money!

Ok, no one seems to talk on my blogs!  I know I'm somewhat of a hypocrite here...I'm pretty bad about commenting on other people's blogs!  Why are we this way?  Is it just one more thing to have to do?  Regardless, I will continue to try to promote discussion!

We interns have been discussing quite the interesting article!  It's about money, that wonderful topic we like to avoid in church discussions!

Read it HERE.

I offer you all the questions I submitted for my intern supervision group:

1. Money is rarely talked about enough in our church. We face some
radical statements such as: "sell all you have to the poor." We also
realize the importance of making a living. How do we navigate this
tension between having enough and giving away? How does toleration of
inequality fit into this model at all?! Where is the servanthood in
this if you are the rich one completely void from suffering?

2. The role of the state versus the church in addressing economic
inequality is an interesting issue. Many are of the mindset that the state, not
the church, should not focus on ensuring economic welfare. However,
this is confusing charity with justice. Scripture is quite clear, in
both testaments, that the latter is what is to be strived for. In
Israelite society and religious law, ALL people were to ensure welfare
and practice radical hospitality. I don't need to go down the road of expressing how this is present in the NT either!  How can we reconcile these ideas of justice with our
current culture?

3. To this earlier point, the church is very convinced that it must be
about "charity," which is fine in and of itself. However, the church
is rarely found pursuing justice or being prophetic about inequality.
Especially if they have guys like this speaking in their church! How
can the church maintain a posture of justice-seeking and being
prophetic without crossing sacred bounds of the delicate church-state
relationship?

If you are at all confused about why a Christian should be passionate about such things, I urge you to see what the wise Walter Bruggemann has to say about it!

That would be FANTASTIC if you could talk about this in the comment section!  Otherwise, I hope it's something to think about.