Responding Faithfully in Difficult Economic Times

Earlier this week I attended a meeting of the Seacoast Convocation of the Diocese of New Hampshire. This is a regular meeting of lay and clergy representing the Episcopal congregations in the Seacoast region of the state.

The primary presentation was the 2009 diocesan budget. That subject, in and of itself, was not particularly relevant to most people, even those who are active Episcopalians in the diocese. The presentation, however, led to an interesting discussion about the state of the economy and how churches respond to this. As with all other institutions and organizations, the chaos on Wall Street, the crisis in home mortgages, the government bailouts, and the concern that things will get worse before they get better has a profound impact on how we plan for the coming year. Will investment income remain stable? Will the giving of our parishioners, which is how most congregations fund their ministries, decrease?

On the one hand, this is an institutional issue and really doesn't have much to do with the intersection of church and society. On the other hand, it has much to do with how Christians, and people of other religions, live faithfully in the world today.

Near the end of the discussion, one lay person made a telling and challenging remark (his intention wasn't to challenge the clergy, but any one who did not hear it as a challenge was not really listening). He said something along the lines of, "I'm looking forward to hearing sermons about the economy and the choices that we as Christians need to make. So many of our problems today are a result of greed. This is a preaching opportunity."

Ironically, it's not too often that clergy hear a plea for sermon topics. That probably has to do more with clergy not asking for input than it does with lay people not being willing to offer an opinion.

What is the preaching opportunity here? His comment about greed in our economic system clearly points to a characteristic of our nation that bothers many. The people who participate in the Seacoast Convocation and vast majority of those who attend our churches are not people making a lot of money from the stock market. Most are middle class people who work each day. Living on the Seacoast, most have been successful, but they look at the nation in which we live and they feel a deep anxiety. The stock market is crashing, investment banks are failing, the government, already deep in debt, is spending billions of dollars in an effort to stop a banking collapse that could bring us into a deep recession. News reports say that we are facing an economic downturn worse than any time since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

On top of that, gas prices are up, heating fuel is higher than ever, and food prices are increasing. As a person told me recently, "People are strapped and don't have any extra, if they even have enough to pay their bills."

So, preaching about greed doesn't necessarily seem appropriate. The people who attend my church are not greedy. They simply want enough money to live comfortably, pay the bills, and have a little extra for recreation and to save for retirement. They want their kids to go to college without accumulating a mountain of debt. They want to help people who are in greater need than they are.

Perhaps the preaching opportunity is to speak to the issue of responsibility. From my perspective, it seems that much of the crisis we live in today is brought about by the growing narcissism in our society. We see the money we earn as being only for ourselves. The resources at our disposal are for our own good. We seek to gain more "wealth" so that we can enjoy life more. We want our taxes to be lower so we can have more for ourselves.

But what about our responsibility to the common good? Do we not have a responsibility to those beyond ourselves? We are not truly independent people who live in a vacuum. We are interdependent. The choices that we make impact others beyond ourselves. If I choose to hold onto my resources for myself instead of sharing them with others, am I not contributing to the problems of today? If I choose to maximize my own treasure, if I choose to see what I have as only for myself, am I not being greedy? Greed does not require me to have a lot. It only requires that I seek to hold onto all I have for myself.

In the gospel Jesus calls us to be responsible for the common good, not our own good. The paradox is that when I take responsibility for the common good, I actually increase my own share of the good that is available for all.

In Luke 12:15-21 we read this parable told by Jesus:

And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” 16Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

People of faith are not called to accumulate possessions. We are called to be "rich toward God." This does not mean that God intends all of us to be poor or to give away everything that we have. I interpret this to mean that we are called to take responsibility for God's creation, which most certainly includes the community that lives around us. Only the "fool" holds onto everything expecting that it is all for him or her. The wise and faithful person shares those possessions with society for the common good.

As the church intersects with an anxious society in challenging and troubling economic times, people of faith can set a different example from the greed that is at the heart of our current crisis. We can choose to look beyond our individual selves by taking responsibility for the needs of others.

That, it seems to me, is the preaching opportunity. What do you think?