WAS JESUS A SOCIALIST?

Before you decide not to read the rest of this blog because of the title, hear me out for a second. I don't ascribe to the doctrine of socialism, I am a believer in free enterprise and capitalism (with all its flaws) and still think that it is the best system in the world. While socialism tries to make up for the gross inequalities in our world by "sharing wealth", it almost always ends up being a totalitarian system that stifles freedom, so in essence the ideals of socialism may make sense on paper, but end up not working in practice.

But I ask this question in light of a Bible passage that I re-read recently and also thinking of all the uproar that ensued during the recent United States presidential elections when the inference was being made by some that president-elect Obama is a socialist. Socialism is such a demonized word in our society, so much so that I recently saw a funny cartoon where a small boy was reading a book entitled "Sharing", the boy had a troubled look on his face and then said "the writer of this book must have been a socialist!" The boy then threw the book across the room in outrage.

But what is it about socialism that enrages us so much? Even as we are changing the very rules of capitalism in America as we bail out huge corporations with tax payers money, while leaving regular working people hanging, we still hate the word socialism. Could it be because we live in a world where we want to believe that whatever we have in life we earned by our own hard work alone, the notion of sharing the weight of each others suffering is simply preposterous? Could it be that because we live under the illusion that we are all wherever we are in life because we deserve to be there, based on how much work we have put in life? So if you are poor or suffering, we assume that it is always because you are either not hard working enough or have not applied yourself, and if you are rich and prosperous, we assume that it is because you are more hard working than the rest. If that were the case, then this formula would imply that most American citizens are the most blessed and hard working people on earth and everyone else is either simply lazy or cursed. But we all know that this assumption would be false because there are hard working people all over the world.

Examine some of these amazing statistics:

Even though the United States makes up less than 5% of the world's population, we control over 20% (one fifth) of the world's wealth.

One billion people in the world do not have access to clean water, while the average American uses four to six hundred liters of water a day.

Every seven seconds, a child under five somewhere in the world dies of hunger, while here in the U.S. we throw away 14% of the food that we purchase.

By far, most people around the world do not have a car, while one third of American families own at least three cars.

(source: chapter 5, page 122, from the book "Jesus wants to save Christians" by Rob Bell & Don Golden)

These statistics are simply astonishing. These numbers are enough to put the current economic crisis that we are facing in the U.S. in the right perspective. The truth is that even in our worst of times, we are still living better than most people around the world. While most people around the world, especially in developing countries are worried about the basic necessities of life and where their next meal will come from, we are pondering over whether we can afford that next luxury item or that new and improved flat screen TV or cell phone with all the latest features. What we call "fast food" in this country is fine dining to many people around the world. I did not get into the bad habit of drinking at least one sugar-filled soda every day until I returned to the U.S. in 1994. Our current obesity problem here in the US shows that for many of us, worrying about our next meal is the least of our problems.

Why do I bring up these numbers? I am not trying to shame Americans - most Americans are generous - nor am I trying to imply that there are no gross wealth inequalities here in the US (as made evident by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina), but I am trying to highlight a trend around the world and show that what we call "poor" in the United States is considered rich by many standards in other countries. Worldwide, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and this is causing major complications as seen in the current economic turmoil. Jesus told a story once in Matthew chapter 20 (verses 1 through 16) which would be considered heresy if it was really applied today. I will not quote the whole passage, you can read it for yourself, but the core message in it is this: one day, a wealthy vineyard owner goes and hires laborers to do some work on his land for the day. He hires different people at different times of the day, some at different times in the morning and others at different times in the afternoon. When it is time to pay the workers, he first calls in the laborers who barely did any work, (who got to the land later that evening) and pays them a fixed sum (let's say $100). When the workers who got there early and had worked all day saw this, they probably thought that they were going to be paid a huge sum in the thousands based on the hourly rate it appeared the owner was using, but to their dismay, they were all paid the same amount of money. Regardless of the time that they put in, they all got $100. The workers who worked the longest amount of time were furious. In today's world, I can see today a class action lawsuit being filed and the people hurling all kinds of unfair-practices charges at the owner. But Jesus says that the land & vineyard owner asks them, "don't I have the right to do as I please with my money, and are you angry because I am generous?" (my paraphrase).

Therein lies the problem with Socialism and the reason why we detest it so much, it rewards people who did not "work hard enough" with money or gifts that they did not earn. But ironically, this is what the kingdom of God is like and this is why we detest the message of God's grace so much (we proclaim grace in theory, but deep down inside we don't like its implications). Grace implies that all of life is truly a gift and this is what compels those of us who are blessed to share the wealth with others. In the book of Acts chapter 2, it says that people of the early church sold all that they had and shared the proceeds with everyone so there was no one lacking amongst them. Uh? Imagine if we were told to do that today, there would be a national uproar. We don't mind giving as long as we can still afford our comfortable ways of living..

This is just food for thought as we celebrate the holidays. We are more blessed than we can imagine and God's grace is truly the reason why we are who we are. We often give ourselves a little bit too much credit for our very being, but the message of God's grace puts it all in the right perspective and compels us to reach out to hurting people and the less fortunate.

Stephen Akinduro

"GRACE"-TINTED GLASSES

What if we could see the world with “grace"-tinted glasses? What if we abandoned our petty modes of comparisons and looked at each other through the same lenses that God looks at us with. I thought about this as I ran across a quote that I had written down from a book I read a long time ago:

“I am convinced that the basic cause of some of the most disturbing emotional and spiritual problems which trouble evangelical Christians is the failure to receive and live out God’s unconditional grace, and the corresponding failure to offer that grace to others. I have encountered this problem in the counseling room more than any other single hang-up.” Quote by David Seamands from his book, “Healing Grace.”

It is easy to conclude that accepting the message of God’s grace is very easy to do in theory, but extremely difficult to do in practice? Why is this the case? Because we live in a world where we are conditioned from infancy to grade people based on their performance, and rarely do we process the fact that sometimes behind some of the most self-destructive behavior are really hurting people; So we end up negating the one thing that we all need and want so desperately, unconditional love. There is not a person alive who does not want to be loved unconditionally, so much so that you often hear pet owners say “I love my dog/cat so much because it loves me for me, no strings attached.” Technologically, our world is more advanced now than it has ever been in history, and yet, the quality of our relationships is not necessarily better, because technological advancements cannot feed the spiritual yearning of our souls. This could explain why there is a quiet spiritual revolution of sorts going on which started a few years ago. First, there was a wave of books by so-called new atheists, like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Chris Hitchens questioning the hypocrisy of the religious community and trying to deny the existence of God, then came a wave of response books by Christian authors to combat these claims. But probably more significantly is a wave of believers who are tired of church-as usual, tired of the pretense that comes with most religious experiences, and tired of wearing the masks that we often wear even when our world is falling apart. Some of these believers are no longer a part of organized religion, but they have not abandoned their faith, but are seeking alternative ways to express themselves. I once read a quote that said that “religion if for people who are scared of going to hell, while spirituality is for those who have already been there”. True spirituality, the kind that Jesus talked about, is for those who have tried all the religious formulas all to no avail. Maybe there is indeed more to being a follower and believer in Christ than simply setting yourself apart from the “world” to judge those in it. It is not just enough to “win-people-for-Christ” if the love and grace that is supposed to be the hallmark of His life is devoid in our message and our lives. After all, what is a soul that cannot receive or give love? – a dead soul.

Too often we are looking for perfection in our spiritual leaders and we forget that they are just as human and flawed as we are. They need compassion and grace also, even though we may not know it because of the emotional masks that their careers often force them to wear. Look at some of the 'giants" of the faith, from Bible times to contemporary culture and you will find flawed individuals: Martin Luther was a reformer of the church and expounded beautifully on the message of grace, but he became anti-Semitic later in his career; Charles Spurgeon was one of the greatest preachers of his day, but he often battled depression so deep and severe, he would have to take months off from work; Mother Theresa was an example of divine love to the broken and poor, but she had such a severe crisis of faith at one point in her ministry, that she practically doubted the very existence of God; Martin Luther King Jr. is a Civil rightS icon and leader of the nonviolent movement, but he was unfaithful to his wife; Leo Tolstoy is a literary giant and was a devout student of Jesus’ sermon on the mount which he tried to live out in his many philanthropic deeds, but he was devoid of love and warmth in his own family life, and his wife practically despised him for this. These are just a few examples, and the irony is that many of these “secrets” about these persons did not come out until they passed away, because in life, these kinds of leaders are not allowed to be flawed. We expect perfection, as if we are God’s children because we are perfect and not because of his grace or unmerited gifts and favor. We have perverted the Gospel with the way we judge others, slamming the very door of "grace" on others, when we had to come though that very same door. We see this in politics all the time, one side demonizes the other while acting like their side is the only side of virtue and moral excellence. The same people who despised George W. Bush for 8 years are now shocked when the other side throws darts at Obama, who is already getting harsh reviews by his critics before he even takes office office, so much so that some online discussion forums about him are under Secret Service watch. We say it is politics as usual, but could it be that politics is simply a reflection of our self-righteous tendencies?

Seeing with grace-healed eyes means that I can look at others with the same compassion that I need and deserve, not because I have enough “good deeds” stacked up to earn them, but because God in His grace looks past our faults and recognizes our needs, our need for love, for salvation, for forgiveness and most importantly for grace.

“All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. “
The Message (Romans 5:20-21)

Stephen O. Akinduro