People are worried. As the stock market continues to decline and home values fall, people are understandably concerned about their futures. I am no financial expert, but it is a curious fact that, as a pastor, people ask my advice or seek my opinion about things for which I’m no more knowledgeable than they are. It’s rarely appropriate to say, “Your guess is as good as mine.” Because what people are really seeking is reassurance; what they want is to be told things will be all right. I tell them the truth. I am optimistic.
Whatever the leading economic indicators say ( Sometimes they seem to be no more accurate than reading tea leaves.), we are reminded over and over again in Scripture to have faith that God will look after us. Throughout Lent and the Easter season, I will be speaking about what it means to take up your cross and follow Jesus. A central theme running through each message is that one should take the Sermon on the Mount seriously. The people of Jesus’ day faced an uncertain future under foreign rule. Wherever he went, he faced crowds of the poor and the disenfranchised. It is to them that he spoke the Beatitudes, reminding them of God’s special care and affection for the poor. It is to them that he said, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or What shall we wear/?’ … and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
We are not promised a life free from trials. We are promised help. Jesus reminds us that the God who made us watches over us. He knows our needs, and he knows how to meet them. Paul reaffirms this promise when he reminds us that even in the worst of times, the times when we do not even know how to pray or what to pray about, God’s own Spirit intercedes for us with sighs and groans too deep for words. This is the cause of our optimism, the cause of our hope for a better tomorrow.
I have several friends who are waiting anxiously to learn if they are among those whose jobs will be eliminated. In all cases they have been with the same firms for many years. It is a tragedy to lose one’s job. The loss is more than just a loss of income. Friends. Meaning. Structured activity. All of these go by the wayside in a single announcement. No, I can’t predict the economic future. Not yours; not mine; not the country’s. I can speak a word of comfort, a word of courage, a word of hope. God has not forsaken us. There will be a tomorrow, and it will be bright once again.
