Monday of the 5th Week of Easter
Acts 14:5-18 | Psalm 113b:1-4, 15-16 | John 14:21-26
At Lystra there was a crippled man, lame from birth, who had never walked. […] Paul called out in a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your feet.” He jumped up and began to walk about. When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they cried out in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in human form.” They called Barnabas “Zeus” and Paul “Hermes,” because he was the chief speaker. (Acts 14:8, 10-12)
Cultural traditions can interact with evangelisation attempts in unexpected ways, as Barnabas and Paul discovered in Lystra. The thought of the two apostles being mistaken for Greek gods on earthly holiday in the middle of modern-day Turkey is…fascinating.
In Singapore, I’d say the local “cultural tradition” is one of prosperity theology, though not necessarily honouring the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Signs include:
- yearly (or more) prostrations before the Money God,
- battling one’s way through mobs to grab free stuff, then flipping it at online auctions,
- battling one’s colleagues for promotions and raises, to the point of “damning with faint praise” and other subtle (or overt) put-downs,
- hoarding items that one no longer has need for, but “it’ll be worth good money someday, so no to the local orphanage”,
- substituting hedonism for happiness, yet showing up every day with a glum face
If the two apostles worked that same healing here today, they would be swarmed by a half-hundred prospective employers dreaming up get-rich-quick-through-miracle-cure schemes. After all, that new condo and Lamborghini won’t pay for themselves.
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
To be honest, I haven’t been immune to “irrational plenitude” either. During my recent house-cleaning, I was left with a pile of almost 50 electronic devices and assorted peripherals that I barely used over the years, and have now degraded to the point of being barely e-cyclable, in some cases with internal batteries on the verge of exploding. I can’t explain why I didn’t donate them to charities while they were still usable, and that’s deeply troubling.
Against such a “money never enough” attitude, conversion seems like an impossible task. I’m currently trying something a little crazy: be the “impossibly happy” person amongst the sourpusses. Indeed, I’m now a lot happier (and healthier) than I was 20 years ago, even though I’m earning significantly less now. Spending a couple of hours each night contemplating the Good News, and blogging my reaction to it, are both big parts of that contentment, and I’m looking forward to sharing this little tidbit with anyone who dares to ask “what’s with that big smile on your face?”
Now that I think about it, the looks I’ve been getting on my train rides are probably closer to “contagiously insane, avoid at all costs”. Perhaps I should tone my grin down a tad.
Lord, teach us to take pleasure in sufficiency, taking what we need from the bounty of Your unconditional Love and sharing the rest of that Love with others around us. Amen.
P.S. This book inspired the title for this entry.