Prosperity for All?

Why Isn’t it Happening?

“Our prosperity is killing us” (Warwick Smith)

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;

your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.” (Joel2:28 -29)

The above quotes, the first from a young man inPerthat prayer, the second from the prophet Joel, are intimately related and need to be acted upon with some urgency by the church inPerth. This needs to be done in a specific and representative way. Representative, in that the required action must include pastors, business people, indigenous folk, women, children, youth, older men and women from the church in Perth, specific in that the church needs to repent of the root sin that keeps blocking the outpouring of the Spirit “on all flesh”. Specific also in that I believe a symbolic act needs to be performed at a precise geographical location in the Perth C.B.D. The root sin that is holding back spiritual prosperity for all is the one that has always dominated this state from its foundation as a colony –that of seeking prosperity above all else.

Australians are not foundationally racist, the slaughter and marginalisation of Aboriginal people over our history is first and foremost driven by greed, not prejudice, “the love of money is a root of every kind of evil” (1Tim 6:10). From abortion rates to wranglings with impoverished neighbours likeEast Timorover oil rights, the insatiable common denominator is the lust for wealth. This spirit is also in much of the church, as a core part of the message of many of our most high profile congregations is a comfortable lifestyle.

This is “killing us” (Smith) in that the dynamism that came with the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy at Pentecost and has been experienced in repeated outpourings of the Spirit (like Azusa St. 100 years ago) is not part of our contemporary experience. Neither will it be until the pre –conditions for such a powerful move of God are fulfilled amongst us, “rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.” (Joel 2:13)

A Text for Today

As God spoke immediately to Israel through Joel, I believe that the Lord is speaking to us directly through his book today. The pivotal text follows on the one above, it is Joel 2:14, “Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?”

The background to this is found earlier in the prophecy, “The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord…. Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.” (Joel 1:9, 13).

The ministers of the Temple are in crisis, because there is a drought and locust plague in the land so severe (1:4- 7, 11 -12) that there is not enough meal and wine to offer in the daily sacrifices. These institutions were central to the old covenant, for they conveyed to the people the ongoing pleasure of God in their midst[1] (Ex 29:38 -46). No offerings meant Israel lacked spiritual assurance. God’s powerful presence seemed absent from their meetings, just as this is often the case in our assemblies.

There are hints in the text about why the Lord had punished the nation. Three groups of people are singled out, drunks “Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
and wail, all you drinkers of wine,”(1:5), farmers “11 Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil; wail, O vine dressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.” (1:11) and priests (see 1:9, 13 above). The way these groups are addressed by God shows that somehow they are being held responsible for the sickly state of affairs in the nation.

Given what we know about Israel’s constant reversion to Baalism, it seems there was an unholy alliance between consumers (drunks), producers (farmers) and religious professionals (priests) in seeking fertility in the land at all costs[2]. By the time of Joel such religious syncretism was probably practised in the name of Yahweh, but involved sensuous rites of wine, food, sex and ecstatic religious experience. According to the principle of sowing and reaping (Gal 6:7), God was withholding from his people not only the things they believed they needed – physical prosperity, but even worse, his own Spirit.

Likewise, we must grieve as we see so much of the church infatuated with material success, emotionally high in worship meetings but desperately poor in holiness and devoid of the tears of heart – felt repentance. The absence of these things witnesses to a withdrawal of the Spirit.[3] What can be done?

As the priests were the God –ordained leaders in Joel’s time, so today, the recognized ministers of God have a pivotal role. The priests of old were to exchange the “glory and beauty” of their regular vestments (Ex 28:2) for drab and inglorious sackcloth (1:13), so too the pastors of today must outwardly humble themselves for allowing such a state of affairs to develop amongst the people of God.

In this the pastors will merely be following in the way of their crucified Lord who laid aside his heavenly majesty. “like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” (Isaiah 53:2) As the ministers of old wished their sacrifice of humility to be a sweet smelling savour to God, so our faith is focused in identifying with the cross, “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Eph 5:2).

Hope for Change

“Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?” (Joel 2:14)

In the midst of catastrophe Joel offers a humble promise of hope. The words, “Who knows”, occur twice in the Old Testament on the lips of kings. David laments for the sick child of Bathsheba, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’” (2 Sam 12:22). Even more striking, the wicked king of Nineveh recognizes the only hope of escape from destruction is the mercy of God, ““Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.””(Jonah 3:9)

Who is it in the church today that represents the spirit of the humble king? I believe it is the broken – hearted business leader who recognises, perhaps through their own bitter experience, that prosperity is not the meaning of life. These too must humble themselves before the Lord and ask for his mercy so that whatever material blessings we possess in this state may be released for the growth of the kingdom of God, and not remain a source of judgement.

If such prayers are heard, God will “leave a blessing behind him.” The image is deliberate, it refers to a relationship restored after a recognised period of judgement[4]. This involves a clear repentance of the power of organised religion to bring wealth. God has gone up to his place[5] in heaven, as it were, and withdrawn his glorious presence from the earth until we put him first as King.

A Specific Action

In the midst of the assembled people, elders, children, infants and even those about to marry (2:16), a specific action is required by the ministers of God, “Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”” (2:17).

The cry is not for better times in themselves, but for the glory of God. The location, “Between the vestibule and the altar”, has special significance. Years before, the prophet Zechariah had been stoned in this very place for resisting the evil of the king, the leaders and the nation; because he preached that they could not “prosper” apart from obedience to the sovereign Lord.[6] No doubt what moved the crowd to frenzy was the prophet’s terrible word, “Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you”[7].

It must appear to many in this city – both within and outside of the church – that God has forsaken us. The mother lamenting for her addicted child, the agony of divorce, the trauma of abortion, the hopelessness of many indigenous people, the growing disillusionment with organised Christianity and on and on. Where is our God?

The final answer is only in Jesus as the wrath –bearer who cried out, where we fear to speak what we feel, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”(Mark 15:34).

In Joel’s time, God directed the penitent people to seek him, led by the priests, at the site of the shedding of the blood of his servant the prophet, a matter for which they stood in solidarity with the condemned. The blood of Zechariah was still crying out for vengeance [8] until the hearts, and not just the outward behaviour, of the congregation was altered permanently.[9]

Where is the specific location today that corresponds to the site of the defilement of the Templein Joel’s time? I believe it is where the official foundation of the Swan colony took place on 12 August 1829, with the chopping down of a tree by wife of the captain of the Sulphur, Mrs Helen Dance. This is where the history of the massacre of aboriginal people, the clearing of the land, the rush for timber, wheat, gold, iron, diamonds, nickel and natural gas was launched. It is the root point where the cardinal sin of prosperity at any cost began.

I am not suggesting that our repentance is a good work that makes God favourable towards us, but that such precise acts of humility connect us more intimately with the power of the cross. “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Heb12:22 -24).

As the people of old covenant appealed to the tender feelings of God, “he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (2:13), our confidence in is yet a deeper revelation of God’s heart through the Son, ““Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.”(Mark14:36).

What Must be Done?

In the order of responsibility for what has not been dealt with in the past the required action must include pastors, business people, indigenous folk (primarily as victims), women, youth, older men and women, children, from the church in Perth. Together as a solemn assembly (2:15) we can confess that this state has been stained by greed and make a pledge before God that the prospering of the things of his kingdom are of more worth than the prosperity of this world. In principle what is most sacred to this culture, our affluence, must be sacrificed at the foot of the cross.

What May be Released?

“This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:

17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; 18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; 20 the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” (Acts2:17- 21)

These words are familiar to us all, they speak of spiritual prosperity and new life for all ages, genders and races without worldly distinctions. They call us to step forward as a church in this city and state into a place of prophetic leadership amongst the nations in a world headed for a terrifying apocalyptic confrontation with a holy God. This is a call to provide godly leadership at all levels of society and to take the gospel to the ends of the world in the power of his Holy Spirit.