Thursday, October 16, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
God’s economy
What occasion is there then for boasting?
When Jesus shares the parable of the rich man and his barns, he speaks to all of us. We are all rich with things of the world. For most of us it is difficult to give our stuff away. A question Margaret’s Bible Study Fellowship group will discuss today: “When in your life have you surrendered everything for God?”
I do have one experience. When I joined the Unification Church in the fall of 1976 I returned home from California and sold or gave away everything I had. I cleaned out my Madison, Wisconsin bungalow and gave all the proceeds, along with what money I already had, to the church, and for the next two years the church cared for all my needs. Admittedly, I didn’t have much to give, but still, I gave it.
Not so since then. I rejoined the American rat race and now our closets in both Urbana and Austin are packed to the gills with things we don’t even know we own. I have fifteen shirts on hangers, but I wear only a few of them. Last night, looking for a deck of cards, we found three boxes of games like Racko, Scrabble, Yahtzee, Tripoley, Charades, and Twister. We have cans of corned beef and corned beef hash and ten tins of tuna on a shelf next to where I’m writing. I have gathered shelf after shelf of books I won’t have time to read in my lifetime, because over the two decades I’ve built up a 7000 volume Kindle library I can take with me anywhere. But the books still stay put on my shelves.
Out of the depths I cry out to you, O LORD;
LORD, hear my voice!
Fifteen centuries ago Basil the Great called out his contemporaries, recognizing the same problem we have today.
When a man strips another of his clothes, he is called a thief. Should not a man who has the power to clothe the naked but does not do so be called the same? The bread in your larder belongs to the hungry. The cloak in your wardrobe belongs to the naked. The shoes you allow to rot belong to the barefoot. The money in your vaults belongs to the destitute. You do injustice to every person whom you could help but do not.
Across the Mediterranean in Milan, Saint Ambrose was saying the same thing:
Private property is not a matter of justice, for it is not according to nature, which has brought forth all good things for all in common. God has created everything in such a way that all things are to be possessed in common. Nature therefore is the mother of common right, usurpation the mother of private right.
It is not from your own property that you give to the poor. Rather, you make return from what is theirs. For what has been given as common for the use of all, you have appropriated to yourself alone. The earth belongs to all, not to the rich. Therefore you are paying a debt, not bestowing a gift.
How far, O you rich, do you push your mad desires? “Shall you alone dwell upon the earth?” (Isa. 5:8)
In our twenty-first century the false security of private property persists. Our insistence on believing in an economy of scarcity requires it. Â We are as slow as ever to choose the economy of abundance God gave us, even as He promises it will bring us joy. Brian McLaren says of those who keep more than they need:
This person epitomizes the confidence and narcissism of a civilization…. He talks to himself about himself, and neither listens to nor thinks of anyone else…. He asks himself what to do to maintain stability, to keep the system going, to keep the growth in GDP flowing, so he can take it easy, party, and chill. He tells himself the answer (wealth is the ultimate echo chamber): Grow! Build bigger barns to hoard more stuff….
As I grow older (76 on November 17 this year) I have less ability to use what I have, and less time to use it in. Often both Margaret and I crave the feeling of “white space” around us, where tabletops are clear and cupboards have room in them for something new. But we have not set our minds to making this a reality, even as we become older, tireder, and weaker. McLaren invites us to redefine our security:
Every system of self-centered civilization with its barns and banks for hoarding will inevitably collapse, the story of the rich fool reminds us. Meanwhile, the divine ecosystem of interdependence and sharing, the holy and harmonious arrangement of life in which wildflowers and ravens live and thrive, it goes on. That’s where to put your heart. That’s where to invest your inner energies:Â
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:32–34)
Since we no longer have all-day jobs, we put more time into studying and meditating and pursuing God, and more time in prayer. Both of us are grateful to aim our energies in this direction. Giving is what God does best, and we can give that way too.
So, Jesus says, liquidate your capital in the fragile, failing human system. Reinvest your energies in the larger-than-human system of life. Better to be poor in money and rich in generous relationships. When you love God and neighbor, you love what matters.
 (Romans 3, Psalm 130, John 14, Luke 11)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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