Provocation of the Day: Riches in Heaven

This is a huge topic. Which is another way of saying, “Tread carefully, for you tread on both my hopes and offenses.”

If you’re reading this blog from a western orientation, then the double-edged sword of material affluence (materialism on one side, the embarrassment of riches on the other) probably has left you with inner conflict. Specifically, given that you are already pretty rich in this world (objectively and historically), do you feel a certain sinking apprehension about the subject of “riches in Heaven”?

Let me lob a couple of thought-grenades to disrupt your tangle of contradictory thoughts, mixed emotions, spiritual dichotomies and physical stress (your body’s reaction to that inner unrest):

Riches and/or Heaven

Let’s start with Jesus’ direct admonition to his followers about where your time and energy are going:

• “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
• “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)

Now, take Jesus’ illustration of the successful farmer whose material success prompted him to build bigger and better storage facilities (to be relevant to our era, let’s call it “retirement”) and is rebuked by God:

• “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
• “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:20-21)

So there’s a statement of what he was saying not to do.

And then there’s Paul’s advice to his pastoral mentor-ee to pass on to believers who are materially successful:

• Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
• Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
• In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

Hmm, contradiction, or no?

Personally, in the first case, I had drawn a false equivalency or false contradiction between material prosperity and condemnation from God. But why should I insert an either/or spin when it’s so plausible that the Lord is basically saying not to get tunnel-visioned about success at the expense of spiritual growth?

And then Paul breaks open what being rich toward God looks like for people who indeed have accumulated surplus wealth: character + attitude + action. All good stuff, and Paul seems to be saying that this combination results in exactly what the farmer is rebuked for neglecting: generosity.

Get rich in Heaven

So, here’s the rub: Is it reasonable to expect that there will be those who are, and who are not, destined for different levels of “rich” once we get to Heaven? Obviously not in the cigar-smoking and brandy-sipping sense, but in terms of attaining some celestial currency? Treasures? Accountability? “Good and faithful”?

Given: Ultimately, everyone will be casting their crowns. And before God’s glory any peer-to-peer comparison will be ridiculously moot.

But what if you are living in the wealthy West? Are we fools by default? Is generational momentum in the area of material wealth a blessing, or a curse in disguise? Is preparing for retirement antithetical to being rich toward God? Can you have it both ways? Is it okay to hope you can?

Mind you, if you mash in the parable of the talents and the disparity between the rewards meted out to the two financially savvy and successful money managers… ah, but that’s for another post.

“I am rich in _____!”