Thought for the Day, 4 November 2009

The Rt Rev. Tom Butler

I can't be the only one totally bemused by the recent developments concerning banks and banking. I have no idea whether I should be pleased or horrified by the plans to divide them further, sell some off, put more public resources in or take more out. And frankly who am I a churchman to make any comment at all when our own pension fund, like some others, is facing worrying times. It seems pretty obvious that Christians have no special expertise when it comes to matters of finance.

And yet the Bible is remarkably interested in such things. I believe that this is because, money is spiritual. If we want to know what we really care about we should read through our bank or credit card statement. There, in black and white is a list of where our heart truly is.

The Bible might have known little of bank statements but it knew a great deal about the devices and desires of the human heart , and so, in the Bible there are over two thousand verses devoted to matters of money, wealth and possessions, and Jesus himself spoke about these themes frequently, indeed over one third of his parables are devoted to them. And underlying them all is his message of generosity, his basic teaching that God has given abundantly and generously in creating life and sustaining it day by day, and so it behoves us who have been given life to be thankful for it, and for those of us who have been blessed by life to use our resources generously on behalf of others.

And so he speaks of a good Samaritan coming to the aid of a foreign stranger mugged on the road; he warns of people at the end of time being sorted like sheep and goats on the basis of how generously they've lived and he reserves his sternest warnings for those who see the need of others and refuse to respond so the rich Dives is in torment and can't even send Lazarus the beggar to warn his brothers - they have the law and the prophets, let them respond to them, is the stern reply. And all this is something of a challenge for those of us who have shown up in a relatively rich part of a world whose shadow of poverty we see on our television screens every night.

So, like many on the edge of retirement I'm anxious about the state of my organization's pension fund, and I'm bemused and bewildered about the state of the banks, and with other citizens it's right that we should try to put our minds around such things for the common good, but I know that none of these mighty things excuse me if I use my own resources in a mean minded way. I may not be able to do great good, but I can do the good I can do, here and now.