130714 Consumer Christianity

When the economy tanked a number of years ago, do you remember what our government really, really wanted us to do?

Spend more money.

Domestic auto manufacturers offered incredible deals on cars.  Interest rates were slashed.  All to get us to spend more money to buy more stuff.

Why was there any confidence in our taking the bait?  Because we are a consumer culture.

Especially over the last 70 years, companies of all kinds have realized and nurtured this aspect of American culture.  The big up side of our insatiable appetite is that it drives innovation.  Were it not for our need for better stuff, we’d still have eight-tracks laying around our cars.  If you have no idea what an eight track is, you really missed out.  Give your iPod/iPhone/iPad a bug hug right now.

A big downside, however, is that our consumerism tendencies have bled into every area of our lives.

We wonder if it’s time to trade up on a phone that’s working just fine.  We wonder if our homes are adequate.  If our cars need to be replaced long before they are due.  Should we let our marriages go because there may be a better option out there?  We all know that this reality exists.

And it impacts our faith, too.

Over the last four decades, denominational devotion (Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, etc.) has declined in ways previously unimaginable.  I wonder if there is a connection between our growing consumer-orientation and this reality?

Talk to any pastor, and they will tell you that they have experienced the upside and/or downside of this phenomenon.  We have gained people at times, and lost people at times, in part due to the fickleness of our culture’s people.

But can we be blamed?  Is this bad?  After all, isn’t it a good thing to want to get the best we can find for ourselves?  Isn’t the burden on churches to deliver the Gospel goods as best they can?  The market will speak, right?

The good news for us is that God is fully aware of our “what’s best for me” attitude and orientation toward life and faith.  Therefore, God extended an invitation to humanity to experience the best possible life.  That offer still stands.  God offers the best way of life for every person, wherever they were born, custom-made for their particular context.  Moses talked about it.  Prophets and some kings talked about. 

Jesus lived it.  He basically told his followers to follow him because he was “nailing it.”  Follow Jesus, and you are going to experience the promise fulfilled that God gave to our ancestors more and more as your continue to mature in Jesus’ Way, which is really God’s way.

The rub comes, however, when we realize that in order to follow Jesus, we will be required to abandon our self-centered, consumer tendencies.  One of Jesus’ favorite parables – the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) makes just that point.  The hero of the story is not one of the religious leaders who look the part, but actually a guy who was hated by Jewish people.  He was a hero because he placed his own needs, desires, timetable, etc., behind the needs of a guy who was desperate for help.  Our consumer mentality forces us to take seriously the cost, which tells us to care for the needs of other at our own expense.

In Receptive Prayer, Grace Adolphsen Brame noted the following: Most of us pray that God will do something to us or for us, but God wants to do something in us and through us.  That can only be done through our cooperation, through our yielding to God in receptive prayer, first in quietness; then in action.  God can give ourselves to God’s self to us for God’s purpose only as we give ourselves to God.  God does not ask for a death of self but for the death of self-centeredness.  God asks for the self’s surrender and its offering to be used in God’s service.

So, consumer Christian, you have an interesting proposition.  God is offering you the Way to life at it’s best. 
But to get it, you have to give up your consumer tendencies.  How do you respond?

To Ponder…

1. How has our faith been helped by consumerism?  How has it been sabotaged?
2. How has consumerism negatively impacted your walk with God?
3. When you pray, are you typically wanting God to do something to or for you, or are you more geared toward God doing something in a through you?
4. How are you feeling the rub between consumerism and God’s call on your life?

130707 How do you name this teaching?

The story of the healing of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:1-14 is a story about humanity – how we behave, what we are called to do, and what role we play in our respective human dramas.

Naaman was a big deal.  People knew him.  He was a military big shot.  When he was desperate, he brought tons of money to find healing from God through Elisha.  He was willing to pay a fortune to get rid of his leprosy.  But the price Elisha demanded was too high for Naaman.  It wasn’t a money problem.  It was a pride problem.  Elisha simply asked him to bathe in the Jordan seven times.  That’s it.  And he got offended and began to walk away from his hope of being healed.

We look at Naaman and scoff.  What a fool!  We shout at him from our recliners as we read the biblical account, distancing ourselves from such moronic, stubborn behavior.  Yet we are all Naaman, aren’t we?  How often does our stubbornness and pride keep us from doing what we need to do to find better life, but don’t?  We’ll do a hundred other things, but fail to do that which will heal us.  It’s the husband who won’t go to marriage counseling.  It’s the wife who won’t get help on her addiction to…  The workaholic parent who doesn’t spend time with the kids and wonders why they compete for attention, and get it any destructive way they can.  Or the person who wonders why they can’t hold down a job while people around keep dropping strong hints of the answer.

Where has your pride gotten in the way of your life, health, happiness, etc.?  Where is your pride getting in the way right now?

We look at Elisha with great admiration.  What a bold man of God!  He senses what God wants him to do and does it!  What a rock star!  We are like Elisha, though – did you know that?  We know that the Spirit of God flows through us all, and at times guides and directs people in our direction for counsel.  So, the question: are we praying for those in our sphere of influence?  Are we praying for awareness of what God would have us do to be God’s agent for those people when necessary?  Are we listening for God’s voice?

How do you know when God speaks to you about someone who needs you?  How are you cultivating your ability to hear God speak to you?

We need to look at the unnamed officer who encouraged Naaman.  Here is a guy who walked all that way with Naaman, his commanding officer.  But before they got too far down the pike, the officer simply spoke with calm reason to his boss.  His approach must have been inspired.  He told his angry commander to reconsider his actions in such a way that he actually listened.  Amazing.  Did you know that you are like that officer?  There are people in your world who need encouragement, and you are just the person for the job!

Who is your sphere needs encouragement?  How do you know?  How do you think you need to speak encouragement to someone discouraged?  How might you approach someone who is hostile?

May you have ears to hear what God is calling you to do to move forward in your life, your ministry, your faith, everything.  May you  be sensitive to those around you who need encouragement – and may you discern the best way to give it.  May you realize what a powerful, Spirit-filled servant God has made you to be in this world, and may you begin living like it.