« Conversations with the Cable Guy | Main | The Day I Forgot How To Drive »
July 25, 2005
Gospels Opposed
No matter how many times you may have discussed and even prayed about the plague of the "prosperity gospel," there is something deeply unsettling about hearing a secular news report on the phenomenon right before you walk into your own church on Sunday morning.
NPR's story focuses on the Neno Evangelism Center in Nairobi, where Pastor James Ng'ang'a plays the electric guitar, performs healings, and tosses money into the crowd as part of the regular Sunday service. Pastor Ng'ang'a points to his personal testimony -- growing up as a street child, serving time in prison, being saved, beginning his preaching career on a bicycle, and now rising to be one of the richest pastors in Africa -- as a model of the change that Christianity can effect. Evidence of his faith and God's blessing can be seen in the $300,000 price tag of his new car.
In a poor city on the poorest continent, there is "little desire to hear about the righteousness of the poor," says the reporter, matter-of-factly. Pastor Ng'ang'a offers a solution to their destitution: believe in the Lord Jesus Christ... and you will be rich and healthy. Perhaps in a country this poor, the reporter concludes, such inspiration and rejuvenation is what is needed most.
Is the gospel of Jesus just a sweepstakes ticket or a bribe?
I entered the church building with a queasy stomach and aching heart, only to be joyfully startled by a different gospel, a gospel of tenderness and tenacity exploding in the life of Marilyn. Our summer Sunday School has simply been different church members recounting the faithfulness of God in their lives. Yesterday was Marilyn's turn.
Jesus came through a neighbor who loved Marilyn's battered soul. The neighbor did not promise solutions to Marilyn's crumbling marriage, material discontentment, or pervading desperation; she simply lived and spoke the love of Jesus. Marilyn's life before and after her conversion was peppered with personal losses, marital struggles, and intense trials. The difference, simply, was that she had Jesus. She never got the material possessions that she had so desired earlier in life. Her daughter's brush with death revealed Marilyn's inability to ensure security for her family. Her husband eventually became a Christian, but even that, she said laughingly, just showed us how sinful we both were! Her tears were almost fierce as she told her story; they were packed with the core-shaking conviction that Jesus had changed her not her situation.
Hers is simply the prosperity of a soul forgiven. Her Savior is one whose blessings have eternal significance, not earthly expiration dates.
So today I'm praying with renewed energy for those friends I have who are working in Africa with honest love, confident that God will propser their ministry in a way unknown to Pastor Ng'ang'a. The complex reality of Jesus' gospel and Satan's cancerous twists of those promises can hardly be boiled down to these two opposing stories. But preaching such a loveless gospel to the poor will only perpetuate an economically-defined self and never plumb the depths of their need.
"Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." -- John 4:14
Faith | By elissa | 03:31 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://chattablogs.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/23515
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Gospels Opposed:
