A Jesus-Based Economy

“A Jesus-Based Economy”
Luke 9:51-62
Todd Buegler
June 19-July 1, 2007
Lord of Life


Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, and from Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

This past Wednesday night, around 7:00pm, there were approximately 40 people gathered in the parking lot of the church. They were awaiting the return of the first of the summer’s sr. high AWOL trips. AWOL stands for “A Work Of Love.” These mission teams spend a week working with Habitat for Humanity, volunteering time and energy to build a home for a family in need.

So, after being on the road for 12 days, 19 of us, 16 youth and 3 “adult” leaders, pulled into the parking lot, did the traditional victory lap and then piled out into the arms of loved ones and friends. Of course, we hadn’t been able to shower in a couple of days…let’s just say, the hugs…while well intentioned, were a little abbreviated.

Let me just say this: I have never been prouder of a group of young people.

The team worked with the Charlottesville, Virginia chapter of Habitat for Humanity on behalf of a woman named Debra. Debra is a single mother of four who works as a medical assistant on the 1pm-9pm shift. She has four children, a 16 year old, 13 year old, and two 9 year old twins. She is a Somali immigrant who brought her family to the United States a few years ago in hopes of a better life. Because of her work schedule, she is only able to volunteer on her own home on the weekends. But one week day, before work, she came by the house to see us. She is a woman of strong faith. After she walked around and saw our progress, her eyes teared up just a little, as she told me: “God brought you here to help me…thank you. Thank you.”

I tell you this story not because I just want to show off how great our young people are, though they are. I tell you this story because our group experienced something different, and powerful this past week. Our AWOL team experienced a different kind of Christian faith; a completely different way of thinking. You see, all people live in what I might call an “economy” of relationships. There is a give, and a take. This is true in our relationships with each other, and in our relationship with God. The young people in this group experienced a “Jesus-based economy.”

John Stott, in his book titled Christian Counter-Culture” wrote that “No comment could be more harmful to the Christian than the words, ‘but you are no different than anyone else.’” Followers of Jesus Christ, he says, must be different from anybody else – different from both the nominal church and the secular world…”

For these two weeks, our young people chose to be different. To give up almost two weeks of their summer vacation, to give without expectation of repayment, to live on church floors, to go days without showers, to live out of a duffel bag and a van, to eat their own cooking…which was an adventure, to lose time with family and friends, to take time off of work, to incur the wrath of coaches because some of them missed games or tournaments. Plus, most had never done anything like this before; it was long, hard, hot work. For some, they had never been away from home for this long; they were stepping into the unknown. They chose to be different, to swim against the cultural currents. To be as God called them to be. Was it fun? Absolutely! We had a blast. But there were other choices they could have made; easier choices that might have had a greater short term return on their investment of time and energy.

In our economy of relationships, they chose to live in one that was “Jesus-based.” What is a Jesus-based economy?

First, In a Jesus-based economy, we receive. God gives, and we receive. God gives the gift of eternal life; of forgiveness of sins; of His presence; of community; of creation…the list goes on and on. God gives us these things with absolutely no thought that we will ever be able to repay. It is pure gift. God gives, and we receive.

Second, In a Jesus-based economy, we give and others receive. We give of our time, our energy, our effort, and our finances. We give, with no hope of receiving in return. Trying to model ourselves after Christ, we give.

Today’s Gospel reading is an example of that kind of economy: the disciples are offended by their traditional enemies, the Samaritans. They have gone into the Samaritan town ahead of Jesus to prepare the people for his arrival. Not surprisingly, the Samaritans weren’t excited about their arrival. The disciples were livid. They returned to Jesus and asked “Do you want us to call down fire from heaven and destroy them?” Can we wipe them out? Can we equalize the economy, and return hate with hate? Can we use this God power you have and teach these rotten, no-good Samaritans a lesson? Can we? Can we? Pleeeeease?

Jesus rebukes them. “No.” The way of revenge, the way of anger, is not his way. His path does not lead to retribution. His path leads to faith. The Jesus economy does not pay back offense with anger. The Jesus economy returns offense with love. Elsewhere in the Gospels he uses the phrases “turn the other cheek”. Up until the time of Christ, the people had lived in an “eye for an eye” economy. Jesus responds to this by saying “but I say to you…love your enemies…” Jesus is changing the system by which we think about justice, and about faith.

A Jesus-based economy makes absolutely no sense in the cultural ethic of our world today. We don’t live in a Jesus-based economy. We live in an “ebay economy.” The ebay economy is about barter and exchange. It tells us that we shouldn’t give something up without getting something in return. An ebay economy is about gain. It use phrases in our culture like “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps”, “climb the ladder”, “no pain, no gain”, “you get what you deserve” and “work hard and you’ll get your reward.” A Jesus-based economy is different. Jesus gives to us, expecting no tangible return on investment. We could never work hard enough, long enough, or pay enough for God’s grace. Jesus then asks us to give to others, expecting no tangible return on our investment.

Abraham Lincoln was widely considered one of the finest and most spiritual of all our presidents. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was being criticized for not being harsh enough and severe enough on the soldiers of the South. One time after a battle, a general from the North came up to him and said: Why don’t you destroy your enemy? Wipe them out? And President Lincoln answered with those famous words: “Do I not destroy my enemy by making him my friend?” By all the accepted rules of war; by the rules of culture, in an ebay economy, Lincoln would have been justified in wiping out the southern army and burning all their cities. But the Word of God had touched Abraham Lincoln’s heart. Lincoln chose a different kind of economy; one that focused on building up, rather than tearing down. He made a different choice…he was living out of a “Jesus-based economy.”

This begs the question for us: in our lives, what kind of economy are we living? Is our faith one that is willing to do these things? Are we willing to step outside of our comfort zones? Let me be clear: We don’t have to live in a Jesus-based economy. God’s love for you does not depend on that. God’s love for you is constant. And the goal of the faith…the goal of the church is not to “guilt” you into “doing more.” Rather, it is to call you to “being different.”

Because when all is said and done, a Jesus-based economy is about the ultimate win-win scenario. The Jesus-based economy brings about a much more significant return on investment than an ebay economy could ever hope to bring.

Rachel, one of the girls on the AWOL trip, talked in our last night’s worship about a sense of separation she’d been feeling from God. She said that “for the last year or so, it felt like God had abandoned me…I couldn’t find Him…so I quit looking. I abandoned God. Now, here, I feel like I’ve found God. In this experience, I feel like I’ve found God.”

Was God lost? Of course not. Had God moved away from Rachel? Not a chance. What was different? Rachel drifted. From time to time, we all do. But on AWOL, Rachel experienced living in a different economy, one that received God’s grace, with no expectation that she pay it back, and then gave it to someone else, with no expectation that she be repaid. This renewed her, and drew her back to rediscover the faith that she had been missing. When she said she had rediscovered God in her life, I heard in her voice, the joy of one who receives an unexpected gift.

My friends, God has not moved away from you either. God is present. Your God is deeply in love with you, and it is not within your power to change that. The question becomes “how do we respond to that love?” Like a parent who looks at their child and sees the beauty and joy of who that child might become, I believe God looks at us, and calls us to something more. In the midst of our brokenness…of our sinfulness, God is calling us to live in a different, Jesus-based kind of economy.

The ultimate AWOL, the ultimate Work of Love is always God’s work of love. And in God’s economy, it is a completely free gift, for each of you. It is Christ’s journey to the cross, on your and my behalf. You do not need to live in a bus on a mission trip for two weeks to experience this kind of economy. And there are Debra’s all around us who are in need. It just takes a recognition of the gifts God gives to you, and a willingness to give with no expectation of a return. The Holy Spirit will do the rest.

My friends, risk. Live and dwell richly in God’s economy. Receive, and then give. Be changed and transformed. Be who God calls you to be.

Amen.