For although I caused you sorrow in my last letter, I do not regret it…I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance…

II Corinthians 7.8-9

In 1995 Tracy Gary, a native of San Francisco (which, you may recall, is in California) began a support group called “Resourceful Women,” that caters to the stresses and heartbreaks unique to the life of super-rich heiresses. Vocationally, Ms. Gary is a “Professional Wealth Consultant.” She began to notice her clients were suffering from enormous stresses associated with their particular station in life. Old money is just not as chic as it was, say, in the days of Louis XIV. They felt compelled “to claim the Chanel was a knock-off, and the earrings were really cubic zirconia. Many are like alcoholics or bulimics, devising clever ruses to hide their fortunes from the rest of the world.”*

In May, 1935, when Bill W. and Bob S. began the first great support group, Alcoholics Anonymous, their idea was that structure, support, and accountability was the best way to produce change in an individual. Their twelve steps that have been so successful, and so adaptable, are about just that – change – and millions, world-wide, have been changed by their program.

Change is an element conspicuously absent from the agenda of the “Resourceful Women,” – unless it is a change towards feeling better about beluga caviar. I wonder what Bill W. and Bob S. would think about the Resourceful Women comparing themselves to AA.

I called AA the first great support group, but I was wrong. The Kingdom of God, a family which transcends culture, continent, and caste to create a “one another” under God is clearly the first, and the greatest. We come together, in our local congregations, not only to praise Him, but through that to support each other. Colossians 3.16 says that when we sing praise to God we teach each other, affect each other. Hebrews 10.24-25 says that when we assemble together for worship we “stimulate one another to love and good deeds.” The purpose of our being us is “change”: learning, growing, maturing – becoming sanctified.

Paul in the II Corinthians passage above goes on to talk about the power that repentance brought. “I didn’t want you to feel better,” Paul says, “I wanted you to BE better.” We Christians are heirs and heiresses to the greatest treasure of all (I Peter 1.4-5). We do not come together as family just to feel better about ourselves in a hostile world – but to assert the power of God in our lives to change ourselves, and change that world.

There is a difference.

* “A Crutch for Poor Little Rich Girls,” in Civilization, Aug/Sept, 1996.