by Unvirtuous Abbey
Old Testament Reading: Deuteronomy 30:9–14
For Sunday, July 14, 2013—Ordinary 15
I have an “oil of anointing key chain.” After watching a late-night preacher tell me how badly God wanted to bless the problems that I was having with my home, my finances, and my spouse, I decided that I call the number and order it.
It’s a little metal tube, with a chain attached, and inside there is some kind of liquid. I don’t know what kind. Probably Canola oil. Truth be told, it would probably work better against insects than it would against the bad stuff that happens in life.
How Does One Anoint?
While I gently mock, this becomes evil when the person phoning in for their oil of anointing key chain actually thinks that this is the blessing they need in order to turn things around in what may be a very bad situation. I’m very specific when it comes to liturgy.
So, I wonder, how does one anoint an abusive partner? When they are sleeping? And how do you anoint a bank account that is overdrawn or a mortgage that is in default? Sprinkle the oil on your Visa card? What about your kids failing in school? Do you sprinkle some anointing oil on their notebooks and pens?
It’s this sense that when an action occurs, God takes over. The message is this: When you donate what little you have to a late-night preacher wearing a suit that costs more than you make in a month, God will bless you with abundance.
Pre-Mature Praise
The writer (traditionally understood to be Moses) encourages pre-mature praise.
Moses is standing at the precipice of the Promised Land. He is giving his people an identity, reminding them not only of their history as a people but he is also giving them laws to live with each other and obey God. And God promises to bless them with children, animals, and produce because it is in God’s nature to do so.
The God who was perceived to be far away is actually closer than you may like: in your mouth and in your heart. This is a commandment that you can speak and that you can love. It’s a practice of belief so that it can be lived.
Prospering Community
The book of Deuteronomy (traditionally to be understood as the words of Moses; however, more likely to have origins in different traditions) specifically names places with the promise of prosperity: the fruit of your body, the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil. “For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you.”
Sadly, I can hear proponents of the ‘prosperity Gospel’ saying this as loudly as I can hear Moses. Economist Umair Haque argues, “This is the great failure of liberalism. Educating people that prosperity doesn’t mean ‘rich citizens and poor society.’ But rich both.”
God isn’t singling out one person over another in this text. In fact, it is specifically a building up of community that Moses is talking about. The problem, though, may be this: what happens when I don’t prosper? What does that mean? What if the genetic make-up of my body is not designed to produce children? What if I don’t have enough to eat, or to maintain a healthy diet?
“Me and Thee”
This is a renewal of the covenant between God and God’s people. Yet, covenant is two way; it’s between two parties. The prosperity of which Moses speaks isn’t something that you sit back and wait for: it’s something in which you participate.
Faith often implies a “Me and Thee” kind of relationship when specifically in this text, the covenant is between God and “the people.” The people is one person. We think that if one person has no food, then God has broken the covenant. Then, we try to exonerate God for this transgression (wondering what we did wrong to deserve this) or perhaps we could argue that there is no god at all.
Yet, at the nature of the covenant is the sense that we, the people, and God are doing this together. If someone goes without, in our abundance, it says more about the community than it does about God. We, and God, are doing this together.
“Your Best Life Now?”
At the end of a recent U2 concert, Bono ended it with a blessing, saying, “God bless you and keep you. God smile on you and gift you. God look you full in the face and make you prosper.” If the “you” is plural, then it is consistent with the promise of the God of Israel, but if the “you” is singular, than it is consistent with the God of Creflo Dollar.
Theology isn’t about “your best life now!” It’s enduring together armed with premature praise of what God will do with the promise of abundance.
The Hardest Question
What does it say about God and community if you are struggling, and therefore aren’t prospering?
