Abundance for All

James K.A. Smith challenges the conventional attitudes toward the prosperity gospel by not being for or against it but instead pragmatically appealing to the tension inherent in the gospel message of Christ’s already/not yet kingdom:

But it’s not either/or if we think about [abundance] dynamically with respect to time
— which is exactly the idea behind ancient and medieval practices of
“fasting and feasting.”  The rhythm of fasting and feasting calls the
people of God to bear witness to both of these realities at different
times and in different seasons: we rightly celebrate and enjoy God’s
abundance, but we also rightly lament and resist injustice and
poverty.  During days or seasons of fasting — which, in a way, should
be the “default” habit of the church’s sojourn — we say “no” to
abundance as a witness to the fact that so many lack not only abundance
but what’s needed just to survive.  But during days and seasons of
feasting, we enjoy a foretaste of the plenitude of the coming kingdom. 

As we are preparing to enter the season of growth and harvest, at
least for those of us in the northern hemisphere, consider how you can
practice a rhythm of fasting and feasting, as a way of making you
hungry for the abundant life.  For Jesus is Lord of life abundant:  he
had nowhere to lay his head, yet his wonder-working power brought
abundance to the wedding feast at Cana.  May we be a people who both
identify with Christ’s suffering and receive God’s abundance. ("Abundance for All," Catapult Magazine)

During much of this liturgical year I have been fasting, including the rigorous fasting of Lent, yet during this Easter season I have been learning to carry on the spirit of the Lenten fast during the abundance of the Easter season.  I am not currently fasting, but I am feasting with a newfound perspective on my eating habits and how I participate in God’s economy of justice and abundance.  Soon Pentecost will be here and I will be fasting again, and I hope I will gain the spiritual appreciation that will lead me into a wonderful season of feasting during Christmas.

James K.A. Smith blogs at Fors Clavigera and Church and Pomo Culture.