The divine economy

17 Pentecost | 6 October 2014
Matthew 21:33-46, The Parable of the Vineyard

There’s a tremendous amount of nonsense talked about in the Western world about God’s economic system. In 1776, the year the first half of the American Revolution began, the Scottish political economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith published his monumental work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. He discussed an “invisible hand” at work in society which might make certain actions on the part of entrepreneurs which appeared selfish actually end up serving the common good.

With this work, Western economics was off and running. Smith’s careful and empirical description of the relationship between personal behavior and public benefit was forgotten, and Western economics increasingly and conveniently assumed that the “invisible hand” would redeem otherwise apparently immoral behavior in virtually all circumstances.

In the process, economics moved into a vision of itself as a neutral empirical science separate from moral philosophy, and the vacuum that was created in philosophical or theological thought about economics has not been well-filled.

It is good, I think, to go back to the fundamental teaching of Jesus which provides a picture of God’s economy. Jesus’ economic reflections do not simply deal with the distribution of material wealth, but with the whole concept of a life well lived, a just society of human beings – of the things that can and will endure as the Kingdom of Heaven comes to earth. Tonight’s parable of the vineyard is, I believe, the core of Jesus’ economic teaching. It is a commentary on a parable from the prophet Isaiah, which was well-known to Jesus’ audience.

The word “economy” in Greek means “the rules or order of the household.” In theology, the divine economy is the rules or order of the kingdom of God. When we pray 21 times a week here for the healing of metropolitan Richmond, we ask God for “the establishment of your order in this community” of metropolitan Richmond. We are praying for the divine economy.

Tonight we’ll look at three basic concepts of the divine economy which are presented in Jesus parable of the vineyard: the economic system, the personnel policy, and the policy of ownership.

 The economic system of the divine economy is stewardship.

The concept of stewardship is directly presented in the parable of he vineyard. The owner’s tenants were keeping the vineyard for and on behalf of the owner. They were stewards, not owners. But they begrudged the owner his ownership, and mistreated and killed the messengers whom the owner sent to collect the produce of the vineyard.

Stewardship is the fundamental principle of the divine economy. This relates to everything we do, and to all the resources, talents, and opportunities which we take or control. We are here not on our own behalf, but as servants of the living God. Our Lord is Jesus, whom we call the Messiah precisely because he did not Lord it over others or seek absolute control as leader, but rather took the form of a servant and established a way of service that penetrated the aggressive selfishness, insecurity, and possessiveness of the world.

Because of the concept of stewardship, Christian economics is not neutral about wealth creation. Value is placed not simply on the magnitude of produce or money created, but on the distribution of material wealth and the purposes to which it is placed. Thus surplus material wealth in an economy in which people go hungry is a failure of the economy. A successful corporation which treats its employees badly, abandons the cities which give it birth, and controls Congress to prevent proper tax payments, is a failure.

Stewardship relates to the purpose of the creation and God’s love for every single human being. The Kingdom of Heaven is where God’s stewardship reigns. Rich or poor, powerful, powerless, or just middle-power, all are subject to the same invitation. Whatever you are given to do, whatever you are given to control, you are a steward of the most high God and his directions, his intentions, are toward the establishment of justice in the land.

Stewardship is certainly not state communism, and it is not the same thing as anything-goes capitalism. There is no invisible hand which will make the greed and control of a few automatically serve the welfare of the many. There is, however, an invisible hand which will bring down the mighty from their seat and exalt the humble and meek; which will fill the hungry with good things and send the rich empty away.

The economic system of the divine economy is stewardship.

The personnel policy of the kingdom relates not to job description or prior qualifications, but to producing the fruits of the kingdom.

In his commentary on his parable of the vineyard, Jesus makes these remarks: “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.” “You think it is yours,” Jesus says to the chief priests and Pharisees. “It isn’t. It will be taken away from you unless you produce the fruits of the kingdom.”

The statement is even wilder in the original Greek than it is in English. It will be taken away from the Jewish leaders and given to another “ethnic group,” Jesus says – to another race and religion!

The divine personnel policy is results-oriented. God judges by fruits. The people who are employed in this vineyard, in this kingdom, are those who produce the fruits of the kingdom. Others are fired, or at least treated as non-productive. It doesn’t matter what gender you are, what race you are, what nationality you are, what religion you are, what skills you have, whether you are an owner or a worker – all that matters is that you produce the fruits of the kingdom.

What does that look like? The whole New Testament and all of Jesus’ teaching are about the fruits of the kingdom. There’s a list in Matthew 11 and Luke 4 which is pretty helpful. John the Baptist in prison asked his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah or not. Jesus told them to tell John what fruits were being produced:

“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” (Matthew 11:2-5) Paul has a good list in the epistle to the Galatians: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control.” (Gal 5:22-23)

“No good tree bears bad fruit,” Jesus said, “nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:43-46)

The “people that produces the fruits of the kingdom” are simply those “who do the will of (Jesus’) Father. There is a picture of this people in the Book of Revelation:

They are ”saints from every tribe and language and people and ethnic group; (who are) made …to be a kingdom and priests serving our God.” (Rev. 5:9-10)

These people are those employed by God to bring in the kingdom – they are not the only inhabitants of the kingdom. They are the disciples, the ones who are serving. They may come and go. Their employment is as long as they are producing fruit. No one has an inside track. No religion is a prior qualification. The fruit of the kingdom is the love of God and the justice of God for the entire creation and everyone in it.

The personnel policy of the kingdom relates not to job description or prior qualifications, but to producing the fruits of the kingdom.   Finally,

Ownership in the divine economy attaches to those who are poor in spirit.

The parable of the vineyard opens a window on what Jesus means in that first, most striking of the Beatitudes which begin his Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:2) What the world calls “private ownership” is, in Christian economics, “private stewardship.”

What does poor in spirit mean? In this context, it means that I have nothing of my own: “If anyone would come after me,” Jesus says, “let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save her life will lose it; and whoever loses her life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit you, to gain the whole world and forfeit your life?” (Mark 8:34-6)

What belongs to God belongs to everybody, and he or she who knows everything is God’s is participant-owner in everything. This is a humble state, not an arrogant one. This form of ownership represents one of prayer and responsibility, not one of personal profit. But it is in this arena, not in the area of private ownership, that these words of Jesus hold true: “For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” (Mark 4:25)

Ownership in the divine economy belongs to those who are poor in spirit. The more you serve, the more you are a part of God’s ownership. The poor in spirit own everything because they are stewards, not possessors, and stewards hold all things in common for the service of God.

In the divine economy, the economic system is stewardship. The personnel policy relates not to job description or prior qualifications, but to producing the fruits of the kingdom. Ownership attaches to those who are poor in spirit.

“Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’?

AMEN

The Rev. B. P. Campbell
Richmond Hill