Over at my personal blog (TheGeoffRe(y)port), I’ve taken on a bit of a theme around the misplaced feeling of entitlement that is so engrained as an enabler for our consumeristic mindset in the west (”The Ongoing Redefinition of Wealth“, “India to US - Shut up Fatty” and “Lobbyist, Possibly The Funniest Profession In The World” - if you’re interested). And the more I write about these ideas, the more obvious it becomes to me that if we are genuinely serious about this kingdom of God thing and finding out what that means in our culture, then it’s time we addressed this issue very, very seriously.
We have to recognise that we have this deeply misplaced feeling of entitlement to our lifestyle; and at times we in the church are perpetuating the dangerous myth that this is OK. When we expect that we have a right to drive as much as we like, in whatever car we like - we’re giving our devotion to that stuff. My problem is not so much that people have these things (necessarily), but that we feel “entitled” to that. We feel as though we “deserve” that.
When Jesus sent his disciples out two by two, they weren’t to have anything.
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep.
Matthew 10:5-10 (NIV)
A Christianity that follows the man who said this, needs to be able to imagine this methodology as a possibility. I’m not suggesting that Jesus is telling you to get rid of all your possessions: but I am suggesting that the horror such a prospect invokes in you is part of the problem here. Because deep down, through the gradual indoctrination of our culture, we believe that we deserve to have the things we own.
I firmly believe that we are called to take the call of Jesus seriously, and to act counter-culturally in this area. What if our pre-requisites for working missionally in an area was to go with nothing in the bank, and nowhere to live? Now I’m going extreme, but the fact that I don’t know a culturally equivalent example to the passage quoted above seems to me to say something about the way we’re operating.
Now, I realise that I’m doing the thing that infuriates my good friend Paulie: asking questions but not really offering a solution. But I think we need to be getting this stuff out there, because I firmly believe that these feelings of entitlement and getting what you deserve are harmful to the gospel in Christians.
And I am the chief of these sinners.
