This is the fourth installment offering thoughts on Rousseau's First Discourse.

''When innocent and virtuous men enjoyed having Gods as witnesses of their actions, they lived together in huts; but soon becoming evil, they tired of these inconvenient spectators and relegated them to magnificent Temples. Finally, they chased the Gods out in order to live in the Temples themselves, or at least the Temples of the Gods wee no longer distinguishable from the houses of the citizens.''

McMansions...they have been popping up everywhere in Northern New Jersey.  People sacrifice their eighth of an acre lot to make an eighth of an acre house and the results are astonishing, a symbol of American excess, security, and laziness: the gaudy castle with no mote nor yard.  The all-encompassing house looms over the quaint neighborhoods of ranchers and within a couple years the ranchers have been demolished and McMansions line the streets of post-war developments.  

The problem with so many Christians is that we let ourselves get caught up in the system of materialism and castle-building that we neglect the church and the kingdom.  I would imagine it is hard to tithe when your mortgage and credit card bills are ballooned with must-have expenses, yet we do not hear the hard truth from the pulpit that many of us spend too much on things we don't need and should give everything, everything! over to God.[1]  

The present predicament  we find ourselves in is much like what Rousseau saw, but the greatest, and most prophetic instance of this excess in the midst of God-neglect is found in Ezra-Nehemiah, when the Jews give up building the Temple of the LORD.   All God had was a foundation while the Jews had lavish cedar walls and cozy homes. 

The same is happening today, we just don't want to admit it.  The average size of a home, as seen in this chart, has risen ridiculously and shamelessly:

We have chosen to live this way, we have chosen to spend the money on the gigantic houses when we could spend our money on so much more on things of worth and substance.  When we build our lavish houses, what do we decorate them with but flimsy entertainment centers and book cases made out of particle board, when in the 50s they may have had smaller houses but they were handcrafted and had furniture that was long lasting and sturdy.  In reality, when we try to turn our houses into the House of the LORD, what is built is not on a firm foundation but one of particleboard, cheap plastic, and sand.  Our money, our lives, must be invested in something more beautiful and eternal: the kingdom of God.

[1] There is a great Wendell Berry quote, and I paraphrase: Pastors must know a trade and be able to work outside the church, because only then will they speak the truth, not caring about job security or people pleasing.