lifeasmission
exploring the mystery of life and mission as one and the same
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Archive of "capitalism" Category
Advent Conspiracy
I am really proud to be part of a church that is participating in Advent Conspiracy this holiday season. We have been talking and praying as a community about rethinking gift giving, generosity, and remembering the poor. Here’s a short promo video for the movement.
And here’s something a few folks from Living Hope put together for our community.
Especially in light of tragedies like this, I think scaling back our spending and consumption and asking God to help us remember the poor and oppressed is perhaps the best possible way us to celebrate the advent of the Savior of the world.Putting the Black in “Black Friday”
A physical example of an all too pervasive spiritual reality. Our need for stuff is literally killing us…
and others.
A Church-based Bailout Heartcheck
I had a pretty elaborate post prepared on the whole economic crisis/bailout proposal that I was ready to publish, (instead, I will just point you to this great segment from This American Life, “The Giant Pool of Money,” which clearly and insightfully spells out just how we got in this mess) when another thought struck me – this great opportunity for the Church to shine. It was this bit of Jesus’ teaching that came to mind specifically.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
This economic crisis is a great heart-check for the Church. Where… What… Who is our treasure? What a fantastic opportunity for the Church to witness to the watching world – to, in the midst of economic fright and despair, to be MORE generous, MORE sacrificial, MORE giving; to not “conform to the pattern of this world,” but to put on display a hope and a joy that is no way threatened, but is rather emboldened in times such as these.
But I wonder… will we shine? I fear that the extent to which the Church in the West has so wedded its identity with that of the American dream will make this very, very difficult. Thankfully, we worship a God who desires to work miracles amongst a repentant people.
Kingdom Stimulation
I received my Economic Stimulus Payment the other day and wondered what I would do with it. As I thought and prayed, I decided to join the ranks of those who called the whole premise of the program into question.
Feel free to accuse me for oversimplifying things if you want, but bottom line, the whole point of the Economic Stimulus Payments that virtually everyone received this year, was singular, “The economy is hurting, so please go buy stuff.”
Sadly, this advice just doesn’t square with those of us who live in a new reality under the Kingship of a God who says, “a man’s life does not consists in the abundance of his possessions” or whose dream for people is to live lives of sacrifice, sharing, generosity, and stewardship.
God’s economics fly in the face of the dominant American addiction to consumerism illustrated perfectly both by the opening line of a recent credit card advertisement, “We are a nation of consumers….and there’s nothing wrong with that.” (ht: Grete), as well as our President’s advice to the country after the 9/11 attacks of, “Go shopping.”
So, 1/2 my check went to Geronime, a woman in Benin, Africa, a fruit vendor through Kiva – a group (you definitely need to check out) that makes micro-loans to “entrepeneurs in the developing world, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty,” and the other 1/2 went to pay down debt. Guess I will just have to go without that gizmo, gadget, or do-dad that I probably needed sooooo badly.
I Heart Contentment
A wise man once said that “godliness with contentment is great gain.” Sadly, we live in a culture which would rather have us understand contentment as a vice – something for the weak, disinterested, and apathetic. It is not.
If this picture strikes you, please check out this brother’s post.
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