Of Faith and Worth

The idea of net worth is fluent in our culture. I, like many of you, have had to pay attention to our falling net worth over the past weeks; wondering when the bleeding will stop; fearing what the future holds. I've been wishing for Alan Greenspan to return to the helm of the Federal Reserve, but, alas, pundits are blaming him along with everyone else for the complicated mess we are in. So and so is worth x dollars we say....now so and so is worth x dollars less some thirty percent plus. I think it is true in our culture that a person's value is mostly related to how much money they have: Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Donald Trump, icons of the American dream...icons of worth. It is said that Dale Carnegie, another such icon, spent an inordinate amount of time fearing he would lose his wealth. I don't think he is alone.

We were taught at our recent clergy conference that the Gospels hold up for us two types of power: power that seeks to hold onto itself at all costs, and power that seeks to give itself away. The former breeds fear and violence, while the latter engenders liberation and joy. I think the culture teaches us to hoard for ourselves our wealth and therefore our power. Self interest the pervading rubric of our common life. That is why we live in a proverbial orange alert most of the time, a predisposition of fear. It seems so much of our life and times is continually being subverted by fear, sometimes explicitly, but perhaps more dangerously, subtly and subterranean.

The way of the Gospels stands against this deathly manner of life. The Gospels declare that there is enough, that wealth and therefore power can and must be shared. The Gospels stand for the empowerment of all people...and yet there is still enough...twelve baskets left over we are told in the feeding parables...We will never solve any of our problems, or any of the world's problems via the means of fear and violence. The world will be transformed by people and nations serving the common interest of all, the greater good of the whole. "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." This isn't a vacuous sentimentality, but the secret of the world's transformation. Faith is enlightened doing, and I am convinced that it is the role of the people of faith, people of conscience, people of the way of Christ to model this life for the good of the whole...a sacred leaven of sacrifice that will in truth cast out fear and raise the dead of our world to new life. Resurrection is about the empowerment of the disempowered in the here and now. So let us as people of the Resurrection live into whom God made us to be...people of profound worth...people worthy to stand before our God face to face...and there...there is no fear.