Money, Possessions & Eternity (iii)
Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered.
(Prov.21:13)
The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.
(Prov.29:7)
This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom, or the strong boast of their strength, or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.
(Jer.9:23-24)
We cannot think of righteousness without considering its financial dimensions. But it is far more complex than simply the question of my personal budget. We can easily reduce the question of sin to ‘personal’ and ‘private’ categories. There are important questions about what our spending decisions and habits reveal about what we value. And of course, we should be thinking through (prayerfully and in the light of Scripture) how our discipleship affects how we dispose of the material resources we have direct control over. As we have reflected on the Law, Wisdom, and now the Prophets, it has become apparent that God’s agenda is much broader than our personal finances. It reaches to societal, and inter-societal levels. And our failure to engage at this level by all accounts hinders our relationship with God.
But there are massive, macro-economic systems that we are part of as well. We live in a consumer culture, supported and sustained by a capitalist structure, and shaped by market forces that are mystifyingly complex to most of us. This is true whatever our personal political convictions. We are embedded in processes of manufacture and production over which we have little direct control. And yet, even if we aren’t always sure how, we have more than a vague awareness that many of those structures (all of them?) are systemically unjust. Inevitably this is linked to maximising profit, often at human cost.
How do we engage with such questions when the God we worship is clearly committed to justice and righteousness, and calls us to be so as well? We are stepping onto a minefield replete with political, philosophical and economic assumptions, misinformation, and perspectives that are likely to be very different depending on how much disposable income we feel we have. Money brings the ability to make different choices to what may be an option for those locked in a cycle of poverty. Ideas about ‘ethical’ consumer attitudes and purchasing patterns can seem self-evident necessities to some Christians, and a luxury beyond the reach of others. Spiritualised virtue signalling is never an authentic Christian response.
And yet the fact of God’s commitment to, and His call for us to be committed to, justice, and actively opposed to injustice, remains a gloriously stubborn fact of Scripture. As such it needs to be navigated by us all to the extent we are culpable, rather than to the extent that we aren’t. Insofar as we are able, we should be aware of and sensitive to the structures of injustice and exploitation that mar our world. And yet something far more than awareness is called for. And likely something far more radical than advocacy, protest, prophetic ‘speaking to power’, boycotts or even some form of direct action.
Some Christians are undoubtedly called to be involved in politics and should use their positions of power to good effect. Some are called to business and should develop their business model along radically different lines, rejecting the assumptions that the goal of business is to maximise profit, and that any type of transaction is acceptable so long as it is legal. As an old Puritan once preached: ‘[W]hen we come to buying and selling, we come to witness our love towards our neighbour by our well dealing with him in his goods’.
Indeed, I find myself increasingly wondering if such Christians as can run their own business and service provision ought to. Not only does this give Christians ethical options, not only is it functioning as salt and light in the business community, but it may even provide employment for Christians at something above zero-hours contracts and/or minimum wage. This in turn allows Christians to have the level of income that enables them to make different choices about their own giving and spending habits. This allows the Church to not only protest injustice in the world, but model justice to the world.
Questions
What is money for?
How do you decide where you will shop? …and if it applies, how do you decide where to invest? How do you decide where to give?
Josef Tson (a Romanian pastor in the days of Ceaușescu) once wrote: ‘In my experience, 95% of believers who face the test of persecution pass it, while 95% of those who face the test of prosperity fail it’. Do you agree? Why do you think so many fail the test of prosperity? …and what would that look like?
Read Is.58:1-14
What is a Christian view of ‘justice’? How is it different from the secular view peddled by our culture?
What is the sin and rebellion of the people? How does that affect their spiritual experience of God? What do you think is the connection?
It seems like ‘fasting’ is a lifestyle. It isn’t something that we do for ‘a day’, or something that can be contained in ‘religious’ categories. What are the components of fasting as God desires it?
Do you think these are optional extras for some Christians, or are they intrinsic and necessary parts of Christian faith? Can you explain your answer? Are there passages from the Bible you can draw on to back up your thinking?
Can you identify in your own discipleship how each of those components find expression, either directly or indirectly?
Towards the end of the Chapter, the Lord suddenly introduces the ‘Sabbath’. What is the connection between Sabbath, and the social / political issues that precede this section?
Do you think ‘keeping the Sabbath (Lord’s Day)’ has the same sense of urgency as other aspects of God’s call on His people in this passage? Do you feel under obligation to honour the Sabbath? How?
Memory Passage:
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matt.6:19-21
Going Deeper:
The question of debt is a complicated one to navigate. In part because there are different kinds of debt. Student loans, mortgages, and the like, where considered decisions are made and the sums have been done, is very different from uncontrolled and unplanned credit card debt, for example. There has been a significant cultural shift over the last few decades, where ‘debt’ has moved from being an earned privilege for a few, to an inalienable right for all. In part at least, this has been because of a growing industry that profits from our being in debt (or ‘credit’, as it is often now called).
Scripture is generally cautious about taking on debt, and warns against making yourself so vulnerable (Prov.22:26-27), and co-signing for someone else’s loan is expressly forbidden, exposing character faults (Prov.17:18). There is strict guidance about both lending and borrowing, and the Lord delights in those who are generous in their dealings with money (Ps.112:5). Those who lend should always reckon on the possibility of cancelling a debt (Matt.18:32-33), and of course, the mechanism for cancelling debt was built into the life of the ancient Church (Deut.15:1-10). There were different ‘rules’ in terms of dealing with those who were Christians and those who weren’t. For much of the Church’s history this teaching has been held to, and any sense of exploiting the poor, or benefitting financially from their plight has been roundly condemned.
There are some significant questions about our contemporary propensity to take on debt as part of a lifestyle, and the extent to which we share our culture’s assumptions about debt. We’ll take a look at some of those questions in next week’s ‘Growing Deeper’ section.
