Entitlement, Riches, and the Kingdom of God.

"Though beauty gives you a weird sense of entitlement, it's rather frightening and threatening to have others ascribe such importance to something you know you're just renting for a while."
-- Candice Bergen

I really like this quote. As followers of Christ, we are only renting our spaces on Earth too. What is entitlement and where is there place for it?

I think it is one of the most ingrained, unrealized sins that is pervasive especially in developed countries today. Because it's unrecognized, it is perhaps one of them more dangerous sins.

Entitlement is a strange beast. Sometimes we hold onto it because it makes us feel secure. It starts with ownership. We tend to define ourselves by the things we possess, even qualities we possess, then our created identities based on the things we possess tell us what we are entitled to. Our very confidence is so often derived from the number of things we feel we are entitled to.

What if we lived as though the world and those in it didn't owe us anything? What if we could have faith without feeling like God owes us something?

When we are with people who have nothing and we receive just what they received, we are offended because we feel that we are entitled to more. As though we deserve more because of who we are, or perhaps who we perceive ourselves to be. Don't we give preferential treatment to those who we deem to be more entitled as well? "It's only fair" though, right? We want to be fair and give people what they deserve... But do we have the capacity to make those judgments?

Our judgments are so affected by our perceptions, our comfort, and our convenience. For example, I have noticed particularly my own sense of entitlement intervening in the simple daily activity of riding the bus. When I am the last person to the bus stop, I feel like I am entitled to get on the bus first because I didn't get to sit comfortably at the bus stop as I waited and because clearly I had a better sense of timing than the other people who waited longer. But when I am the first person to the bus stop, I feel like I'm entitled to get on the bus first because I've waited the longest and I deserve a seat. I have a longer ride than most people. I am a person of privilege living in the inner-city by choice. Surely I deserve some benefit. I am entitled to them, right?

Absolutely not. But don't we think in these terms?

Personal entitlement puts the world around you, the people around you, at an automatic disadvantage. It allows you to walk around with an air of superiority and the false idea that people around you owe you something.

Jesus told a parable about a man who owed a large sum of money to the King. The King had mercy and released the debt. Immediately the man went out to another man who owed him money and had no mercy. He took him by the neck and violently shook him, threatening him. The King punished the man who had once owed him money for having no mercy and demanding repayment.

If the man was in the wrong for demanding repayment on what was owed to him, how much more are we in the wrong for demanding people to pay back an arbitrary debt that they didn't even accrue - that we assigned to them? God forgive us.

The Kingdom that we are called to does not function in this way. Sometimes we don't have the capacity to understand things unless they are explained in economic/monetary terms. With this mindset, how can we expect to operate in a Kingdom that does not even possess such terms? In this Kingdom, all debts are paid, and resources flow freely as need determines. There is no "system" that directs this flow and true justice isn't instituted. It just is.

In this Kingdom we aren't indebted to God. That debt has been paid and He doesn't have to wave a cross in our face to remind us that He is entitled to our worship. We worship Him because we love Him. Guilt and shame have no place in this Kingdom, and how can entitlement survive without the two?

This Kingdom may have gold streets, but I think we have so misinterpreted that. I don't think that there are gold streets because Heaven is so grand and luxurious. It's not because we are finally entitled to the riches that we gave up in our lives on Earth. By no means. The illustration of gold streets is the manifest idea of the way we are to live as far as riches are concerned.

The streets are gold because gold holds no value. It is no more valuable to people of this Kingdom than asphalt and tar. It no longer has power over us but is subdued to the ground beneath our feet - as it should be. In gold we trusted, but no longer.

It has no impact on the way we live our lives in this Kingdom, and it is certainly not there because we are entitled to it. Most two-year-olds can say "mine, mine, mine". A handful of them can be taught to share what is theirs. Can we?

Good, that's a start. Now can we be taught that there is no "mine"? It's a false concept. It is all God's and we are stewards. We aren't entitled, but God gives. It is only "mine" until someone else needs it more than I do, or until I die. Such is the temporary nature of this life we have on Earth.

If I can learn that the world is God's and everything in it, I can learn to be a true citizen of the Kingdom and a part of the non-system of justice and non-policy form of economy.

If we really centered our lives on love, the most valuable things would not be the things that are scarce, but things that are in abundance. Why would we place value on things that cannot be shared with all of those that we love?

God, instruct us in a new way. A way that is contrary to the way of the world. We are here temporarily, and we are not here for our enjoyment. We are here to usher in your reign, to tell others, to prepare a place for your glory. Show us how to live in your way and to be the Body of Christ. To live in the knowledge that our debts have been paid and that we are to live in a similar way regarding the world around us. Thank you for paying our debt and showing us in such a powerful way the Way that we are to live. Be with us as we learn this Way. Help us to know your voice, know your love, share your voice, share your love.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.