we’re sorted (1 Tim 6). He doesn’t quite put it in those terms, but that’s his drift. What he does say is that ‘there’s great gain in godliness with contentment’. And he’s right on the money! If only we believed it. We’d then be liberated from our relentless pursuit of acquisitions that so often drives our working ambitions. The Bible also puts it the other way round when in the Ten Commandments God says ‘Do not covet’. Coveting things or experiences is the opposite of being content with what we have. We’ll never know what it is to be happy until we learn to be content with what we have. God would rather we live within our means than spend our time dissatisfied with what He’s given us. He’s given us what we need. If He thinks we need more then He’ll give us more. He isn’t sovereign for nothing! And so we ought to pray like the writer of Prov 30:8 who said, ‘give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God’. That sort of contentment is a rare and precious thing. And we need to learn it.
2. We need to learn to be thankful
Wealth is a gift from God and because of it we’re able to do so many things that our predecessors on this earth could only dream of. We have a more comfortable sofa, a better TV, a softer bed, a more permanent house, better transport, more interesting places to visit and so on. Compare our standard of living compared to that of our parents’ generation, and it’s astounding. It’s not simply that we’ve financed a life on easy credit and that they were more frugal than us, though there may be something in that. We live in wealthy times. And for that we ought to thank God. We’re immensely wealthy compared to people in former times and compared to people in other parts of the world. We have much to be thankful for. We ought to be overflowing in thankfulness for all the things that God has given us in this life. We should thank God for all the material blessings that we enjoy. We must never be ascetic. Scripture doesn’t condemn the use of our money for relaxation, entertainment or the consumption of luxuries. The denial of physical pleasures is demonic and so should be resisted at all costs.
3. We need to learn to be generous
One of the remarkable things that characterised the early church was their radical generosity and extravagant compassion (Acts 4). Paul tells us that one of the fruits of repentance is willingness to contribute to the needs of others (Eph 4). The wage we earn, the savings we’ve amassed, or the property that we own is simply part of God’s creation that He’s entrusted to us. It’s under our control but He expects us to use it responsibly. And one of the things He wants us to do with our wealth is give it away; to others, for their benefit. Phillip Jensen once told his congregation, ‘it’s about time we saw our abundant wealth as a resource for addressing needs rather than for increasingly enslaving our lives to the meaninglessness of materialism’ [P.D. Jensen, ‘A Reason to Work’, By God’s Word, (Kingsford, Matthias Media, 2007)] But how generous should we be? At one level it’s a crass question but for people new to the Christian faith it’s a reasonable question to ask. Churches sometimes encourage people to think in terms of the Old Testament tithe. Though it’s nowhere mandated by the New Testament it seems a sensible place to start. In the Law of Moses, God placed on His people the obligation of a 10% tithe. It’s not repeated in the New Testament though there’s loads of material on the subject of financial contribution. In passages like 2 Cor 9:7&8 the emphasis is on generous, voluntary and cheerful giving. It’s hard to believe that God had in mind that we’d lessen the response to His redemptive grace shown in Christ and so the tithe is the starting point. So what’s a good ball park figure to start off with? Let’s say 10% of our gross income [the one they promised to pay you when they hired you!].
Wouldn't it be a terrific thing if, with the wealth that God has given us, we were genuinely content, really thankful and sacrificially generous?
Other Credit Crunch articles here, here and here.
Showing posts with label Money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Money. Show all posts
Monday, 17 November 2008
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Dear Friends - October
Dear Friends
Despite the nonstop coverage, I guess that most of us struggle to make much of the BBC Business Correspondent, Robert Peston’s illuminating analysis of all things economic! Some of us may even be under the impression that the ‘Credit Crunch’ is what Alistair Darling has for breakfast! But for many of us, the words ‘derivatives’, ‘hedge funds’ and ‘sub-prime mortgage’ have now become familiar, if not welcome, additions to our vocabulary. Joking aside, few of us will be left unaffected by the economic recession. And sadly some of us may have to face the harsh reality of unemployment. What’s certain is that none of us is immune from recent events in the world’s stock markets. But what are to think about the current financial crisis?
I think the biblical concept of idolatry is as good a way as any to make sense of things. An idol is essentially a God substitute. It’s a created artefact that’s taken the rightful place of God in our attention and affections. It’s the thing we believe can provide us with the experience of our version of heaven for which we so long. And so it becomes our functional saviour and the thing to which we offer worship, obedience and sacrifice. Associated with whichever idol we’ve chosen is a religious system involving the holy places and those who conduct the rituals of worship, the High Priests. Underpinning the whole thing is an evangelistic mission that seeks to keep our love of the idol on the agenda. And so, I wonder whether the following four observations might help us chart a way through the treacherous waters of financial analysis?
1. The functional saviour that we believe can deliver the heavenly experience is the free market economy. We might not express it in those terms, but that’s what’s going on. In the past, people used to regard God as the self sufficient, inexhaustible, mysterious, benevolent and all-powerful source of what we need for an abundant life. But that old religion has now been displaced by the worship of the capitalist economic system. And so, as one person put it, ‘If people in the ancient world worshipped sticks and stones, today everywhere can be found the worship of stocks and shares’. And so the economy is revered and afforded sacred status and any criticism of the capitalistic ideology is regarded as blasphemy. Many are absolutely convinced that capitalism is the thing that can save us.
2. The heavenly experience for which we so yearn is material wealth. To be wealthy is to have attained salvation; poverty is hell from which we must be delivered. The purpose of life is simply to be wealthy. In plain denial of Jesus’ words in Luke 12, many are committed to the idea that salvation is found in the abundance of our wealth and possessions. And so the meaning of life is described in economic terms. We’re valued only to the degree in which we participate in the economy system. This means that the stay at home Mum, the unemployed, the unemployable or the homeless are viewed with sympathy, at best or derision, at worse.
3. The high priests are the only people that properly understand the intricacies of the financial markets. They gather together in the financial institutions where they pour over their sacred writings in the financial press, like the Financial Times. Laymen might try and get our heads round what’s going on by reading the popular literature like the supplements in the Sunday papers, but for most of us it‘s nothing more than incomprehensible mumbo jumbo! If it’s true that many have yet to find someone who can explain the truth of the gospel in language they can understand, the same could be said of the financial world!
4. The evangelistic mission of this false religion is propagated through advertising. This marketing endeavour could simply inform us of the merits and benefits of a good or service. If that was all that it did, it would serve a valuable purpose. But advertising seeks to tap into our insatiable appetite for more. Apparently the average American watches about 85 different television advertisements every day! Every single one of them has one unrelenting message; you’re life is imperfect until you accumulate the good and services that we’re promoting. Cultivating contentment and thankfulness against such a barrage of unhelpful visual stimulation requires godly determination.
Conclusion
And so, given recent events in which this idol has been stripped bare, it ought to be apparent that worshipping the economic system is an exercise in futility. The free market economy is nothing more than the creation of human hands and therefore it cannot save. We don’t need to get rid of it; it’s still the best way of doing things. Just don’t expect it to do what we hope that it will; provide salvation.
Some of us may have become secret devotees of materialism, worshipping at the altar of the economic system. And so, this is a good time therefore to do the following two things; first, to repent of our willing greedy participation in the perpetuation of this senseless idolatry and secondly, to redirect our trust and hope for the future to the God who has promised to save us.
With best wishes in Christ
richard
Despite the nonstop coverage, I guess that most of us struggle to make much of the BBC Business Correspondent, Robert Peston’s illuminating analysis of all things economic! Some of us may even be under the impression that the ‘Credit Crunch’ is what Alistair Darling has for breakfast! But for many of us, the words ‘derivatives’, ‘hedge funds’ and ‘sub-prime mortgage’ have now become familiar, if not welcome, additions to our vocabulary. Joking aside, few of us will be left unaffected by the economic recession. And sadly some of us may have to face the harsh reality of unemployment. What’s certain is that none of us is immune from recent events in the world’s stock markets. But what are to think about the current financial crisis?
I think the biblical concept of idolatry is as good a way as any to make sense of things. An idol is essentially a God substitute. It’s a created artefact that’s taken the rightful place of God in our attention and affections. It’s the thing we believe can provide us with the experience of our version of heaven for which we so long. And so it becomes our functional saviour and the thing to which we offer worship, obedience and sacrifice. Associated with whichever idol we’ve chosen is a religious system involving the holy places and those who conduct the rituals of worship, the High Priests. Underpinning the whole thing is an evangelistic mission that seeks to keep our love of the idol on the agenda. And so, I wonder whether the following four observations might help us chart a way through the treacherous waters of financial analysis?
1. The functional saviour that we believe can deliver the heavenly experience is the free market economy. We might not express it in those terms, but that’s what’s going on. In the past, people used to regard God as the self sufficient, inexhaustible, mysterious, benevolent and all-powerful source of what we need for an abundant life. But that old religion has now been displaced by the worship of the capitalist economic system. And so, as one person put it, ‘If people in the ancient world worshipped sticks and stones, today everywhere can be found the worship of stocks and shares’. And so the economy is revered and afforded sacred status and any criticism of the capitalistic ideology is regarded as blasphemy. Many are absolutely convinced that capitalism is the thing that can save us.
2. The heavenly experience for which we so yearn is material wealth. To be wealthy is to have attained salvation; poverty is hell from which we must be delivered. The purpose of life is simply to be wealthy. In plain denial of Jesus’ words in Luke 12, many are committed to the idea that salvation is found in the abundance of our wealth and possessions. And so the meaning of life is described in economic terms. We’re valued only to the degree in which we participate in the economy system. This means that the stay at home Mum, the unemployed, the unemployable or the homeless are viewed with sympathy, at best or derision, at worse.
3. The high priests are the only people that properly understand the intricacies of the financial markets. They gather together in the financial institutions where they pour over their sacred writings in the financial press, like the Financial Times. Laymen might try and get our heads round what’s going on by reading the popular literature like the supplements in the Sunday papers, but for most of us it‘s nothing more than incomprehensible mumbo jumbo! If it’s true that many have yet to find someone who can explain the truth of the gospel in language they can understand, the same could be said of the financial world!
4. The evangelistic mission of this false religion is propagated through advertising. This marketing endeavour could simply inform us of the merits and benefits of a good or service. If that was all that it did, it would serve a valuable purpose. But advertising seeks to tap into our insatiable appetite for more. Apparently the average American watches about 85 different television advertisements every day! Every single one of them has one unrelenting message; you’re life is imperfect until you accumulate the good and services that we’re promoting. Cultivating contentment and thankfulness against such a barrage of unhelpful visual stimulation requires godly determination.
Conclusion
And so, given recent events in which this idol has been stripped bare, it ought to be apparent that worshipping the economic system is an exercise in futility. The free market economy is nothing more than the creation of human hands and therefore it cannot save. We don’t need to get rid of it; it’s still the best way of doing things. Just don’t expect it to do what we hope that it will; provide salvation.
Some of us may have become secret devotees of materialism, worshipping at the altar of the economic system. And so, this is a good time therefore to do the following two things; first, to repent of our willing greedy participation in the perpetuation of this senseless idolatry and secondly, to redirect our trust and hope for the future to the God who has promised to save us.
With best wishes in Christ
richard
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