Tag Archives: new economics

Second Sunday of Easter in Year B (Ormseth15)

The Self-Giving of the Community is Rooted in the Self-Giving of the Creator. Dennis OrmsethĀ reflects on what it means to “own” property.

Care for Creation Commentary on the Common LectionaryĀ 

Readings for the Second Sunday of Easter, Year B (2015, 2018, 2021, 2024)Ā 

Acts 4:32-35
Psalm 133
1 John 1:1 – 2:2
John 20:19-31

Psalm 133 ā€œspeaks of brothers dwelling together in unity,ā€ Ben Witherington III notes. And he likens the condition to the pleasure of a priestly anointment of oil upon the head and beard of Aaron, and to dew falling upon the ā€œmountains of Zionā€ –-ā€œa major blessing—like the dew that refreshes the plants in and around Jerusalem even in some of the dry timesā€ (ā€œThe Season of Easter,ā€ New Proclamation Year B, 2003: Easter Through Pentecost, p. 17-18). In reading this psalm on the Second Sunday of Easter, the Christian community thus lays claim for its gathering around our resurrected Lord to a sense of well-being associated in the Hebrew psalmist tradition with the temple in Jerusalem. That this is consistent with the view we have been developing in these comments, namely that in the narrative of Jesus’ passion and resurrection, particularly as presented in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus displaces the temple as the center of life in God’s presence, with significant consequences for the Christian orientation towards creation. This Sunday, other Scriptures from John and Luke’s Acts of the Apostles provide vignettes of life in the post-resurrection community which illumine the nature of this orientation and some of its implications.

In the Gospel reading for this Sunday, ā€œdwelling together in unityā€ is envisioned as a gathering in the presence of the resurrected Jesus. In the first section of the Gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples, addresses the fear that keeps them behind locked doors with his word of peace, and then commissions them by the power of the Holy Spirit for the mission of forgiveness of sins. In the second section of the reading, Jesus’ appearance a week later to Thomas serves to reaffirm that the bodily reality of the resurrected Jesus exists in continuity with the body that was crucified. The community of the resurrected Lord, reconciled by the power of the Holy Spirit and empowered similarly to reconcile others, will be gathered in the presence of this crucified body and no other.

An important consequence of this gathering in the presence of the crucified and resurrected Jesus for the community’s orientation to creation is exhibited in the lesson from Acts 4:32-35. This reading provides for contemporary Christians living in such strongly capitalistic societies as ours a strongly counter-cultural illustration of the expectations early Christians had for their communities: they ā€œwere of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.ā€ Their unity of spirit, in other words, was embodied in the economic practices that secured their well-being, in spite of their minority status within the larger society. Helpfully for preachers who have strongly anti-socialist members (or not, given the suspicion directed towards all mildly ā€œsocialistā€ alternatives these days), Witherington takes care to point out that this was not a ā€œcommunism,ā€ in which everybody turns in ā€œall their assets to the church and then those assets being doled out equally to everyone.ā€ The point was rather that,

“No one claimed owner’s rights. No one exhibited selfishness or possessiveness. The issue was to make sure no believer fell into a state of malnourishment or homelessness or sickness. . . Notice the sharing was done without thought of return. The ancient reciprocity conventions were no part of this practiceā€ (Witherington, pp. 16-17).

It is important to note that while participants in this community did not absent themselves from worship in the temple (Acts 2:46), they nevertheless now found the center of their life in ā€œthe testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesusā€ (4:33) and an associated awareness of ā€œGod’s grace,ā€ which was fostered by the meal they shared when ā€œthey broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the peopleā€ (2:46). Their new life in Christ, home bound as it was, maintained in some measure the sense of living in God’s presence previously experienced in the temple.

Readers of our comment on the readings for Passion Sunday will recall our comments there connecting the meal instituted by Jesus on the night of his betrayal with the fundamental experience of the ā€œrestoration of human solidarity in membership with both other people and with the non-human creation that continually gives and sustains life.ā€ Participation in the meal, we suggested, provides a ā€œre-orientation to creationā€ in ā€œthat with his sacrifice he restores to those he feeds the sense of their bodies as created gifts from God.ā€ Quoting Norman Wirzba: ā€œJesus’ life and death are finally about the transformation of all life and the reparation of creation’s many memberships. Where life is broken, degraded, or hungry, Jesus repairs life, showing it to us as reconciled, protected, and fed.ā€ In the reading from Acts, we see that these expectations have become in some sense normative for the post-resurrection community.

Of particular importance with respect to the orientation of the community to creation is the distinctive attitude toward ownership of property, as we noted above. M. Douglas Meeks provides the following summary of its meaning in his book God the Economist:

“The secret of property in the basileia economy has to do with the relationship of those within the household. Household relationships come first, then the definition of property. In our society property is defined as the premise; then household relations must conform to requirements of property abstractly defined. Human relationships are subservient to property. The communal relationship with the Jesus movement and the primitive community of Acts 4 lead to different forms of property. . . . For the household of God the tendency of property to create domination is to be overcome in oikic relationships of mutual self-giving, in which possessions are used for the realization of God’s will in the community” (Meeks, p. 113).

Key to this understanding, Meeks argues, is ā€œthe self-giving life of the trinitarian community of God,ā€ which provides a grounding in the theology of creation for a critique of the self as private property, which is reflected in our approach to ownership of property.

God has a claim on the creation and all creatures not as maker (labor theory of property) or owner (first occupancy), but rather as creator and liberator. At the heart of God’s act of liberating/creating is God’s suffering and self-giving. God’s work of suffering is the source of God’s claim in, that is, God’s property in creation. God brings the world into being through God’s costly struggle against the power of the nihil. God has suffered for the creation and will not allow it to fall into vanity or be alienated. The creation is properly God’s because God’s power of righteousness makes its life fundamentally a gift of God’s grace.

God’s owning, Meeks, concludes, ā€œis not grounded in self-possession but rather in self-giving. The mode of God’s possessing is giving, not the hoarding by which human beings claim dominionā€ (Meeks, p. 114).

It is striking to note that a scriptural basis for the trinitarian foundation of this understanding of property and its relationship to the doctrine of creation is given in the texts assigned for this Sunday, focused as they are ā€œon dwelling together in unity.ā€ The Gospel reading, we noted, concerns the gift of the Spirit to the disciple. And in the second lesson of 1 John 1, we encounter the notion that Christian community is fellowship ā€œwith the Father and his Son Jesus Christ,ā€ who is the ā€œatoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole worldā€ (1:3, 2:2). Congregations who confess their Trinitarian faith in worship this Sunday might easily move to lay hold of the many opportunities for showing their deep gratitude for God’s suffering love in the practices of their community’s ā€œownershipā€ of property.

Originally written by Dennis Ormseth in 2015.
dennisormseth@gmail.com

Sunday September 18 – 24 in Year C

Embracing a gift economy –Ā Tom Mundahl reflects on Luke 16:1-13.

Care for Creation Commentary on the Common LectionaryĀ 

Readings for September 18-24, Year C (2013, 2016, 2019, 2022)

Amos 8:4-7
Psalm 113
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13

A recent steamy August afternoon found my son and me in a movie theater eager to see Neil Blomkamp’s dystopian film, ā€œElysium.ā€Ā Ā Set in the year 2154, when, despite the efforts of websites like this one, life on planet earth has been degraded to utter bleakness. Nevertheless, there is still a wealthy minority living on the satellite Elysium, who enjoy clean water, air, and ease just nineteen minutes by space freighter away from ā€œplantation earth.ā€ Not only was this film a good escape from the summer heat, it reminded me of the ā€œproblem of wealthā€ offered by this Sunday’s readings.

The theme is first heard from Amos, ā€œthe herdsman and dresser of sycamore treesā€ (Amos 7:14), who brings God’s word to those ā€œwho trample on the needy, and bring ruin to the poor of the land . . . .ā€ (Amos 8:4). It is echoed by the music of Psalm 113 that praises the LORD ā€œwho raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes . . . .ā€ (Psalm 113:7-8).Ā Ā But it is our Gospel text, the parable of ā€œthe Rich Man and the Managerā€ (Luke 16:1-13) that provides the drama and depth to focus our discussion.

Unlike most traditional interpretations, we begin with the rich man. The problem of wealth is central to this section of Luke. From the ā€˜solid citizens’ who turn down the invitation to the banquet and are replaced by the ā€˜poor and outcast’ (Luke 14:18-22), to the parables in Luke 15 that confront the religious establishment’s criticism of Jesus’ habit of dining with these folks (15:1-2), to the parable of ā€œthe Rich Man and Lazarusā€ following today’s passage (Luke 16:19-31), the warning against centering one’s life on wealth is clear (cf. Robert Tannehill, The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts, Vol 1. Fortress, 1991 pp. 185-186.) Before there is a problem with a shifty manager, the sheer fact of wealth must be confronted.

The problem of wealth is unveiled by the introduction to the parable. Just as the introduction to the previous parable, ā€œthere was a man who had two sonsā€ (15:11), suggests tension, so the simple sentence ā€œthere was a rich man who had a managerā€(16:1) suggests conflict to come. The fuel for these conflicts is money and property. And, not surprisingly, both the younger son and the manager engage in the same activity of ā€œsquandering propertyā€ (Luke 15:13, Luke 16:1). If the reaction of the ā€œrunning fatherā€ to the ā€œprodigalā€ surprises, the ultimate commendation of the manager by the rich master (Luke 16:8) nearly takes our breath away!

What prompts this unexpected response? As the first charges against the manager surface, it is natural that the owner asks for an accounting. At first, according to Luke Timothy Johnson, this ā€˜audit’ is not necessarily punitive.Ā Ā It may be more a simple matter of ā€˜let’s go over the books and see how things stand.’  (The Gospel of Luke. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1991, p. 244)

But this is no simple matter for the manager. Since he knows the difficulty he is in, there is desperation in his mind as he imagines alternatives, until the crisis forces a decision. ā€œI have decided what to do so that when I am dismissed as manager, people will welcome me into their homesā€ (Luke 16:4). Without delay, he summons his master’s debtors and settles their accounts with deep discounts (Luke 16:6-7).

Amazingly, the master commends him for (what NRSV translates as) his ā€œshrewdnessā€ (phronimus), a word that may also be translated as ā€œprudence.ā€ Whether it is ā€œshrewd clevernessā€ or ā€œworldly prudence,ā€ it is a quality that ā€œthe Parablerā€ wishes that the new community, ā€œthe children of light,ā€ would learn from (Luke 16:8b). Perhaps the reasoning underlying this advice is the importance of using ā€œdishonest wealthā€ (lit. ā€œunjust mammonā€) to make friends who will welcome them. Certainly, in keeping with the Hellenistic notion of ā€œreciprocity of benefit,ā€ the former manager has now formed bonds of obligation with those receiving discounts, who will now be expected to open their homes to him.Ā Ā (Johnson, p. 244)

But the rich master’s commendation suggests a move beyond reciprocity, simple ā€˜deal making.’ Perhaps an alternative translation to ā€œshrewdnessā€ is ā€œappropriateness.ā€ This sudden burst of discounting unveils the structure of economic activity and its basis in real human relationships. It discloses to the rich man the interdependence of the flow of economic activity and gives him a way out from the idolatrous weight of endlessly seeking wealth,Ā mammon, a Semitic word meaning ā€œthat in which one fully trusts.ā€ (The New Oxford Annotated Bible, III. Oxford: 2001, New Testament, p. 128, n. 9)

No wonder this parable is completed with words suggesting the authority of a ā€˜dominical saying:’ ā€œAnd I tell you, makeĀ friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes [perhaps better: ā€˜a community that lasts’]ā€ (Luke 16:9). Suddenly the realm of economics is ā€˜normed’ by friendship (ā€œmake friends for yourselfā€). What kind of an economics might that be?

Clearly, Luke believes that possessions can be used for good, especially when, instead of being kept out of circulation by wealthy greed (lit. mammon) they flow into a pattern of bargaining kept in check by friendship, a force even more powerful than the reciprocity sought by the manager.

Johnson is partially right in holding that ā€œThe crisis character of the story is essential. It is the manager’s ability to respond to the crisis, literally a ā€œvisitation of his Lord,ā€ which is the point of the story, the reason for the master’s admiration, and the example for the disciples. His cleverness consists inĀ continuing to disperse possessionsĀ . . . . (author’s emphasis, Johnson, 247). By reducing the amounts owed, a new kind of economic activity is foreshadowed. But the rich master also learns from the manager’s action, for he is the one who ā€œcommendsā€ the shifty steward.Ā Ā And it is this master who begins to see it as a way beyond the shackles of ā€œmammon,ā€ a new way of being.

This new vision of economic relations as a dispersal of possessions or a circulation of gifts surely fits into Luke’s ā€œnew exodusā€ theme. It is a process that will ā€˜lift up the lowly’ (cf. Luke 1:52) and characterize the new community (cf. Acts 2:44-47, 4:32-35). In his important work, The GiftĀ (New York: Vintage, 1983), Lewis Hyde describes what can happen when trade relations are re-imagined.Ā Ā Hyde describes anthropologist Lorna Marshall’s work with a band of Bushmen in South Africa in the early 1950’s. Upon leaving after several years of work, she gave each woman in the band enough cowrie shells for a short necklace, one large brown shell and twenty smaller gray ones. When Marshall returned a year later, there were very few cowrie shells to be seen among the women in the band where they had been given. Marshall was dumfounded to notice that because of the flow of gift-giving ā€œthey appeared, not as whole necklaces, but in ones and twos in people’s ornaments to the edges of the regionā€ (quoted in Hyde, p. 74).

Certainly this moves beyond economy as we understand it. Yet this notion of living generously with possessions is clearly in harmony with the teachings following the parable (Luke 16:10-13)Ā Ā Perhaps most important—if not chilling—for North Americans is the final pronouncement: ā€œYou cannot serve God and wealth [ā€œmammonā€] (Luke 16:13). Johnson puts an exclamation point on this saying in his translation by retaining ā€œmammonā€ and capitalizing it to remind us that Mammon certainly retains godlike power—especially in our culture.

Transforming culture is, of course, what this parable is about. It is crucial that the parable itself ends with the notion of being welcomed into ā€œeternal homesā€ (lit. ā€œtentsā€,Ā skene, another reference to the New Exodus experience (Luke 16: 9). Because of what has happened in Jerusalem with cross and resurrection, God’s people are secure in their pilgrim existence and free to live by gift.Ā Ā This cultural change toward a ā€œgift economyā€ has enormous implications for earth care. Seeing what we use in our lives not as possessions to control but as gifts to be shared could not be more important.

Blomkamp’s ā€œElysiumā€ affirms this. While oppressed Earth dwellers long for the ā€œgood lifeā€ enjoyed by the 1% on Elysium, the film’s hero, Max, (Matt Damon) still carries a medallionĀ givenĀ to him by a Roman Catholic sister, his former teacher. As the film reaches its climax with Max expending his life to find a way to use Elysium’s medical technology to heal the leukemia of the daughter of a childhood friend and, as a result, opening access to the 99% who have been excluded, the dying Max opens the medallion. What he sees is no iconic image of a saint; it is a photo of the beautiful Earth taken from Elysium.

Tom MundahlĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā St. Paul, MNĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā tmundahl@gmail.com

For additional care for creation reflections on the overall themes of the lectionary lessons for the monthĀ by Trisha K Tull, Professor Emerita of Old Testament, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and columnist for TheĀ Working Preacher, visit:Ā http://www.workingpreacher.org/columnist_home.aspx?author_id=288