In God We Trust?

I have always found it interesting how our currency in the United States has the words “In God We Trust” on it. It makes me wonder what version of God we’re actually “trusting” or makes me wonder if we, in fact, trust the money that it is written on more than the God who is invoked!

In the first reading from Romans, Paul is digging back into the Jewish tradition and holding up Abraham and Sarah as models of trust. Paul says that they “did not doubt God’s promise in unbelief…[and were] fully convinced that what God had promised God was also able to do.”

My guess is that Abraham and Sarah did have some doubts, but that they did not let these doubts or fears get in the way of their faith response. They trusted in a God who was calling them into a fuller life but it required them to let go of what was known and familiar.

Have there been promises from God that required your trust? How did you respond?

In the gospel from Luke 12, Jesus is approached by two people trying to settle an estate and they ask Jesus to get involved. Rabbis were often consulted around matters like this, and it was likely that one family member was trying to demand a settlement of the estate so that they could get some quick money. So while we don’t know the exact circumstances, he says the following to them,”Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”

The word greed in Greek refers to having too much, growing too big or taking advantage of and defrauding. So whatever was the case here, Jesus could sense that someone was trying to take too much, and this was the original economic sin from Exodus (16) that Israel never quite learned in the desert.

It’s something our culture never learned either. It’s something I am still trying to learn.

He goes on to tell a parable of a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. The man says, “This is amazing. What should I do with all this excess?” The man decides to build a bigger barn so he can store it and be wealthy for many years and live the good life. But that very night, God visits him and says, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for themselves but is not rich in what matters to God.”

Ched Myers, who has written extensively on economics in the scriptures says this, “This farmer sees his prosperity as an entitlement, but it was widely understood in antiquity that inordinate wealth was built on the backs of others. Large estates resulted from the expropriation of small holders’ land through debt default. In Jesus’ view, therefore, the farmer’s bumper crop should have occasioned redistribution to those in need—as reparation!”

The rich farmer in today’s gospel not only has failed to honor the mandate of Exodus 16 (take only what you need), he has also now failed to practice redistribution and repair.

Of course, pretty much any financial manager that we consult today would tell us to do exactly what the farmer does – build a bigger barn and stockpile more than what you need “for the future” so that you can live comfortably. They might encourage us to give some away if we want to do that, but for the most part the prevailing wisdom always errs on the side of accumulation.

So where might this leave us?

I think today’s readings offer us an invitation to keep asking ourselves, “How much is enough? And do we already have that?” Obviously everyone reading this will have differing financial situations, but we all may do well to ask ourselves continued questions of what we really need to live and what we can do with any surplus that we have.

The mandate to Israel in the desert from Exodus 16 was for people to take only what they need because God would provide for them. Excessive accumulation works against this idea of trusting in God’s providence and living generously with what we have.

In my work with a lot of people living in poverty, I am constantly humbled by the everyday generosity that they describe. They literally describe giving away money that I would deem necessary for their lives because they encounter people who “need it more.” And research continually shows that it is people in the lowest income brackets who proportionally give away more than any other group.

We might also keep asking ourselves about our money and resources and what “repair” might look like. Many of us have our current money, land, homes, wealth and other resources as a result of generational injustices that served to benefit certain groups of people and disenfranchise others. Or there were people whose labor made things possible who were never compensated or received any benefit from their labor. Tracing some of these histories can help to make visible the theft that has become invisible and might invite us to consider what historical restitution could look like in this lifetime. 

Obviously these are not easy questions, and examining our relationship to any form of affluence can make us and others uncomfortable. Yet my guess is that the discomfort is already with and in us because it takes so much energy suppress the knowledge that we live in an unequal world (especially if we benefit from the inequality). Leaning into these questions – individually and together – is a way to regain our freedom and humanity as we try to set right something that has gone terribly awry.

I would highly recommend the Faith and Money network resources, and if you’d be interested in hearing more about this at Spiritus, please reach out and let me know. Maybe we can have them come and do a program for us.