In September, Time Magazine ran an article with this title, and the story was about some very successful preachers who preach a "prosperity gospel." This means, they preach that God wants you to be rich (and that they are the living examples of that). I don't know if this is a new twist or not, but the idea of riches=blessings is a pretty old idea. (And a pretty bad one, if you ask me--does that mean that poor people deserve their lot, then, and that rich people are always moral? Take a look at James for a good analysis of that.)
"So, Amy," you're probably thinking, "You're usually extremely current with your news analysis, always offering up-to-the-minute commentary on every relevant issue. Why bring this up now?"
"Well," I would reply, "First of all, thank you, you're flattering me. I'm not that up-do-date."
"Actually, that's true," you'd say, "and you've been slacking off lately, too, except for this recent global warming outburst, and the serialization of your ordination paper, which I know you wrote three years ago."
And then there would be an awkward silence.
Recovering from the embarrasment, I might say: "Anyway, the reason I'm bringing this up is because I was reading randomly through my Bible, and I think I found a Bible verse that goes with what I believe about that question Time magazine asked so subtly."
The verses are Proverbs 30:7-9
Two things I ask of you:
do not deny them to me before I die:
Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that I need,
or I shall be full and deny you,
and say, "Who is the Lord?"
or I shall be poor, and steal,
and profane the name of my God. (NRSV)
The wisdom of this teacher in Proverbs is that it's not good to be rich any more than it's good to be poor. Poverty sometimes forces us to live contrary to our morals and dignity--to lie, cheat and manipulate. But wealth gives us the illusion that we don't have to rely on God, and that we are somehow self-made.
My answer, then, is that God doesn't want us to be rich or poor. God wants us to have enough. The next question, of course, is "How much is enough?" And that's not a quickly or easily asked question. But it is interesting to think that there are some people who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and don't think they have enough -- feel like they're living hand-to-mouth -- while at the same time there are others living contententedly on much, much less.
