Love Your Neighbor (Radical Chapter 6)

This is going to be a very long blog that is going to make a lot of people angry, but I take no remorse in these words. God broke my heart for this last night as I sat in tears reading this chapter to the very end. I do not claim to know everything about the following subjects or even to have them figured out completely in my life, but I know that my heart is now in the right place for this and if I do not get this off my chest I might explode.
"How much is enough?" American wealth and a world of poverty - Radical Chapter 6
A huge blind spot in many American's faith is a heart for the poor. As we live in unimaginable luxury here in America, we choose to ignore the ones around us who are starving and dying every day. Over 1 Billion people in this world live on the equivalent of less than a dollar a day. Over 2 Billion Others live on less than two dollars per day. This over 3 Billion people make up nearly half of the world's population. "More than twenty-six thousand children today will breath their last breath due to starvation or a preventable disease." What if one of those children was your child? Really put yourself in their place, these children have parents who literally have no means of providing for themselves or their children, and they can do nothing to stop their children from dying right their in their arms. So, I will ask it again, what if that was your child? If you don't have a child, what if that were your best friend, girlfriend, mom, dad, uncle, brother, or sister? These people are dying all over the world, and what is perhaps even more heartbreaking than that, is that they are all dying and going to Hell because almost none of them have ever had the opportunity to hear of the Gospel. And here we sit, most of us, doing nothing to help them. In regards to that, Platt says "But they do exist. Not only do they exist, but God takes very seriously how I respond to them. The book of Proverbs warns about curses that come upon those who ignore the poor. The prophets warn of God's judgment and devastation for those who neglect the poor. Jesus pronounces woes upon the wealthy who trust in their riches, and James tells those who hoard their money and live in self-indulgence to 'weep and wail because of the misery that is coming' upon them. In a humbling passage, Jesus says to those who turn away from him by ignoring the physical needs of his people, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'" "The means of our salvation is faith in Christ alone, and the basis of our salvation is the work of Christ alone." "But the reality is, if you and I have running water, shelter over our heads, clothes to wear, food to eat, and some means of transportation (even if it's public transportation), then we are in the top 15 percent of the world's people for wealth." This does not include having money for luxuries like spare clothes, expensive meals, cars, cameras, video games, televisions, jewelry, computers, internet, cable, telephones, cell phones, books, electricity, the list goes on. Just by having running water, any kind of shelter over our heads, even if that is just a trailer or a tent, clothes to wear, even if they do not fit and have holes in them, and some way of getting around, even taking the bus, we are more wealthy than 85% of the world's population. How misplaced are the funds of the American Christian community? Platt tells a heart-breaking story to put it into perspective "One evening I was meeting with an underground house church overseas, and we were discussing various issues in Scripture. A woman who lived in the city and knew some English shared. 'I have a television, and every once in a while I am able to get stations from the United States,' she said. 'Some of these stations have church services on them. I see the preachers, and they are dressed in very nice clothes, and they are preaching in very nice buildings. Some of them even tell me that if I have faith, I too can have nice things.' She paused before continuing. 'When I come to our church meetings, I look around, and most of us are very poor, and we are meeting here at great risk to our lives.' Then she looked at me and asked, 'Does this mean we do not have enough faith?'" Hmm, this goes back to another chapter where Platt tells of how little many Americans appreciate their ability to meet about God freely and in public. Anyway, he is saying here that we, as Americans, are "implicitly exporting a theology that equates faith in christ with prosperity in this world." That is just wrong. Before Jesus came and died for our sins, there was a reason for building elaborate temples, to make sacrifices to put off the sins of the people until Jesus came. God commanded them to build these temples occasionally. But nowhere in the New Testament will you see God or Jesus commanding their people to build elaborate temples or buildings of any kind to have worship, not directly or through one of the prophets. So, I have to ask, where have Americans gotten this idea that success in the church should be completely measured by how big of a building you have and how many people you can cram into that building on Sunday mornings? Thing I am talking nonsense? "Every year in the United States (alone), we spend more than $10 BILLION on church buildings. In America alone, the amount of real estate owned by institutional churches is worth OVER $230 BILLION." And this also breaks my heart and makes me ask the question: What if all that money had been spent on helping the poor and the sick and the starving and the thirsty and all those children and adults that are dying every day from starvation and preventable diseases? Is there anything wrong with just holding smaller church meetings in many more locations like public parks or people's houses? There is no law in America against meeting in public areas, or public parks even (to my knowledge). We have complete and total freedom of religion and how do we choose to spend all of the money that our communities of believers raise? On gigantic, elaborate buildings to meet in. Now let me make another thing clear here, I am not saying that there is anything inherently wrong with having a building to meet in for church on Sunday mornings. I am just saying that there is no reason to build these huge, overly elaborate buildings that, largely, only serve as meeting places. The only way I can see justifying having such a large building would be as a base of missions, that is, a storage facility for things like donated clothes and food that is then re-distributed by the church community to those who are in need of them. Or as a command center for getting the paperwork done to go out of country on missions and to adopt these children who are dying. And what about on a personal level? Are we all actually called to sell everything that we have and give it to the poor? No, God delights in pouring out blessings on his children, but He does it for the benefit of making His glory known in all nations, not for you to hoard the wealth you have been given for your own purposes. But the bigger question here is not whether or not we are told by Jesus to sell everything we have, it is whether or not we trust Jesus completely. Let me backtrack slightly to quote Platt again: "However, Jesus was not, and never is, interested in being seen as a respectable teacher. He is the sovereign Lord. He doesn't give options for people to consider; he gives commands for people to obey....Now, before you and I think of all the reasons he would not tell us to do these things, we need to think about this question first: is he Lord?...are we looking to Jesus for total leadership in our lives[?]...He always intends to be the voice that guides whatever decisions we make in our lives and with our money." Platt then tells a story about a man in his church, who, after hearing a sermon on the rich young ruler, began to sell everything he had, downsize, downgrade, and get down to the bare minimums. I will just skip to the end of the story, which brought me to tears last night "Then he looked at me through tears in his eyes and said, 'I wonder at some points if I'm being irresponsible or unwise. But then I realize there is never going to come a day when I stand before God and he looks at me and says, I wish you would have kept more for yourself. I'm confident that God will take care of me.'" If that doesn't just say it all and put it all into perspective. Jesus constantly teaches of how he takes care of those who are doing his work in the world. The gospels are filled with imagry of how God clothes and feeds wild animals and plants and how much more valuable are we to God than these? Therefore, how much more will God provide for us than for these plants? Jesus also states numerous times not to worry, about anything. Need more proof? Read 1 Timothy 6. And then ask yourself this question "am I willing to live a life that is content with food and clothing, having the basic necessities of my life provided for? Or do I want more?" Platt then uses the example of John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, to show what this means in a real world perspective. And it boils down to the previous question. If you make $160,000/year and you can pay your bills and put food on your table and keep a roof over your head with $20,000/year, give the other $140,000 to the poor, who need it far more than you do. And this is probably a far reach from how much most of us make, but it is just an example. I just pray that after reading this, you will take a long hard look at the way you are living. Take a look at the house you live in and ask yourself if that house is more house than you need. Look at your car(s) and ask yourself if that car is more than you need. Look at the food you are eating and ask yourself if you could survive on simpler and less expensive food. Look at the things that your house is filled with and ask yourself if you really need all of these things. And before you go out and buy something else that is just a luxury, something else that you do not actually need to live on, ask yourself how many poor starving children in other countries you could keep alive with that money. Children that are just as precious and dear to someone as that someone in your life that is so precious and dear to you. Because it all comes back to where you are storing up your riches. Are your riches here on earth, or are they in heaven? Do you want nice things and luxuries here on earth where they will last you no longer than your life span (around 100 years tops), or do you want nice things in heaven, where things never expire and all your luxuries will last for an eternity?