BY EVELYN CARO

CANBERTE LUNDERSONDT¹ GREW UP in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, attended church school, academy, and college because of the loving sacrifice of his working-class parents. He obtained a M.Div. from the Andrews University Theological Seminary, married a girl from a professional-class Adventist family, and became a pastor. He had finally "arrived," and to all appearances had achieved the "Adventist dream."

Scanberte may carry some painful baggage from the past, though. He may have felt like a second-class citizen in school, because his dad wasn't a doctor, lawyer, or other professional with a college degree. (Some professionals' kids have a special talent for evoking this feeling in others.) This feeling may have intensified in academy and college along with the pressures of who-you-are and what-you-have, and he worked with all earnestness to obtain his degrees and improve his socioeconomic status. In the depths of his heart, where we often push the most painful and shameful elements of our lives, he may be somewhat ashamed of his parents for their modest or lowly status compared with that of his in-laws. Perhaps he tries hard to please his wife's parents, but his heart is pierced because, in that deepest place, he feels they believe their daughter could have "done better." And perhaps he's afraid that on some level, their daughter believes so as well.

We need to deal gently with Scanberte, for as Jesus says: "Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets" (Matt. 7:12).² We also need to deal straightforwardly with him, because he has some attitudes and motives that are bearing unwholesome and even harmful fruit.

A pernicious temptation that Scanberte, like some of his colleagues, may have succumbed to is that based on the human tendency toward one-upmanship--to be ahead of one's fellows in some way. It is the perception that professional churches and members are better than their working-class counterparts. Scanberte may be angling to get into a church labeled "professional" because of the number of doctors, lawyers, successful businesspeople, etc., on its roll that will enhance his status among his peers.

By now it's probably apparent that the titular sin is class consciousness. Well, what's so bad about that? In a nutshell, it dishonors God, damages His cause, and harms people. There are members who have joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church because they have been convicted by the Holy Spirit that this is God's faithful church of the last days, those who "keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus" (Rev. 12:17). They were not born into the church; they have sometimes given up family, friends, and jobs to unite themselves with God's people. The Lord has promised them, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life" (Luke 18:29, 30). Then when they join the church, they may be treated as stepchildren and second-class citizens because they are of the working class.

If we want to know how Jesus views such a thing, we need only read Luke 17:1, 2: "It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones."

Those who have gotten the victory over the sins of incremental harm to one's own body, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, by the indulgence of excesses and perverted tastes; those who have conquered (or never had) the desire to spend God's resources on things that only decorate themselves; and those who have perfected observance of the Sabbath in order to honor God, may be unconsciously dishonoring Him by devaluating beings made in His image and for whom His Son died--a first step in the violation of the sixth commandment. While seemingly pure, they are indeed "workers of iniquity," wounding the Lord's own, distracting them from Him, and nudging them toward spiritual suicide.

They also dishonor God by their example: Church leaders carry a powerful influence, and Satan is ready to suggest that God is just like many of them--more interested in the favored of the congregation than the not-so-favored. And partiality puts temptation in the way of those favored, either confirming any feelings of superiority to others that they may have, or perhaps discouraging them, causing the more perceptive to realize that they're favored primarily because of their worldly success. They, too, may be carrying private wounds under the designer suits and other trappings of status. They, too, need to be accepted and treasured because they are created in God's image and redeemed by His Son, not for what they have achieved or acquired.

Whether we know it or not, whether we want to believe it or not, our church is in deep spiritual need. Favoritism, arrogance, and exclusiveness on the one hand and discouragement, envy, and social-climbing on the other have separated many of us from God. Do we feel it? Do we miss anything that we once had, that we once rejoiced in? What can be done about it?

First, we need to stop whatever we're doing and listen for God's call. He stands with His hands stretched out toward us, pleading, "Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die?" (Eze. 33:11). We need to make the conscious choice to repent, no matter how we feel, and ask the Lord to change our "stony heart . . . and give [us] a heart of flesh" (Eze. 11:19). We need to plead with God as individuals and as a denomination to remove from us every feeling, perception, attitude, and motive that has been devaluating His children and dishonoring Him. Then, we need to get back to the Bible to see how we should deal with one another and with the church, because we who pride ourselves on being "different" from the world, while presumably eschewing the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, have imbibed deeply of its pride of life (see 1 John 2:16).

In what ways have we done that? Look around you: how many of the elders and other highly placed individuals in your church are "professionals," or successful in the business world as opposed to noncollege-educated working class? Do we choose leaders primarily on the basis of earthly success? Those who enjoy such success may indeed have valuable skills, but they are not necessarily spiritually mature. They may not have much faith in anything but the methods of the competitive marketplace, which are often contrary to the principles of God. They may therefore be woefully inept at reflecting Jesus' character, and in ministering to individual or church-related spiritual needs. The Lord is thereby robbed of His glory, and people are needlessly wounded or confused because the church savors more of the flesh than of the Spirit. Members need to become acquainted with the biblical requirements for church leadership, so they can hold leaders accountable to them.

Jesus was blue-collar, working-class, and without a single degree from Moses University, Jerusalem Campus. This fact should give us freedom from the compulsion to conform, to choose an "acceptable" profession, to obtain college degrees in order to be approved by the church social hierarchy. It is one more way He uses to proclaim, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). The working-class Jesus was perceptive, well informed, well balanced, competent, and of infinite value. He made it clear that all abilities and skills, not just the administrative ones, are priceless and honorable.

He may be sending us a pointed rebuke down through the millennia, an entreaty to experience Galatians 3:28 in a uniquely Adventist context: "There is neither professional nor working class, but all are one in Christ Jesus." He offers us something better than worldly honor disguised as spiritual approbation--social harmony in Him, a unique place in His family as sons and daughters of God, and positions of high honor as ambassadors of His eternal kingdom--of which we stand on the very threshold--to all the world.

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¹ Scanberte Lundersondt is a pseudonym.
² All Bible texts are from the New King James Version.

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Evelyn Caro writes from Whittier, California.