The Lord saw it and spurned them, because of the
provocation of his sons and his daughters. And he said, 'I will hide my face
from them; I will see what their end will be, For they are a perverse
generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. They have made me jealous with
what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make
them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a
foolish nation…'
1 Corinthians
10:21-22 & Deuteronomy 32:19-21
Why would
Christians want to participate in pagan festivals and there, or anywhere else,
want to knowingly eat food that had
been sacrificed to idols? Well – actually, there were many reasons. But none of
them good ones. Civic pride, business opportunities and social status – to name
the more obvious.
Paul’s
question, ‘Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy?’ exposes the belief that
Christians who wanted to ‘get on’ believed they needed to do those things. To
be respected in the community and to succeed in business, some Christians
believed that they needed to attend civil and religious ceremonies where pagan
idols were honoured and worshipped. Like the Israelite farmers who put Asherah
poles in their fields, it signalled that they did not believe – not really believe – that God could or would
achieve as much for them!
Many
Christians today think that they have no alternative but to compromise with the
norms of behaviour in their work and social environments. They often rationalise
it, by thinking that once respected in those environments they will be both
‘salt’ and ‘light’, to use Jesus’ metaphors for how Christians can impact
society. But in their compromise, they lose the ability to be either or make
much of a difference at all.
When
Christians behave just like everyone else, it may be what society expects but
it neutralises most of the influence they might have and is disloyal to God. This is why the cult of money is as real and as
dangerous as any practiced in the Roman Empire.
Jesus said
that the first shall be last in society, the poor and those who suffer are
blessed and the meek will inherit the earth. The leaders are those who serve. He
told us to ‘turn the other cheek’ to those who abuse us; to forgive and to do
good to our enemies. The money given to the poor buys incorruptible treasure in
heaven but the treasures hoarded on earth are lost to theft and decay.
There is no
middle ground between that lifestyle and the norms of our capitalist, consumer
society. Although
generations of Christians have kidded themselves that capitalism is ‘divinely
ordained’, any system that gives primacy to money is contrary to God’s ways.
And to live as if it is right is to risk provoking God to jealousy. In the
second of the passages at the start of today’s Reflection, Moses is referring
to the same circumstances that Paul mentions in his letter, and conveys God's reaction: ‘They have
made me jealous with what is no god… So I will make them jealous with those who
are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation…’
The Bible has
many examples of God allowing his people to indulge their disloyalty. It is why
I think that Christians living in consumer societies have more challenges than,
say, Christians living under communism, fascism or any other oppressive ideology
with less subtle temptations. It is why so many Christians seem to behave like fully paid up materialists, capitalists and members of the consumer society.
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Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
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Handling
money and dealing with debt can be complicated and neither the author nor
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any action you take, or fail to take, based on what is written here.
