the love of money vs. the way of Christ…

Thee ebible.com verse of the day, reminded me again how different the Way of Christ is compared to the assumed ways of life of this modern world:

⁵ Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you. ” ⁶ So we can confidently say,”The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”

Hebrews 13:5 – 6

In a world where our current economic systems are based on greed, ‘more more more’, and ‘I’m cooler than my neighbour coz I have X’, and where people think that greed is a good driving force behind an economy, the Way of Christ is actually quite subversive…

If  only all of us Christians would effectively live according to the last of the 10 commandments about not coveting what belongs to our neigbor, there would be a big problem for our contemporary Marketing and Advertisement industry, which tries to create new needs every day, and tries to sell us everything we don’t need… (And then I’m not even talking about the commandment before that one, about not bearing a false witness!) If one would try to set up a system that is opposed to the words of Jesus and the OT laws, our late modern consumer capitalism would be a pretty good candidate of what would emerge…

But instead of keeping our focus on what shouldn’t be but is, let’s look at what should be and how it’s meant to be, and let’s for a moment meditate on the following words of Paul in 1 Tim 6:

:6 Now godliness combined with contentment brings great profit. :7 For we have brought nothing into this world and so¹ we cannot take a single thing out either. 6:8 But if we have food and shelter, we will be satisfied with that.6:9 Those who long to be rich, however, stumble into temptation and a trap and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evils. Some people in reaching for it have strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains. 6:11 But you, as a person dedicated to God, keep away from all that. Instead pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love, endurance, and gentleness.

The way of Christ is not to follow money, which becomes an idol called Mammon in the bible, but to use money or the unrighteous Mammon (if we have it) to make friends. Yes, people are put before money here.  And people who hoard riches, which are living out our neoliberal dreams in other words, are even used in the gospels as an example of human wickedness… Kingdoms are clashing here. Which one do we choose?

The way of Christ is to love, first and foremost. Mammon should desacralised and instead of turned into an idol that guides our lives, and riches and money are to be used to help other people, and not to build our own empire. Jesus even said to the rich young rules that he had to sell everything and give to the poor if he wanted eternal life, and before we are too quick to dismiss that, let’s remember the first church in the book of acts effectively lived like that, as did the first Christians in the first centuries, a lot of monastic orders throughout the ages and even New Monastic today…  So it’s not impossible…

Imagine how the world would be different if we really followed Jesus, settled for enough and shared the rest with all those in need. It has been done before. The Roman emperor Julian the apostate, who didn’t like the Christians very much, said that ‘the Christians fed their (Roman) poor in addition to their own. So why do we think of these things as so otherworldy?

And I am part of the problem here!

I know I’m preaching to myself now, and I still have a long way to go in this.God help me, Spirit lead me, Jesus teach me!

Any additions, examples, whatever?

shalom

Bram

Copyrighting Truth is theft and a crime against humanity!

edit: since my post initially wasn’t that clear about what I meant, I expanded it heavily, the new part is put in [ ]-brackets…
edit2: thanks to Stefania for assisting me in the tracking down and removal of a whole truckload of typo’s…

The title already says it all, and I don’t mean to attack anyone, but it makes me wonder about our whole religious publishing and music industry:

Copyrighting Truth is theft and a crime against humanity!

Any Truth that gives life cannot be our own property, but should be shared with all of humanity! Every grain of truth we stumble upon is not our invention, but something the Almighty has given us. To not give it away freely is to steal from those who need it as much as we do!

Jesus tells his disciples to bring the Kingdom of God:

“As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” (Mat 10:7-8)

What shall we think then of all our religious publishing?

So how can we as Christians put a copyright on anything that proclaims the Kingdom of God? How can we claim to own Truth about the Kingdom of God, and only give it to those who pay? Do we then follow Jesus more, or Mammon, the false God of the dire money?

Isn’t this blasphemy? All Truth belongs to God! Shouldn’t it be given freely?

Or don’t we believe in the importance of the religous messages that we sell? All those Christian books that promise new insight in the bible, new truths about God and how to live our life to the fullest, and yadda yadda yadda. If it’s true that we have this information, is it Christlike to charge money for it??

Or don’t we really believe in the importance and trancendence of what we have to tell, and treat it like any other information that can be told. Do we believe that God is more important than the things of this fallen human society, or do we believe that Mammon and the ways of this world which are imprisoned by that false God are more real than the gospel we write about, than the Truth we proclaim, than the Kingdom of God? I would say that

All Truth that matters belongs to God and is not ours to make money of, but ours to share in all possible ways to those who are spiritually starving in this postmodern world!

[So what do I mean? I did say 'Truth' should not be copyrighted. I don't say our books are the perfect incarnation of Truth. I may not be a big fan of copyrights the way they exist in this world, but when you write down your own story, it's evident that you are the owner of that story, and no-one else should be using it as a product to make money of behind your back, that's just fair.

One of the things I was thinking about when writing this post is a story I once read about Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code, being sued by some guy who claimed that Dan Brown had stolen his theories about I think Jesus and Mary Magdalene living in France. Now, let's assume for a moment that this story is true... (it's not) Then the guy claims to be the owner of the truth about Jesus. We have a serious problem if the Truth would be owned by someone, and it would be even worse if that guy doesn't even care about truth, but sees it as a product to be bought and sold.

Like I said, if it is Truth, it is of God. It cannot be owned or controlled by us, and our motivation should be to share it with everybody.

So if you as a Christian have something that (you believe) has the power to bring people closer to God, you should make that available for all. That does not mean you can't make money for a living selling your books, but if you really believe in the power of what you have to give, and then make people buy your book, and workbook, and series of teaching DVD's, and put copyright notices on all of them with warnings that violators will be prosecuted by federal law and stuff, something does not at all fly well with me. If your stuff is that good and essential and life-transforming and yadda yadda, and you're only willing to give it to those who pay you, you're robbing people and ripping of God. And the result is more like some kind of scientology-light than the Kingdom of God...

So make your books, sell them, make it available, but if you really believe that you have something that's important for everybody, you will not only sell it, but also prompt people to share it. You will applaud it if someone else finds a new way of commnucating what you were sharing building on your work.

Because in the end; the Truth in there is not ours, it's God's! We, and our works, are just vessels, jars of clay in, and the treasure inside of us is much more than Mammon. ]

What say you?

shalom

Bram

blast from the past 3: Love is the first Law!

One last old blogpost from myself, but I think it is an important one… As a soundstrack I would propose the half-handed cloud album ‘we haven’t just been told, we have been loved’, but that one is not listenable on the internet as far as I know… (so buy it, it’s defenitely worth it!!) or my song ‘feelings say nothing’, see the introducing paragraph to my first ‘blast from the past‘ post (including the warning), since the post was named after the other title of that song. Another proposed song is the beautiful  ‘words can’t’ by my friend AdiVa which can be heard at her myspace.

wednesday, december 06, 2006

title: Love is the first Law!!!

originally posted on http://www.myspace.com/bramc

Love is the first Law, the first law of everything, the one that should be obeyed above all, even the first law of the bible: Both Paul and Jesus do summarise the whole law in ‘love your neigbor as youself!! If you love God, and your fellow human and yourself, then the law is fulfilled! If you just try to keep any law but have no love then it’s all useless…

The only way to really live is to give up yourself and give yourself to the other, and the Other!! Self-satisfaction does not satisfy anyone… If you seek only yourself, you will find yourself empty, but if you give yourself, you will live!!

Love is not just a feeling. It is much deeper than our emotions, our feelings are just an expression of it… Love can be also a choice we have to rely on when our feelings do not want to co-operate…

The other forces of this world are seeking the self and will finally end up in emptiness, like power and money. Sex is a lie unless you truly give yourself to the other, and do not take yourself back as long as you’re both alive… Love is the only thing that matters!!!

love and peace

Bram

blast from the past 1: work, sex, love and God…

hi all you imaginary readers;

Since  I’m starting with using this english blog, so I thought it could be interesting to repost some older posts I made on some other sites. This one is from the few attempts I once had to use my myspace as a blog, from april 21, 2007, not too long after my marriage. for a soundtrack listen to my songs the beauty in this innocence and  feelings say nothing (love is the first law) which can be downloaded free from last.fm (Warning: crappy lo-fi and weird music!!)

date: saturday, april 21, 2007

title: work, sex, love and God…

originally posted on http://www.myspace.com/bramc

and Oh yeah…

My life has been changing so fast: I’m a grown-up man now… I’ve got a job, I’ve got a wife… I’ve made it now!! I’m someone finally would some people say… And yet I’m wondering, wondering about something, as if I’m missing something, maybe missing everything…

Oh yeah, work is important. When people ask you what you do to earn money they might even derive your identity from the answer… I basicaly just take care for the green in the city because I need the money to live with my little family… But I’m happy with this job because at least I do something that makes the world a little better… even if it’s just about working with plants and trees in this city…

Hmm… I once collected bags of garbage on the street formy money, and it was maybe the most useful thing I ever did for which I did to get paid! If people would not do that for some weeks the world would be a big garbage belt!!! Sometimes the most dirty jobs are more important than the big jobs people look up to in this world… But hey, doctors and teachers were slaves in the roman empire…

I don’t believe that a ‘job’ should be your identity… it is important to do things that make the diference… Paid or unpaid… Am I the guy who does the lawn in the stuyvenbergpark, or an I the weirdo who sings ‘father I am tired’, a song of which people tell me they can relate to, but of which i’ve never made any money. Or am I just the friend, the lover, the guy who tries to be a follower of Christ? I don’t know :s

All I wanna be known for is the love that I give!!!! The rest should be just details!!!

about sex then… It is so over-hyped in this world, but I’ve never been interested in it the way the world sells it. I never experienced it that way either…

Call me naieve for my perception of it, but here’s my point of view on sex: I’ve been single all my of life, and I had never even kissed a girl before I started the relationship with she who is my wife now… People don’t believe me when I tell it but it feels natural to me, just to discover everything together… she’s my best friend, she’s my lover, she’s the biggest present God ever gave me, and she will never be replaceable. I am very well aware that such a thing can only happen once in a lifetime. And that it sounds alien to lots of people too if you tell about such thing…

Love is something weird: It is strange when someone really loves you like she loves me… It is strange when she knows everything about you, including all the dark thangs that you hate about yourself, and still loves you more than you can understand… The Eros stuff is just a part of it, and the love would still be there without sex and it would still be complete in a sexless world… Sex is a part of our relationship, and because it is something we have discovered together, it can only be a part of me and her, and not something on itself… And still it is just an expression of something deeper… It is giving yourself, litterally becoming one, and being so vulnerable without being hurt….

When you are loved in such a complete way, and then you feel at the same that God does love you with a love even bigger than this love which seems to be beyond compare and in which you float away, you cannot do a thing but just drown in it…

Love is what matters… Not money, not your job, not sex… Love is the first law!!! The love that you have given will be what matters in the end!!!!

shalom

Bram