Revolutionary Heart: gleaning the cube...er I mean the fields

I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of simplicity and what that could/should look like in the life of this follower of Christ (me). I can honestly say that for the first five years of my faith journey (I did not grow up “in the church” - Christ called me to His service in adulthood), I never really thought about the “christian life” as being anything other than a quest for personal piety.

To me Christianity was like so many of the other aspects of my life - something to be controlled and/or conquered. I viewed my faith pretty much like my career - work hard, impress the boss, and get ahead. The best part about it was that I could find passages of scripture that seemed to back up my “rugged individualist” mindset (think of a “corporate-america” reading of Matthew 25:14 - the parable of the talents. SIDE NOTE: Working in the banking industry, I especially liked this parable because in verse 27 Jesus rebukes the “lazy servant” for not putting the money in the bank and gaining interest - go bankers, go bankers, go bankers - by the way I was doing the truffle-shuffle as I said that).

This individualistic mindset was great for a while, because it offered my surety (I didn’t have to live with doubt) and I could follow Christ without making any real changes in my life. I mean sure I drank a little less (or at least not in front of my “church friends” who also wouldn’t drink in front of me), stopped cussing, railed against the gay agenda, looked for the next “most important witnessing opportunity of our time,” and started listening to really crappy music, but other than that there was not much difference. The other areas of my life were completely untouched -- I was still focused on making as much money as I could, so I could buy a better vehicle, a bigger house, and better/cooler stuff to put into my bigger house. That seemed to work for a while, but the problem was I enjoyed reading scripture.

During my forays into scripture I kept running across verses that were very troubling to my status quo way of living. A couple of those passages that I recently ran across again are:

Leviticus 19:9-10 “‘When you gather in the harvest of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. You must not pick your vineyard bare, and you must not gather up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You must leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.”

and it’s exposition in Deuteronomy (Side Note: the reason I say the verses in Deuteronomy is an exposition of the Leviticus verse is, because the guys who spend their lives studying this stuff “aka scholars” - that I have read believe that the Deuteronomy was Moses final sermon to the nation of Israel prior to their entrance into the Promised Land. Moses knew he was not going with them, so he tried to expand on the Law that had already been given - what we now call Leviticus. Bottom line, Deuteronomy is basically Leviticus in further detail.)

Deuteronomy 24:19-22 “Whenever you reap your harvest in your field and leave some unraked grain there, you must not return to get it; it should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow so that the Lord your God may bless all the work you do. When you beat your olive tree you must not repeat the procedure; the remaining olives belong to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard you must not do so a second time; they should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow. Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt; therefore, I am commanding you to do all this.”

Now on to the disturbing part (I find that the Old Testament often disturbs me, maybe that’s why I like it so much). In this passage I read a command from God regarding how we are to use our paycheck. What? Well if we consider that at this time, Israel had an agrarian based economy and their wealth was tied up in the land and what it produced, there is a very clear implication from these verses of how we should use our funds.

These passages disturbed me, because there is a very clear implication that the people of God should not only live within their means, but they are called to an even higher standard of taking what they do not use and helping the poor, immigrant, orphan, and widow. This really shook my tree because- not only do I harvest to the ends of my field (leaving nothing for the poor and the immigrant) - but I harvest into the next field through the power of credit (Viva Visa y MasterCard!). I have operated this way for so much of my adult life that when I was called to follow Christ, I never even considered that this (how much money I use on my - self/family) would be an area that I also needed to place under the “Lordship of Christ.”

Which brings me back to simplicity and social justice: Day by day, I am awakening to the realization that - the further away from the edges of my field I harvest the more I can give to help the poor and the immigrant. This is NOT just a good idea or a nice thing to do, but I am truly beginning to believe that this is the way to imitate Christ. Further, I would say that there is a direct relationship between the amount of “gleanings” I leave around the edges of my field and the quality of the reflection of Christ in my life. In other words, the less resources I use on myself, the more I can give to the poor and the immigrant and the closer I am to being the “imitator of Christ” that Paul exhorts us to be in so much of the NT.

As I sit here today, a large part of me wants to write all of this off. I mean, I’ve been to enough sermons at church to know that as long as “I have Jesus in my heart and know that my treasures are really in heaven,” it’s okay to be in debt up to my eyeballs in order to drive a BMW/Lexus/Cadillac/Benz and have a 3000 sq foot house that is full of the latest furniture and gadgets. Unfortunately, Jesus won’t let me off the hook.

The verse that drove the stake into the heart of my American dream is found immediately following my “pro-bankers verse” above.

Matthew 25:31-46 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the king will answer them, 'I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.'
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not receive me as a guest, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they too will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not give you whatever you needed?' Then he will answer them, 'I tell you the truth, just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.' And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

What the caca?

Notice what Jesus says separates the sheep and goats. It is my treatment of the poor and the immigrant that determine which group (sheep or goats) I am placed into. Before you start quoting Ephesians at me, consider this -- I’m not the one saying it, Jesus did. You can do theological backflips to figure out a loophole, “but as for me and my house we will serve (literally) the Lord.”

Creador,
You created the heavens and the earth and what you made is good. I confess my sins of greed and hoarding. Forgive me for taking more than my share. Teach me to live a simple life. Give me the strength to leave an ever widening edge around my field. Teach me to serve the poor and the immigrant. Forgive me when I don’t, but do not let my spirit rest until I do. En el nombre de su hijo Jesus Christo, amen.

Comments

It is amazing how every existent way of life has its interpretational gospel. This is no different. The gospel of Jesus Christ according to the affluent. You hit it on the nose in respect to how they twist His words. Not attack them directly. Just subtly add their own ingredients and always out of context. The infection of the prosperity gospel, combined with consumerism, has become the driving engine behind the modern churchs Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Look it up. The comparison you find to the personality of the present day congregation will be spooky. What is even scarier, is the tendencies we may carry from an infected congregation in our departure to find what being closer to God really is. It is in our nature to move from one comfort plateau to another. Christ didn't talk about comfort, He talked about action. When we talk about the hungry, naked, widow, orphan, thirsty, we talk about the poor, the downtrodden, the oppressed, those with very few choices. Christ loved them. Since love is a verb, then we are called to action. Christ's Love, Christ's action and not very comfortable. You are appreciated. Thanks.

Posted by: Richard Diaz | April 06, 2006 at 11:39 PM

Now why do you have to go and write a thing like that? After 9 months of just getting by on part-time work, just when a full-time job comes on the horizon and I am dreaming of all of the wonderful new clothing and possibly even a fancy new duvet that I will buy with my windfall, you have to go and make me think that perhaps it's for this purpose that I've learned to live on such a very strict budget and that maybe I'm expected to stick with it and put the surplus to better use. Foiled again.

Posted by: lori | March 22, 2006 at 12:55 AM

[sarcasm]Oh, but Mike, you're forgetting that Jesus said we would always have the poor with us! Doesn't that mean we don't have to worry about "them" anymore?[sarcasm]

Good word, mi amigo. Thanks.

Posted by: Jeremy Alder | March 18, 2006 at 12:05 PM