(Living Church) John Tang Boyland—Money Is Powerless Before God

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Jesus disarms and makes a spectacle of the power of money in the parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1-15). A steward accused of embezzlement is told to settle the accounts one last time. He uses the opportunity to “forgive” his master’s debtors and ingratiate himself with them, so he can seek help after his threatened dismissal. The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, ridiculed Jesus. He replied that what people prize can be an abomination in the sight of God.

Let the litigious bureaucracy have the money it wants. We keep the Gospel and proclaim it, in season and out of season. The money the Episcopal Church raises from coerced offerings, from Pyrrhic legal victories or from those who believe its new gospel will do no more to save it on its appointed day of judgment than the wealth of Herod’s temple protected it from Roman soldiers in A.D. 70. In the end, money is of no account, mere dust on the scales.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Executive Council • General Convention • House of Deputies President • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • TEC Conflicts • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Stewardship • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • * Theology • Eschatology

2 Comments
Posted May 27, 2011 at 11:23 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Jeremy Bonner wrote:

Furthermore, those who control our church are not motivated by money; they are principled defenders of what they think is justice.

I suspect this line will generate a fair amount of acrimony, but - and I say this as an expert witness for the other side - I think Dr. Boyland is correct.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that they’re reading the historical record correctly, but I think many - if not all - do believe in the supremacist myth. As Mark McCall recently pointed out, there has been a confusion of “ecclesiastical facts” with “justiciable facts” within TEC that long precedes the present age of litigation.

Catholic and Reformed

May 27, 12:46 pm | [comment link]
2. Larry Morse wrote:

This is pious nonsense. Money is dust? Try living on dust.  L

May 28, 7:43 pm | [comment link]
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