“Life Surge” is a travelling conservative, Evangelical Christian finance movement in America…

which runs day-long conferences…

involving a number of conservative Christian celebrities––

such as former sports and reality TV stars––

and offering motivational talks, practical lectures, and emotionally-charged ‘worship’ experiences…

to teach people about how to build wealth the Christian way.

After being regaled with stories about how “Christian” values are under attack from left-wing atheists in modern America…

attendees are urged to “surge” their wealth…

to take advantage of the myriad opportunities for wealth all around them––

on the stock market, in real estate, or internet businesses––

making use the special knowledge and tools that “Life Surge” offers––

for the low price of just ninety-nine dollars.

Because… 

if they all became rich…

then they could then help to fund missionaries…

and Christian entertainment programmes…

and finance Christian politicians…

and, thereby, help to save their country…

and help to save thousands from damnation for eternity in hell.

Being rich is their Christian duty.

Staying poor is an act of sin.

 

Frankly, it’s obscenely manipulative and insidious…

playing on people’s fears, ignorance, and guilt.

And, at the heart of this grotesque grift…

is an equally grotesque theology… 

otherwise known as “the prosperity Gospel”.

It’s a quite primitive concept of an all-controlling, providential God––

not in a fickle and capricious way…

but deliberate and intentional.

It’s the image of a God of rewards and punishments.

Claiming that everything that we have comes directly from God…

it’s a logical consequence, then…

that anyone who receives more than someone else must be blessed by God…

and anyone who doesn’t must be a sinner…

or not in God’s favour.

Unfortunately, that’s not actually a particularly new or novel idea.

It’s been propagated by plenty of Pentecostal preachers over the years…

from Oral Roberts…

to the Bakkers…

or even, slightly more subtly, in places like “Hillsong”.

But we also see many examples of it in the Old Testament.

And it was also prevalent in the world of the New Testament.

After all, theirs was a world where the gulf between the haves and have-nots was enormous;

a world where about one percent of the population controlled about ninety percent of the land and wealth;

a world where the average person farmed just a few acres of land…

hoping to produce enough to feed their families…

with the notion of making any real profit almost unimaginable.

In bad years, they would have to borrow from the “haves”…

with loan repayments adding a significant burden…

such that many defaulted…

lost their land…

became tenants or were forced to move to the city and ply a trade.

It was a world where there was no social security safety net at all––

and people relied upon their relatives to help them out if they were in trouble.

As a result, someone only became “poor” when they suffered severe misfortune––

when they lost their land or became incapacitated…

and they lacked an extended family network to rely upon…

making begging the only option.

Such a scenario left them utterly defenceless…

utterly powerless…

and utterly alone.

So, it made sense…

in such a context…

to think that being “poor” was a sign of being cursed—

as though you were being punished by God.

To be poor was to be without honour––

to lose face…

to be without standing or esteem in the community.

It placed you on the margins of society.

It made you the object of contempt and derision, not pity.

But that could also happen, for example, if you were disowned by your family;

if you were unable or unwilling to defend your honour from slights and challenges;

or, simply, if you didn’t fit in––

if you didn’t measure up to the community’s standards…

if you didn’t abide by the norms and expectations of their culture.

 

Into that context, that world, and that worldview…

the Historical Jesus spoke a word of hope.

In what are probably the more original form of his words––

compared to the better-known version from Matthew’s Gospel––

the author of Luke’s Gospel has Jesus declare:

“Blessed are you who are poor…blessed are you who are hungry…blessed are you who weep…blessed are you when people hate and when they exclude you…on my account”.

The author presents Jesus inverting the normal cultural expectations––

about what was right and proper;

about what was to be valued and admired.

He was inverting the way that they had been brought up to view other people and their world.

He presents a Jesus who proclaims that those who are despised and denigrated…

those who are feared and ridiculed…

those who are oppressed and excluded by their society…

are, in fact, valued, welcomed, and favoured by God;

they belong to God’s family.

In other words, in his preaching, Jesus was staking claim to a very different way of understanding society…

and a very different way of understanding God.

He was asserting that God doesn’t judge or value people according to our culture-bound expectations.

Rather, God sees people differently;

and God has a very different set of values.

And he was inviting us to change… 

radically… 

in the way that we see, and think, and value…

and, thus, in the way that we shape community.

Jesus––

and the author of Luke’s Gospel–– 

proclaimed that God values those whom our society devalues;

that God welcomes those whom our society shuns;

that God embraces those whom our society excludes.

And that is as true now as it was then.

 

At first glance, however…

it’s not at all clear why this reading is set for All Saints Day.

 

And yet… 

on another level, it’s entirely appropriate.

Because, in celebrating All Saints…

we’re remembering and giving thanks for…

those who have taken a stand against injustice and oppression––

even, or especially, at great personal cost:

the Martin Luther Kings… 

the Dietrich Bonhoeffers… 

the Desmond Tutus…

and the Oscar Romeros of the world.

In celebrating All Saints, we’re remembering and giving thanks for… 

those who have embodied compassion and sought to make a difference:

the Mother Theresas… 

the Dorothy Days…

the John Wesleys…

and the John Flynns of the world.

But we’re also remembering and giving thanks for… 

those who…

through simple and often unnoticed acts…

have gone before us and shown us the way;

those who have pointed us toward God and God’s ways;

those who have embodied God’s counter-cultural, topsy-turvy, world-up-turning values.

And in remembering and giving thanks…

we’re also invited––

no…

we’re challenged––

to follow their example…

to embrace their values…

and to be saints like they were.