Book-Aid: Our first book collection

It's been some time since we started being a collector for:

Book-Aid.org

So I thought I'd let you see how many books we have collected and encourage you to donate at the same time!  So here we go:

Twelve boxes of Christian books and Bibles - waiting for collection and a very big 'Thank You' to all who have contributed to the contents of them.

Christians- Stop stealing and get an honest job!

One of my colleagues woke me with a bit of a challenge when he wrote:

"It's not what you get, it's what you give: "Thieves should stop stealing and get a job doing honest work with their hands. Then they'll be able to give to the poor." (Ephesians 4:28)

John Piper's commentary on this verse is instructive:
"There are three levels of how to live.
1.) You can steal to get.
2.) You can work to get.
3.) You can work to get 'in order to give'.

Too many professing Christians live on level two. But the Bible pushes us relentlessly to level three."

Working to get is good but no more than anyone should do. Working to get to give is better and is the way of Christ."

It's amazing but I get to hear of so many churches that are struggling financially and yet find nice new cars outside the church building. Not only that but I am regaled by stories of wonderfully exotic holidays and shown, or told of, the very latest in fashion, technology and person-possessing property (don't try that after a four service Sunday when you've misjudged the communion wine at them all!).

If we were to preach the heading of this blog entry we'd be faced with angry and affronted church members I'm sure, but there is something we need to take away from this. So let's have a look see:

The Bible unequivocally (Exodus 20: 15) tells us that we must refrain from stealing. This means that we don't 'steal to live' and definitely not to prosper (which I guess is what having more than the basics for living must be thought of - being prosperous).

None of us can give what we do not own to another, for it is not ours so how could we offer stolen things to God, for to offer Him stolen goods is to not only defile Him but to rebel against Him too? Bring into the equation tithes and offerings (a contentious sermon in prospect for some I meet!) where bringing as tribute to God anything dodgy would really us in it, wouldn't it?

Stealing is actually a very clever reference insofar as Paul is concerned for this often disregarded act is one of which most commonly takes the silver behind lying. To cease stealing is to be in accord with God's call on our lives in such a way that our daily living and worship becomes right. Righteousness and obedience are prime factors in our ability to lead others into the 'Way of the LORD'

So those of us who don't steal have a Pharisee point and are prompted to work out a way whereby we can live without sinning (in that way at least!).

So what do we do to live?

We we either get a job, live off rich families and friends, win the lottery or charge people for the answer to the question, "What do we, as Christians, do to live?". (I'd like to think this also applies to non-Christians but I'll only preach to the converted with this stuff today!)

We've cracked part the first: Stop stealing and are struggling with the second, which is 'get a job'! So what sort of job? The answer to which is, a proper job - one that pays (a difficult task these days, especially as there are so many who pay little and only want to pay the little for the minimum hours they can to get the job done).

So what we need to do is look at the third part which basically says get enough to pay for all you need to pay for which means shelter, food, heat, light and stuff for yourself and your family (clothes and the like). Add to this the money you might need to pay the taxman (25%) and the God man (10% service charge to the Lord please?) and then that's the basics dealt with. But of course there is more to be considered isn't there (cigarettes, alcohol, entertainment, SKY, cars and so many other other basics)?

The key to the passage that challenged me is that we need to be right in the area of stealing and get our money for the basics from honest labour. We need to make sure that we define our basics correctly (I think I have) and move forward from there. The problem is that so many Christians I meet will make out their list like this:

Income: 25n (after tax - so George Osborne's paid)
Expenditure
House = 7n
Food = 5n
Energy = 3n
Clothes = 2n
Entertainment = 3n
Other stuff = 3n
What's left = 2n

What God gets (plate at the ready and drumroll please . . . . )

Here you are God - here's you 1n as usual!

Seems to me that whilst most (many, some, all?) Christians don't steal from man, they also don't manage to either earn enough or perhaps merely give enough to prevent them from shortchanging God (and being in a place to care for the needs of those around them) and there is a chance that this might be considered to be stealing from God (or at least denying Him what might rightfully be considered His, which is a much nicer term isn't it?).

The Bible does indeed, "Push us relentlessly to level three," for it here that we settle all our debts and provide for those around as they have need from what it is that we have.

Now, I'm convinced - how on earth will I convince others?

A final thought:

where your treasure is, there will your heart be also!(Matt 6:21)

Relief: Why doesn't the world do something?

I have had a most challenging and interesting conversation in that the other party stated that they believed there was a god who created the world and everything and caused us to have life and be placed here and that was where god stopped. Everything else was left to us to decide our paths and control our thoughts and actions, nothing was set and everything was fluid. This, I was told, would explain the reason that there was so much suffering and death in the world; god had done his bit and now declined to have any involvement in things.

I pointed out that many of the deaths across the world could be prevented if only large corporations put shareholder dividends and profits second to making their products (drugs and services) available to those with need at cost price; the principle of getting those who could pay doing so with the result that those who couldn't might benefit! I also pointed out that many of the wars used differences and well-constructed lines of race, colour, creed and tongue as the legitimising element for their own greed and violence.

The response to this was that when it came to need, "The Church should be doing something!" I quickly pointed out that indeed the Church was only to be told, "Then it needs to do more!"

I explained that what we needed was the world to become engaged in the battle against poverty, disease, famine and conflict but came away thinking that the prevailing attitude was that this was the Church's task not the worlds.

Guess we are the universal do-gooders.

Who is my brother (and why are they only the world's when we have a BBC TV day full of celeb's making appeals)?

Aaaargh!

ps. I was recently stopped by a lovely old lady who told me how she turned over when 'them poor black babies' were put on the screen to raise money. "They don't seem to think how seeing images like that spoils our television watching, " says she, "I have to turn over!"

Seems like many of those in the world turn over whilst the Church (I hope) watches, weeps, prays and (I hope) acts!

TWTYTW- It's over now let it go!

One of the biggest things with the Christian faith is the very important issue of forgiveness.

We have the forgiveness of God who, as Jesus the Christ, comes to earth and pays the price so that we might be declared 'justified' (that is 'innocent'). Our sins are pardoned, forgiven and therefore just as we see the Father doing, so too should we be doing also. This, of course, means that forgiveness is a big part of who we are and how we behave towards one another.

So here, where I am, it is almost a quarter to ten and the church building is reverberating to the sound of music and the tables are full of good things and as we approach the finishing line for yet another year it is time to ask God to forgive us all that we have done wrong and for all that we have failed to do.

It is a time to reflect upon our shortcomings and celebrate on the , many more, successes and blessings that 2011 brought to us (and us to it).

It is a time to reflect on those who might have hurt us, accidentally, intentionally and perhaps without knowing and to lay everything that we might have against them, thinking that perhaps somehow we have the right, at the foot of the Cross praying that they will be blessed and a blessing in the year that is almost upon us.

And so Father God, I pray that you will make me a little more sensitive, a little slower to act and slower still to judge. Help me to be quicker to come alongside those with needs. Help me to be less judging and more caring, less about self and more about selflessness.

As we approach the coming year we look to Jesus, the Messiah and the fact that as we enter 2012 His second advent is that little bit nearer than it was this time last year. We ask that He will help us to be more like Him and that others will see more of Him and less of us than they did in 2011.

May God bless, enable and surround you, and those you love, with His grace, love and mercy and strengthen you to be His witnesses in all that we do in 2012.

And to those who have journeyed with me in church, blog and so many other ways - thank you for your prayers, patience and support. As a friend once said (of the year quite a few years back, but no less true tonight, for tonight) 2012 is going to be a very exciting year! Hallelujah!

Blessings

Privileged Clergy, pressurised Parishoners

Returning to the issue of 'finance and the Church', time to respond to the comments made in the first-placed observation, namely:

"The clergy live in their privileged and comfortable lives whilst demanding that their poor and disadvantaged congregations pay for the privilege in the money the are pressured to give!"

Assuming that the 'privilege' is meant in some way to be monetary, for it fits with the general tone of the comment my first observation has to be that if they are then they're either doing it from private means as where I find myself the six of us work hard to keep our heads above water, especially with the current recession, rises in energy, fuel and just about every other cost! I realise that having six of us in a household is perhaps not the norm but it is for us.

As for, "demanding that their poor give!" Working in an Urban Priority Area I have to say that generally all of the those within the area we serve might well be considered poor with respect to many parts of the country (for 'poor' is surely a comparative) and even with in our own town we most definitely serve the 'have nots'. As for pressurising the congregations, I would have to say that generally, as a breed, clergy still tend not to lean on people to pay a tithe (which is actually the minimum of course) and yet there is this misconception amongst those outs, and I have to assume that the author of this comment was not a church member, that we are always out there with our begging bowls!

Where I am, and I cannot speak for others, our church building is used by the community without charge. Groups and individuals come and make use of our facilities and services and the answer is always the same, for Church (the people of God) should be paying for their buildings and the heating, lighting and whatever where it can and where it can't, if there is good reason for this (and I would have to say being a truly missionary church is pretty much the only caveat here) it should be supported by the other churches around it (i.e. at diocesan level or nationally). Now we get loads of flak from some because we don't charge, especially those who do charge for EVERYTHING and see us undercutting them (rather than ministering to the needs of those around us) and those who moan because of the difficulty we have in paying Parish Share (claiming we should charge for everything and pass the plate around at every opportunity), but that's life I guess.

Oddly though, the same people who complain that we charge for nothing are the very same people who get envious about the fact that we've decorated, installed central heating (where we had storage heaters), got new chairs, fitted a new kitchen (with dishwasher and double-ove, eight burner oven) and more besides - at no cost to the church (yep, all donated - even the plumber came and offered his services free!). God calls us to scatter our bread on the water - well we do and God has proved himself time and time again to be no man's debtor!

But clergy are indeed 'privileged' for the the calling that we have responded to is something that is a reward in itself but it's not financial. We might not be 'comfortable' but, generally speaking, we have dinner (and often lunch too) at home and are not subject to the pressures of working for someone else, for we set our own workloads and tasks for much of our working week. Now that is a privilege, but perhaps one that should see us offer to exchange places with people in the 'real' world of work or do a day with church members every now and then to keep the experience real. That said, we have but a very small number who are working and so, for me, this would be a bit difficult!

Those who are Church are also privileged and we all, for we are all 'Laos' (i.e. Church, God's people) should be paying sacrificially but from the outpouring of our hearts with gratitude and never because we are pressured by another.

Church should work at people seeing what they get for free and yet to do this without claims of exhibiting pride or generating envy on the part of others is something I just don't know how to do. So we do the stuff, live the life, house the homeless, feed the hungry and minister to the broken. The rest is up to God!

Pax

Down with money - send the Gas Company a Chicken!

Having had my rant over the CofE selling its possessions, let us move on to the second placed suggestion:

"The 'Church' should oppose all financial dealings and seek a return to an equitable world where people traded and lived by bartering and sharing resources and skills - like we used to!"

Well, this is an interesting comment to attempt to respond to because first and foremost I think it joins ranks with those who see standing on the prow of an unsinkable ship (which is about to sink!) and those who see Celtic Christianity as thinks of romantic beauty. The wonderful world of everything was much betterer then when it really obviously wasn't! Not only that but I don't think the world was equitable, fair or a very nice place when people bartered their skills for food, drink, medicine or homes.

I think there is some great confusion regarding matters financial and the day-to-day exchange of money for food, drink, clothes, housing and the like is something that will always be with us. Bartering is merely a changing of the currency and to be frank, many who propose this as a way of living would find themselves quite badly off because they have little to bring to the party. Those who would prosper under this scheme of life would do so to the extent that they swapped the excess produce and possessions they'd accrued by providing their skills that they would, within that setting, have become 'wealthy' and this is the root issue for so many I've met who support bartering.

For many this is an issue of wealth and the divide between the 'haves' and 'have nots' and looking at history - the poor (and inadequate) fared much less well when this was the order of the day. Of course the Bible tells us that, "The workman is worthy of his wage," and further instructs us to ensure that those who labour receive the benefits of that labour for we, "Do not muzzle the ox that treads the grain." (i.e. if you do the stuff you reap the benefits. The problem also comes when you get too old or are to ill to do stuff, for who will provide you with the necessities of life because you've been non-productive? Only a welfare state will do this and of course to do this there needs to be taxation (or insurance) present to provide.

What I think is really meant here is that we should deal with those who make money by losing money for their customers and then make money again by selling the stocks that lost the money for less money again! The wonderful world of commission and the dodgy world of insider dealing, big bonuses and the like are what is really being spoken of here. The demand from investors that their dividend yields and the profits of the companies in whom they invest coupled with the increasingly large salaries 9and benefits) of the people at the top (IDS - 50% increase over the past year - immoral, not even close - it's much worse than immoral!).

I think the issue is that we have different rules and standards for the ordinary person, the rich, the financial types and those in power and this, the Bible tells us (Deuteronomy 25) is wrong:

"You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and just measure, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you."

The problem is that the regulators failed to regulate, the government failed to govern fairly and without favour or concession to certain people whilst oppressing (for it is oppression) others. There were (and are) different weights in use and our government and those who regulate them all stand condemned and guilty as they show favour towards those who seek great returns for doing nothing and expect others to pay for their privilege. In doing so they, all, defy Deuteronomy 10:

"For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing."

No thanks, forget bartering and pay in good old fashion pound notes but stand and shout for those who oppress the poor, who raise the cost of living, see services cut to fund their excesses but do not pay, brought to book - and brought to live as The Book and its author commands. But the answer lies in prayer, prayerful dialogue and sticking to that which God commands, not disobedience and anarchy for these are the fruits of him against whom we contend.

Pax