Sabbath Economics

'Sabbath Economics': " . . . the conviction that God's creation is abundant, and that there is enough for all - if we live within the limits of our needs instead of by our cravings." [Sabbath Economics: Household Practices by Matthew Colwell, p. 5; Tell the Word, September 2007]

I just started reading this book in preparation for a gathering of rural pastors of which I am a part. In many ways, it is a companion text to Ched Myers's The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics which, too, is an excellent read and a great study book for people seriously considering their place in the faith and world communities. As I read Colwell's opening statement and pondered its significance for my faith journey, I was struck by how incredibly raw and tearing those words are in our culture and in my living. Are we convicted that God's creation is abundant enough for everyone? Or, are we convicted that God could never possibly provide enough for everyone, therefore we have to accumulate enough of everything that we never have to face our own mortality? (Even if it is at the expense of another's mortality?)

I am reminded of the bumper sticker: "He who has the most when he dies, wins. But, he still dies."

I have not read the entire book, so this is a work in progress, yet even in the first sentences of his writing, Colwell challenges me to ponder what it is that I 'need'. 'Need', not want. Need. I have officiated so many Celebrations of Life (otherwise known as funerals) where the survivors are fighting over the things a person has accumulated, oft reflecting their own sense of not ever being able to accumulate enough, while sacrificing a legacy of generosity in the deceased's own life for burial with the coffin. While it proves genetics cannot guarantee an abundant spirit in the face of death, it is incredibly clear that, in the face of life, lessons taught on an abundant sense of connection to God and a theology of 'plenty enough' for all can make all the difference in what our children hold as dear.

I have watched people argue vehemently over jewelry owned by their mother, then, with smiles so sweet it would gag a maggot, offer their mother's lifelong Bible to the church as 'something for the library.' I have listened to siblings tell long and detailed stories of growing up on the farm and relate how blessed they all were to share childhood stories of connection to the land and, in the next breath, threaten to file a lawsuit if the land wasn't put up for auction to get the highest price available to be split up as their legacy. I have watched widows weep over estranged children who couldn't wait for her to die to get 'what they had coming', and have prayed with children whose parents used their holdings, however large or meager, to coax their children's affections and attention, often playing one against another.

How much do I need? And, for what?

I believe in a God of absolute abundance. I also believe that the world community question has never been, 'Is there enough?' More accurately, the question is, 'How is the abundance shared?' A capitalist culture does not celebrate abundance, but relishes in creating shortages by increasing demand beyond available supply. A sabbath culture celebrates abundance and relishes opportunities for everyone to have enough from the supply at hand. It is a faith thing. Where there is no faith in anything beyond one's own capacity to provide the necessary goods and services needed to exist, and exist comfortably, there is only the need to accumulate, accumulate, and accumulate some more, praying to the god of accumulation that, when all is said and done, one will have enough not to have to accumulate some more at another time . . . a time which never seems to arrive.

Yet, where there is faith in One who provides enough for all to live abundantly, then the driving need of the individual is to practice the same radical generosity on earth as it is experienced in heaven. So, I am back to the question asked in the beginning, 'What do I need?'

For today, more than all other things, I need the steadfast love of God to wash my soul in healing and strength. I need the faith God has in me to become, more and more, the faith I have in God as I share this journey with others who are God's children. I need the love of family and the support of friends. I need to live God's call in my life to the best of my ability. I need God's Holy Spirit guiding my steps, and I pray the Holy Spirit keeps the steps of my wife, children and grandchildren, as well. I need to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with every fiber of my being - and I need to continually respond to that Good News by living as though the stone of the tomb was rolled away before my very eyes. I need all this to sustain my spirit for the ministry to which I am called for, more than anything else, I want to hear His voice say to me, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

Colwell accurately observes that, ". . . if we live within the limits of our needs instead of our cravings . . ." we will experience Sabbath economics. At least for me, if I am able to live within the limits of my needs in God, all other cravings will find their rest - and Sabbath will be the very economics by which my living is ordered and God's peace will find root. For such a Sabbath I live and such is my prayer for you.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Don