Devotional 12-19-08

Acting in Ignorance
Acts 3:17
I was assigned Acts 3: 17 – 4:4 as my reading for this advent devotional. It is October, and we are sitting in the midst of the worst financial crisis that we have experienced since the Great Depression that started eighty years ago. Does history repeat itself? Yes, it does, and if you read the assigned reading you will see that it was just as true 2000 years ago as it is today.

I must admit that I am always amazed by the psychological defense mechanism know as “denial” and the sin of “greed”. For the last 50 years we have been living in denial of what our sins are costing us. We have hidden behind a Pollyanna attitude and a distrust of those who warn us of what our lifestyles will cost us. I include myself in our culture’s “making of a self-centered bed” that we now have to lie in.

We want to blame this economic crisis on the sub prime borrower. This is part of our “denial” and the sin of “greed”. Is it because we do not believe poor people should have a home? Is it because we would rather blame poor people than the lenders who were getting rich off of origination fees and repackaging the loans? Is it because we have a cultural bias against the poor? Is it because a disproportionate number of the sub prime borrowers were black? The reality is that many of us have been living beyond our means. The saving rate in the United States was in the minus column, which meant that for every dollar everyone was earning they were spending $1.01.

We also hear a lot about the polar ice cap melting and global warming. Some say that it is true and others say it is a lie. What does it matter whether it is true or a lie? Would our planet be better off if we practiced being more ecologically efficient? Our self-centered greed says we want it the way we want it. Our denial says it will never happen. Our world continues to slide toward not only economic implosion but an environmental one too.

Jesus was born into this world to show the world a better way. He was born to a poor couple in a stable. He was not born rich, well known, or with a lot of fanfare. He lived a simple life and took up for the poor, dispossessed, and outcast. In the end he was killed because he did not fit the mold or play the role. Peter was telling his fellow Jews in Jerusalem that they had acted in ignorance, even though the story had been laid out in history and scripture.

In terms of the last 50 years our rulers and we have been acting in ignorance. We have to wake up and begin to live a simpler and efficient life in peace with one another and our world. Jesus came into this world to teach us a different and better way. I wonder if our denial and greed will let us listen.

Rev. David Johnson