Luxe

 This week's verses are Jeremiah 22:13-16:

 “‘Sure to be judged is the king who builds his palace using injustice
and treats people unfairly while adding its upper rooms.
He makes his countrymen work for him for nothing.
He does not pay them for their labor.
He says, “I will build myself a large palace
with spacious upper rooms.”
He cuts windows in its walls,
panels it with cedar, and paints its rooms red.
Does it make you any more of a king
that you outstrip everyone else in building with cedar?
Just think about your father.
He was content that he had food and drink.
He did what was just and right.
So things went well with him.
He upheld the cause of the poor and needy.
So things went well for Judah.’
The Lord says,
‘That is a good example of what it means to know me.

 These verses are God speaking to Jeremiah about the successful people of his time. Israel had sinned and were about to be invaded by a foreign power. This was God's judgment on them because they had turned away from God and pursued the moral fashions and religions of their time. The king, who was in a position to correct their path, instead was focused on enriching himself at the expense of  the people he was meant to serve.

There's a huge contrast in what is happening versus what God points out as an example of what is right. The king is making an extravagant palace. It has the bronze age equivalent of an air-conditioned dog house and helipad. He doesn't even pay for the labor, despite being richer probably than his subjects. He guilts them into serving him for free. His every action is all about making himself bigger and more comfortable.

So God compares this wicked materialistic king to his righteous father. His father was happy just to have the basics, not filled with lust for more. He was just and right, not manipulative and greedy.  And he stood up for the poor and the weak, rather than taking advantage of them for his own short-term gain.

Things went well for the guy who was happy with whatever he had and who behaved himself. The nation in his care flourished because he set the example and used his influence and resources to care for those who could not take care of themselves. And now his unrighteous son has squandered that blessing and is about to be torn to pieces. What a shame!

Unfortunately, our cultural default is more like the unrighteous and condemned son than it is like the righteous father. We are unabashedly materialistic as a society. Even when we know a lot of what we buy is made by slaves or produces toxic waste, we press on and focus on getting the next thing. Very rarely are we happy to stick with what we have. 

Manufacturers even design things to make that impossible. Try using a computer from 20 years ago and see if you can get software for it. See if you can find a part to fix electronics that break. And the houses keep getting bigger and bigger to accommodate more stuff. We're caught in the middle of a feedback loop of exploitive labor and extravagant waste, and we don't necessarily stop to think about what that means.

If we are numb to the idea of constantly throwing things away, maybe we're also numb to throwing people away. Divorce rates go up. Abortion is still popular. And people switch jobs every couple years. We don't like the tedium of repairing a broken relationship any more than we like the tedium of mending a worn shirt or a broken clock. We're off to the next thing, and there is an infinite carousel of next things.

Unfortunately, we're not also in a feedback loop of contentment and justice. But what would it look like if we were? The righteous father knew the difference between needs and wants and he knew the community in his care and what their needs were. He made the community his priority even over his own self-enrichment. He treated his subjects well because he himself was subject to God's judgment. God points him out as an example of what it means to know Him.

When we read about saints in history, very rarely do we learn what car they drove or how big their house was. Usually they are portrayed as living an absurdly simple life with few possessions. Their only extravagance is the extravagance of their generosity. If that's the example of what it means to know God, what does it say about us if our lives look nothing like that?

We have to find the source of our goodness. If our joy is not centered on God and our righteousness is not centered on what Jesus gave us, our relationship with money and power and those around us will become as wicked as that of the selfish king. We will always need more, and we will always think of ourselves first, and others will just be something we extract resources from to feed our bottomless desires.

If you were told to sell everything and give to the poor, to quit your career and go around doing odd jobs for people, if all you had left was God, would that be enough? If people hated you for not playing along, if they laughed at the couple shirts you had left, would the love and righteousness Jesus won for us on the cross be enough for you?

 Maybe the answer to that is yes. Hopefully it is. But better to find out now if the answer is no than to drift on selfish autopilot unawares, missing all the clues like the selfish king did. Either way, read over these verses and ask God to make you a good example of what it means to know him. We are supposed to be ambassadors, after all.