Evangelical Reformation

I have referred to the Sermon on the Mount as the “Ultimate Success Seminar.” As such, it gets off to a strange beginning, talking about being poor in spirit. Our last post reminded us that being poor in spirit includes the recognition that we own nothing, that we and all we have belong to God.

Had Jesus only been born a few millennia later, He might have gone to one of those real success seminars that tell us how to be rich and powerful. No wonder they rejected Him. He got it all backward.

But it gets worse. Not only does Jesus call us to be poor in spirit in our perspective on possessions, but even worse, He wants us to display poverty of spirit in our perspective toward people. That is, He not only wants us to live as though we own nothing, He wants us to maintain the attitude of an impoverished person in our interaction with others.

His point is (and bear with me) that just as riches tend to make us snobbish toward others and poverty tends to make us humble toward others, likewise, since we don’t own anything anyway, we should maintain the attitude of the poor.

Yes, I know, and He knew, that some rich people are very humble and some poor people, especially in our day of entitlement, can be arrogant. Nonetheless, it is a human tendency for the affluent to look down on the destitute. This, while still a reality, is not so much the case in our society because of our Christian heritage and also because of a significant middle class. However, in a Bible times society of the very rich and the very poor, a more common configuration throughout history, in which the poor were slaves of the rich and might starve without their benevolence, an attitude of superiority from the rich was almost expected, and likewise humility from the poor.

Of course, monetary riches are not the only type that influence our attitude. We can be rich in talent or success or power or appearance and popularity. These kinds of riches also tend to inflate the ego, the antithesis of being poor in spirit.

Jesus’ success seminar not only differed from contemporary ones in that He spoke of owning nothing instead of getting rich. It also emphasized being poor in spirit instead of promoting self-esteem, as do may contemporary seminars. Yes, psychologists tell us that the person with self-esteem is really the humble one. But that is just their humble opinion and has little to do with reality. The self-esteem movement has not exactly engendered a wave of meekness in our society or churches or marriages or selves. Nor has it led us to the blessing God has reserved for those who are poor in spirit—the topic of our next posting.

In addition to that blessing mentioned by Christ (to be dealt with in the next post), this humble attitude toward others brings with it many other benefits that engender success. It makes for good relationships. (Who enjoys being around an egotist?) It produces peace. Supporting an ego is a heavy burden to bear. Christ calls us to assume His yoke of meekness and lowliness of heart, which He describes as an easy yoke and a light burden.

In short, being poor in spirit in our attitude toward others produces genuine success in life. Maybe those contemporary success seminars aren’t getting it right after all.

How much do you own? The obvious biblical answer is nothing. Since God made us and redeemed us, He owns us, and therefore He owns all that we have. In addition, He made all that we have. Therefore, the word “mine” used in relation to human beings is not valid.

This is one implication of the term “poor in spirit,” in Matthew 5:3. (I plan to discuss another connotation of this phrase in the next post.) Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount by asserting that those possessing this perspective on ownership are blessed.

In Luke 6:20, Jesus makes the point more explicitly in saying, “Blessed are you poor.” Various passages in Scripture indicate that God does not want all of us to be poor in the literal sense. Otherwise, we would all either starve or have to depend on the largess of those who were not poor, those living outside of God’s will. However, God does want all of us to be poor in the sense that we do not claim ownership of what we have.

Acknowledgement of God’s ownership demands that we assume the role of the steward—practice stewardship. The steward was often a slave who owned nothing, but who was given control over his master’s resources in order to invest them for the maximum profitability. Likewise, we are called to use all of the resources God has placed under our control to produce the greatest profit for Him.

This requires that we analyze every item we put on our Outlook calendar, every purchase we enter into our Quicken program, and even the casual investments of our time and money, to ensure that they represent the most profitable decisions. Likewise regarding the big decisions like choice of career and job, and the small ones such as watching the Eagles play the Cowboys.

I am not suggesting that there is no room for recreation. That is necessary investment so that we can keep functioning. The point, though, is that our purpose in watching is not because we want to and it is our right, but because we need to recharge our batteries and this is the best way.

It is easy to trivialize this teaching, to say, “O yes, I realize that it all belongs to God,” and yet live as if it all belongs to us. I believe that God especially detests this pseudo-spiritual attitude, preferring rather that we would be honest enough to admit that we were going to be dishonest stewards and embezzle His resources for our use.

However, better than being honest about our dishonesty, is to be a good steward, to be poor in spirit, seeing and treating what we possess as belonging to God. Jesus said that those who did so would be blessed.

In a future post we plan to look at the blessing Jesus attached to this perspective on life, but let me suggest one here. If you take this view of your possessions, what do you have to lose? Think about it.

Let me introduce the ultimate success seminar. No, it is not a seminar that I am offering. Yes, you guessed it. This one was once offered about 2000 years ago, free of change, which may have been expected since there were no syllabi handed out or PowerPoint presentations. However did anyone possibly learn anything?

Nonetheless, it was the greatest, because the teacher was the greatest, and of the many lessons He taught, this one seems to be the most systematic presentation of His success theory. We have it recorded in Matthew 5 through 7.

The teacher repeats the words “blessed” a lot. Some think this means happy, and certainly those living according to the principles presented in the seminar will ultimately be happy. However, in the context the word means “blessed by God,” “objects of God’s favor.” This certainly is the ultimate success, to have the God of the universe, the ultimate “blesser,” happy with you, and showering His benevolence on you.

The problem is that the seminar is not designed so you can take it and get it. “Now that I have read it, I am poised for success.” Imagine reading the Constitution once and thinking you grasped its message—that you are ready to present a constitutional case before the Supreme Court. This success seminar is far more profound than the Constitution.

Therefore, to get it you must soak in it for a long time—perhaps for a lifetime—allowing it to ooze into your pores, to become a part of the fabric of who you are. This soaking is needed both in order to plumb some of the depth of what is being said and to implant it in our hearts so that it becomes the grid through which we see and live life.

This soaking is needed, among other reasons, because this seminar teaches truths that are so foreign to our natural inclinations that we must be constantly immersed in these truths if we are going to begin thinking and living by them. In other words, soaking is essential for success. Our transformation from ordinary, carnal cucumbers to kosher spiritual pickles requires saturation in the juices of the Sermon on the Mount.

Because this seminar is foreign to our nature, the pickling process can get uncomfortable. This is not a relaxing experience like soaking in a hot tub. However, the long-term benefits are far greater than relaxed muscles. This pickling process leads to a life that will be blessed by God, one of ultimate success.

My plan is to use this blog to assist in that pickling process. This will include identfying aspects of our culture contrary to this seminar, ones that promote failure instead of producing succcess. I may go back to the three times a week schedule so that we can keep the pickling vat full. I hope that you will join me in the vat. You may want to read through Matthew 5-7 just to start the juices flowing. If we all allowed this pickling process to transform us into spiritual kosher pickles, we would have an evangelical reformation.