A Pipe Dream

I go to a lot of meetings. A week does not go by without at least one meeting! The meetings include pizza and discussion, a weekly gathering at the school with the senior high talking about faith and life, Cooperstown Community Activity Authority board meeting, a group of people trying to make sure there is a fitness center in our small rural town, and synod functions including synod council, bishop's convocation, or synod assembly. It never seems to fail that at all of these meetings, we end up talking about money!

Money is a false god. Humans think that money will bring them peace. Humans think if they have a large enough IRA for their golden years, everything will be OK in life. Humans tend to think that if their bank account is full, then problems will cease and life will be grand. Humans tend to think that with enough money, everything will be OK, but someone, somewhere today will die from a hunger related illness or from a disease that they had no money to get the proper treatment for or from a war because of someone else's desire to have more money or more oil or more land. While we try to fill our IRA or bank accounts, the money monster will continue to rape and pillage people unless we do something soon!

People often think that taking an offering for the less fortunate will suffice, but that is an outright lie! That is feel good liberalism. That is trying to ease our guilt without asking for forgiveness or even repenting of our corporate sin. What needs to happen is a complete change in the human heart and way of life.

What would happen if we all, including all the leftist progressives and the militant neo-orthodox right, decided to change the system? What would the world be like if we all decided to stop using money as our trade system? What would happen if we used love instead of money as the system of compensation for goods? What would happen if everyone, everywhere had what they needed, nothing more, nothing less? What would happened if God's alien righteousness, infused into the heart of everyone, was enough? Wouldn't that be a neat trick?