Tis The Season….To Be Greedy

R3 Contributor

The season of Advent is indeed very telling. It is a time where many people of faith join in a collective expectancy, awaiting the arrival of (or celebrating the birth of) the messiah, savior, Christ. When social conditions are abhorrent and dilapidated, environments and attitudes of mistrust and despair are inevitable. The result of social, economic and political oppression is both expectancy and apathy. Ironically, we long for something or someone to deliver us from the wretchedness of our conditions but simultaneously distrust that we can be part of the Divine Intervention. Luke says that when the angel Gabriel brought Mary a “greeting” from God her initial response was perplexity. I interpret that based upon her social plight the likelihood of her being part of the process of liberation for her and her community was so farfetched that she was psychologically wired to dismiss it. It’s hard to be trusting when it seems your trust has been abused by those who ought to be responsible for your well-being. I presume this is what Mary was feeling and it’s consistent with what many of us feel, even in the season to be jolly.

The fact that “In God We Trust” is printed on our currency is quite telling. It signifies the expression that we trust more in the imprint and impact of money than we do the inspiration of the messiah! It is the greedy desire for hedonistic profit that has syphoned our solitude and produced our pitiful pathos (in laypersons terms – the desire for too much money has led to too much misery). The processional of the moment known as Black Friday (which is currently more aligned with the Thursday evening of Thanksgiving Day) is an example of the mentality that favors profits over people and funds over family time. Add to this the numerous instances of mismanaged governmental and administrative funds (tax-payers money) that go towards real estate ventures in the name of vulture capitalism while our educational system continues to suffer from a mythical lack of resources. Minimum wage workers are requesting raises and fat cat CEO’s are using workers plight as a fear mongering strategy to suggest that an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work will indeed cause the next fiscal apocalypse. The icing on the cake of insensitivity is when many of our ministerial leaders have used communities and congregations as springboards for self-advancement and selfish promotion in the name of a sacrificial savior. In short, the mistrust is warranted… and a product of our own inventions. Greed has become the ground by which we have received our social marching orders.

The only response I can offer in response to greed, is grace! In spite of social conditions and circumstances of despair that are of our own causing, I believe the grace of God is something worth expecting and more over something worth working towards making a reality. I’m glad the angel didn’t leave Mary while she was perplexed; but instead stuck around long enough to reaffirm the mission by which she was being called to, by name. That was mighty gracious! Therefore I find hope in several grassroots efforts (both ministerial and otherwise) that are attempting to reclaim and restore our communities and our common purpose. It takes sacrifice, not superfluous spending, to win back trust in God and in ourselves. Maybe this is the season to spend less on material goods that depreciate in the moment of transaction and spend more on those equitable efforts that add value to all life.

Follow Earle on Twitter @pastor_earle

Tis the Season….To be Greedy