Faith is how we live

RELIGION TODAY - Published Saturday November 1st, 2008

I have been thinking a lot about money. I am not alone in this I am sure. We recently got a statement of investments that said the average quarterly earnings were minus 12 per cent and I am sure this is actually a pretty good return these days.

We don't talk about it much, but money and faith are totally related.

Economy is derived from linking of two Greeks words, Oikos, meaning "household" and Nomos, meaning "law." Economy, then, literally means the laws of the household. I want to suggest you hear the word law as meaning values. Economy is actually how we use our values to live out our household responsibilities.

I think we tend only to think of economics on the macro-level: Gross National Product, the strength of the dollar, interest rates, the rising and falling of the markets as indicated by green upward-pointing arrows and red downward-pointing arrows that scroll across the top and/or the bottom of the television screen. If you stop to think about it, all of these massive things, Derivatives, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the Wall Street bailouts--can be difficult to reconcile with the day to day.

For one thing, it seems out of our control. In a way it is, of course, but it does impact us. Most of all, the economic chaos of the last few weeks certainly makes us rethink how we live our individual lives and what, ultimately, do we value the most.

Like it or not, there is a moral dimension to how we use our pocketbooks.

Whether we are talking about our own, or a church, or the cities of Greater Moncton, or Canada as a country, a budget is a moral document. Think about it, whenever we make a budget type decision we are asking moral questions; what do we owe, to who, at what cost? What are and should be our priorities?

So, whenever the government makes a decision about funding medical services at hospitals, or providing services to families with special needs children, or choosing to cover a procedure for those on Medicare, or sending international relief to another country, or funding scientific research with the goal of curing a disease or better harnessing renewable energy, or funding the arts, those decisions are moral decisions.

A minister down south of us once wrote in a sermon "Don't tell me what you believe. Show me where you spend your money and I will tell you what you believe."

There are all sorts of ways to spend money, save money, and invest money in ways that reflect our values. Some of us are fortunate enough to be able to choose the neighbourhood in which we will live and this decision speaks to a certain set of values and priorities. We choose to buy certain types of groceries. We may buy goods from some companies that generously support causes we believe in and avoid buying from other companies that support causes we do not believe in. We value education and so we put away money in our children's education fund. We value the symphony, or the art museum, or the theatre, or public radio. We care about the priorities of a politician and give money to that candidates' campaign. We value this church and voluntarily support it. Family is important to us so we save for a trip to visit a relative living in a distant city. How is it possible to deny that our own day-to-day financial decisions shine a light into our values?

The word faith comes to us through Middle English, but goes back to the Latin root fides meaning trust. Putting the two words together, an economy of faith would be the laws of our living that reflect what we pledge fidelity to.

In the times ahead, I truly think we need to start considering each and every decision along this line. Faith is not a Sunday morning type of thing, faith is life and how we live it.