Romancing the "R-word"

Good mornin', PDX!

Koine Community forum with Dr. Jeffrrey Parker of Reed College was a great discussion last Wednesday evening. We talked about where dollars go in our community when we buy things, what makes the old economic engine tick along. Or not.

Many interesting questions came up. Such as: Can oil prices continue to rise, can the dollar continue to fall? Yes to both. Could there be a crash? Yes. Is it likely? No one knows, but it's not in the interest of nations such as China that hold megatons of dollars to have that value shrink precipitously. Still..... the U.S. hole of buying more abroad than we send abroad is enormous and getting deeper.

Read a news report today about concerns over job losses and still-higher oil prices. Fear is that "consumers" will stop spending on "nonessentials". Seems 2/3 of our economy is based on consuming nonessentials. If the majority of what keeps our so-called standard of living and quality of life going is nonessential and killing the planet, it's no wonder we are in trouble. And our deathly fear is that there will not be more of it, that it might slow down? Wow!

Luther said that what we cling to in times of distress reveals who and what our god is. Read today that South Carolina is also selling Christian license plates with the words "I believe" on them. Believe? Believe what?

Bible says something like knowing the followers of Christ by their fruit (what they do in the world) not by their license plates. Might it also follow that the same people might by known by their non-consumption rather than their consumption?

Used to be that consumption was a synonym for tuberculosis. Maybe we shoulda left it that way.

Look out for your neighbor today. And tomorrow.

Pastor Roger