One of my Pandora "stations" is "David Crowder Band Radio." A song popped up on that station the other day from a guy named Derek Webb. The song was Rich Young Ruler. I had never heard this song before, but I was familiar with the Scripture reference from Matthew 19 and Mark 10. Here is the passage as related in Mark 10:17-27:
17As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
18"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. 19You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'[d]"
20"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."
21Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
22At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"
24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is[e] to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
26The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?"
27Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."
And here are the lyrics for the song:
(vs. 1)
poverty is so hard to see
when it’s only on your tv and twenty miles across town
where we’re all living so good
that we moved out of Jesus’ neighborhood
where he’s hungry and not feeling so good
from going through our trash
he says, more than just your cash and coin
i want your time, i want your voice
i want the things you just can’t give me
(vs. 2)
so what must we do
here in the west we want to follow you
we speak the language and we keep all the rules
even a few we made up
come on and follow me
but sell your house, sell your suv
sell your stocks, sell your security
and give it to the poor
what is this, hey what’s the deal
i don’t sleep around and i don’t steal
i want the things you just can’t give me
(bridge)
because what you do to the least of these
my brother’s, you have done it to me
because i want the things you just can’t give me
Wow. Humbling and convicting, to say the least. And frankly difficult to listen to, because this subject flies in the face of so many dearly held philosophies of conservative American evangelical Christians, of which I am one.
I consider myself pretty conservative, socially, politically, and religiously. As a sales person and sometime small business owner, I also consider myself a capitalist. I believe that Christians should tithe and give generously to those in need. But I'd be lying if I said that I and my family did not want the bigger house in the nicer neighborhood with the taller fence. Nicer cars. Nicer vacations. More toys and gadgets. More stuff.
And I've even found myself judging the poor and assuming that their poverty is somehow their fault and their problem. Certainly not my problem. After all, I have a mortgage to pay, right? And not the government's problem, because then I might have to pay higher taxes. And besides, I'm a conservative. Doesn't that mean I'm supposed to want a government that is "smaller" and has fewer welfare programs and social services? If I have a heart for the poor and want to help in any way I can, and I want a government that feels the same way, does that make me a *gasp* "Liberal!"
When I was a teenager, I went to a church camp. The worship leader at the camp was a Christian artist named Billy Crockett (Billy has a new album out, BTW...check it out here.). One of his songs that I dug the most was "41 Lawnmowers." At 14, I was smart enough to understand what the song was about, but it seemed like a topic for grown-ups...something to think about "later." I just liked the tune, and it was fun to sing. Here are the lyrics to "41 Lawnmowers:"
Find a good old neighborhood, a square block of the USA.
Stake your claim, claim your space. Sink your roots & live your days.
Build a fence, close it in. Raise a lawn & grow some kids. Make a name. Name your friends, that's the American way to live, in
41 houses, only 1 street. 41 yards, 82 trees. 41 mowers all sitting in sheds. 41 families in over their heads. And everybody's got their own everything.
From the Bronx to Hollywood. Montreal to Mexico. The fever grows, go for gold. Gain the world & lose your soul!
Push & shove, don't look back. Absolute success attack. Insulate. Cul-de-sac. Prove the universal fact of
41 houses, only 1 street. 41 yards, 82 trees. 41 mowers all sitting in sheds. 41 families in over their heads. And everybody's got their own everything.
Now I'm 36, married, have a daughter, and we're living in a nice suburban house in a Dallas suburb (interestingly the same area that Mr. Crockett is from). I have a lawn, a lawnmower in a shed. There's well over 41 houses on my street, but most have two trees in the front. Like mine. And there are certainly times when I've felt like I'm in over my head.
And I DO want to insulate. I DO want a taller fence. And if I never saw my neighbors and they never knocked at my door, you would not hear me complain about that. In fact one of the inside jokes about me in our little circle of friends is that "Lee has enough friends!" (A story perhaps for another post.)
This whole idea is very sad and frankly concerning to me. How can I call myself a Christian with this lifestyle and these attitudes? How can I reconcile statements from Christ like ""Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me" (Mark 10:21)? Or "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 19:19)? Or how about this one, also from Matthew 19:
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth...For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
And then there's this passage from Acts 2:44-47, regarding the community of the new fledgling Church:
All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Wow! Hardly the Western conservative, capitalist ideal, right?! And yet here in the Dallas area, mega-church parking lots are full of luxury cars that will be driven to lunch after service, and then home to some pretty fancy gated communities. Texas, after all, is the birthplace of the "health, wealth, and prosperity gospel," and sadly for many people outside of the Church, the stereotypical evangelical Christian is rich, fat, and conservative. But one of my favorite speakers and authors, John Piper, has something to say about this "gospel" in his book Don't Waste Your Life:
The health, wealth, and prosperity "gospel" swallows up the beauty of Christ in the beauty of his gifts and turns the gifts into idols. The world is not impressed when Christians get rich and say thanks to God. They are impressed when God is so satisfying that we give our riches away for Christ's sake and count it gain. (72-73)
Piper goes on in a later chapter to issue the following indictment of our western evangelical Christian culture:
Oh, how many lives are wasted by people who believe that the Christian life means simply avoiding badness and providing for the family. So there is no adultery, no stealing, no killing, no embezzlement, no fraud -- just lots of hard work during the day, and lots of TV and PG-13 videos in the evening (during quality family time), and lots of fun stuff on the weekend -- woven around church (mostly). This is life for millions of people. Wasted life. We were created for more, far more. (119-120)
So this stuff is weighing heavily on my heart and mind right now. And I'm not going to lie: I don't like it. It's not that I don't know if I can live up to these expectations. It's that I don't know if I want to. I completely understand why the rich young ruler's "...face fell, and he walked away sad..." (Mark 10:22). Jesus really does "want the things I just can't give Him," to paraphrase Webb's lyric. I want to follow Jesus. But I want my comfort, and my toys, and my largely recreational lifestyle, and my social seclusion. And my sense of security that comes more from a lack of risk than from a confidence in God's grace and provision.
I have a lot to think and pray about, and I would ask you to pray for me and my family as well...
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