Archive for June, 2010

“The New Testament says much more about the dangers of riches to one’s soul than it does about many well-publicized issues about which many Christians feel so strongly. Yet, you never know this by the agenda advanced by America’s most prominent and politically active Christian organizations, magazines and radio talk shows…It’s unwise for Christians to keep averting our gaze from warnings that Christ placed in bright neon lights…In pursuit of wealth and worldly pleasures, Christians have become virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the world. We have bought into non-Christian precepts. Note the irony, Christians seeking and encouraging others to seek that which our Lord repeatedly warned against.”

Peter Wehner, the director of public policy at the conservative political think-tank Empower America, as quoted in Faithful Finances 101 by Gary Moore (West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation Press, 2005) 181.

“Discipline creates abundance, abundance destroys discipline, and discipline, in its fall, destroys abundance.”

Gary Moore in Faithful Finances 101 (West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation Press, 2005) 214.

“The total consecration of money to God is a prophetic act because it announces the last days. It is an element of the kingdom of heaven in the midst of us, announcing the greater and final reality of God’s kingdom. It is an element of the kingdom of heaven because it means that God’s grace is worth giving up everything for. But this renunciation does not mean leaving things to go their own way; it does not in any sense mean that money is given back to mammon. It is rather a surrender into God’s hands, and thus it is a reintegration. For ultimately reintegration is what lies ahead for money, when the power of money admits its submission to Christ.”

Jacques Ellul in Money and Power (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1984) 115.

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labors. Ecclesiastes 2:10

“They nourish their hearts in self-indulgence who, according to the word of Ecclesiastes, do not prevent their heart from enjoying every wish and from delighting itself in the things which they have prepared. And they count it their due if they themselves make use of their own labors, having no care for the support and solace of the poor.”

Venerable Bede (c. 672-735) in Commentary on James 5:5.

May the yoke of the Law of God be on my shoulder,
The coming of the Holy Spirit on my head,
The sign of Christ on my forehead,
The hearing of the Holy Spirit in my ears,
The smelling of the Holy Spirit in my nose,
The vision of the people of heaven in my eyes,
The speech of the people of heaven in my mouth,
The work of the church of God in my hands,
The good of God and of neighbor in my feet,
May God dwell in my heart, and may I belong entirely to God the Father.
Amen.

Breastplate Prayer of Fursa, an Irish missionary (c. 650) as recounted by Cindy Crosby in Ancient Christian Devotional: A Year of Weekly Readings (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2007) 216-217.

Nothing is so inconsistent with the life of any Christian as overindulgence. Rule of Benedict 39:8

“Whether we take great pride in our possessions or think little about them, all of us would be significantly enlightened if we came to think of possessions essentially as things of which we have more or less continuing use. The principle is a good one: we should not make fetishes of the things we possess…What would be the consequences for our daily life and for our communities if we started thinking about using our goods instead of possessing them?”

Eric Dean in Saint Benedict for the Laity (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1989) 75, 76, and 80.

“The Bible is the greatest debt-elimination book ever written, because it addresses the REAL debt, the debt you cannot repay.”

Bob Marette in From a Millstone to a Milestone (Dehli, India: New Life Printers, 2006) 174.

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name? Then I will declare to them solemnly, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.” Matthew 7:21-23

“I never knew you; depart from me” is a classical formula of the Bible for a complete and unconditional rejection. “On that day” those rejected will be termed “evil-doers,” because they did not feed the hungry or give drink to the thirsty (see Matt. 25:31-45). The actions that such people claim as religious (prophesying, expelling demons, working miracles) were simply ritual gestures empty of concrete love for brothers and sisters, for the poor; therefore God was not in these actions. Moreover the exercise of these charisms becomes the practice of evil (Greek: anomia, lawlessness); that is, the very opposite of love (Greek: agape), which is God’s law as explained in the Sermon on the Mount, of which this passage is a part. “Evildoers” is a bold and harsh term that allows no loopholes. When one tries to justify the failure to love the poor and the oppressed by claiming that one is occupied in worshiping, one is in fact doing evil. God is not bound to accept our religious works; if they are not inspired by the desire for life and justice, God is not present in them.”

Gustavo Gutiérrez in Essential Writings of Gustavo Gutiérrez, ed. by James B. Nickoloff (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996) 131.

“Oh, my dear Christians! if you would be like Christ, give much, give often, give freely, to the vile and the poor, the thankless and the undeserving. Christ is glorious and happy, and so will you be. It is not your money I want, but your happiness. Remember his own word: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” …

Again, if Christ lived in some poor dwelling, with not enough of fire to keep away the cold, with not enough of clothes to make the bed warm, would you not seek him out? Would you stay till he sought you? Ah, woe is me! In how many dwellings does Christ dwell thus? And yet, there are Christians hearing me that never have sought him out. Change your plan, I pray you. “It is more blessed to give than to receive” …

I thank God that there are some among you to whom Christ will say: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Go on, dear Christians, live still for Christ. Never forget, day nor night, that you are yourselves bought with a price. Lay yourselves and your property all in his hand, and say: “What wilt thou have me to do? Here am I, send me;” and then I know you will feel, now and in eternity, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” …

I am concerned for the poor; but more for you. I know not what Christ will say to you in the great day. You seem to be Christians, and yet you care not for his poor. Oh, what a change will pass upon you as you enter the gates of heaven! You will be saved, but that will be all. There will be no abundant entrance for you: “He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly.”

I fear there are many hearing me who may know well that they are not Christians, because they do not love to give. To give largely and liberally, not grudging at all, requires a new heart; an old heart would rather part with its life-blood than its money. Oh, my friends! Enjoy your money; make the most of it; give none away; enjoy it quickly; for I can tell you, you will be beggars throughout eternity.”

Sermon LXXXII: “More Blessed To Give Than To Receive” By Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne delivered in Dundee, February 4, 1838. From The Works of the Late Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne (New York: Robert Carter, 1847) 476-482.

Vice: Lust
Petition: Deliver us from evil
Gift: Wisdom
Virtue: Peacemakers
Beatitude: Sons of God

Here, the soul prays: “Deliver us from evil,” as a remedy for lust. Hugh understands this call for deliverance as a cry for freedom. “Fittingly,” he says, “the healed servant asks for freedom.” In return, he receives the gift of wisdom, “which gift restores lost liberty to the captive,” so that “now through the help of grace, he escapes the bonds of unjust domination that he was powerless in his own strength [to escape]”… The end result is a tranquil composedness within the soul, which Hugh, following Augustine, calls rest and peace: “Finally, the soul, at peace within itself and desiring nothing externally, rests wholly within through love.”

Material from Jeffrey P. Greenman, Timothy Larsen and Stephen R. Spencer, editors, The Sermon on the Mount: Through the Centuries from the Early Church to John Paul II (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2007) 77.