Hosea 11:1-11
Psalm 107:1-9, 43
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
The study of Economics is a social science, just like Political Science or the Humanities. Like any good social science, lingo and jargon go a long way to help Economists understand each other. A difference between Economics and many other social sciences is that we participate in Economics every day. We don’t participate in Geography or Information Science on a daily basis, but economics happens every time we fill up the gas tank or go to the store. While we may not be very familiar with the jargon of Law or Architecture, we are familiar with some of the jargon of Economics.
The first and most important example is money. We know what money is, but Economists have a more complex view of it. To an economist, money is a medium of exchange. We receive money in exchange for providing goods and services and pay money to receive goods and services. When purchasing something, it’s easier to exchange something that has a standard value instead of a box of chicken. When we gave to the “Two-Cents-a-Meal” Offering[1] we gave cash. Could we have given a box of chicken? Yes, but in a large economy, the barter system is too inefficient to transact business; money makes the system much easier. For example, it would be inefficient for Tyson to pay its employees in nuggets and just as inefficient for the employees to receive their pay that way too.
So in Economics, money is worthless until it is spent on something. The bills and coins we carry do not inherently have the value their faces claim. Gold coins went out of production in the 1930’s and silver in 1964. The metal and production costs of coins today are worth less than their face value. The most common piece of paper money in the US, the twenty dollar bill, contains twenty dollars worth of nothing. But we have faith that when we go to the store, we can make our purchases using the green back dollar, the fin, and the sawbuck. Since going off of the Gold Standard in 1933 in favor of the Federal Reserve System, our financial faith is faith in the Federal Government which tells us that “this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.”[2]
It is a common belief that scripture tells us that money is the root of all evil. But that’s not quite right; Paul’s letter to Timothy[3] says that it is the love of money that is the root of all evil. Money, in and of itself is not evil. It’s not good either. At that, a C-note isn’t worth $100.00 of anything, especially while it’s just sitting in the bank. It’s just a medium of exchange, what we think about it and how we use it makes the difference.
Jesus is a trusted teacher, a Rabbi whose judgment is trusted by the people, and in our reading he is suddenly accosted by someone who wants to him to mediate a property dispute. “Tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” Again, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Probate, the legal process of settling the finances of someone’s estate, is as old as death and lawyers. Jesus doesn’t take the bait; he has bigger fish to fry. He warns those who will listen to guard against all kinds of greed, “Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Life is found somewhere else.
Jesus makes his point in the parable of the rich fool. As for me, I don’t like this editor’s title for this parable. In my opinion, this man isn’t foolish because he’s rich. It looks like he’s very industrious and pretty savvy. This farmer is on a plot of land that produces abundantly. He’s able to grow more crops than he has places to store it. We are told he has extensive holdings, so much that he needs bigger barns to contain it all. He must have been a shrewd businessman to accumulate the land and the tools he needed to become such a successful farmer/rancher/entrepreneur. Jesus does not say he is foolish because he is able to produce an abundance of earthly wealth. This is important: having riches is not what makes him a fool.
What follows, his plan of safety and security, is what’s foolish. His plan is simple, tear down the old, build up the new! This way he will be able to keep his riches and live off of them for years to come. Relax, eat, drink, and be merry. I’ll make a new place for my stuff and I’ll be on easy street. That’s a plan, a foolish plan.
Relax, eat, drink, and be merry. As in Ecclesiastes and Isaiah,[4] this quartet isn’t a blessing; it’s a foreboding of impending doom. Resting on his laurels, watching the world go by as he sits on the veranda in his porch swing, this is not the life we are called to live with the blessings we receive from God. As I said before, I do not think the man is a fool for being rich, but he is foolish by how he trusts in his wealth.
When we trust our lives to the security of our finances, we trust in something that is fleeting. As the rich man learns, life can be over in a flash. Our lives can be demanded of us in any given moment. When this happens, Jesus asks, who will receive the blessings that have been trusted to us? I ask, isn’t it better to develop a relationship with a brother than with the father’s property? One will last; the other will become dust in the wind. We have received so many blessings, and so often they are squandered on things that don’t last until the next season.
To me, Monday October 19, 1987 is one of those days that will live in infamy, it is known as “Black Monday,” or at least 1987’s version of “Black Monday,” the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average took the second largest one day decline in its history. The Dow lost 22.6% of its value, in the neighborhood of $500 billion. The drop was not as devastating as “Black Thursday” or the following “Black Tuesday” of 1929 which precipitated the Great Depression, but it was still scary. In a time of excess and greed, “Black Monday” was a sobering reminder to Yuppies everywhere that faith in wealth could be even more fleeting than the paper it was printed on.
I remember hearing about an interview with Sam Walton about the blood bath on Wall Street that day. When asked how he felt about the sudden loss of wealth when Wal-Mart stock took a perilous drop along with the rest of the market, he asked the interviewer, “Did I lose any stores? Did I lose any inventory? I’m no poorer than I was yesterday. That wasn’t real money.”
Sam had a point. He and the company he founded were invested in more than paper. They were and still are invested in land and stores and inventory and people, and the local community and any perceived loss of wealth from the stock drop wasn’t going to matter in the long run as long as people shopped at Wal-Mart. Sam didn’t put his trust in Wall Street wealth. That wealth was just a paper tiger. Sam placed his faith in people, people who still shop at Wal-Mart.
So if Sam is right, if the value of paper wealth is little more than nothing, then where does true wealth lie? One answer comes from our reading in Colossians. Colossians reminds us to “Set our minds on things that are above, not on things on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is in your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” When we set our minds on the value of wealth from the earth, we trust in what will one day be dust. When Christ is revealed through our lives, wealth lies in the values we accept from his life and the example we are to follow.
We receive—so that we might give to others.
We are blessed—so that we might be a blessing to others.
We are loved—so that we might love others.
We are reconciled—so that we might reconcile.
We are forgiven—so that we might forgive.[5]
God doesn’t have a problem with wealth, or with industriousness, or the Protestant Work Ethic; but when we place our trust in the stuff that is created instead of the word of God there’s a problem. Especially when we forget that the blessings we receive aren’t for our personal use and enjoyment; they are for the work the Lord has put us to in God’s good creation.
John Wesley, the leader of the Methodist movement, has a simple thesis about wealth. He said, “Make all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can.” This simple treatment is a blueprint for how we should handle wealth. As Christians, we are called to greater things. We are called to increase wealth not for our own comfort, but so that we may be a blessing to others. These ideals give our money true value.
As I said, monetary wealth is worthless until it is spent. As long as it is in my pocket, this dollar is just so much linen-paper and ink. When I put it in the plate, it gains value by what it can do for the work of the Kingdom of the Lord while we are here on earth. This will buy school supplies so that young children can go to school with the materials they need. This dollar will be used to purchase rice for the Arkansas Rice Co-op to help fight hunger in this state. This dollar will go toward the Loaves and Fishes Food Bank to help local people fight hunger. When we spend our money in reflection of our God given priorities, then our wealth has value.
[1] The “Two-Cents-a-Meal” offering is taken by the Presbytery of Arkansas. Its proceeds go toward three hunger relief agencies annually, one state-wide, one national, and one global.
[2] All paper money in the US carries this statement.
[3] 1Timothy 6:7-10
[4] Ecclesiastes 8:15, Isaiah 2:13
[5] Rich Fools, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/printer_friendly_installment.asp?installment_id=93000344 accessed June 11, 2007.
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