“Where your
treasure is … there your heart is, also.” Note that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount teaching doesn’t turn those clauses the other
way around. Jesus
does not say, “Where your heart is, your treasure will follow.” Instead, Jesus
says, “Where your treasure is …” well …
Think Jesus
cared or talked little about money? Think again! As with the
story of the widow and her two small coins today, over half of Jesus’
consummate spiritual teachings – his parables – deal head-on with economic
matters of his day.
For as many a married or otherwise committed
couple knows …
As anyone who has ever saved money for a
future knows …
As every victim of Sandy who lost their
possessions knows …
As every church seeking to do the ministry of
Jesus knows …
The economic
just might be the most spiritual matter of all.
In today’s
gospel passage – in the gospels throughout – we discover Jesus saves his strongest
words of reproof for those who take and those who horde: “Beware
of the scribes. They devour widows’ houses
and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive” – hear
these words – “the greater condemnation.”
And
then Jesus takes a seat, opposite the temple treasury. How a Jewish prophet
symbolically sits when preparing to cast a judgment on the “opposition”. For
contrary to popular pious renderings of this story, Jesus does not at the end
of this story simply extol the widow for her generosity to the treasury. He
excoriates the authorities who prompt her to do this.
He
actually does both in this story, I believe. He lifts up the love (“this poor
widow has put in more”) and he condemns the injustice (“they devour widows’
houses”). The twin pillars of Jesus' spiritual teachings: being loving, and doing justice.
Twin spiritual pillars propping up the edifice of these seven simple verses.
All about the use and misuse of our money. For Jesus knew –
he really, really knew – that the economic just might be the most spiritual
matter of all.
Still skeptical? Consider the intimate connection between the “secular” word “economics” and the “spiritual” word “ecumenical”. As some of you know, ecumenical is a church word used to describe Christian cooperative efforts.
Still skeptical? Consider the intimate connection between the “secular” word “economics” and the “spiritual” word “ecumenical”. As some of you know, ecumenical is a church word used to describe Christian cooperative efforts.
Both economics and ecumenical find their root in the
Greek word oikos: “house”. Both words,
in other words, hearken to how we operate the houses – the communities – we
live in. The
economic and the ecumenical: So closely related! For as a modern-day prophet recently
pointed out, every budget of every “house” – home, church, or federal – is at
its heart a spiritual document.
The economic just might be the most spiritual matter of
all.
Still skeptical? Let us move beyond the connections between these two more technical words to the interchangeable meanings of eight quite everyday words.
Still skeptical? Let us move beyond the connections between these two more technical words to the interchangeable meanings of eight quite everyday words.
Save … Redeem …Worth ... Value … Trust … Bond ... Possess ... Debt.
Is each word economic … or, is each word spiritual? Or how about, “both of the above”? Going down the list:
- We save for the future. God saves us in Jesus, for the future … and for the present.
- We redeem coupons. God redeems relationships.
- “What’s the worth of your estate?” “What’s the value of your property?” God finds infinite worth, and infinite value, in each human being … in every aspect of the divine creation.
- We put our savings in trusts and bonds. Yet long before we found the words on our coins, our churches have taught us, “In God We Trust”. And long before most citizens played the market, churches have sung, “Blest Be the Ties that Bind.”
- We may own a few possessions, and we may sometimes go into debt to get more. In the process, we can become possessed by something other than God, though God forgives debts and debtors both.
Save … Redeem … Worth … Value … Trust … Bond … Possess … Debt. Eight words that the world teaches and the church teaches, both.
What the world teaches in one way, God teaches us in another. Which begs a new question: For each of these words, which of these teachings is more important to us? How the world teaches? Or how God teaches?
And if your answer – as I hope – is located with the latter: Shouldn’t all of these eight economic things we push across counters and move between accounts, be at the primary beck-and-call of the One who so graciously, so generously, so lavishly bestowed them upon us, to begin with?
And yet, if our ultimate faith question is conceptual -- “Could the economic be the most spiritual matter of all?” -- what difference does it make in our lives to answer, "Yes!"? It is our “Yes!” to the relational that counts; it always is. The widow’s “Yes!” to a question quite the reverse of the sermon’s title question.
And that
question is this: “Could
the most spiritual matter of all to us
be how we return economically what is God’s, to begin with?
