Working in God’s Economy

Luke 19:11-27When the Euro was introduced as the standard currency in several European states storiesemerged of businesses accepting fake money from games such as Monopoly. We stilloften find our money being scanned by cashiers for counterfeits. These stories point toone tremendously important reality. There is virtually no inherent value to the money wecarry around with us. We carry around in our pockets nothing more than pieces of paper and plastic. Our bodies can’t be nourished by these objects and no money won’t keep uswarm at night. These objects are given value through the health of our national andglobal economy. If Canada would face some sort of crisis then investors may not trustthe stability of our money and pull out their investments. This happened to Mexico in1994 when in the space of one week their money lost almost half of its value. This is alsowhy the U.S. is so concerned about Home Land Security. If their nation and governmentare perceived as strong then so will the value of their money.Of course it does not take an economic disaster for our money to lose its value. Think of the workaholic who finds him or herself alone on an expensive cushy deathbed. Think of the blackout we experienced here. There would have come a time when access to certainresources would have been worth far more than the money in your wallet. We do nothave control over the value of our money. It is determined for us by outside factors. Now think more broadly about the idea of economy. Think beyond the relationship between money and economy. Think of what an economy stands for. Economy in itsmodern use is essentially a relational word. An economy is the management of people of

2resources.

As humans we are caught up in a particular economy whenever what we door who we are is ascribed a certain value or role

.Put in this light our lives reflect a certain currency. It is easy to tell when you operatingin a particular economy when certain people or views carry more weight than others. Now in many instances the differences may be understandable.In a family economy the decisions of parents will tend to carry more weight than thedecisions of children.What is the economy that is operating at school? Are there kids who have more value because of the way they look, the things they own or the sports they play? I remember ingrade school that if people knew you were a Mexican Mennonite your value in the schooleconomy dropped drastically. We placed a lower value on them simply because of wherethey came from.What is the internal economy at your workplace? Do women share in the same dignity asmen? Do people with more education carry more authority than someone withouteducation? Are people of different race or sexual orientation given the same respect?What is the economy of our community and culture? Do you feel as though the work youdo whether it is paid or not is valued by our culture?I shared in Sunday School a few weeks ago that when I was working in the inner-city Ilearned quickly not to start conversations with questions like, “So what do you do?”More often than not that question opened up feelings of shame or inferiority as many people were not or could not work and others worked at jobs that would be looked downon. Our culture has a economy that determines the value of what we spend our daysdoing.

3Is this also the case at church? What does Hillcrest’s economy look like? What is your currency worth here? How do you acquire more value? Does it depend on long you have been in the church, how many committees you sit on or which family you are a part of?Are there certain beliefs or actions affect the value of your currency?This morning we have the opportunity to reflect on the economies or value systems thatwe live in. How do we determine our cultural values? Are these values stable or, like themoney in our pockets, do our values actually have no inherent worth? Can our values beemptied as quickly as a school popularity contest? Does our value in the communitydrop when we leave our jobs to work at raising a family?Why would we bother to place value on people for what they do or who they are? Itdoesn’t really make sense to do that and yet we involved with these sorts of economies atnearly every level of our lives. Why would we support such economies by the way we place value on some people or some types of work as opposed to others?Most of our relationships or economies get defined by our desire for control or perhapsmore accurately by our

fear

of losing our control or status. We make fun of a kid on the playground (or in the workplace for that matter) because we don’t want to be the onemade fun of. We let others produce some of our goods for poverty level wages becausewe don’t want to give up our standard of living. We let other types of work or vocations be belittled because it allows us to maintain a sense of pride or accomplishment in our own. We have a lingering fear that our currency is actually worthless and so we try to protect it all costs.