Issue 095
We all spend a huge amount of time on money: we earn it ,we manage it, we worry about it and we spend it. We handle personal budgets and, some of us, company budgets. A few of us handle huge sums on behalf of ourselves and others, making strategic decisions which will affect future life.
Christmas is partly a financial festival -a time of year which is crucial to the survival of many businesses; nothing intrinsically wrong with that as long as that’s not all it is. Christmas is also one of the few times of year when it is socially acceptable to be overt about being a Christian so this series of Wake Up Calls will be topical and advent based -especially focussed on the Magi episode.
The timing of the arrival of these characters is debated but one part of the story is crystal clear:they opened their luggage and gave the young family some expensive gifts . The first of these gifts was gold.
Many have made the point that gold is symbolic of a king and related to this new-born king. This is completely valid. I doubt, however that Joseph the carpenter made a display cabinet to house the gifts as discussion starters for Nazarene dinner parties. This gold was important to provide food, clothing, and accommodation for the new family as they set out on their life together.
When a child leaves home, parents are often faced with finding a way of financing their transition to financial independence; whether it is a course of study or early years of setting up a home, commitments don’t cease with the goodbyes.
Here we begin to get some clues as to the meaning of this story. Where did this gold come from? The Magi delivered it butwho created the stirring in their souls and the star in the skies?
Heaven was full of mixed emotion at the incarnation. The favourite Son had left home- not as an enthusiastic, adventurous teenager but a helpless, vulnerable baby entering a hostile environment. The business of advent was serious and in the middle of it the Father sent a financial gift to provide for the needs of his Son – the gold was from God, as is all gold . The silver and gold are his according to Haggai.
Don’t be fooled when you handle your finances. All the gold belongs to God. Your personal finances and the corporate finances of your business belong to him. Any decision you make is delegated, as you are merely the means of delivery. To reflect the heart of the Father you will need to make serious business decisions, but mix them with loving compassion which provides for the needs of the vulnerable. So much is done in the name of business which is merely a smokescreen for the abuse of power. The gold for the Son came from the Father. All the gold comes from the Father. If you handle finances this week, remember who the owner really is. Remember too that he is also your Father and will always make sure that someone will deliver his gifts to you. Christmas is a serious business with personal edge.
John 19:25-27
25Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” 27and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
John 17:1-5
1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: 2″Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began
Luke 11: 1-4
1One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
2He said to them, “When you pray, say:
” ‘Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
3Give us each day our daily bread.
4Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation
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Geoff Shattock
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