For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. 1 Timothy 6:10
“This triad of earning, saving, and giving may lead to a repositioning of the monetized self in a network of neighborliness as a contributing member of the community. These three foci help us to see that our society’s dominant narrative of money believes, against Christian materiality: Earning is all for the self with an endless accumulation. Saving is a private enterprise designed to enhance the autonomous self. Giving is likely to be parsimonious and erratic. Mature materiality summons us to a radical relocation of the self that includes a departure from the usual assumptions of our society concerning money.”
Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 27.
This summary statement by Brueggemann captures everything in his chapter on money. More importantly, it summarizes the departure we need to make from the warld’s way of handling money.
The world leads us to rationalize the pursuit of endless accumulation, the enhancement of the autonomous self, and parsimonious and erratic giving at best. God wants more for us.
God’s Word calls us to a radical relocation of the self and a departure from these assumptions. That’s why Jesus speaks so explicitly about where (and where not) to store up treasure.
This reading is so powerful we can only sit with the Holy Spirit and wonder. How has the world tricked me into putting self rather than God at the center. Ask God to show you one step to take.
And while you take that step, know that my week in India has been deeply impactful. It’s been a privilege to shake and wake the India and Sri Lanka missions movement to radical shift toward faithful stewardship.
Many voices in the conference have echoed the call to bring order and oversight as the pathway for strengthening capacities to reach the unreached with the gospel of Jesus Christ.