May 11, 2006
Financial Opportunity?
As Jesus cleared the temple courts he said, “My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a ‘den of robbers’.” (Matt. 21:13) The sheep and the doves are now missing, but the market place can still be seen in the church today. I see it when business folks use the church membership list as their personal prospect list. It can be seen when an invitation to a home candle party appears in the church bulletin. And there are even children bringing school fund raising sign-up sheets to church in order to fill their quota quickly. Just as Jesus saw a house of prayer and people of like faith, the money changers saw a house of opportunity and possible consumers.
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Gail;
-----The Lord's church is a community of believers. The Scriptures call us to many different behaviors from forebearance, to sympathy, to honor, to generosity, to even work. They touch on every aspect of life and give its godly form a place in the community of believers. So I am not surprised to see some prospecting in the church, especially when the product or service is beneficial.
-----If this prospecting activity were likened to the rocks on a riverbed, and the rest of the interactions of the church -- the worship, the encouragement, the generosity, the pleasing one another, etc. -- were the water flowing over the bed, then you could see that the more the water the smoother the flow. The rocks on the riverbed are a byproduct of the water flow. So I don't see the problem as being the existence of the rocks. Except for the very large boulders that cause dangerous undertows or jut far out of the water, I see the problem as being such a shortage of water that even the smallest of the rocks project themselves up above the barely wetting trickle around them.
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