Holy Week Reflection: God and the economy

With Easter approaching, I can’t help but think what would Jesus say to us right now? I can’t help but feel like he’d be pretty disappointed in us. When he rode into Jerusalem, it was a challenge to the empire, just not quite what people thought, but it was a challenge in life as well as in his death. I often hear that as Christians we are not to be “of this world.” Usually people take that to mean that they can close themselves off from society and that somehow they have risen above. But I don’t think that’s what it means. We have to be both in this world and apart. God is clearly interested in working with and within humanity. So why would Christians need to pull away from the rest of humanity? I think the confusion happens when we see the Bible strictly as a book of morality. It’s not. Well, not just that. It is a book about identity. But, perhaps, most importantly, the Bible contains God’s vision for community. Unfortunately, it’s this part that is most often ignored. But this ignored vision is exactly why Jesus rode into Jerusalem before that fateful Passover.

We live in a society dominated by the belief that more is better and the ends justify the means. This leads to extravagant greed and selfishness. It’s not the first time in history. Isaiah was dealing with the same problem. Even King Hezakiah had the same “what-do-I-care-about-the-long-term-consequences-of-my-actions-because-I’ll-be-dead-before-we-have-to-face-that” attitude that is so prevalent in our leaders today. So what can be learned from Isaiah?

God tells us that what he is offering is more reliable than the failed vision of our society. He tells us not to be afraid because he is with us. Empires rule by fear because frightened people will not take initiative. But God says to us we can refuse the fear of the empire. When we refuse to despair we can maintain the energy to do something to help our greater neighborhood. So Jesus stands up to the Roman Empire; he shows that the we do not have to live by fear of the empire and that God has a better plan. Our society has been described as military consumerism. We have to maintain a large and expensive military to protect our desire to consume more and more. And really the implication is that we have to have military because we are consuming more than what is rightly ours. Most of our worldly military conflicts are directly related to a desire to take; we have just become very good at rationalizing our role in various conflicts. But truly, when was the last time worship of military consumerism has made you safe? Has made you happy? And make no mistake, when we have gone beyond simple pride of nation to belief in exceptionalism, we have begun to worship something other than God.

So just as Isaiah told the Jews, we must also hear again that we can depart (not physically, metaphorically) from the empire, give up our fear, and relinquish that which keeps us most anxious. “We can depart from the myth that more is better.” (Walter Brueggemann) But we must be careful to understand that this departure does not mean seclusion. Seclusion and faith as only a personal endeavor does not require full engagement. And, although, the empire promotes ways of distracting us from full engagement (most notably social media and television, which I enjoy but not without remembering the inherent dangers), God wants us to engage. God placed us in a society of many, not of the individual. Our calling as Christians is to be the mediator of need and resource to make connections. Israel had forgotten its call to be a light to all nations, we learn in Isaiah. But we also learn that reconstruction is possible.

The book of Isaiah presents the debate on how to create a humane society. First is discussed who belongs. (We still discuss this today.) The only requirements are to participate in the public economy (not individual) and keep the Sabbath. In reality, the boundaries of community are broken open. But what are we saying by public economy? We are not saying that everything is pooled together and everyone has the exact same. But we are talking about an understanding of the overall health of a society, village or neighborhood. Israel was expected to embrace the neighborhood in compassion and generosity. Some people would say that if you DO, you get to know God or if you know God, you DO, but perhaps what God wants us to understand is that in the action is the knowing. God is the connection between the people who have bread and the people who need bread. (And read bread as literal bread, and as a metaphor for more.) We are cautioned against putting on a face of piety in worship all the while engaged in actions that are killing our neighbors. Isaiah 61 proposes that the economy be organized not to serve the market, but to serve the neighbor. It reads: “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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Isaiah 61 is interesting because it both looks forward to Luke 4 and backwards to Leviticus 25. (Although, backwards may be a stretch since Leviticus and Isaiah were probably written around the same time.) Leviticus 25 is where we find the Jubilee Year, also called Year of the Lord and Year of the Lord’s Favor, which is when at the end of fifty years, all debts are canceled. It’s like an economic blank slate. This idea undermines all conventional notions of economies so therefore, sadly, you rarely ever hear it preached in church. When we look forward to Luke 4, we see that Jesus is the enactment of Jubilee (he reads Isaiah 61 in the synagogue and proclaims it fulfilled. And lest you think I am jumping to economic conclusions, read Mary’s Magnificat, it’s there too:

    And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for     he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will     call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me--holy is his name. His     mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed     mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.     He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled     the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant     Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants for ever, even as he     said to our fathers."

Isaiah 61 is a center point for the Bible’s most dangerous teachings because it undermines all notions of power. It undermines the notion that the economy should be for the sake of the market and wealth. God always had a different plan and we need not fear to live it.

To not be of this world, we need to disengage with the gods of the economy represented in greed and selfishness. But we remain in this world by fully engaging in God’s plan, an arrangement that looks toward care of neighbor because Jesus’ resurrection did not negate our responsibility in this world, but rather it reminds us that we are set free to live out our calling to be the connection for all people.

[This is a reflection on a workshop with Walter Brueggemann, and written based on my notes from that session. If I have mistakenly quoted Brueggemann without proper credit, my sincerest apologies. ]