Excellent post here from the i-monk: “Get your people reading the Bible, reading good books, talking to each other, doing ministry in your community and grounded in simple Christianity. Reduce your consumeristic discipleship by half, and then look at the half that’s left and see what you really think of it. Jesus said that if we find the treasure in the field, we don’t buy, we sell. We give away. It’s a revolution, not a convention or a market. Jesus went to a religious marketplace once. It didn’t turn out well. Do something as a disciple that makes sense: repent of and abandon this consumeristic Christian virus before it kills you.”

It reminds me of one of the Martyn Joseph songs – ‘He Never Said’:

He never said, God helps those who help themselves.
He never said, Blessed are the rich, and life is a bitch
He never said, Do unto others before they do unto you, like they’re gonna do
He never said, It’s too bad, buddy, but the weather’s gonna take it all
He never said, Success, that’s the key, you gotta be cruel to be kind, and
He never said, It’s a jungle out there where the weak must be left behind

No, he said, answer a stranger’s cry for help,
love your brother as you love yourself
You only need to seek and you will find
Forgive your enemy and drop that grudge,
if you don’t judge others you won’t be judged
Only knock and the door will open wide

He never said, Archbishops should stick to theology, leave all the political issues alone
And I never read, put your faith in the Lottery, Dale Winton and his balls
He never said, binding me is necessary, no no no
I don’t recall, y’all, My Country Right or Wrong
He never said, Send your money to me, touch the screen and you’re gonna be healed
He never said, every man’s gotta price, so do you wanna make a deal?

No, he said…

On that day, on the day that’s coming, ’cause I got a dream
Who’s gonna be walking? Who’s gonna be running?
When the first will be last, so that the last can come first
That’s if the meek can inherit the earth

And he said…

And I’m sick of hearing all the things he never, never said
He never said a woman couldn’t be a priest
He didn’t say you couldn’t get remarried in church if you’ve been divorced
He never said be exclusive like some golf club
He never said in my name go out there and steal money from the poor and the helpless… Like some guy I saw in Columbus Ohio.. he’s doing a ‘bill fest’ thing, where anyone in debt they can send him their bills and he’s gonna burn them on the altar, and Jesus is going to go into their bank accounts and sort it all out; as long as they send him $50 that is… for his part in the bargain…
Well STUFF YOU!
He never said!
The guy’s a gangster, he should be put on trial
He never said!
He never said every little thing was going to be hunky dory, clappy happy, just smooth sailing, everything in its place this side of one heckuva better place than we currently stand in…

~~

“The God I believe in ain’t short of cash”