February 20, 2012 · 2:33 pm

The Mystery of Walking in the Spirit

We tend to fixate on material reality: where will I live, what will I eat, where will I work? But even when we are unaware, our walk on earth is simultaneously a walk in the heavenlies.

God has equipped us with His Spirit. That has far deeper meaning than we can understand. Jesus performed miracles and we often think “Yeah, but He was God.” But Peter and Paul and others performed miracles. Do we see miracles in our own lives?

Our walk with God is shrouded in mystery and the busyness of life is noisy, overwhelming God’s “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12). We have to quiet our spirit to hear His Spirit. That is why Jesus went to the desert and into the Garden at Gethsemane to pray, alone, in a quiet place.

It is a challenge to find that space amidst the scurry of our world but God is speaking to each of us every day. Can you hear Him? What is He saying? Many times it may be nothing more than “I love you” but all His words are eternal. Everything He has ever said to us, He is still saying and will always say.

God is always speaking, leading, comforting, reassuring, healing: “This is the way, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21b). Galatians 5:25 says that “if we live by the Spirit,” focusing on God and drawing direction from Him, “let us walk by the Spirit,” motivated by divine character.

When spiritual and earthly realities align, we see the glory of God, even if the miraculous is only in the fundamentals: the changing of our perspectives, values, and actions.

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February 17, 2012 · 4:29 pm

Step-by-Step

We live in a culture that most mornings would prefer to microwave its instant coffee. We want everything done at least by right now and preferably the day before. We rush to complete projects, race to meetings and activities, and exhaust ourselves choosing between too many priorities. This flies in the face of “entering into rest” (Matthew 11:28–29) and creates undue anxiety (Matthew 6:25–34). God was explicit: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10a).

But taking life step-by-step is designed into creation and evident in God’s pattern in His mission in the world. We race right past God when we try to take too much control over a process now more than 4,000 years old. Abram became Abraham and through him the Christ would come. Many generations have passed and the world has inched its way toward God’s ultimate goal of the redemption of all creation.

The “stepping” process is also characteristic of our growth in Christ. We get anxious when we stumble, not living up to the holy standard. We strive after acceptance by our performance. But our flesh fights us along the way. “But we all . . . are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18, emphasis mine).

And perhaps a bit at a time we come to understand the depth and breadth and the width of God’s love for us as He forgives and encourages us onward. Take a time-out today . . . just to rest, commune with God, or hang out with friends or family. We are all on the way. God will get us to where we are going (Philippians 2:13) in His way and in His time, step-by-step.

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February 15, 2012 · 4:34 pm

Overcoming Sweat: A Possible Future

(This essay is a close adaptation excerpted from the book Eden’s Bridge: The Marketplace in Creation and Mission, © David B. Doty, 2011, available from the author or from Wipf & Stock Publishers. This essay should be read with the thesis of Eden’s Bridge—the marketplace is an institution of God, implicit in the creation narrative of Genesis 1–2 and vital to God’s mission in the world—in full view.)

The consequences of Adam’s sin (taking Eve’s curses separately) were guilt, shame, spiritual isolation, banishment from the Garden, the curs­ing of the ground, toil (`itstsabown), and sweat. While Adam did work in the Garden before the Fall, the ease of access to its abundant resources apparently made for easy work, at least by comparison to how we see work afterward.

Creation outside the Garden took on a contentious nature after the Fall, producing weeds that corrupted the fields, stealing essential nu­trients from Adam’s produce, and adding to the actual work needed to produce food. `Itstsabown (Strong’s 6093) is interpreted as pain, labor, hardship, sorrow, or toil. It is easy to picture Adam sowing seed, weed­ing, and harvesting under the heat of the sun, sweating, and groaning from muscle aches. `Itstsabown is also one of the terms used to describe Eve’s pain in childbirth in Genesis 3:16.

Through the ages work has remained tedious and physically de­manding, but there have been dramatic reductions in the monotony and physical difficulty of work in developed economies. The creation and ac­cumulation of new wealth has empowered the development of new tech­nologies that have eased the burden and increased the productivity of work. Labor saving and productivity tools and systems are everywhere, from indoor plumbing to the Internet, from hand tools to earthmoving machinery.

There is a hierarchy to making work easier. The foundation is the essential cooperative element of the marketplace—the division of labor. While this was instituted in the Garden with the introduction of Eve as ezer (one who aids), the Bible reveals the second key, derived from the division of labor, in the very next generation: specialization. Abel was a keeper of flocks and Cain was a tiller of the ground (Genesis 4:2b). It is likely that they each brought different products, of their individual efforts and expertise, to the well-being of the family community.

Specialization fosters the third key: innovation. Practitioners en­hance productive efficiencies through creating innovative processes and technologies. The creative impulse of God, apparent in our inheritance of the imago Dei, enhances human critical and imaginative thinking, such that that which is unseen might be envisioned and brought into reality. Andy Stanley calls this practice visioneering . . . “the [intellectual and action] process[es] whereby ideas and convictions take on substance.”[i]  Innovation invites the fourth key: collaboration. This development moves the marketplace from its basic operations in the exchange of goods and services to include the exchange of ideas. All these—the divi­sion of labor, specialization, innovation, and collaboration—along with the right moral mindset and favorable circumstances, contribute to an upward cycle of increasing human productivity.

World religions have historically spread along trade routes, such as the roadways of the Roman Empire or along the Silk Road, and with mil­itary and colonizing conquests as invaders brought their own religions with them. Despite cultural resistance to the philosophic ideas brought by dominating powers, acceptance by elite groups in conquered societ­ies is often a pragmatic decision as a means to bring higher social order to the receiving culture.[ii]

After the initial spread in the Middle East in its first four centuries, Christianity spread predominantly to the west into Europe and the Americas. In the last two centuries it has continued to spread and is growing dramatically in Asia and Africa.[iii]

A democratizing influence has spread to the West more or less concurrently with Christianity, especially after the Reformation under­mined the centralized political power of the Roman Catholic Church. The underlying principles of the democratic movement have been ap­propriated from liberal Greek philosophy and conjoined to Christian personal and political ethics, especially thought development on indi­vidual liberty of conscience and responsibility. There are, however, argu­ments demonstrating a fair degree of formative liberal government and economic thought derived from the Jesus teachings,[iv] now evident in Roman Catholic social teaching and emerging Protestant literature.[v]

Classical liberal governance and economics have encouraged the pursuit of free enterprise and individual wealth as reactions opposing the oppression of the masses in the history of feudalism and the enslave­ment of monarchical tyranny. Labor and capital consolidated around individuals, households, guilds, and communities to establish their own economic engines and leave the economic fate of others to themselves.

In The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, David Landes examines the influence of the Judeo-Christian value system in social and economic de­velopment, especially its views on private property, freedom, decentral­ization, egalitarianism, accountability, transparency, legal institutions, and so on.[vi] Orthodox Christian eschatology anticipates the re-ordering of human society, compelling it toward ever higher levels of cooperation and collaboration and furthering the institutionalization of accountabil­ity. In short, Christianity promotes economic and governmental systems based on trust, not necessarily of individuals but of the social contract and corresponding systems for avoiding or resolving conflict.[vii]

Trust creates environments conducive to complex economic activi­ties, e.g., the emergence of sophisticated capitalism. Though its founda­tions may be traced even to ancient times and was somewhat developed in Medieval monastic orders, capitalism is a pursuit that has come into its own, so to speak, in the last two hundred years.[viii]

The expansion of global wealth through capitalism has brought the human family to the economic capacity to eradicate extreme hunger. But wealth tends to concentrate in high growth and complex economies rather than being distributed evenly universally. The growth of the economies of India and China in the last quarter century have accounted for the percentage reduction in global poverty. Poverty rates in other places have remained stagnant and some have actually increased.

Two opposing approaches to the alleviation of poverty, or at least economic and political inequality, seem to have reached their polar ze­niths in the last century. One extreme seems right for leveling the playing field for all members of a society. Collectivism and social engineering, top-down efforts, have obviously failed in real ways but still draw the support of a broad audience as the shortest route to the equitable re­distribution of resources and wealth. The political left in democratic societies, while not always collectivists per se, favor coerced redistribu­tion through government interventions of taxation and social programs. These interventions are intended to offset the apparent evils (in their minds) of greed and economic oppression inherent in concentrations of wealth in free market economies. They make a good point that money corrupts political power.

There is a downside, however, to the interventionists’ approach. Free societies designed to protect religious, political, and philosophic freedoms and populated by a broad mix of sub-cultures and ideologies bring a wide variety of views and beliefs to the table. To honor the rights of all value systems governance is forced to become theologically neu­tral. Interventionist idealism is motivated by compassion and moral zeal but moral oversight in a pluralistic, free society must ultimately descend to the lowest common denominator allowing all parties to pursue what “is right in their own eyes” (Prov 21:2).

All that is not to say, however, that the motivations of any political leaders are ideologically neutral. Philosophically-based value systems always have guiding hands in the mix. “Theologically neutral” simply removes God’s Word, along with the sacred texts of other religions, from the public conversation on moral guidance.

The other pole, libertarianism, focuses on liberty as uncoerced personal and corporate responsibility and tends to favor unfettered free markets. Libertarianism would remove all but essential government functions and regulation from bureaucratic hands and leave each person to pursue what “is right in their own eyes”. Sound familiar?

Libertarianism relies on personal character and motivation to supply the needs of society and encourages each individual to optimize their lives according to their wits and resources without the hindrance of overly burdensome regulation or taxes. But like interventionism, liber­tarianism also has serious failings. For one, it discounts the fallen nature of the human heart. Without reasonable legal or cultural restraint cor­ruption abounds. It also offers less protection for those who cannot pro­vide for or protect themselves. Libertarianism undermines recourse to hold abusive wealth and its power to manipulate economies to account.

Both systems stand on moral ground. The left expresses a ready willingness toward personal sacrifice for the greater good. The right favors individual liberty and opportunity. Both have merit on moral grounds, as said, but fail in application.

Within the same time frames which exposed the political and economic failings of socialism, free trade has enhanced the creature comfort of human experience. Newly created wealth does trickle down, but does so slowly. Two problems present themselves in open market systems. One is the current trends in wealth concentration. The other is libertarianism’s willingness to forego government protection against predatory business practices and ensuring reasonable provision for the economically vulnerable. Pervasive sin demonstrates the need for social protection of “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40; 25:45).

The political left has demonstrated a particular righteousness in protecting the economically vulnerable from falling through the cracks. While both sides of the political aisle advocate for government involve­ment in the public and private lives of the citizenry, the right contin­ues to argue for less government control and decreasing government bureaucracy. They favor privatization to use market competitiveness to reduce the inefficiencies inherent in non-competitive government bureaucracies.

Market advocates regularly cite government inefficiency due to the lack of price indexing as a legitimate value indicator. Judging govern­ment performance can be arbitrary subject to the assumptions of the reviewer’s agenda. The political right views the cost of government pro­grams, mostly funded by taxes on corporate and private incomes, as a drain on economic productivity. And in recent history governments and private individuals have relied on increasing debt to pay for the goods and services the public wants.

Public and private debt is overwhelming both rich and poor nations. High concentrations of wealth, which enslaves debtors, in the hands of a small elite is politically dangerous and socially unjust as interest costs drain economic strength from states and households. There is upside potential to high concentrations of wealth if it is invested to increase productivity or is disbursed philanthropically. The downside is not un­like central planning operating from the top down. Wealthy investors and donors form a virtual economic oligarchy and have inordinate say as to what is useful in society. Their decisions affect millions of people in the middle and lower classes. This concentration of economic power, and in turn, social and political power, is a real danger of trickle-down economic philosophy.

No money ever leaves the global economy and even non-pro­ductive[ix] government expenditures are repeatedly cycled through the marketplace. But the more funds are used to support administrative, non-productive work, the less ability those funds have to fuel increasing productive output, and its growth potential is diminished. Government is inefficient by its nature and especially hinders the efficiency of markets where it over-taxes incomes and over-regulates market activities.

A pervasive problem in government is the same self-centeredness (sin) of politicians and bureaucrats that affects markets. Fear motivates actors to take self-protective and self-serving measures by creating im­penetrable fiefdoms and serving their greed. Legislators have the ability to line their own pockets, as shown by the generosity of the retirement and benefits programs of the U.S. House and Senate. The growth of gov­ernment agencies, which further hinders the efficiency of the economy, allows the career entrenchment of bureaucrats. Both causes, self-service and bureaucracy, are protected and economic justice is undermined when the players in the game are allowed to make their own rules. Business is subject to government oversight but still experiences abusive practices. The oversight of government by an ill-informed, lackadaisical electorate exacerbates base human tendencies and abuse which is no less prevalent than in the business world.

Government is necessary to provide for the common good, espe­cially in defense, safety, and public works, such as managing infrastruc­ture, disbursing aid, and providing police protection. Government is also necessary to house the legal institutions that protect against abuses of power by the tyranny of both independent wealth and over-reaching government. In a republic the ultimate responsibility of government falls to the constituency and freedom tends to undermine itself due to the fallen nature of the human heart. Personal liberty requires personal responsibility which appears to be tenuous at best. Living in a “free” so­ciety, the electorate gets exactly the government it creates, and changing the system is stymied by the vested interest of those with economic and political power.

As becomes obvious, the views of the interventionists and the lib­ertarians both have legitimate concerns about the effectiveness of the other.

One way to help overcome sweat, as the laborious burdens of eco­nomic inefficiency, is to re-engineer government to perform its func­tions in efficient and accountable ways. This requires the electorate to establish new standards of performance, such as demanding balanced budgets. All parties must recognize that material scarcity limits having all that we want and demands compromise and efficiency.

Incorporating a second strategy, through the cooperation, col­laboration, and collective creativity of varied points of view working together, enormous good can be done through emerging commercial strategies like social venture. These models, funded by donations or loans, provide jobs and support charitable needs rather than new high-end subdivisions. Social venture uses market mechanisms to serve public needs without relying on government intervention and thereby reduces the need and size of non-productive bureaucracies.

Overcoming sweat requires a focus that walks in the delicate bal­ance between compassion, realistic and reasoned expectations, and a sacrificial willingness to accept delayed gratification. By enhancing just trade and the economic viability of all, even outrageous goals, like redi­recting the industrial-military complex to unleash capital and intellec­tual potential toward more favorable ends, and ecological and economic sustainability have greater chances of becoming realities.

Trade and expanding wealth, as we have seen, can contribute sig­nificantly to the development of peace. While colonialism and impe­rialism have distorted the expansion of wealth, righteous trade across cultural and political borders reduces international strife. Economic aggression, through corporations seeking to manipulate governments and governments pursuing protectionist policies, continues to perpetu­ate widespread injustice, and results in the unintended consequences of political backlash. Global business has a role to play in overcoming economic injustice and promoting peace. International trade focused on achieving equitable, win-win relationships reduces political tension and expands wealth, fostering peaceful and prosperous outcomes.

Overcoming sweat hinges on recognizing the good of cooperation and collaboration founded on trust, the necessity of free-will redistribu­tion through just investment and charitable giving, and the political will to bring them about. That vision of a hopeful eschatology rests on the choices of human will in submission to God. Given the corrupted nature of the human will, Christian vision abides patiently in grace, aligning itself with the movement of God, and encouraging human obedience. The mission of God, the missio Dei, was set on its path before creation, invigorated by Christ’s obedience to the Cross, and empowered by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church. Changed hearts embrace co­operation, giving, and political good-will, and are changing the world toward Kingdom culmination at Christ’s return and the restoration of Edenic shalom.

Hearts transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and attuned to the Kingdom of God as a functional, temporal reality are the impetus to create the groundswell for radical social change. Just as unfettered capitalism and socialism result in economic and political oligarchies, grassroots entrepreneurial and political movements, guided by the Holy Spirit, offer the greatest future hope for humankind.

This groundswell needs to occur both in the marketplace and the halls of justice to find the appropriate balance between the marketplace and governance. Then “they will hammer their swords into plow­shares” (Isa 2:4). The contrast of these instruments of competitive strife (swords) and economic productivity (plowshares) offers an encouraging vision of the peaceful, just, and life-feeding aims of the actively coming Kingdom.

[i] Stanley, Andy. Visioneering: God’s Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Personal Vision. Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1999, 8.

[ii] Mongomery, Robert L. The Diffusion of Religions: A Sociological Perspective. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, Inc., 1996, 156.

[iii] Jenkins, Philip. “The Future Demographics of Religion,” in The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, 89–92. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

[iv] Such as, Wilson, Clarence True. “Jesus Christ, the Embodiment of Democratic Ideals,” in The Divine Right of Democracy, 46–62. New York: Abingdon Press, 1922.

[v] Three excellent resources: Claar, Victor V. and Robin J. Klay. Economics in Christian Perspective: Theory, Policy and Life Choices. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007; Piedra, Alberto M. Natural Law: The Foundation of an Orderly Economic System. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004; and, Woods, Thomas E., Jr. The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005.

[vi] Landes, David S. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1999, 33–35.

[vii] This is not to say that any particular known form of government or economic system is directly or absolutely endorsed by God or the biblical record. The church has flourished under other systems.

[viii] Novak, Michael. Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life. New York: The Free Press, 1996. Oxford University Press, 80.

[ix] Government is unproductive when revenues are not used efficiently to promote increasing productivity and wealth. Corporations, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, and households face the realities of living within their means. Government has limited accountability and little overt motivation to pursue efficiency

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February 10, 2012 · 12:49 pm

A Prayer Poem: The Eyes of God

When I gaze into Your eyes,

I see the calm depths of the deepest oceans and to the heights of the glorious stars above.

Your eyes, the window to the very soul of God . . .

I search to see You into the depth of your heart.

The joy of being with You, Lord,

A friend to walk and laugh, to talk and cry, to care beyond all others.

Thank you, Immanuel, God with us,

Just to be together, a Friend, hearts-bound for all eternity.

Jesus, let me look into Your eyes. Amen.

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February 10, 2012 · 12:37 pm

Observations on the State of the Church and Ministry in the Marketplace

Europe was the birthplace of the most significant growth of the global Church for more than 1500 years. The Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions there reached out to the world in significant missionary movements to North and South America, Africa, and Asia. Today Church observers and researchers voice concerns of the post-Christian culture of Europe and North America. The world often mocks us for being out of step with reality and relevance.

The consensus seems to be that, while Europe has slipped significantly away from its Christian heritage, the United States has remained significantly more adherent to its Christian faith, though even that adherence appears to be slipping as well. The “American Religious Identification Survey (Aris) 2008”­ reports that from 1990 to 2008 religious self-identification as Christian among U.S. citizenry dropped from 86% to 76%.[i]

“Adherence” among those 76% is also questionable as only about 40% of the U.S. population attends weekly worship services.[ii] The data suggests that of the 125 million who attend weekly services (40% of current U.S. population at 313 million[iii]), about 95 million are regularly practicing Christians (effectively just over 30% of the general population). Many suspect that these data reflect a declining interest in religion in general in recent decades (and surely there are humanistic trends that have gained favor with many) but research on historic trends suggests that the movement toward organized religion, from just 17% of the population at our nation’s birth to 62% in 1980, has generally been on a positive trajectory.[iv]

So questions arise: Why is there a perception that the church is becoming less effective in its mission? And if it is actually becoming less effective, why is it? Is the Church simply inept, given its empowerment by the Holy Spirit to transform individuals and cultures?[v]

Disunity is likely the greatest detriment to ecclesial success. More than a decade ago, there were reportedly 34,000 separate Christian groups in the world.[vi] Given the track record, there would seem to be little to encourage us that that trend has been reversed but that the splintering of the church will just as likely continue toward exponential divisiveness.

I see the disunity of the Church operating simultaneously on the spiritual plane and the functional plane. On the spiritual plane the divisions have largely come due to doctrinal differences motivated by the inability and unwillingness to “live and let live” (or in Wesleyan parlance, to think and let think) in the liberty of the Spirit we have all inherited from Christ. This inability and unwillingness is too often grounded in the politics of power. It may as likely be caused by lacking the intellectual wherewithal necessary to dig deeper in our faith and the Word to discern the spirit of Truth and then, in humility, accept where we might each be wrong or to rejoin having reached consensus that there are issues where God has chosen to not yet reveal “final” truth. Personally, I find it difficult to think that whatever nonessential doctrinal beliefs I hold are the definitive answer to theological questions. I believe what I believe while fully recognizing that I have incomplete knowledge (ignorance) and that I (can it be?) may have drawn wrong conclusions along the way to establishing those beliefs. At worst I hope that I am willing to hear “the other side” of issues but I will not separate myself from other Christians simply because we cannot agree on points that ultimately have little direct bearing on “loving God and others as myself.”

Doctrinal differences are an enormously spiritual issue because how we interpret things may or may not be wrong. But love covers a multitude of sins. If we are not gracious to brothers and sisters in our disagreements with other traditions or interpretations, how are we better, more intellectually responsible, than the humanists of the world who assume human knowledge and wisdom are the end all? Trying to relate to one another through the relationship with an infinite God means that we are each, as finite beings, ill-equipped to judge what we assume to be in the heart or understanding of another. There are times when being fruit inspectors (Matthew 7:17) may require our going separate ways but we often turn to doctrine to determine our alliances before we consider the outcomes (the fruit) of the lives of those with whom we disagree.

The practical issue manifests from the spiritual disunity, whether it be born out of the fear and pride of political and spiritual fiefdoms, ignorance of God’s desire to overwhelm the world by the inward-loving (John 13:35) and unified witness of His Church (John 17:22), or the lack of strategic initiative and intelligence required to work cooperatively and collaboratively to advance the single agenda of the Great Commission, to make disciples of all nations.

Our family owned a small business in Montgomery County, Indiana for nine years. The whole county has a total population somewhere around 35,000 people. Given the conservative and nearly homogenous nature of the community (predominantly white with a significant Hispanic influx in recent decades), one might assume that the 76% cited above (self-identification as Christian) could be closer to 90%. But if only 40% of the 90% are active churchgoers, or roughly 12,600 (a little over 1/3 of the general population), it would divide their church attendance among the more than 120 churches county-wide. Each church then would have an average weekly attendance of just over 100 people. Do you suppose there was any kind of practical organization even remotely similar to United Way operating within that county’s church community? I think you can guess the answer is “No.” There were a few churches which cooperated on a few fronts as concerned food and clothing banks, and such (and usually limited to a single digit participation of churches) but nothing suggested the churches might share building spaces for various functions, or form a cooperative to purchase goods and services at discounted prices, or even consider seriously having joint worship services (other than the Easter sunrise service) to promote unity of spirit and purpose….let alone outreach ministries or community development.

My point is that the church does not often think about the realities of operating on a business model where practicalities of revenues and expenses restrict effectiveness (scarcity in a blessed community where there should be one–Deuteronomy 8:9). While churches do operate on budgets, the one aspect of the business model we could easily leave behind, if we were to so humble ourselves, is competition. We all claim the aim is for the glory of God but any other organization with dozens of facilities and disconnection of function under the headship of a single leader (as we are under Christ) really should face scrutiny as to its worthiness to receive financial and volunteer support. The level of disservice to our witness as salt and light to the world, cause by our disjointedness, tends to overwhelm our effectiveness…and seldom with even a passing thought in our church staff or committee meetings.

Over many centuries the influence of the Church has accomplished astonishing things, like the advancement of public education, the spread of quality healthcare, and the abolition of slavery. But how much more could we do and be in mission if we simply stepped back from the fear, pride, shallow theology, or stupidity we so easily slip into to avoid confronting the challenges, the iron sharpening iron, of Church unity. Is it any wonder Jesus referred to us as His sheep?

We are living in a day of unprecedented global connectedness. We are also witnessing God empowering and releasing His people where they work. Marketplace Christians have the opportunity to advance the Gospel of the Kingdom of God in ways and with impact never before seen. Will we use the gifts and talents God has given us, of revenue generation, of marketing and communications, of logistics, of strategic planning…all these for His glory? The opportunities are right in front of us to coordinate our good works, to let our Light shine before the world in ways the institutional church and its multitude of denominations have yet to accomplish, and likely cannot.

It is right that we attend and support our local churches for fellowship, pastoral care, and teaching. But if we can come together we can “move” the church outside its own walls. Working through the mechanisms and disciplines of the marketplace and setting aside the non-essential disagreements of the teachings of man, by the Holy Spirit, we can witness to the world in unity, actively demonstrating the Gospel in new and dramatic ways. We tend the Garden in a myriad of vocational disciplines but we have been called to work together for such a time as this.

[i] Barry A. Kosmin and Ariela Keysar (2009). “American Religious Idenitification Survey (ARIS) 2008”. Hartford, Connecticut, USA: Trinity College, 2008. Available at http://commons.trincoll.edu/aris/files/2011/08/ARIS_Report_2008.pdf.

[ii] Robert D. Putnam and David E Campbell. American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[iv] Roger Finke and Rodney Stark. The Churching of America, 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy. New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1992.

[v] The mandate to influence culture is hotly contested within and across denominational lines. I would recommend Christopher J.H. Wright. The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006.

[vi] David B. Barrett, et al. World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World, 2nd edition. New York: Oxford University Press USA, (2001).

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February 6, 2012 · 3:56 pm

Economics: Slaying the Two-Headed Beast

Morality is a form of law that governs behavior. Nothing like opening by stating the obvious. External influences, whether institutional, cultural, or spiritual, shape our morality and guide us in knowing right from wrong. We are compelled to act by external forces then shape our responses to them either according to our value systems or altering our value systems to facilitate the expeditious action, internalizing a moral modification. It is a conundrum, like the chicken and the egg, of which comes first – behavior or values. The integration of behavior and values can cloud which holds priority and the adjustments we make in either are often all but undetectable nuances. But we also sometimes deceive ourselves, claiming certain value systems of which we hold imperfect or incomplete knowledge then act discontinuously with our claims. The result is a bifurcation of reality which results in what the Bible labels as double-mindedness, a result of spiritual immaturity and ignorance misinforming faith, of which we all are guilty by varying degrees.

One example occurs in the dis-integration of faith and economics. Technicians have appropriated economics in the last century as a science, and in a strong sense, it is in so far as it is merely formulaic for interpreting data for historic analysis and predictive modeling. But economics is also a study of moral philosophy as economic decisions involve the social contract we hold with all others affected by our decisions. Hence, we tend to think of economics in these two ways and largely in isolation. This divide in our thinking gives way to making business decisions based solely on the numbers and resorting to axioms like “It isn’t personal, it’s just business,” when it comes time to lay off workers during work slowdowns. The unemployed find their status intensely personal and it affects their entire household and external relationships that depend on their spending or giving. The ripples on a pond go a long way.

We need to understand the “two natures” of economics. The scientific one is analytical, i.e., collating data for historic understanding and predictive modeling. The moral nature is applying social value to economic decision making. We will do neither particularly well if we neglect either aspect. That is to say, if we do not understand the consequences of our actions we will make poor decisions, AND making decisions devoid of creational (including not only humankind but also the whole earth) consideration we undermine economic potential.

The study of economics throws around the phrase unintended consequences. These are the things that happen that we simply did not anticipate. These are sometime hidden effects but likely as often result from shortsightedness due to a lack of due diligence in thinking our decisions through. Unintended consequences may also come from willfully not thinking about how far the ripples will reach for fear, even if subconscious, that we will run into a conflict of values. Those conflicts tend to reside on the threshold between worldly values and heavenly values. Avoiding them excuses us from having to make hard or even (seemingly) illogical choices.

Worldly values are an interesting study which leads all the way back to Genesis 3 and Adam and Eve’s fall from grace. In the Garden of Eden, their provision was growing all around them. One suspects that in every season there was low-hanging fruit, easy to reach, ripe and ready to eat at any given moment. In perfect communion with God there was no need of sweating income statements or balance sheets. It was more like a business enjoying an eternal fast growth curve. Granted there was no downside to the provision of the Garden. There were no investors and no concern over profitability, shrinkage, market fluctuations, union strikes, or other effects which are detrimental to commercial success in our time.

The difficulty of work increased substantially after the Fall due to the curse on the ground. The weeds stole precious minerals and water from Adam’s good crops. But the greater setback came in confidence, or rather its loss, in the availability of low hanging fruit, a product of God’s goodness and abundance. Adam relied on God for his daily provision before the Fall. With that direct provision compromised, Adam had to turn to his own wit and wherewithal to provide for himself.

Then there is a long passage of time to 2012. The conflicts that we encounter in our marketplace value judgments are the result of sin, whether systemic or personal. Our culture conditions us to accept that we live in a less than perfect world with no real hope of seeing it changed. Hence, we let less than ideal circumstances “force” us into making difficult and ungodly decisions. But the power of sin in the world has been broken in Christ’s submission to the Cross. That means we have the power to make hard decisions, not according to sight but, in faith according to Truth.

By the power of Christ’s blood, we undertake a revolution countering the introduction and prevalence of sin in the world. It may seem impossible but we have the power to turn the world on its ear. Many of the economic issues we face in the world today seem insurmountable but we have the assurance, poignantly from the story of the rich young man that Jesus encountered, that “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27). Do we believe that? Will we act like we believe? How can we bring the world to an economic model of godliness? The impossible can (and will) be accomplished “‘not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6b).

It is time for the universal church to slay the two-headed beast of economics and re-integrate our work and stewardship (appointed to Adam–Genesis 2:15) with our relational nature, which emanates from being made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26a) and in keeping with the communal reality of Eve’s title of helpmate (Genesis 2:18). To right the economic injustice of the world’s ways will be enormously challenging, both spiritually (demanding intimidating levels of faith) and experientially (facing circumstances and decisions that challenge the culture of reason of the marketplace).

The thesis of my book, Eden’s Bridge: The Marketplace in Creation and Mission, is that the marketplace is an institution of God, implicit in the creation narrative of Genesis 1–2 and vital to the mission of God in the world. Sin has enormously corrupted God’s original economic design and the nature of righteous exchange. The hurdles that must be overcome look a lot like the giants in Canaan (Num. 13:28–31). But, “if God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31b).

Many of the assertions drawn from Scripture in this essay appear to be little more than platitudes if there is no vision of how these things may come to pass. I will discuss visioneering (to borrow gratefully from Andy Stanley) next time. Suffice it to say for now that only emboldened faith in an all-mighty and righteous God can bring the sentiment of these citations to fruition. Smith Wigglesworth, the famous Pentecostal plumber-cum-preacher, espoused a personal credo of “Just believe,” to see the miraculous of God’s power in action. Jesus did not do many miracles in His hometown due to the unbelief of the residents (Matthew 13:54–58).

The Franciscan monk, Fr. Richard Rohr wrote in his daily devotional broadcast about the lack of teaching on the transition from living under law to walking by the Spirit:

Laws serve us well at the beginning and everybody must go through this stage and internalize these values. But as Paul says, laws are only the “nursemaid” (Galatians 3:24) to get us started. The fact that we have not taught this makes me think that history, up to now, has been largely “first half of life.” (from “Living a Whole Life” daily devotional–February 4, 2012).

The fields are ripe for the harvest (Revelation 14:15e). Now is the time for our righteousness, like Father Abraham’s, arising from faith, to restore the marketplace to God’s intention, to overcome the divided minds that praise God on Sunday and worship at the altar of the world, succumbing to its deceitful intimidations, at work. The “second half” of life is at hand for the church in the marketplace. Will we step out faithfully, trusting God beyond our vision? Will we slay the two-headed economic monster? It is not a matter of “can we” but one of choosing to obey God in faith.

The research that I have conducted over the last several years leads me to believe we are about to see an outpouring of God’s Spirit in the marketplace. The next two or three decades could see a wholesale shift in how many businesses assess success. We are at the threshold of an epochal change. As Ghandi might ask, “Are you ready to be the change you want to see in the world?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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January 29, 2012 · 5:18 pm

What are the Pressing Questions on Integrating Faith and Economics?

As I continue researching the integration of faith and ethics, I am faced with a complexity of issues and activities on the fronts of morality (determinative of motivations and informing ethics), ethics (as the outworking of morality, i.e., what is or is not appropriate behavior), diversity (both the broad range of activities and in theological explanations), and so on.

But, I am most curious about what marketplace Christians perceive to be the most pressing questions pertaining to their understanding of why and how we experience or pursue the integration of our Christian faith and our economic activity, whether in employment, in mission / missions, personal and corporate spending and investment patterns, etc.

Most of us recognize this is an important topic, especially given the globalizing of economics and the volatility of economic instability and economic injustice.

So, I throw the conversation open and ask: What are the pressing questions on integrating faith and economics?

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January 27, 2012 · 1:33 pm

Walking in the Dark

Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law. – Proverbs 29:18 (NAS)

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. – Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)

Such a simple verse but one that perhaps can guide us even beyond its apparent meaning(s). I include two versions here because it seems most of us are more familiar with the interpretation of it from the King James Bible.

There are many who have seen the first part of this verse to mean, essentially, that where there is not a plan or a goal, the people will die. But the word vision here is more than simply projecting our thoughts into the future toward a desirable end or accomplishment. The Hebrew term for vision is chazon (Strong’s 2377). It is derived from the primitive root, chazah, which simply means to gaze at, behold, to perceive mentally, contemplate . . . to have a vision of.

The sense that arises is that this is more than simply seeing something. It implies, rather, mental insight and, specifically for God followers in this context, prophetic vision, to see or hear God, to understand His ways and leadings. To know “the mind of Christ.” To recognize the voice of one’s shepherd means having spent a significant amount of time with the shepherd. To recognize the voice and to truly hear the words, the leadings of a leader, we must weigh their words in the context of more awareness of who they are, how they have acted historically, what agendas are at the forefront of their movements, from where their motivations arise.

The wisdom of this Proverb is telling a truth about our relationship with God and how it affects our reality, our potential, our purposes and aims, our outcomes. To understand God’s leading we must know God, at least in the best sense of how we can in our limited capacities to comprehend an infinite and glorious God. As we become familiar with who God is and what God is like, we can begin to hear (understand) His Word and His leading with increasingly clarity.

To expand the opening of the verse, we might say: “Where the people do not know God, and do not have a realistic knowledge of God’s plan and purpose, they are separated from God and they will not follow Him. Death, spiritual separation from God, is their plight.”

The rest of the verse is rather easy then to anticipate as the contrast to the opening phrase. “Happy is he who keeps the law.” Here, keep is the Hebrew shamar (Strong’s 8104), the same term used in Genesis 2:15 where God put Adam in the Garden of Eden to keep it. Shamar is to steward, to watch over, to tend to diligently. Esher (happy, Strong’s 835) is derived from asher (Strong’s 833), to be straight. Strong’s tells us that asher is used in the sense of being level, right or happy, even, figuratively, moving forward, being honest, prospering . . . to be blessed. That’s a lot packed into a single word.

It appears then that Proverbs 29:18 says: Where we do not know and follow God, we die. Where we do know and follow God, we live. Prophetic knowledge, comprehending God’s heart, leads us into life. The more prophetic knowledge (which manifests adherence to His ways), the more life force within us. This life force gave Jesus the ability to produce enough bread to feed the five thousand, to heal blind eyes, to restore strength to lame legs . . . to overcome death for all humankind.

The challenge to the church, that is, to every follower who claims Christ as Lord and Saviour, is to know God and live in obedience. The problem occurs as we see it all around us and in many ways, the church is failing. It is failing to meet the needs of the poor and marginalized, it is failing to lead the world toward righteousness. And the question must be faced: why? Why is the church failing? Why is that life force of the Resuurected Christ so weak?

Sometimes it almost seems that God is lackadaisical in His expectations of the church. That is simply not true. We do not often take seriously that we will answer for our handling of the truth. We do so at our peril and at the peril of ministering to the world in ways that demonstrate the true glory of the only living God.

I have had the privilege and opportunity to study God’s Word more than most. Yet I have not been nearly as diligent in that as I could have been. What I see is that, like myself, the failings of the church at-large, both to minister within and to be a light to the world, are due in large part to a our lackadaisical approach to God’s Word.

We do not succeed in advancing God’s Kingdom, by the power of our testimony as living witnesses to God’s grace and mercy, because we tend toward laziness. We gain a bit of understanding, tend to take it as the whole truth, and make that bit of knowledge an idol, creating legal structures for following God. But what vision can we have of an infinite God? Our understanding is always limited but loaded with potential to know Him more deeply. And invited to do so.

The ministry of the Word is of utmost importance to the vitality of the church. Those who follow God’s lead to search out the word and to bring it to life for others (generally, pastors and teachers, including most missionaries) are often neglected spiritually, economically, and emotionally by the rest of the church. The pastorate is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. It is not often physically threatening but takes its toll in burn out, failing due to stress and temptation, and hopelessness wrought by a sense of futility as sheep wander off or neglect the calling of God’s voice.

For the rest of us, we should listening carefully and heed God’s call to support those ministering the Word (Romans 4:4), that they are worthy of their wage. Thank God that most in pastoral roles, seeing the desperation of the world around them and having their hearts broken for the lost as they seek to know God deeply, will pursue that ministry despite the costs to themselves.

If we do not pursue a knowledge of God, if we do not support then pay heed to those searching the Scriptures diligently to help us grow in that knowledge, if we do not each seek to find the prophetic vision . . . we will continue walking in the dark, wandering souls, risking death in a desert of our own making . . . and even ignorant that ours is the power to draw near to life.

I interject here the entire fourth chapter of the Epistle of James, just seventeen verses. How does it speak to our ignorance of God and our neglect of His ways? (emphasis mine).

1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?

2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 

3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 

5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? 

6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 

7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 

8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 

9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom.

10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. 

11 Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother, or judges his brother, speaks against the law, and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it.

12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor? 

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”

14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 

15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that.” 

16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Dear Lord Jesus – Shine Your Light into our darkness. Peel back the scales from our eyes that we might see as You see, that we might, having seen Your Light, be compelled to seek you all the more diligently, that Your Word would set aside every agenda and desire we have, replaced only with our desire to know and serve You in every aspect of our lives. Be merciful, Lord, to our ignorance but awaken in us a burning heart to love as you love, to sacrifice our lives as you so willingly sacrificed yours. Come, Lord Jesus, reign in us and through us that Your vision will lead the world back to Life. Amen.

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January 24, 2012 · 2:33 pm

The Fall and Redemption of Abusive Wealth

(This essay is a close adaptation excerpted from the book Eden’s Bridge: The Marketplace in Creation and Mission, © David B. Doty, 2011, available from the author or from Wipf & Stock Publishers. This essay should be read with the thesis of Eden’s Bridge—the marketplace in an institution of God, implicit in the creation narrative of Genesis 1–2 and vital to God’s mission in the world—in full view.)

Wealth of itself is innocuous. It is inanimate and amoral. At the same time, the pursuit and acquisition of wealth has enormous influence in human behavior. The pursuit and acquisition of wealth will exacerbate and reveal the true dispositions of its possessor, whether for good or ill. There is a great deal of biblical and extra-biblical commentary dealing with wealth justly or unjustly gained and justly or unjustly wielded.

The first consideration here is to illuminate the possibilities sur­rounding the mention of symbols of wealth—gold, bdellium, and onyx—in the Garden narrative (Genesis 2:12). My speculation anticipates the allegorical nature of the creation story. As allegory, the story can be taken to represent truth without necessarily being a historically accurate account. That is, Adam (means man or mankind) and Eve (Chavvah, means life or living), together, represent the fullness of humankind, as their names imply. But reading the creation narrative allegorically helps illuminate the judgment of the King of Tyre in Ezekiel 28.

The mention of gold, bdellium, and onyx in the middle of the cre­ation narrative invites theorizing about concentrated wealth in close proximity to the Garden (as Havilah is a region adjacent to the widely proposed location of the Garden), and what it means to an eschatologi­cal view of the coming Kingdom of Christ.

Gold (zahab) is a focus of discussion throughout the Bible, from this earliest mention to the “streets of gold” of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:21). In particular, we may note the use of gold in the making of the Ark of the Covenant, and for the adornment of and the making utensils for use in both the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple. These give a view of wealth appropriately consecrated to the worship of God.

The onyx (shoham) stone is mentioned eleven times in the Bible. In addition to Genesis, onyx is mentioned seven times in Exodus (25:7; 28:9; 28:20; 35:9; 35:27; 39:6; 39:13) in reference to the two stones mounted on the shoulders and one stone set in the breastplate of the ephod (i) to be worn by Aaron in his role as high priest. The two mounted on the shoulders were engraved each with six of the names of Israel’s sons, the tribes of Israel, and the one on the breastplate a single name, along with eleven other precious stones to represent all twelve tribes.

Onyx is also mentioned in the supplies presented by David for the building and fittings of the Temple (1 Chronicles 29:2), is among precious com­modities mentioned in comparison to the value of godly wisdom (Job 28:16), and is part of the adornment worn by the King of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:13).

Bdellium (bedolach) is mentioned only twice in the Bible. The sec­ond occurrence is in the comparison of its color to the manna (Numbers 11:7) gathered for food by Israel during the desert journey. It has been speculated that bdellium refers either to pearls, due to their availability along the Persian coast, or to an aromatic gum resin used in the manu­facture of highly desirable incenses. Aromatic incense is also used in the worship of God in both the Tabernacle and the Temple, along with gold and onyx which are instruments of accumulated wealth and are symbolic of purity and high value.

Eden is derived from a primitive Hebrew root meaning pleasure or delight, with implications of self-direction, as to delight oneself or to live voluptuously. Isaiah (51:3), Ezekiel (28:13; 36:35), and Joel (2:3) used Eden as the paradisiacal model of the dwelling “place” of those restored to the presence of God. The Septuagint translated this Garden of God as Paradise (paradisi), the idyllic and blessed destination of the righteous. This is echoed three times in the New Testament, by Jesus in His as­surance to the thief dying by His side (Luke 23:43), by Paul when he explains having been transported into the heavenlies (2 Corinthians 12:4), and as the place of glorification granted to those who overcome the world (Revelation 2:7).

Historical interpretations of the creation narrative, influenced in particular by the mention of Havilah in Genesis 2:11, generally assumes the location of the Garden of Eden to have been in the Northwest of Mesopotamia which lends itself to the image of a lush land of plant pro­duction, especially for human provision. The mention of these precious commodities suggests it was a land of great wealth. The presence of gold, onyx, and bdellium in the creation narrative, being present in Havilah, suggests that Eden could have been an important trade center or was in close proximity to major trade centers or routes of the pre-historic world. These items, like other precious metals, stones, and even spices, were means to concentrate and transport wealth, making them easily convertible as forms of currency, though they are not specifically iden­tified as currency in the Genesis account. These items are mentioned as being in the Garden itself in the indictment of the King of Tyre in Ezekiel 28:13:

You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz, and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise, and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared.

Gum resin (bdellium) was not necessarily available within Eden but possibly originated in Arabia, Media, and India. Coupled with the geographic centrality of Eden to the land bridge between the three con­tinents of Africa, Asia, and Europe, and the listing of gold and onyx, the mention of the gum resin supports the notion of Eden as a significant trading center of the ancient world. This would go a long way in cor­relating the descriptions of self-delight, luxury, and security of Eden to the abundance without want (shalom) in the restored grace of the New Jerusalem.

Again, taking resort in allegory as representational truth over his­toric fact, Adam and Eve may not have been alone in the Garden, a view encouraged by speculations on the origin of their sons’ wives. If com­munal provision and material trade before the Fall had been carried out in just and equitable ways, humankind could well have been living in the abundance of well-being, the peace and harmony Jesus suggests in John 10:10. The abundance of His claim is the fruit of obedience to the will of God, which was empowered by the presence, especially as grace, of God in the Garden fostering communal justice. Living abundantly when in communion with God, in this sense, living righteously, is also an idea strongly defended by the blessings of obedience juxtaposed to the curses of disobedience in Deuteronomy 28.

In a very real way, eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as the central event of the Fall, was when the human community chose to break communion with God, chose the path of self-determination, and established their own system of morality, deciding for themselves the measures of right and wrong. The covenant broken, deprivation ensued.

The Lord’s pronouncement against the King of Tyre in Ezekiel 28 also lends credence to an Edenic marketplace. Some commentators, such as John MacArthur,(ii)  draw attention to the parallelism between this characterization and the judgment of Satan. Tyre was an island citadel protected by virtue of its great walls. The Tyrian kingdom is known for its long enduring wealth in antiquity and its far-reaching colonization.(iii) Tyre was a significant trading partner with Israel under the Kingships of David and Solomon.(iv) Tyre serves, both practically and symbolically, as an example of the potential and accompanying dangers of amassing wealth.

The word of the Lord came again to me saying, “Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre, ‘Thus says the Lord God, ‘Because your heart is lifted up and you have said, “I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas”; Yet you are a man and not God, although you make your heart like the heart of God– Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that is a match for you. By your wisdom and understanding you have acquired riches for yourself, and have acquired gold and silver for your treasuries. By your great wisdom, by your trade you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches— ‘” (Ezekiel 28:1–5).

You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz, and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise, and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared. (Ezekiel 28:13).

By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O cover­ing cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you. By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade, you profaned your sanctu­aries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; it has consumed you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the eyes of all who see you.” (Ezekiel 28:16–18).

In these passages we read that the King of Tyre proudly proclaimed himself a God (v. 2). He had amassed great amounts of wealth (v. 4), and, having been present in Eden (v. 13), had been adorned with a variety of precious stones, including the onyx. Through his widespread trade (rekullah), he was filled with violence (chamac, v. 16a). Rekullah means trafficking, from a primitive root meaning traveling for trade. Chamac means to be violent or to maltreat, suggesting the possibility of both physical and ethical abuse in dealing. For this sin (v. 16b), the King of Tyre was driven from the mountain (presence) of God (v. 16c). He was very much taken with his own beauty and in pride willingly turned from wisdom (v. 17).

Ezekiel continues that this king’s sinfulness in dishonest and op­pressive trade has desecrated his sanctuaries (v. 18). A fire from God came from the king’s midst to consume him and reduce him to ashes. Amos 1:9 then gives us the ultimate cause of the Tyrian fall in that they “did not remember the covenant of brotherhood” (NAS), as mentioned earlier, focusing only on profit for themselves and at any cost.

By contrast we see gold, onyx, and bdellium used appropriately and instrumentally in the worship of God, on the priestly ephod and in the adornment and service of the Tabernacle and Temple, set against the unholy use of such wealth, especially gained unrighteously and used for self-exaltation.

Self-aggrandizing and prideful abuse of wealth, our abundant ma­terial resources, was apparently birthed in Eden under satanic influence. Yet Isaiah’s pronouncement on the fall of Tyre (in Chapter 23) and the ultimate redemption of its gain (23:18) is that even this unrighteous wealth will yet be consecrated to the Lord.

The last assertion begs the question: how will unrighteous wealth be redeemed? Thus far we have seen that the earth itself, and by implica­tion, the land, is the primary means of production. God informs Israel in Exodus 23:25 that He will go before them in their quest to repossess the land: “I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land.” It is a promise that, step by step, they will reclaim their economic viability.

Beyond the land itself, God plundered the possessions of the in­habitants of the land then reminded Israel: “And I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you have lived in them; you are eating of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant” (Joshua 24:13). Zephaniah’s pronouncement of God’s judgments on the unrighteous echoes the same sentiment: “their wealth will become plunder” (Zephaniah 1:13). Likewise, Jeremiah does the same in pronouncing judgment against Israel itself (Jeremiah 15:13; 17:3). And Jesus suggests the same in the Sermon on the Mount when He says: “Blessed are the gentle (meek), for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

The means of production and its associated wealth will be reclaimed for righteous purposes. But like the reclamation of the land it will come step by step. Railing against the status quo is like stopping a runaway train by jumping in front of it. Reclaiming the marketplace for God’s Kingdom will be accomplished as Jesus’ ministry subverts the world. Climbing aboard the train and taking control is a more effective strategy toward redemption than the suicidal leap. The economic and cultural revolution Jesus launched is now 2,000 years in progress. Grassroots efforts, subverting the status quo from within the institutions of gover­nance and economics, by electing righteous candidates and redirecting the means and ends of commercial activity, will demonstrate the fruits of righteousness are far more plenteous that the fruits of self-service.

The redemption of the marketplace lies in the hearts of practitioners who love God, love their neighbor, and choose to serve both with the gifts and opportunities God has placed before them. Social enterprises and investment, and conscientious ownership are the tools in God’s hands to redeem wealth and reclaim the marketplace for His glory, for “the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous” (Proverbs 13:22).

i. An ephod is a gown or robe that is worn to show the office or title of the wearer.

ii. MacArthur, John F., Jr., “The Fall of Satan.” Panorama City, CA, 2000. No pages. Online: http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/john_macarthur/90-237.htm.

iii. Schultz, Samuel J. The Old Testament Speak, 117, 141. New York: Harper Collins, 2000.

iv. Smith, William. “Tyre,” in A Dictionary of the Bible, 715–18. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Company, 1884.

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January 20, 2012 · 2:49 pm

Are You on Mission?

One of the hardest things for many Christians to understand is that once we “give” our life to Christ (as if God did not already own us–Psalm 24:1), how do we know what steps to follow or His plan for us or how to discern God’s will?

In the West we have largely focused in recent history on personal salvation. We are saved individually. But the Bible is clear that we are also saved into a community and into a purpose. Both are lifelong commitments that serve God, serve others, and serve ourselves.

Humankind, male and female, were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). As a reflection of the Trinitarian community of God, Adam was given a partner, called a helpmate (for the division of labor) and wife (for the perpetuation of the species). They had a new community in an ideal setting. Their provision was available and, by comparison to after the Fall, their work was not stressful or laborious.

The Fall, that is, Adam and Eve’s choice to disobey God, cast a pall over all of humanity and the rest of creation. Being put out of the Garden of Eden launched the largest project in the universe after creation: the mission of God. In theological parlance, that is known as the Latin missio Dei. It is what the rest of the story of the Bible is all about. Christopher Wright contends that God launched His mission with the choice of Abraham as the spiritual father through whom all nations would be blessed. But the coming of Christ, the seed of Abraham, was also the seed of Adam and Noah and every other generation that preceded him in his temporal lineage. The prophets also called Jesus the Son of David. The mission of God was in motion in the mind of God from before even creation and progressed according to His plan.

Wright has done the church and the world a great service in writing a book, simply titled The Mission of God. I promote it with the warning…it is comprehensive which means it is long, well over 500 pages. Fortunately Wright has a very readable style and the progression of the book is methodical in developing the thesis and what it means to us, as the church, as we pursue following Christ and ministering to the world.

The development of focus on personal salvation in the past century has undermined the church’s efforts in God’s grand scheme, His mission. That is not to say that personal salvation is not important. It is relevant as we each are given a new heart, a new disposition, and a new role in the world. Many of us (all of us?) are afflicted with a broad range of maladies, whether physical, economic, psychological, or emotional. Jesus Christ offers us the opportunity to overcome all that has been passed to us generationally or done to us by varying levels of our communities, whether those be impacts from dysfunction in our families, our local communities, our cultures, or the world at-large. He even grants us revitalization to overcome the inheritance of sin passed down, as like-kind progeny, all the way from Adam.

But a great deal of our personal healing comes from the realization that we are not alone. The sufferings we experience, the temptations we face, and the conditions of our lives are not uncommon. That is why Hebrews 3:13 instructs us to encourage one another daily lest we fall back into old patterns of ungodly belief and behavior. I have been burdened with my own set of issues. Many of those have been addressed and healed in Bible study, prayer, and personal discipline. Most of them have been worked out through a series of relationships with other Christians who have consoled me, encouraged me, exhorted me, even scolded me along the way.

But the greatest problem I have faced is getting over myself. This life, my “calling,” gifts and talents . . . none of them are about me per se. God has created me and invited me to join Him as a son, a title I continue to aspire to through continuing the pursuit to know God and live in obedience. Hebrews is clear that I am becoming a son of God. It is a lifelong process that, like the coming of God’s Kingdom is already-but-not-yet, sealed in eternity but playing out in temporal reality.

As I continue that pursuit and God continues to woo me toward Him, I become increasingly aware of His movement on a much grander scale than anything particularized to me or my life. God is in mission and we are invited to join in that movement. My particular role appears to have something to do with understanding what God is doing and why in the marketplace and in global culture in general.

God is moving simultaneously on many fronts. Several years ago Bill Bright and some others formulated the Seven Mountains of Culture–family, church, business, arts and entertainment, government, education, and media–and launched efforts to reclaim them all for the glory of God, a torch now valiantly carried forward by Os Hillman and the Marketplace Leaders Ministries (www.reclaim7mountains.com)

God’s mission is all-encompassing, turning all of human society back toward Himself and His original plan for humankind. In the research for my book, Eden’s Bridge: The Marketplace in Creation and Mission, I reached the conclusion that all these “mountains,” except family and church, fall under the umbrella of the marketplace, where we exchange value with society beyond the household walls (natural family) or the fellowship of the church (spiritual family). Whether it is the exchange of ideas and information (education and media), opportunities for self-expression (arts and entertainment), or matters of law (government), all these contribute to establishing (for good or ill)  the order and well-being of society as relational interactions. Historically these activities were largely carried out in common (shared) public spaces such as the town square, or at the city gates or the threshing floor. All these, in my mind, fall under the marketplace umbrella because they are inextricably linked in the economic formation of society.

Borrowing from Bright, Hillman, et al, I created the chart below for my own thought development. I was able to see their priority statuses of each institution given what they provide each of us. I modified the original listing, changing “church” to “ideology” because, as we encounter the world as it is, it is obvious that there are many other religions or philosophic systems that inform morality and ethics.

The three “mountains” that I classify as Central Institutions are those that were created in the natural order of the Garden of Eden–family (Adam and Eve in procreative relationship), worship (walking with God in obedience), and business (mutually beneficial exchange for communal provision).*  But all seven institutions are on God’s radar in His mission of the redemption of all creation. Christian workers in all these arenas play a part in carrying that mission forward.

The challenge for the church today is to inform marketplace Christians as to their roles and responsibilities as vital to God’s mission and to release them from the false bifurcation of secular vocation and sacred calling. How does your vocation and how you do your job carry forward that movement? How do your work and work ethic reflect and glorify God? What can you do to “redeem” your industry, your workplace, your position to bring God’s Spirit, in power and truth, to bear in all the relationships touching your career?

It is a challenging question and one not easily answered but one that must be raised: when you go to work, or to the market, or to take in entertainment, or pursue education, or vote . . . are you on mission?

* For a fuller explanation of the role of the marketplace or business in Eden, see Eden’s Bridge: The Marketplace in Creation and Mission (c) David B. Doty, 2011, or the related blog post “The Vital Role of Marketplace Theology.”

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