The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
The parables of Jesus of Nazareth are stories of everyday life that teach spiritual truths. It follows that to be faithful to the spiritual truth they must promote the sort of practical lifestyle Jesus approved of, such as he described in the Sermon on the Mount. When a character behaves badly, like the farmer in the above parable, the misconduct is clear. Unfortunately, growing up in a deep-rooted capitalist society, and having absorbed since childhood its assumptions about the function of money and how business should be conducted, some of the parables than involve money seem not just idealistic but impossible. It may be helpful, therefore, to consider how the nature of business has changed since Jesus told his parables.
People have always traded for profit: producing goods and offering services are natural ways to get what we need to live. Although there have always been greedy people, on the whole, for centuries most people were satisfied to earn enough for their families to live in a degree of comfort. Among the things of greater importance than hoarding possessions was the amount of leisure time people could enjoy. If a farmer was to increase the hourly rate for his labourers gathering in a harvest, he was more likely to slow progress than hasten it because they would work only long enough to earn the same amount of money as before.
From time to time, however, a businessman would devote himself to commerce with an intensity alien to his contemporaries, with the intention of maximising his own profit. His competitors had to respond in kind in order to stay in business but when the catalyst, the greedy businessman, retired or died, business gradually returned to its normal pace.
Then Benjamin Franklin changed things forever. He is on the US $100 banknote because he was America’s first home-grown, self-made millionaire. He promulgated his success through a series of articles, the most famous of which are, Necessary Hints To Those That Would Be Rich (1736), and, Advice To A Young Tradesman (1748). Franklin taught that money, not labour, created wealth and equated leisure with idleness, as in these two extracts.
Although people deplored this approach as ‘gaining wealth, forgetting all but self’, gradually Franklin’s way became the way to do business. Today we call it capitalism and it is widely considered to be synonymous with trading for profit.
In light of this, what should the fortunate farmer in the above parable have done to gain Jesus’ approval?
You have been sent e-mail because you subscribed to this series of Advent Reflections. To unsubscribe, please send an e-mail to: adventreflections({[at]})clubhousew1((dot))org .
Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans 2012.
Previous Reflections can be viewed at http://www.adventreflections2012.blogspot.co.uk .
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
These Advent Reflections do not teach personal finance skills and where these skills are mentioned the issues have been simplified. Handling money and dealing with money problems and debt can be complicated and neither the author nor anyone else involved in the production of these Reflections is responsible for any action you take, or fail to take, based on what is written here.
You are invited to put a link on your website to these Advent Reflections. You are welcome to copy these Reflections for personal study or for circulation to family and friends on a non-profit basis. For any other purpose, however, whether or not for profit, you will require written permission in advance from the author before copying, reproducing or transmitting extracts in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or using any information storage and retrieval system.
Luke 12:16-21
The parables of Jesus of Nazareth are stories of everyday life that teach spiritual truths. It follows that to be faithful to the spiritual truth they must promote the sort of practical lifestyle Jesus approved of, such as he described in the Sermon on the Mount. When a character behaves badly, like the farmer in the above parable, the misconduct is clear. Unfortunately, growing up in a deep-rooted capitalist society, and having absorbed since childhood its assumptions about the function of money and how business should be conducted, some of the parables than involve money seem not just idealistic but impossible. It may be helpful, therefore, to consider how the nature of business has changed since Jesus told his parables.
People have always traded for profit: producing goods and offering services are natural ways to get what we need to live. Although there have always been greedy people, on the whole, for centuries most people were satisfied to earn enough for their families to live in a degree of comfort. Among the things of greater importance than hoarding possessions was the amount of leisure time people could enjoy. If a farmer was to increase the hourly rate for his labourers gathering in a harvest, he was more likely to slow progress than hasten it because they would work only long enough to earn the same amount of money as before.
From time to time, however, a businessman would devote himself to commerce with an intensity alien to his contemporaries, with the intention of maximising his own profit. His competitors had to respond in kind in order to stay in business but when the catalyst, the greedy businessman, retired or died, business gradually returned to its normal pace.
Then Benjamin Franklin changed things forever. He is on the US $100 banknote because he was America’s first home-grown, self-made millionaire. He promulgated his success through a series of articles, the most famous of which are, Necessary Hints To Those That Would Be Rich (1736), and, Advice To A Young Tradesman (1748). Franklin taught that money, not labour, created wealth and equated leisure with idleness, as in these two extracts.
Remember, that time is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day by his labour, and goes abroad, or sits idle, one half of that day, though he spends but six pence during his diversion or idleness, ought not to reckon that the only expense; he has really spent, or rather thrown away, five shillings besides.
He that loses five shillings not only loses that sum, but all the advantage that might be made by turning it in dealing, which by the time that a young man becomes old will amount to a considerable sum of money.
Although people deplored this approach as ‘gaining wealth, forgetting all but self’, gradually Franklin’s way became the way to do business. Today we call it capitalism and it is widely considered to be synonymous with trading for profit.
In light of this, what should the fortunate farmer in the above parable have done to gain Jesus’ approval?
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You have been sent e-mail because you subscribed to this series of Advent Reflections. To unsubscribe, please send an e-mail to: adventreflections({[at]})clubhousew1((dot))org .
Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans 2012.
Previous Reflections can be viewed at http://www.adventreflections2012.blogspot.co.uk .
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
These Advent Reflections do not teach personal finance skills and where these skills are mentioned the issues have been simplified. Handling money and dealing with money problems and debt can be complicated and neither the author nor anyone else involved in the production of these Reflections is responsible for any action you take, or fail to take, based on what is written here.
You are invited to put a link on your website to these Advent Reflections. You are welcome to copy these Reflections for personal study or for circulation to family and friends on a non-profit basis. For any other purpose, however, whether or not for profit, you will require written permission in advance from the author before copying, reproducing or transmitting extracts in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or using any information storage and retrieval system.
