A Christian Approach to Material Things

January 20, 2008

by Joe Kutter

Remember and imagine and see with your memory:

• The colors and textures of Kansas farm land in the autumn with reds and browns and golds and tans and green. Imagine.
• The majestic peaks of the Rocky Mountains, the shapes and colors. Imagine.
• The multi-billion gallon flow of water in the Mississippi or Missouri River.
• See the waves rise and fall in the Gulf of Mexico.
• See butterflies and deer and lions and tigers and fish of every shape and hue.
• See the distant stars and galaxies in outer space. Imagine. Remember.

Our universe is a material place and our world is full of stuff, material stuff,  physical stuff. And God said that it is all good.

Our theme for this three week worship series is “A Christian Approach to Material Things”. We are going to talk about the relationship between the spiritual and the material – about our spiritual lives in a world of stuff. Before we are through, we’ll talk a little about materialism and consumerism, about the need, that so many people seem to have, to accumulate more and more and more stuff.

Perhaps we should have called this sermon, “Surviving Wanamaker”. Even in our small town, there is simply too much stuff to buy and to own and to store. Nobody can own all of that stuff. And yet, we are tempted to try!

Now we are ahead of ourselves. Before we talk about getting lost in the stuff and the stewardship of material things, we need to spend some time with things even more basic. So let’s go back to the beginning, to the very beginning.

Do you remember the first chapter of Genesis?  It is a magnificent creation poem that celebrates two fundamental realities. Reality One: God created the world, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…. (Genesis 1:1)  Reality Two: That which God created is good. The stuff that God created is good (Genesis 1:9). And then, Adam and Eve ate the fruit – they misused their stuff.

Let’s look at the second chapter of Genesis. In the second chapter, God takes the dust of the earth and God forms that dust into the form of a human being (Genesis 2:7).  If you put the two chapters together, you see the Bible affirms that you and I are made of stuff. We are physical and material beings and God said that that is a good thing.

It seems to me that we have a new fascination with the physical realities of our existence. The television series “CSI” and “Bones” and some of the cable shows that focus on health and education all dramatize the physical realities of human existence.  Or if you read, the Patricia Cornwell mystery novels that feature the coroner, Kay Scarpetta or the Kathy Reich novels that feature a forensic anthropologist or others, they all dramatize the flesh, blood, and bone realities of our existence. Physically, it is true, we are indeed made of the dust of the earth. And that is a very good thing. It is the reality that makes modern medicine possible.

But there is more to the story. When God took the dust of the earth and shaped it into a human form, God did one more thing. God breathed the breath of God into the human’s nostrils. The Hebrew word for breath is “ruach” and “ruach” means two things at the same time. “Ruach” means breath and “ruach” means spirit.  With a single puff, God breathed his own spirit into the human being. By the way, the word “Adam” means humanity. When God breathed his breath into Adam, God breathed  his spirit into humanity. And that is what that story is all about. We are both physical and spiritual beings – all at the same time. And God saw that it was good.

God did the flesh, spirit union in a new way in Jesus Christ. According to the Gospel of John, “The Word became flesh.” (John 1:14) He was talking about Jesus. In Jesus, we see the same “made from the dust” physical reality that shapes the life of every one of us. And in that fleshly, physical, material life, we see the breath, the very Spirit of God. And God saw that it was good!

So, as we think about the material and physical realities of life, we begin with the words of Genesis, God saw that it was good. The physical realities of life and the material realities within which are all required to live are good things.

However, it is also true that Adam and Eve, humanity ate the forbidden fruit. The Apostle Paul says the same thing in a different way. Romans 1:25; “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator….” In some perverse way, we, Adam – the human race transformed all of those good things that God gave us and we turned them into substitutes for God. We began to believe that they can do things that only God can do; provide joy and happiness, give security, ensure both inner peace and the peace of the world, ease our anxieties, ensure loving relationships…. We began to believe that the things of this world can do what only God can do and we, the human race, began to worship things rather than God. We really do believe that we can not be happy without a Wii, or an Xbox, or a particular house or a specific car and we believe that the car or the house or the game can do what only God can do. This idolatry is at the root of every other sin.

That is the root of what we may call consumerism or materialism. We worship the created thing rather than the Creator.

So, how are we to navigate in this world of material things? Before fleshing out more questions and talking more about the problem I want to move quickly to the source of the answer.

The good news is this: You have a helper. The Greek word is “Paraclete”. Before Jesus was killed, he promised to all who follow him that he would send a “Paraclete.” The word means helper, advocate, counselor, or comforter. Jesus promised that when he died and was resurrected that he would send a person, a spiritual person to walk along side of us and grant to us the wisdom that we need to meet the challenges of the day. The Paraclete is like an attorney and psychologist and pastor and friend and coach all wrapped up into one spiritual being and that spiritual being is the Holy Spirit.

As we consider the decisions that we are forced to make, we have a companion with whom we can talk it over and talking it over with this companion is called prayer. And in prayer, we discover the wisdom of God for us.  That is really good news.

Now a cautionary word is in order. When you ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom, it seldom happens that that the perfect answer comes to you as a memo or a sudden flash of perfect wisdom. It might happen but it doesn’t seem to be the Spirit’s preferred way. In my experience, for what it is worth – and imperfect as it is, your first leading will be to use the great big wonderful brain that God set atop your neck and right between your ears. God gave you the capacity to think and to reason and ask questions and to search for appropriate answers. You will do your research. You will seek good information. You will make lists of pros and cons. As you begin to seek God’s wisdom, you will also begin to use one of the primary resources that God has already given to you, your own mind. God did not give you a mind with the intention that He would bypass it!

God has given your another marvelous resource, the gift of men and women who know more than you. Shocking isn’t it? There are people in your life who know more than you about the issues that you are facing. So as you pray and as you think, you will find yourself seeking out trusted advisors who can help you to understand the issue. The Spiritual Coach may well guide you to a very human coach.

There is a third resource. About some decisions that you have to make, God has already given guidance. You never ever have to ask again about the way that you are called to treat your neighbor. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” There are days when it is hard to know how to best love your neighbor but the first part of that answer is already in place…love your neighbor as you love yourself.  And  you find those eternal answers embodied in the life of Jesus. And the life of Jesus is best understood through the life of Jesus’ church.

One more word out of my own very imperfect experience; when you use the resources that the Holy Spirit puts before you, there will come a time when you will discover that God leads and you will be led to navigate the very difficult realities of this material world.

The good news is this, God has given you a Companion who wants nothing more than your eternal well being. For the Holy Spirit, your best interest is his only interest. And because your best interest is his only interest, you can trust him to guide you through the maze of this world’s material reality.