Lenten Training Part 3 . . . Spreadsheets and Shackles

Lenten Training Part 3 . . . Spreadsheets and Shackles
The borrower is the slave or the lender. Proverbs 22:7b

Preparing for this sermon:
This sermon continues our emphasis during the Lenten season on spiritual discipline. This while last weeks sermon by Mr. Miller focused us on helpful images that call us to our battle with the world, the flesh and the Devil, this text takes us toward one of great trenches of our daily warfare—the battle of our desires for things, for control of people and for cultural dominion. None of these items are evil in and of themselves—in fact they are good—but they can become idols and so enslave us. Before the sermon think about this question:

What are the prerequisites for becoming a slave? (What needs to occur in someone’s live to make them eligible for slavery?)

Some of what we sill consider:
Proverbs 22:7b is a famous verse. It, like many of the Proverbs, provides an adage and a principle with broad application. We are going to apply it in three areas of life. First, we are going to consider: Our slavery to things—or financial debt slavery. This is a critical issue for all ages, but one that is critical in our day. Next, we will consider how the same principle plays out in our Relationships—or how we can become enslave to or by the use of people. Finally, we will consider our place as believers in our culture and how some of our frustration about the direction of the culture simply is a result of our ignoring this principle and simple disciplines that attach to it.

Deeper application:
The end goal of this sermon is to give us all (including the preacher) a mirror and some areas in which we can look at our own lives and ask the chilling question: Where are we personally and collectively headed toward slavery.

Reading list:
(I know you won’t have a chance to read all these before Sunday, but if you want to delve deeper here is a good starting reading list)

Biblical Passages:
Proverbs 7–9; Leviticus 25; Deuteronomy 15, 22–25; 28 (particularly).
Berry, Wendell. The Hidden Wound. This is Berry’s musing on race and slavery. It is very interesting. His view of Pauline theology is messed up. His thinking, however, is challenging.
Berry, Wendell. Jayber Crow. A fictional story in which the same principle of debt slavery is played out.
Dante. The Divine Comedy. Particularly Inferno, canto 5, 25ff.
The Abinger Institute. Leadership and Self-Deception and The Anatomy of Peace. Both books are not explicitly religious, but are written with some good biblical thinking in mind. They challenge us to see people as humans not things. They also demonstrate the kind of slavery that results from this failure.