In this chapter, Simon Magus (a purveyor of magic tricks for profit) attempts to buy the Holy Spirit's power from the apostles and is rebuffed rather harshly. God's power can't be bought.
Here's a word that has fallen out of fashion: Simony. Named after Simon Magus, it refers to the (mostly medieval) practice of purchasing church offices and titles with money or large donations. In a time when succession of nobility and kingdoms was through the oldest son, often the second, third and fourth born children were shuttled off to prestigious arhcbishoprics and such, which often went to the highest bidder. Dante's Inferno includes a whole sub-section of Hell for this grievous sin.
Seems like a pretty remote historical problem. Today, I know many Christians who would be more likely to pay NOT to have a role of great responsibility in the church than pay TO have one.
And yet...Have we ever in our hearts thought about the direction our church is going, and thought, "You know, I'm a pretty big contributor here, so they should really think about listening to my ideas." Or even thought about the length of your tenure as member of your congregation, or how many volunteer hours you've logged, as a measurement of how much influence you "deserve"? It's an ugly thought, but isn't that the same thing, with different currency? Trying to "buy" influence over the direction of a church, either with your offerings, time or talents?
The church belongs to God. That's true whether we've been there one year, or a hundred. We serve and we give, not to get anything in return, but because serving and giving is what disciples of Jesus do: it's the only way to live a meaningful life. In God's church, everybody's voice counts. Everyone should feel free to share what God lays on their hearts. But we exist not to serve our longest term members or our biggest givers, but the world God loves.
God, thank you for the blessing of serving. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment