Health, Wealth, and Suffering

Sermon

The preacher spoke of
Healthy, wealthy, and happy,

And I couldn’t keep my mind
From wandering down
The road marked with suffering,
To crosses, camels
And the eye of a needle

As he explained that faith
Was a bank account
In which the smart investor
Accrues interest
On his deposits. 

-John Mirisola

At the very heart of the message of Christ is the lavish, insane, prodigal love of God. It is a love that held Him to the cross when it should have been us. It is a love that gives us everything we need if we are found in Christ. God desires to bless us richly. Paul tells us in Romans that we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. He has given us the Spirit of sonship and all the riches of His kingdom are ours in Christ.

It is good to remind ourselves of this and to live in this power and grace that was afforded to us by Christ. It is good to expect the best from God and to entrust ourselves to Him.

Though we are wise to joyfully anticipate God's provision and blessings, there is a great danger in overemphasizing God's blessings as we expect them. Sometimes we have very different ideas of what it means to be blessed by God than what God intends. There has been a strong movement in America that has spread to Africa and Asia that teaches that our faith in God is directly correlated to material blessings. A crude mixture of the American dream and a dumbed down version of the Gospel, it gains followers through promises of health, wealth, and prosperity. God is a Santa Claus who will give us anything we want if we just have enough faith (and donate to the preacher bringing the message).

I'm not saying that God never provides material blessings or that it is wrong to have money. What I am saying is that God is far more concerned with who we are as His followers than He is with our comfort or what possessions we have. What if His blessings come through overwhelming tribulation that push us straight to His arms and force us to realize our dependency on Him? What if Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, and the author of Hebrews are serious when they tell us that we will face trials, hardship, persecution and difficulties in this world? What if the mystery of grace reaches much deeper than superficial possessions and temporary comfort? What if joy is not merely happiness but a consistent abiding in Christ through every circumstance? What if peace is more than an emotional, psychological state but a constant reassurance of God's presence in all things?

What makes the health and wealth gospel so heinous is it takes the incredible story of Christ's redemption and makes it all about us and what we can get out of it. It is a hollow, selfish, consumerist approach to the Most High God. But there is value in pain and suffering. There is joy in serving "the least of these." There is hope in learning how to be content in all circumstances. We are to be marked by the suffering of Christ. If we are His followers, we must serve and love as He served and loved, not seek comfort for ourselves. O that we would seek to serve Christ and bring Him glory at all costs, considering everything else rubbish for His sake; that we would find ourselves in Him, not in our comfort and possessions; that we would know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings.