My
mind sometimes works in strange ways. Let me tell on myself and give an example
of what I’m talking about. I frequently wonder about the names of churches that
I pass when I am traveling. Now, I’m not talking about traditional church names
like “St. John’s” or “Holy Trinity.” And it’s perfectly clear why some churches
are named after their location, as ours is. But there are other church names
that send my mind off the cliff! For instance, when I pass a church that is
named “Full Gospel Apostolic Church,” I can’t help but wonder whether they
think that other churches only believe in a “partial gospel.” Do they think
that we stop reading Matthew after the fourth chapter, or leave out every other
word in the Gospel of John? Inquiring minds want to know! During my recent
vacation to the east coast, I ran across a church name that I had never seen
before: “Real Life Christian Fellowship.” You can guess where my mind went with
that one! If that church offers “real life,” do all the others offer “fake
life”? Now, while I giggle at a church named “full gospel,” this one made me
stop and think. What is “real life,” anyway?” Is there a “false life”? And if
there is, how do we avoid it? This morning’s scripture reading from the gospel
of John (10:1-10) claims that Jesus has come “that [we] might have life, and
have it to the full.” But Jesus didn’t give us any details! He didn’t show a
PowerPoint presentation with bullet points that tells us how to get to that
real life that he offers us. But there is a difference between the “real life”
that Jesus wants us to have and the “false life” that so many people run after;
and we need to consider just what that difference is.
Let’s
start with the passage from John that I just read. In it, Jesus tells us that
not only is he the shepherd of the sheep; he is the gate to the sheepfold where
the sheep are protected and cared for. It’s safe in the sheepfold; but outside,
it’s dangerous. All kinds of wild animals with big teeth and sharp claws run
around out there; and there are lots of places where there is nothing to eat or
drink. If the sheep wander unprotected into those places, they run the risk of
being killed or starving to death! The sheepfold is the place where the sheep
are cared for and protected. And if they venture outside the sheepfold, the
shepherd is right there to make sure that nothing happens to them. We, of
course, are the sheep. Jesus wants us to stick as close to him as superglue as
we go through our lives. Now, that’s nothing new. Most of us learned that in
Sunday school. Jesus is the Good Shepherd; and we want to live in his
sheepfold. And what kind of life do we have there? Why, the 23rd
Psalm spells it out for us! When we stick close to Jesus, we won’t lack for
anything. While we may not have everything that we want, we’ll have everything that we need. We’ll “lie down in green
pastures” and be led by “still waters.” Our souls will be restored as we “walk
in paths of righteousness,” and we won’t have to be afraid of evil even if we
“walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” God himself will comfort us,
and our cups will overflow with “goodness and mercy.” That sounds pretty good,
doesn’t it? It that’s the kind of “real life” that Jesus gives us, I want some
of it!
But
some preachers these days think that there’s more to “real life” than just
trusting in Jesus to give us what we need. Some preachers believe that we have
to be lots of money to have a full life. This emphasis on money started back in
the 1960s with TV preachers like Oral Roberts, Reverend Ike, and Jim Bakker.
They told their audiences that faithful Christians should send their
hard-earned money in to them so that it could do the Lord’s work. They told
them that if they sent in that money, God would bless them; and the more money
they sent in, the more they would be blessed. But all the time, those preachers
weren’t giving that money away to people in need; they were feathering their
own nests! Most people eventually caught on to their shenanigans. Some of them
were even jailed for their illegal activities. You’d think that this kind of
preaching would have ended there. But just when we thought it was gone, it came
back like a boomerang with a slick new name. Nowadays, it’s called the
“prosperity gospel.” The “prosperity gospel” claims that wealth is the way to a
good life; and because that’s the case, God wants all of us to be rich. But
before God gives us those riches, we have to prove that we have faith. And how
do we do that? Why, we give and we give and then we give some more until it
hurts! Then, these preachers tell us, God will bless us with so much wealth
that we won’t know what to do with it all! We’ll be able to buy diamonds from
Tiffany’s and clothing from Saks Fifth Avenue and cars from Mercedes. Some very
famous preachers offer a version of this message every week on their syndicated
TV shows.
Now,
if you’re wondering where in the world they got that idea, the surprising
answer is that they got it from the Bible. Some parts of the Old Testament
claim that if we do what God wants of us, we will receive material blessings. If
we prove to God that we’re faithful, in other words, God will reward us by
making us rich. They point to verses like this one in Psalm 17: “You quiet the
hunger of those you love. Their sons have plenty, and they store up wealth for
their children.” (Psalm 17:14a) That sure sounds like we get a payoff for
loving God! It buys right into the American dream that anyone can get rich if
they work hard enough. It puts a religious spin on it, though, so that the
message turns into, “Anyone can get rich if they have enough faith.” But if
this claim is true, what happens to God’s love for everyone? Does God only love
me if I prove that I love him back? And what about God’s grace? If we have to
earn grace, it isn’t grace at all!
But the
final proof that this “prosperity gospel” isn’t much of a gospel is Jesus
himself, who never once said that getting rich is the key to having a good
life. In fact, Jesus didn’t think too highly of wealth. Do you remember what he
told the Pharisees when they asked him if they should pay taxes? He said, “Give
to Caesar what belongs to Caesar; and give to God what belongs to God.”
(Matthew 22:15-21) Caesar is concerned about money, Jesus was saying, while
other things matter to God. Jesus taught his disciples that “Life is more than
food, and the body more than clothing…. Provide purses for yourselves that will
not wear out… for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke
12:23, 34) If anyone should have been blessed with wealth, it was Jesus, who
did everything that God asked of him; but who died after losing even the
clothes on his back. Yes, Jesus was blessed more than anyone else in history;
and money had nothing at all to do with those blessings. The “prosperity
gospel” is as fake as a three-dollar bill; and the claim that wealth is the way
to a full life is fake, too. Jesus gives us a full life not by making us rich
with money, but rich in things that really matter: love for one another,
forgiveness for our mistakes of the past, courage arising from the certainty
that we have nothing to fear from death, the peace that passes all understanding,
and the assurance that God is on our side no matter what happens to us. That’s
what a “real life” looks like.
My
prayer for all of you who read this is that your lives are full and real. I
pray that if anyone tries to snooker you with the claim that riches are the way
to a good life, you have the sense to throw them into the nearest river. I pray
that you stay close to Jesus; and that you live in the sheepfold with him where
life is rich not with dollars and cents, but with love and peace. And I hope
that you live in a “Real Life Christian Fellowship” all the rest of your days!
No comments:
Post a Comment