Middle Class Spirituality

Question: If you were asked to use one of these commonly used names for the social classes, which would you say you belong in? The upper class, upper-middle class, middle class, lower-middle class, or lower class?
Source: The University of Connecticut/Hartford Courant survey of 1,002 randomly selected adults nationwide, Jan. 22-Jan. 28, 2013.

Even those who are not actually in the middle class like to identify with the middle class. Sometimes you get qualifiers such as I am "upper-middle class" but it is all in relation to middle class. We demonize the highest 1% (and even more the .01%) of wealth holders and talk about how the lowest 1% are freeloading the system. We are frustrated when the economy does nothing for the middle class and if play a drinking game during a presidential debate only taking a sip when you heard any candidate say "middle class" then you would be passed out by the end of the first question. 

Jesus was not middle class, and yet we want to make him fit there. We pacify the hard messages of Jesus and down play his anti-empire and political positions. We give him good looks in movies and we ensure he looks well fed in art. He comes from a family that gave the sacrifice of the poor (pigeons) but we recreate the upper room feast like that of a Norman Rockwell painting. We are quick to "understand" his teachings and speak of them like he is directing them toward us in the middle class rather than to those on the margins. 

In fact Jesus was not the only spiritual leader that was from the margins. I don't know every story of every religious leader, but I am willing to bet that most religious leaders came from the margins and not the middle class of their time.

Christians give thanks to God for the incarnation of God in the life of Jesus. Perhaps it is worth further consideration that yes God was not born to a rich family, but also that God was not born to a middle class family.

Jesus is not middle class spirituality.

Rent, Stream, Experience - New Values and the Church (3 of 3)

You may want to catch up to speed by taking 3 minutes to read part two here. 

It seems silly to me that we have to have science to tell us that experiences bring greater satisfaction than material goods, but thanks science. It is part of the reason why people will go see Santa every year just for a photo. An annual picture with Santa is cute, but 6 decades of Santa pictures is a story.

And this is what makes experiences superior to objects. The story. A story we can tell and share. A story never gets rusty or fades. It is the story that is the result of the experience and while people are seeking experiences, we are all really seeking stories. 

This is where the Christian faith has much to offer with the value of experiences. Christianity at its best is a religion of experiences. Experience God in the birth of a child, experience the transcendent in the corporate singing of a song, experience the Spirit with inspiring preaching, experience the still small voice in prayer. Karl Rahner said, "The Christian of the future will be a mystic, or he will not exist at all." Mysticism is the part of Christianity that values the internal experience of God and it is a part of the faith that is being rediscovered (see St. Mark's in Seattle). 

Christianity is a faith tradition that is not only built on experience of God but also a tradition of story. This is why Christians tell the same stories every year. Much like you would do at your family or friend gatherings, telling stories of the past and using those stories to shape the present. The stories of Jesus shape our present. The stories of God shape our now.

I mentioned in the first post in this series that if Christianity can get our stuff together Christianity can help cultivate these values of rent, stream and experience. Or perhaps we might call them - Stewardship, Justice and Story.

Rent, Stream, Experience - New Values and the Church (1 of 3)

Before you read this, make sure you have read part one. 

While the Christian faith has much to speak to in the value of renting, you may be wondering what does the Christian faith have to say about the value of streaming? Streaming is very new technology and what could a 2,000 year old tradition have to say to this new thing?

by Lucinda Li

At the core, streaming is an expression of justice. When you stream something you still may not own it (see the value of stewardship/renting in previous post), but you have access to it. Universal and fair access is the realm of justice. Christians have cried foul when there has been limited access to a common good. For instance, when John Wesley saw that the grain in his day was being channeled toward producing alcohol and not food, he called for a boycott on alcohol until everyone was fed. The access to food was being restricted to those who had more money because the demand was so high.

The value of streaming carries with it a lot of things, but one of the things that it carries is universal access. This is why you see things like net neutrality fights and smartphone proliferation in the developing world. This is why when a nation (or company) restricts access to internet services there is a outcry. While streaming may invoke in most of us a technology that allows us to binge watch T.V. shows or allows us to hear a song without owning the physical record, streaming also carries with it a component of fair access or as it is someitmes called - justice.