Lose That You May Find (Part 1)

Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2009 Posted: 5:08:46PM HKT

Furthermore, we should affirm that the Lord Jesus welcomed the contributions of wealthy patrons to his life and ministry (Luke 8:1-3). Jesus obviously also very much enjoyed attending lavish luncheons and dinners in the homes of the wealthy. He seemed in fact to find it difficult to turn down a good meal, where ever it came from (Luke 7:36f; 11:37f; 14:1f). So I agree and like what Gordon Wong says: "God is not a killjoy! He desires for us to experience the finest foods and sweetest honey (Ps 81:16). And there is in fact, a "positive 'consumer' language found throughout the Psalms (Ps 34:8).” Interestingly however, the Gospel story narrates that in virtually every “dining” incident, Jesus did not fail to leave such homes without voicing some kind of “prophetic” and provocative word regarding his hosts’ posture and behaviour toward the “have-nots” in their local communities.

I happen to believe in fact, that the economic role of Christians in this world clearly involves finding ways to create wealth. Yet not for the purpose of further amassing and sustaining the present standards of first-world lifestyles or first-world levels of material consumption. Global capitalism in its past and present historical form of wholly unrestrained free market interplay— which while capable to a large degree of democratising the experience of wealth, is nonetheless driven not by the "love of the Father, but by the "world's passions." These are the passions which Scripture defines as "the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does" (1 John 2:16).


3. The dark side of wealth
Without in any way inferring the slightest endorsement of Marxist practice or ideology, I must acknowledge that Marxist theory had nonetheless quite accurately diagnosed the tendency within pure free-market capitalism to de-humanise and exploit people, particularly the poor masses— as things. Through the current global market system, what is actually happening on a global scale is that the world’s most affluent populations are using the world’s poor in order to satiate their increasing drive towards greater consumption. Therefore, there must come a time, when believers will again help find a better way. That better way, will ultimately and must involve self-initiated restraints on personal consumption.

Globalisation is itself not the problem. We can actually apprehend globalisation as a primal cure towards a substantive eradication of human poverty across the globe. But human greed, increasingly manifest through a collective conglomerate of multi-national businesses, have up to this present financial crisis, demonstrated a willingness to increase wealth for themselves and their constituencies, at the expense of millions of disempowered people in the two-thirds world. These disempowered people are often fully cognisant of the wealth that can be theirs through a linking up with the global economy. Yet they wholly lack the infrastructure, tools and skills to participate in the global market.

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Rev Monte Lee-Rice
The Christian Post (Singapore) Guest Contributor