A Package of Oreos and a Gallon of Milk

This next chapter of Schneider’s book was really good.

When I perform weddings I routinely resort to the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings. In the first pages of Genesis, before the Fall, God tells us He created us male and female, and after the Fall, Jesus still appeals to that creation order when He teaches us on divorce and remarriage. The Fall put everything out of joint, but it did not reverse the basic values that God placed in the world when He created it good. When it comes to our marriages, we are expected to look at this underlying reality, this fundamental goodness. This is not living in a state of denial, pretending that sin is not a reality. It is actually one of the basic things we must do in order to resist the encroachments of sin.

It is the same with our material possessions. It is the same with our stuff. It is the same with our vocational and cultural callings. When we ask questions about how to relate to our wealth, one of the first things we should do is go back to Genesis and make sure we have the foundation right. Schnieder does this in Chapter Two — “Genesis: The Cosmic Vision of Delight.” I anticipate having some differences with Schneider later on in the book, but with a foundation like this, the differences are not likely to be significant. This chapter was a tonic.

Economics has been called the dismal science, but it would be more accurate to say that it was a discipline in which a number of dismal people took up residence. And those dismal, Malthusian souls turn everything to gray. Mencken’s glib slander on historic Puritanism does apply to these people — these are people who are haunted by the idea that somehow, somewhere, somebody might be happy. There are people out there who have great big tanks on the back of their toilets. There are people out there who buy things without thinking about it. There are people who have three cars. Those who object are constantly making distinctions, and are constantly issuing caveats, and they are doing so because they are fussers.

Now it is possible to be careful without being a fusser. Distinctions need to be made, and we have to be careful in making them. But so-called progressives in our midst are constantly making obsessive ethical distinctions, and they do so because they are (usually) fussers. They are fussers because they miss the vision for human existence that was clearly set forth in the Garden of Eden. The history of our world began with a Garden, and it ends with a Garden City. Because we are living in between these two, and because God has promised us that He is going to restore the Edenic glory (though the grace of the gospel), we should therefore know which direction to set our faces in hope.

Although he clearly sees this, Schneider is careful. His position is not, “Wealth. Bring It On. What Could Go Wrong?”

“There is widespread agreement among scholars in our culture that obsession with material wealth is rampant — inside and outside of churches. And no doubt it is true that a great many people respond to their affluence in that unfortunate manner” (p. 42).

“Materialism is invisible. It is first and foremost a spiritual condition” (p. 43).

In a previous chapter, Schneider was careful to distance himself from the clunkiness of health and wealth prosperity preachers.

“I do not wish my approach to be confused that that of the ‘Prosperity Gospel,’ either” (p. 4).

“If the radical Christians and those who are sympathetic with their approach oversimplify the moral relationship in Scripture between affluence and evil, then advocates of the Prosperity Gospel oversimplify the relationship between affluence and the moral good” (p. 5).

In this chapter, Schneider shows that God has conferred royalty on the human race, and dignity upon the created order. In contrast to some very common pagan ways of thinking, the biblical mind does not see creation as sacred or divine. It is there to be used and replenished. Man is above the created order, and has been given authority over it. He does not recede into the landscape, being swallowed up by it. But he is not lifted up so high that he may fall into the insanity of challenging God.

“The image is one of a God-derived value, freedom, dignity, power, and royal effect over the whole earth and its inhabitants. There is therefore a fundamental repudiation of any religion or theology which puts human beings on the same plane as God. But also, on the other hand, this doctrine rejects the notion that humans are on a level equal with — or even beneath — the various elements of nature” (p. 49).

Authority flows to those who take responsibility. Authority flees from those who seek to shift or evade. One of the central problems with the scolds of the left is that they do not know that carping and criticizing is simply a technique for trying to shift responsibility away from themselves. It is a faux-humility. In contrast, servant authority gladly stoops to rise, and not surprised by either motion. So taking responsibility is something that must be done with a servant’s heart. There are some glorious expressions of this in this chapter.

“The spirit that moved Jesus to wash his disciples’ feet did not originate there and then. It goes all the way back to the first moments of creation” (p. 51).

“Whatever human dominion is in Genesis, then, it enobles us for the purpose of ennobling everything else. Like our God, we too are servants in royal form” (p. 52).

“Eden set the man and woman free from servitude to want, it unleashed them to dream, to use their creativity, to work in productive and rewarding ways, to reap the fruits of their labor, and to take human pleasure in the whole of life, in the image of God, and in his good pleasure” (p. 59).

But how many Christians start to experience the blessing of God and immediately begin to worry. “What is wrong?” they think.

“The creation story suggests that physical and material delightfulness (superfluity) is needful for healthy human well-being everywhere” (p. 61).

There are all kinds of ways for this point to be misunderstood, misrepresented, or misapplied, and so it is tempting to try to anticipate all of them, and carefully answer them all. But ultimately this is something that can only be given by God. Christians need to stop slandering God, and if He gives that gift, they will. If His grace is poured out, they will stop their fussing.

“What is the meaning of this?” asked the Witch Queen. Nobody answered. “Speak, vermin!” she said again. “Or do you want my dwarf to find you a tongue with his whip? What is the meaning of all this gluttony, this waste, this self-indulgence?” (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, p. 115).

“Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?” (John 12:5).

A lot of the spiritual problems in the Christian world today would be addressed if dad would simply sit down at the family table with all his kids and time to talk, along with a package of Oreos, and a gallon of milk. I confess it, this is a parable, a dark saying. And if the idea of doing this made you flinch, then you have a responsibility to eat all the fillings first, while the kids talk.