You ignorant megachurches! Who was it that bought you? You know the story better than anyone! Christ died for you! The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Was your faith ever real, or did you simply find a church big enough to hide from God? Are you so stupid? You had turned your focus on God, and yet you have ended up fully devoted to yourselves again? Did you experience so much for nothing?—if it really was for nothing. Well, let me ask you this: Do your big lights, amazing stages, radically expensive buildings, and slick 3-point sermons make God show up? Or does God show up and move among you despite your ridiculous conformity to the vacuous culture around you?
Take Abraham for example. He was pretty wealthy, but he put all of his wealth on the line numerous times. He left his culture and people behind. He left his family behind. He took on Lot, whom he shared with and it cost him financially. He gave 10% of his tithe to the local priest Melchizedek. He wasn’t stingy, and often was poor himself. Why is it so strange to your ears to hear about serving others? God blessed Abraham saying, “All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.” You all benefit from Abraham’s faith. You didn’t earn it. You didn’t pay for it. Abraham did. Yet you resent others in your country benefiting from your wealth. Please, compare your combined blessings with how the rest of “all the gentiles” are getting blessed. Hoard much?
Everyone who relies only on themselves will eventually fail. Haven’t you heard the song, “Lean on me?” Remember that line, “Lean on me, when you’re not strong. And I’ll be your friend. I’ll help you carry on. For, it won’t be long, till I’m gonna need somebody to lean on.” You simply can’t do life alone. So why so much hate for those who have admitted they can’t help themselves? Can you give them a job? Those candidates you elected haven’t given them jobs. If you are God’s hands, then you are making God a liar, because the gentiles, and even those poor within the church, aren’t blessed.
Why am I making such a big deal about the poor in comparison to your richness? I wish I had a more intellectual answer than the one I am about to give. The reality is, helping the poor doesn’t make sense. Ignoring, blaming, exploiting, or getting rid of the poor would help everyone else a great deal. Unfortunately, while benefiting financially, we cannot spiritually afford to do this. Because when I read the scripture, from the very beginning to the very end, taking the words of the prophets in equal measure with the words of Paul, and everything in-between, I cannot escape the fact that God always hears the cry of the oppressed. God always hears when the poor cry out. The rich never, ever, deserve or get special protection from God, but the poor do. Many times, the scriptures condemn the rich simply for being rich in the presence of the poor. Time and time again, God commands us to help the poor. NEVER, EVER, are we told IN ANY WAY to help the rich. We aren’t told to safeguard their wealth. We aren’t told to help them get richer. We aren’t told to focus our evangelical efforts on them. To the contrary in every case. How then, can you justify building an entire church movement based on having thousands of people in the same building every week, whose faith amounts to the slickest presentation of religious goods and services, while outside your walls, there are people who God cares about suffering, while you protect your rights to have more wealth?
You sound rather like the pharisees and Sadducees that Jesus argued with. You have gotten so good at parsing words that you can explain with great flair why it is speaking against corporate and individual greed never gets brought up, but speaking against abortion and gay marriage is a weekly occurrence. Shame on you! You manipulate the words of our very Christ to suit your own needs – the needs of the few.
Pay attention! In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Rich or Poor, there is no longer Republican or Democrat, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. But be warned, if you continue to act and live out the differences, ignoring the poor, equating Christianity with Republican politics, and excluding women from top leadership, you will lose your place in God’s community entirely.
