WEEK OF ADVENT 2, 2010
AMBIVALENT EVEN FEELING QUILTY ABOUT MONEY?
A 13-MINUTE GROWTH EDGE
A 13-MINUTE GROWTH EDGE
In 1960 Barrett Strong, a rhythm and blues singer out of Mississippi, gave fledgling Motown Studios their first hit recording - Money (That's What I Want) - with such irreverent lyrics as "The best things in life are free, But you can keep 'em for the birds and bees; Now give me money, that's what I want" and "Money don't get everything it's true, What it don't get I can't use, Gimme money, that's what I want." Little wonder that America at the end of the Booming 50's loved this song with a hearty, self-confident laughter.
Here's the Beatles' 2.53 minute cover of Barrett Strong's Money, on YouTube -
Still with me? 50 years later America is the Great Satan in the eyes of Islamic jihadists who not only don't want what we have but despise us for wanting such things that we value above all else. Our economy is in a shambles. Our national debt load is beyond support even unto the second and third generations. Our vision of the Great American Dream is no longer manifest, our destiny is in doubt.
Why have we come to this? Where have we gone wrong? How can we renew a right spirit within us? Where is our help to come from? Our predicament is not political or economic or even material in nature, arguably it is spiritual. We have lost the blessing of God and, though not for the first time in sacred history, there's a reckoning coming, indeed, it is already here; we would be fools to ignore or deny God's judgment.
Take 9.55 minutes more now, if you will, and listen to the spiritual wisdom and frank talk about money, biblical stewardship and our identity and calling as contemporary Christians, spoken to the people of God today by Walter Brueggemann, preeminent Old Testament scholar and prophet of American values, speaking in the first of an interview series done by Laurel Johnston, stewardship officer of the Episcopal Church. There is hope.
Here's the Beatles' 2.53 minute cover of Barrett Strong's Money, on YouTube -
Still with me? 50 years later America is the Great Satan in the eyes of Islamic jihadists who not only don't want what we have but despise us for wanting such things that we value above all else. Our economy is in a shambles. Our national debt load is beyond support even unto the second and third generations. Our vision of the Great American Dream is no longer manifest, our destiny is in doubt.
Why have we come to this? Where have we gone wrong? How can we renew a right spirit within us? Where is our help to come from? Our predicament is not political or economic or even material in nature, arguably it is spiritual. We have lost the blessing of God and, though not for the first time in sacred history, there's a reckoning coming, indeed, it is already here; we would be fools to ignore or deny God's judgment.
Take 9.55 minutes more now, if you will, and listen to the spiritual wisdom and frank talk about money, biblical stewardship and our identity and calling as contemporary Christians, spoken to the people of God today by Walter Brueggemann, preeminent Old Testament scholar and prophet of American values, speaking in the first of an interview series done by Laurel Johnston, stewardship officer of the Episcopal Church. There is hope.
