The Church as Sacrament: Religion and Wealth Inequality Part II

A couple of days ago I wrote a piece on a recent article published in the American Journal of Sociology which argues that conservative religious belief is a contributor to the substantially lower median income among conservative Protestants have compared to the rest of the American population. As the author writes, "Low rates of asset accumulation and unique economic values combine to reduce (conservative protestant) wealth beyond the effects of demographics." The thrust of the argument offers a substantial explanation for how religious belief can reinforce wealth inequalities. The article argues that the poor will tend to stay poor. The other question is if the rich tend to stay rich. Either way, religion has a significant effect on the level of persistence in a given socio-economic constituency.

So what does this have to do with the church? The theology of your church may be justifying and contributing to socioeconomic inequality rather than helping to solve it. This was my initial thought and I want to unpack that a bit more here.

The question has to do with what a church actually is. Paul used the metaphor of the Body of Christ in his first Letter to the Corinthians.

But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, ²⁵that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

The church is made of of people who believe in the saving power of a risen Lord. It is the church which has received this saving power to act as the physical representative of the living Lord. The church is that physical entity which is not only a symbol of the saving power of Christ, but is the very means by which God continues to enact and perform acts of grace and love in the world. First God was incarnate in Christ. Now God is incarnate in the church.

This is what would be called a rather "high" ecclesiology since it makes the church an image bearer of God's being and the church therefore functions as a means of grace. The church is therefore more than a symbol and sign of God's grace, it is the very conduit for that grace to be effectual in the world. As Paul writes in some of his most beautiful and vivid language in the Second Letter to the Corinthians where he changed his tone dramatically from the first letter:

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,^* not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

In Christ God reconciled a world that had missed the mark and needed to turn back to the true God as had been the case in so many instances in the past. But it is clear that Paul does not believe that this work of reconciliation, the very work of God in Christ, was done. "God is making his appeal through us" as a continuing act of reconciliation. So where is the seat of this continuing activity of God to reconcile the world? It is the body of Christ which is the church. The church is therefore a communion of ambassadors, representatives of the Kingdom of God on earth. It is the job of the church to have its feet firmly planted in the contingent whims of a suffering world and the world that resides in eternity. The church is the bridge to perfection in God.

The question is how many people in the church understand their role in this regard and what it actually entails. It is clearly not about public displays of piety and massive light shows to attract people in the buildings to raise funds to maintain buildings to attract more people to come in the door. So if not that, what?

To whom did Jesus minister? Who actually listened to him when he spoke of forgiveness and love? Who truly received his messages of accountability and judgment? Was it the people who were proud of their beliefs and status among the people of God? No. It was the fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes, lame, blind, lepers, and vile people of society. These are the ones who heard, believed, and truly received his reconciliation. These are the ones who understood that Jesus was there to reconcile them to God and make things right in their lives. They knew that it would not come without a price, but the dividend would be sight not with their eyes, but with their heart, mind, and soul invaded and purchased with the blood of God's love for them. Jesus did not condemn those he saved, he simply fed them and they ate.

Jesus disrupted the boundaries of the order of his time. He revealed the tentativeness and fragility of the structures that people had established. With Jesus there were no safety nets that humans could construct.

How well does the body of Christ live up to this standard? How often do we freely welcome the outcasts and sinners of this world? Do we condemn them before they are allowed into the "holy of holies"? Do we tell them they may break bread with us, but only if they adhere to certain conditions of our own fragile laws and weak apprehension of God's reconciling act through us?

The article regarding religion and wealth essentially tells us that the church legitimates the things that Jesus disrupted including inequality of wealth among its members. It legitimates inequality and suffering and I would venture a good guess that it also legitimates mediocrity and comfort. If the church is the means for God to enact this work of reconciliation in the world, who is being reconciled and how is the church doing this work? As affiliations and numbers shift in the United States, perhaps more mirrors are needed in our churches. Look at yourself in the mirror as you pray. Is the image you see in front of you an icon of God's work of reconciliation in the world, or do you see an idol of the things of the world that legitimates division, inequality, and mediocrity?

Related posts:

1. radical economics – a mandate for the new church?