Issue 406
You have heard how the story goes. Your country can receive billons in currency to support its economy and avert crisis or collapse. In return, you must implement a package of austerity measures. This is because what you receive in bailout is a loan. It is an increase on your debt on condition you figure out a way of paying it back.
Before you delete this message as amateur economics or irrelevant, please remember that no one in the world this Christmas will remain untouched by these convulsions in our systems. Some will be less touched than others but no one will escape the effects of these processes.
Take a closer look and you will see there are themes in the structures of austerity packages. Countries are told to shrink the size of projects and programs. We are called to learn new ways of living within, instead of beyond our means. Attempts must be made to grow our way out of recession. Then the very hard part. Cuts, cuts, cuts, everywhere. Services are cut, budgets are cut, initiatives are slashed, spending is cut – the list seems to go on forever. Everyone, it seems, will have to make sacrifices in order to contribute to a project of regeneration and rebuilding. It seems to make no difference whether the government is blue, red, green, yellow or pink. Its citizens face austerity. It doesn’t seem to matter who is in power – the results are the same.
Except for Christmas. Except when the government is extra global. Except when the power is love. There are extreme austerity measures but not as you think.
First, this government will shrink to the size of a baby. Reducing his carbon footprint to an infant. His entire resources fitted into one human body.
Humble, he will learn a new life-style, living within the means of a carpenter family and then dependent only on what comes in – never overspending or self-indulgent. He will grow in wisdom and size over a thirty year period, taking the long-term view.
Then the hard part. Cuts, cuts, cuts, everywhere. Cuts to his head as thorns are pushed into his hairline. Cuts to his back as the whip ploughs in to his skin. Cuts to wrists, to ankles, hands and feet damaged by metal. Swingeing cuts to his side as a spear is driven into his ribs.
He was sacrificed in order to contribute to a project of regeneration of the human soul so profound that it deals with the toxicity at the heart of the inner market. Finally he will pay the price of rebuilding the community.
Austerity measures for sure, but self-imposed on the government by the government, when Father and Spirit agree with the Son that the cost would be met internally, not imposed on the despairing citizens.
If only of the citizens would swallow their pride and come back to the table – not to negotiate, but to receive.
The bread and the wine awaits.
Such is Christmas.
Wishing you happy Christmas and the peaceful New Year from all at WORKTALK.
Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
In preparation for the next GEOFFSHATTOCKweekly, do feel free to email us your thoughts to wtw@worktalk.gs or leave a comment on our Facebook or Twitter profile. You can also visit our YouTube channel - get inspired and share Worktalk's vision with others.
Work well
Geoff Shattock
© Copyright 2024 Geoff Shattock
All GEOFFSHATTOCKweekly archives are for personal use only. For permission to use for any other purposes please email using the address below thank you.
WORKTALK LEARNING
1 Washington Villas, Hythe Road, Marchwood, Southampton, Hampshire, SO40 4WT United Kingdom
T:+44 (0)23 8086 8543
http://www.geoffshattock.com
comms@worktalk.gs
