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In Us God Trusts

February 8,  2009  - Dale

Down and sad. The world seems to be feeling like that at the moment.  Hopes dashed. Future uncertain. The world’s major religion apparently in tatters – well perhaps consumer capitalism is not in tatters but it seems a bit sick.

And groups like the church that depend on voluntary gifts can be tempted to join the depression. What does one do when the usual resources are threatened? Look for new ones, tighten belts, protect what is more vital, shed the fat, undertake the long deferred efficiency drive. All helpful no doubt.

But groups like the church are not quite the same as other groups. They do live in the same world and use the same money, and are part of the same economic system. But they differ in one respect at least. Their view of how the world operates includes a clear picture of a generous and caring God who rules it all. Christians see more than can be seen. They know more than can be analysed.

We could say that it is Christians who really believe “In God we Trust”. But this would be to simplify what Christians know. We say God rules the world, as though this was the guarantee that all will be well with us. And we do hope that, because God is good, all will be well. 

But God does not rule the world just to look after us. He rules the world to bring about his own purposes. He is the King so that his Kingdom will come. Christians see that something is going on that is different to the maintenance of human society or its economic undergirding. A higher enterprise we might say.

Economic disturbances do not interfere with God’s kingdom purposes. He works over, around, through and beneath such fluctuations in the conditions of human life. And Christians who can see this have great confidence to continue to serve the King. To work together to carry out the charge they were given by the risen Jesus.

And as for money, the ones who see what God is doing want to put their money where their heart is. And if they don’t have much money they still want to have a share in what God is doing. They refuse to be excluded from the great work just because they are poor. And if they do have money, they know that all of it comes from God.

Because it comes from God they don't give it back to God – God doesn’t need it. God has given it to them for a purpose: partly to supply their own needs, and partly to share in the great Kingdom enterprise. And because it comes as a trust from God they make sure he can continue to trust them with what is needed for his enterprise.

Dale