OCCUPIED!

 

It seems the news is dominated by the Occupy movement these days. In case you haven’t been watching the news for the past several weeks, the Occupy movement contains many different emphases but seems to center around a call for a more “equitable distribution of financial power.” This article takes no stance on the rightness or wrongness of the movement. All of us can recognize the importance of a just, equitable, and fair system with regards to financial power.

The issue I want to take with the movement is the use of the term occupy. Webster’s Dictionary defines occupy as: to take possession and control of (a place), as by military invasion. The very idea of occupying or possessing any material and therefore temporal resource seems somewhat ludicrous. The things of this world are on loan to us only for our brief time on this earth. We best not think of them or speak of them using eternal language.

The Gospel of Matthew tells us, after praising how God cares for such things as the flowers of the field and the birds of the air, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

We are not supposed to occupy anything on this planet. We are only stewards for a brief period of time before it all goes back to the original owner. No, instead of occupying, we are to be occupied by the Holy Spirit. We are to be sold out to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Yes, we will still need the food and shelter our body requires in order to be safe and healthy in this world, but we are not to be preoccupied with the possessions this world has to offer.

Where injustice occurs, we are called to bring justice, but it is always for others and not for ourselves. When we cry out, we do not cry out to demand our “fair share.” We cry out for salvation and we cry out to proclaim salvation in Jesus Christ.

We should seek to make our financial system fair and just. Where there is injustice we should seek to correct it, but as we correct it we remind everyone that peace cannot come from an abundance of this world’s goods but only from the One who created us all.

Pastor Craig