An Open Table where Love knows no borders

An Economy of Abundance

A sermon on Acts 4:32-35 and 1 John 1:1-2:2 by Alison Sampson

William Thomas was an Assistant Protector to the Aboriginal people in the new settlement of Melbourne. (Thomas was also a devout Methodist, and it was his translation of Psalm 100 into Boonwurrung language that we sang earlier in the service.) He lived among the Boonwurrung people, who are the traditional custodians of the land on which our church stands. In February of 1840, he made this observation in his diary:

They are generous amongst themselves. Those who are fortunate through the day will distribute amongst those who are unsuccessful. Those who are ill are not expected to tramp the bush for food. If children are left orphans those children [are]… supported among them… They live in the greatest harmony amongst themselves.
Quoted from Yalukit Willam: The River People of Port Phillip by Meyer Eidelson (City of Port Phillip: 2015) p 80. The Yalukit Willam are one of six groups that together form the Boonwurrung people.

Now let us turn to our text from the book of Acts:

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common… There was not a needy person among them, for as many owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. (Acts 4:32-35)

Hear the echoes? Two societies, running very similar economies, which have nothing to do with our own. The gap feels especially stark this month, as it appears that government funding for emergency relief in Melbourne has just been slashed. Our church is a member of the Stonnington West Emergency Relief Network, which for twenty years has provided for people in need in this area. This year, SWERNI has been defunded. We are not alone. Of the thirty-three funding bodies across Melbourne, twenty-two have been defunded; and several of the remaining bodies report that their funding has been cut by up to 80%. At this stage, no one can identify a service provider for emergency relief anywhere near here. And so a sick person or a child or, indeed, anyone who is in need in this area, will now have almost no access to food vouchers or other forms of emergency relief.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Two hundred years ago the Boonwurrung people were generous amongst themselves. Those who were fortunate through the day distributed amongst those who were unsuccessful… the children were supported among them… They lived in the greatest harmony. And two thousand years ago, in the early church, there was not a needy person among them, for as many owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

How times have changed. Because here and now, in one of the richest suburbs of one of the wealthiest countries on earth, children go to sleep hungry every night of the week, and on our watch.

What does this have to do with us? Our systems of economics and welfare are not our fault; they are the result of government policies and mindless bureaucrats and entrenched poverty. And yet… this is the Easter season, when we celebrate the Living One who is the way, the truth, and the life. But we are kidding ourselves if we think we can follow him without changing our ways, our truths, and our lives, and that includes our economies.

Because being a follower of the Risen Christ is not about obeying a list of religious rules. It is not about the doctrines we learn, and the ideas we sign on to. Instead, as we saw in the example of the early church, it’s about turning our lives around and shaping them to God’s values. When we do this, we will be challenged in very down-to-earth ways. And one of those ways will be in our economies: how we care for each other, how we understand ownership, how we think about money, and so on. Because part of our call as God’s people seeking God’s economy is to question how we use money, distribute wealth, and understand poverty, and to learn to see our role and our complicity in the structures which bind us.

And there is so much wrong with the way wealth is earned, hoarded, and distributed these days. We have much to learn, from both the Boonwurrung people and the early church, about different economies, economies of abundance, and generosity, and sharing. We’re not called to be first-century Palestinians, or nineteenth-century Boonwurrung people, but we can learn from them as we explore how to live God’s economy in a twenty-first century capitalist system.

This economy of God can take root in our lives in very practical ways. For example, some of us might think about how we shop, cook and eat. Who profits, and who pays, for cheap convenience foods sold at supermarkets? What are the hidden costs? How could we live out God’s values in a consumer culture?

Some of us might think about savings and investments. Who profits, and who pays, when we invest in the stock market or the housing market? What do our investments tell us about our values, and what we trust? What are we saving for?

Some of us might think more about giving. Why do we give, where do we give, what do we give? Do we think of ourselves as wealthy or do we feel that things are tight? To whom do we compare ourselves?

Some of us might take more radical steps: buying property with others; or giving until it hurts; or living a common life.

And as a church, we might think about how we, as the body of Christ, live out God’s economy in this place, and whether we can continue to provide emergency relief now that government funding has been slashed. Are there new sources of funding, or other creative paths that we are being called to as the people of God?

Questions such as these all feel very hard! And they are hard, because they go against the dominant culture. The powers scream day and night that money is the ultimate value; that holding onto it provides safety, security and comfort; that we can control our lives and our futures through our savings and investments; that the poor are poor because of their poor choices; and so on.

Admitting that we are wealthy because the Boonwurrung people were driven off this land, leaving us with green pastures to feed our sheep; admitting that our retirement might be funded by mining traditional lands or other forms of exploitation; admitting that middle class tax breaks on investment properties come at the cost of public housing – well, none of this feels like good news.

Yet God is the God of truth, who sheds light on the entangling sin which binds us all; and this includes the ways we are bound up by our economic system. And allowing God to shed light on every aspect of our lives, including our economies, will lead to fellowship, forgiveness, and freedom. For as we heard from the first letter of John, “If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another”; and “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all injustice.” Holding up our lives and our economies to the light can be searing, as we are confronted by our greed, the ways we profit from injustice, and how we justify the status quo; but doing so will heal us.

And there is more good news. For when I recounted the passage from Acts, I left something out. It was the middle section; and, in typical Hebraic style, it is the middle section which is most important. So, what did we hear? The whole group held everything in common, and there was not a person in need.

Sandwiched between these observations lies good news: “With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.”

In other words, when people try to live out God’s economy, their witness to God’s saving action becomes powerful, and their lives are filled with grace.

I have here some study booklets which several of us found very helpful this Lent (Good News at Home, by Jonathan Cornford). These studies help us think about how we live out God’s economy at a household level, and I invite you to take one and work your way through it. But I also urge you to think more broadly, and keep talking with each other, about how we live out God’s economy at church (suggested further reading here). Because together we form the body of Christ, in this city of Stonnington, where many in need now have no place to turn.

I don’t know how to bring about God’s economy in this place; I don’t know where the spirit is leading us. I can only offer the precedents of other economies, seen in the witness of the early church and in the traditional ways of the Boonwurrung people, economies in which no child is left hungry and all people’s needs are met. And then I will wait, and wonder, and pray. For these are all steps towards finding a way.

And while I wait, I will hold on to two things. With every step we take towards God’s economy, we will become more powerful in our witness to God’s saving action and love for the world. And with every step, we will be filled ever more deeply with God’s good grace.

So as followers of the One who invites all to feast with him at the table, let us listen, and let us wait. Then let us gradually imagine how we can live out God’s economy, in a place once known for its people’s generosity. Amen. Ω

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