ben's blog

Enough Already!! A book review, sort of

This is a semi-review of a book I got in the mail recently.

The book is Enough: Contentment in an Age of Excess, and in it, Will Samson adds his voice to an ever-growing number of books addressing the issue of consumerism in Western society. It seems to be the topic du jour, and probably for good reason. It is a good thing when Christians begin to think theologically and critically about the cultural milieu they find themselves in, and more and more people are realizing that consumerism is the predominant cultural force in the Western world today. Samson's topic is also of personal interest to me, in that I recently wrote an essay on consumerism for the Master's degree I'm working on.

Economic recession as a blessing for mission

The following quote is an answer Skye Jethani gave to a question Dave Fitch asked about Skye's new book (which I'd like to read) called The Divine Commodity. It revolves around how the current economic recession can be a catalyst for church leaders to begin to steer their congregations toward missional engagement, because of the disruption it is causing in people's attachment to their consumer identities (and the amount of cash available to build a consumer church).

I quote Skye's comments at length because they are so closely aligned with my own convictions. Read on for the quote.

Toward a blurred mine/yours line

"When we consume the Eucharist, we become one with others and share their fate."
- William Cavanaugh, Being Consumed, 95.

 It is tempting in our culture to see most of what happens in churches as "spiritual commodities" that are served to individuals seeking some kind of spiritual need met. They need to be a better parent, so they go to a church that's doing a series on parenting. They need some spice in their love life, so they go to one of the churches that's doing a series on sex for married couples. Even the Eucharist can be thought of as a kind of spiritual resource we offer for the benefit of individuals.

But the truth is actually much more liberating and disturbing, in that what seems to be happening is the the line between what's mine and what's yours is blurred, and possibly even destroyed, when I consume the Eucharist with you. As we eat the bread and drink the wine we are not only fed, but "taken up into Christ," and we become food for others. We are the body of Christ at the table, different parts, but one body.

When you eat lunch, the food you consume benefits your whole body. You do not take individual bites for different body parts ("Half a sandwich for the right leg, bite of tuna salad for the brain..."), but the whole meal benefits the whole body - there are no lines between what belongs to the eye and what belongs to the ear.

Likewise when we worship together and consume the Eucharist together, there are no lines between what belongs to me and what belongs to you. This seems to me to have radical implications for how we think about and use our money and possessions, don't you think?

"If we are identified with Christ, who identifies himself with the suffering of all, then what is called for is more than just charity. The very distinction between what is mine and what is yours breaks down in the body of Christ. We are not to consider ourselves as absolute owners of our stuff, who then occasionally graciously bestow charity on the less fortunate. In the body of Christ, your pain is my pain, and my stuff is available to be communicated to you in your need."

- William Cavanaugh, Being Consumed, 56.

Love that never says "You owe me."

Even after all this time

the sun never says
to the earth,
"you owe me."
Look what happens
to a love like that,
it lights up the whole
sky.

- Hafiz, a Persian(?) poet from the 1300s (ht)

I have been using Luke's gospel as a springboard for researching this paper on consumerism (looking for paradigms in Jesus' attitude toward money and possessions). Something I am finding that I'd never seen before is how much Jesus has to say about the social and economic relations of people. The whole gospel, it seems, he is challenging the social mores that were more or less accepted in his day - he is including the excluded (by healing them, for example), he is eating with all the wrong people (meals were public, and served to reinforce the social order of things).

He also challenges the way gifts are given. Typically in Greco-Roman and Jewish society at the time, a "gift" is given with strings attached, either explicit or implicit. Essentially gifts were given in order to put others in your debt and increase your social standing in the community. It was about power and position. If you gave a gift to someone, after awhile you would be totally justified in saying to them: "You owe me."

But Luke's Jesus turns all that on its head, advising others to "lend, expecting nothing in return" (6:35), "sell your possessions and give to the poor" (12:33), and "when you give a luncheon or dinner, don't invite ... your rich neighbors... invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind..." (14:12-13). And why? Those rich neighbors will just invite you over sometime to repay you, but if you invite those who cannot repay you, you will be "blessed," - they can't repay you, but God will.

In an economy of exchange, we expect that people will use their wealth to their advantage, either to store it up for themselves, or perhaps use it to gain social status or power. But the economy of the kingdom is completely different: it is a gift economy, where gifts are given freely, no strings attached; where both giver and receiver are aware that God provides for them both; where economic concerns are not abstracted from other community concerns; where resource is given freely, especially to those who cannot repay, trusting that as we do so we are storing up treasure in heaven, where God repays lavishly (6:38).

The kingdom of God is an economy where gifts are given without any thought of "You owe me." Perhaps a community like that could light up a city the same way the sun lights up the sky.

Surprises are most of life

This is kind of how I feel as I try to write this paper on Jesus, the church, and consumerism:

The deeper I dig, the more I find, the more the focus of the paper changes... now to try to say something coherent in only 5,000 words!

(from the indexed blog)