Practicing The King's EconomySýnishorn

God’s Potluck

The King’s economy calls us to care for those who are struggling economically. But so often, the metaphor for our compassion becomes the soup kitchen. We line up on one side of the serving line and scoop heaping hot resources into the bowls of hungry people standing on the other side. We might ladle out soup or clothes or shelter or education or counseling or spiritual nourishment. We can ladle anything we want so long as we have it, they don’t, and they are willing to take it from us.

But what if in God’s economy our goal isn’t a soup kitchen? What if it’s a potluck? A soup kitchen divides us up into haves and have-nots. At a potluck every person both gives and receives. Food comes from everyone and goes to everyone. Everyone gets fed and everyone brings a plate.

We often quote the proverb about giving a man a fish and feeding him for a day versus teaching a man to fish and feeding him for a lifetime. Sometimes we even talk about who has access to the fishing pond. In Jesus’s economy, eating, fishing, and access are all necessary, but not sufficient. The ultimate goal is to be so vested economically and socially in the neighborhood that you and your neighbor can participate in the potluck fish fry.

If God’s economy is a potluck rather than a soup kitchen, our primary problem isn’t that poor people “out there” are hungry and hurting. Our primary problem is that because of economic poverty and sin, the poor aren’t “in here,” participating fully in the joyful life of the community, giving and receiving gifts around the Lord’s table.

In our cultural climate, we tend to think of society as a collection of individuals. But the Bible sees the community as absolutely essential for the sake of both individual and communal flourishing. Kingdom economics, then, calls individuals to aim at the community for their own sakes and for the sakes of everyone else.

The idea that the community God wants is a potluck, where the poor are not only fed but also bring a plate, shapes the entirety of our economic lives. We realize that our economic lives should be fundamentally oriented toward worshiping God and welcoming our neighbor.

How does thinking of “we” rather than “us”/”them” change how we view money?