Thinking Thankfully About Money

by Rachel Anderson, Boston Faith and Justice

When you are giving thanks this week, why not give thanks for money? Sound crass? It shouldn’t be, because that’s what could empower a household economy based on gratitude rather than one driven by greed or guilt.

When a group of Christians in Boston began thinking thankfully about money in 2006, the economy looked very different than it does today.

2006 was a year of seeming prosperity, but amidst it, Gary VanderPol, a Boston-area pastor, and Mako Nagasawa, an InterVarsity campus minister, sensed that something was wrong.

They saw a deep forgetfulness of the Bible’s teaching about money among many American Christians and much of American culture. Happiness? Yes. Generosity? Good! Stewardship? Okay. Money? No thanks.

Money is rarely discussed in polite company, even though the topic is frequently addressed in scripture, and the maldistribution of money underlies the daily tragedy of over one billion people living in extreme poverty –- on less than $1 a day.

Gary and Mako’s vision led them to develop a Bible study called Lazarus at the Gate. It is based on one of the New Testament’s most challenging teachings about wealth and poverty. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the story of a rich man who held Lazarus, a poor man, in contempt and refused to share even the scraps of his table. Meanwhile, Lazarus lay, suffering, at the man’s gate. The rich man died and found himself in hell, apparently as punishment for his treatment of Lazarus. Speaking from heaven, the patriarch Abraham reminded the rich man that neither he nor his family could not blame their sin on ignorance. “They have Moses and the prophets” (Luke 16:29) whose teachings command the care and defense of those who are poor...

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