How Then Shall We Live: We Have Enough

I believe Conference leadership has been operating out of a model of scarcity for several years. One recent example is the sudden elimination of a District Superintendent position. Was there an alternative option? And, on the positive side, what might we do if we really believed that we had enough?

Happy Days

"I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need."

The Apostle Paul (Philippians 4:12)

I know what it is to have plenty, and I think I've learned the secret of going hungry. But I've never seriously experienced the fear of being in need. This is primarily due to the family that raised me and my life experiences, and I see it as a gift - a gift I hope to be able to share with you.

We have plenty.

The minimum income of a beginning elder or deacon in the West Michigan Conference is greater than 96% of the world's population.* That's over 20 times the global median. When Jesus says "don't worry about food or clothing," his words apply to us, at least, in a straightforward and non-miraculous way. We have no need to worry, unless we really think that 96% of the world is in imminent danger of disaster.

Take no thought for your life...

"If I didn't think about money, I'd go broke."

a parishioner

How should we read Jesus' command to not care about food and clothing? Should we, as one of my parishioners suggested, ignore it as impossibly idealistic? Some scholars dismiss it as only appropriate within an apocalyptic world-view: Jesus expected the current world to end soon, and thus calls his disciples to ignore all physical cares and trust in God in the new world to come. The Jerusalem Church followed his instruction, and when the End did not come, Paul had the Asian churches bail out Jerusalem. Shouldn't we be a bit more practical about money?

Consider the lilies...

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?"

Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 6:25-30