By Chaplain Mike

Economics has been leading the news and preoccupying our minds for the past couple of years now, ever since the financial crisis that hit hard in 2007, with continuing effects on economies here and around the world. Some of you may be reeling from losing a job, not being able to find gainful employment, your business going under, the loss of value in your investments, the inability to sell a home, or any one of a thousand reasons.

This is one of those subjects that, especially on the broad scale, goes far beyond my comprehension and expertise. Others will have to speak to that. As an individual Christian, pastor, chaplain and Bible student , I have always been more interested in money matters at the level of the “widow’s mite” and the local congregation.

Here is a quote from OT scholar and theologian Walter Brueggemann. It looks at society and economics from this grassroots level. He reminds us that good stewardship of our resources is a matter of sustaining community and treating our neighbors with respect and dignity. This was law in the nation of Israel. And it appears the new community of Christ in the Spirit had this law written on their hearts (see Acts 2, 4).

Read this and ponder it. Then feel free to step up to the mic and share your thoughts with the IM community.

From Israel we can also learn the importance of striving to establish a sense of community. The Book of Deuteronomy, a primary document for exiles, became pivotal for the formation of Judaism. Dislocation carries with it a temptation to be preoccupied with self, to flee the hard task of community formation for the sake of private well-being. This is all too evident in our own society, where public responsibility is on the wane and the most privileged desperately work to improve their private estate. We can see this self-preoccupied individualism in the greed that our society calls “opportunity,” in the demise of public health care because it is “too costly,” and in the decay of public institutions regarded as too expensive to maintain, as though taxation were a penalty rather than a necessary neighborly act.

The Deuteronomic tradition presents society as a neighborhood and enjoins attitudes and policies that enhance neighborliness. Deuteronomy insists that economic life must be organized to ensure the well-being of widows, orphans and immigrants. This response to dislocation insists that maintaining a public economy of compassion and justice is a way to move beyond despair. “You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice. You shall not take a widow’s garment in pledge. Remember you were a slave in Egypt …,” Deuteronomy commands. A society that cannot be generous to those in need will not be blessed. The book instructs, “Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts…. Do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You shall rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.”

This is perhaps the most astonishing command in the Bible. It was the practice in that ancient world, as it is now, that anyone who owed money to another had to work it off. The more owed, the more work required. And if one owed enough, one might eventually belong to the “company store.” But ancient Israel set a limit to such debt-related work, in order to prevent the formation of a permanent underclass. No matter how great the debt, it was to be worked off for six years and no longer. Then whatever debt remained was canceled. Deuteronomy makes clear that economic practice is a form of neighborliness and that economic provision must be adjusted to sustain community.

Times of dislocation are particularly apt to foster a permanent underclass. Nervous and anxious people may be tempted to gouge their economically vulnerable neighbors. But the Bible presents dislocation as a motivation for building a more just society. The laws of public life might be very different if all remained aware of their own vulnerability.