And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, ‘Who is this?’ And the crowds said, ‘This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee’. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”, but you make it a den of robbers’. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
Matthew 21:10-14
In these Reflections, we explore the strategic dangers of
serving money, or mammon: mental, emotional, physical and spiritual dangers.
Yet, how vulnerable are Christians when materialism and consumerism are
presented to us in the name of Christ himself?
On Friday I referred to Keith Green. Another thing I learned
from him was the term, ‘Jesus Junk’. I cannot now recall whether I first read
it in his biography, No Compromise,
or in one of his leaflets but in the biography his widow writes this.
‘It seemed that selling Christian producers was very big business – not only in Christian bookstores, but at festivals as well. I was with Keith the day someone told us that at one Jesus festival they sold over $98,000 worth of “Jesus Junk” in just a few days! Keith nearly fell over from hearing those two words casually linked together.‘“Jesus – and junk?” He said angrily. “Those must be the two most opposite words in the English language!”’
In Matthew’s account of Jesus driving the bankers and
traders from the Temple for the second time, what strikes me most about it is
that afterwards, ‘the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he
healed them’. You could say that mammon – the power of money – had been surpassed by the power of God!
I am reminded of a story often attributed to St Francis of
Assisi. In one version, he is at the building of a cathedral, in another
visiting the Vatican; in one he is talking to the bishop, in the other to the
pope. ‘No longer need we say, “silver and gold have we none”’, boasts the
bishop or pope. Francis replies, ‘But neither can we say to the lame, “Rise up
and walk”’.
I would like to pose some more difficult questions for
Easter about the extent to which Christians and ‘Christian’ organisations deny themselves the power of God by their compromise
with the power of money.
- To what extent do Christians demonstrate their commitment to the consumer society by the accumulation of badges, jewellery, ornaments and other lifestyle accessories styled just for them?
- To what extent can such things, harmless in themselves, become 'must have' lifestyle accessories, or even status symbols, for certain churches and groups?
- To what extent might churches and 'Christian' conferences compromise their witness by excessive or inappropriate merchandise?
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Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans
2013.
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