Month: October 2024

Scripture:  Luke 12:1 & 13-31

Dear Church,

Two brothers came to Jesus desperate for his help. And after listening to their plea, he said:

No.

No way, I’m not helping you.

I don’t want anything to do with this.

Can you imagine? Having a problem and turning to Jesus and then watching him turn away? What in the world could have inspired our gentle and compassionate savior to be so…harsh?

Money.

They were fighting over their inheritance and Jesus didn’t want any part of it. He refused to intervene. Instead he told a story about the danger of wealth.

Our definition of a bad economy and Jesus’ definition of a bad economy are not the same. In the Lord’s eyes, having too much money is far more dangerous than having too little.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Leviticus 25:1-24; 35-38

Dear Church,

The summer before I headed off to college, I told my youth pastor that I wanted to read the entire Bible. He said, ‘that’s great–but don’t waste your time with Leviticus, it’s got nothing to do with Jesus.’  In my youth pastor’s defense, I’m certain he just didn’t want me to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of complicated descriptions of the proper way to hem the garment of the high priest and give up on Bible reading altogether. In a real way, he was right–we really should be focusing first and primarily on the gospels and the words of Jesus.

BUT…

The revelations preserved in Leviticus have everything to do with Jesus. In fact, the words of Jesus’ first sermon, ”The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor’ are a quote from the prophet Isaiah who was himself quoting, you guessed it, portions of the book of Leviticus.  Specifically, verses from Leviticus 25 which contains God’s commands to the people about how to use the land, how to treat the poor and powerless and the forgiveness of debt.

In other words, Leviticus gives us a detailed description of God’s economy. And how we use resources, live, work, use money and respond to the poor are some of the things Jesus talks about most.  Because God calls us to a faith that shapes all our choices and is enacted in our daily lives. As the scholar Richard Boyce puts it, when the chosen people live by the precepts in the book of Leviticus ‘God’s light shines as brightly in the sales of property as in the sounds of prayer.’

Everything that exists is a gift from our generous Creator. How we think about God is often more accurately revealed by what we choose to do with God’s gifts than by the words we pray and the theology we claim to believe.

The precepts of God’s economy laid out in Leviticus 25 are wild!  It’s almost impossible to imagine how different life would be if we took them seriously.  Just this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the United States, which has the most powerful and prosperous economy in the world, is on track to set a new record of 650 thousand unhoused people living on the streets. So it’s worth spending some time soberly contemplating whose version of an economy is actually unimaginable.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Exodus 16:1-18

Dear Church,

“Gather as much as each of you needs”

Those were the instructions that Moses gave the children of Israel on the night before God fed them with manna–the bread of heaven. There’s a lot to ponder in this story. The people were in a strange place. They couldn’t take care of themselves. They were worried and angry and attacking their leaders. They were longing for a past that never existed, and they couldn’t see any future but death. And then the ground around them was covered with a strange mysterious substance that God told them was the bread of heaven. The people tried it and found that it tasted like honey.

SO. MUCH. TO. UNPACK.

But in these first days of their new life as freed people chosen to be salt and light and a source of blessing to all nations on earth, God slipped in an economics lesson.

God, always a generous provider, opens the storerooms of heaven and pours out goodness to the people. Bread everywhere–they don’t have to harvest it, bake it or buy it. There isn’t a catch, but there is a non-negotiable way to use it:

Gather each day, for that day.

Everyone gets what they need

Everyone gets to rest.

This is God’s economy. God’s instructions for handling God’s abundance. Because God isn’t just feeding the people here. God is also re-forming them as a peculiar, holy people who won’t live like all the other nations.

And God is still reforming God’s people. I hope you’ll join me as we submit and surrender once again to God’s strange and holy way.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Genesis 1:1-31, Matthew 6:25-34

Dear Church,

In 1992 James Carville was the key strategist for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, hung a sign on the wall to get campaign staff to remain focused on three key points with potential donors. The second bulletin point read, ‘The economy, stupid.’* 

And so ‘it’s the economy, stupid’ became a rallying cry in that campaign and every presidential campaign since.

But what if we don’t believe the economy is the greatest force shaping our lives? And given that Americans are divided about what facts indicate that an economy is good, whose opinion on community and right use of resources should be most influential for Christians?

As the first kid to raise their hand during the children’s sermon would tell us, God’s wisdom should be the foundation of our own.

We’re not stupid, but Carville was right, the economy is fundamental. The way we make use and share wealth shapes our world. These choices are deeply spiritual. And so over the next few weeks we are going to seek the Spirit and turn to the word of God to help us see the economy through the eyes of Christ.

What kind of economy does God call good? And what choices are we willing to make to help create it?

This Sunday, it’s Holy Economics 101, and we’re starting at the very beginning.  And immediately after we hear about it, we’ll have a chance to participate in it. Come, taste and see!

Peace,

Pastor Kate

*the other two points were (1) Change vs more of the same and (3) Don’t forget about health care! You’re welcome.

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