Thoughts On American Christianity, Part 2

This past Sunday, the pastor of our church, Rev. Ken Pierce, gave a wonderful sermon that helped me think through and organize some of my thoughts on American Christianity. As he preached, I wrote down my thoughts about what he was saying and I am largely indebted to him for the following.
One of my favorite verses in the entire Bible is the parable of the hidden treasure. “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44). Human beings are kingdom builders. The question that we, as Christians, need to ask ourselves is, “Whose kingdom are we building?” Jesus commands us to be in the business of building God’s kingdom, not our own. Yet, the American culture that we have so deeply embraced is fundamentally about building our own kingdoms and rarely do we notice the difference. Why does God command us to build His kingdom rather than our own? Why did Jesus tell the rich young ruler to sell all that he had and follow Jesus?
It seems to me that the answer is clear in Matthew 13 (and quite a few other places in Scripture). The kingdom of God is infinitely valuable, unstoppable, and ultimately the only source of true joy for us. As Americans, we have simply adopted the American Dream and said that you can build up your own personal kingdom here on Earth while, at the same time, building up God’s kingdom throughout the world. If this were possible, why did Jesus say that the man who found the treasure went out and joyfully sold all that he had to buy that field? Why did Jesus, similarly, tell the rich young ruler to sell all that he had to follow Jesus? Why is it necessary to give up so much to have the treasure?
Sin tells us that happiness is found in building our own kingdoms. It is so ingrained in us that we usually don’t see anything wrong at all with the American Dream. That is why we see pastors living luxurious lifestyles well above the average American family and even above the average church member (and I don’t mean just in the Health, Wealth and Prosperity movement which is so obviously sinful, but in some very conservative, reformed denominations) and we see presidents of mission agencies (mission agencies, for crying out loud!) making well over six figures while the missionaries out in the field (building God's kingdom, mind you) are struggling to stay on the field because part of their support is going to pay the salaries of the mission agency’s “executives”. Ridiculous.
I firmly believe that we are very much out of touch with real Christianity of the first century. Just look at the apostle Paul. His entire life after encountering Jesus was all about spreading a passion for the kingdom of God. He gave up his own personal kingdom of wealth, power and prestige (calling it “rubbish”) to pursue God’s kingdom, no matter the cost, and he is clearly one of the most joyful people in the Bible!
My biggest fear is that we are missing out on so much of what Christ has to offer. “There is far more in Christ than we have yet apprehended” (Dr. Raymond C. “L.L. Cool Ray” Ortlund, Jr.) American Christianity is so safe, watered down and ineffective to change the world that it would be barely recognizable to the apostle Paul if he showed up at a modern American church, I am afraid. We wonder why we don’t see God moving more in our communities and among our non-believing friends. We are far too preoccupied with our own kingdoms.