Prescription
for a troubled economy: cast your bread upon the waters
Corn field along CR 6
just east of County Line (Ash) Rd. July 9, 2010
Photo by Mark Sommer
The hot, rainy weather here in the
South Bend area this summer has apparently been great for the corn crop.
An old farmer’s rhyme says, “Knee
high By the Fourth of July.” This year, in most corn fields in Michiana, the
lines from “O What a Beautiful Morning” (Oklahoma!) seem to be more
appropriate: “The corn is as high As an elephant’s eye.” As the supplied photo
shows, less than a week after the Fourth some corn stalks are already forming
ears.
In one episode of Giligan’s Island, Mary Ann quotes the
“Farmer’s Formula” to the Professor: “one part sunshine, two parts water and
three parts prayer.” This old saying reminds us that without God, who provides
sunshine and rain “upon the just and the unjust” (Mattherw 5:45), there would
be no crops. The farmer plants and tills and fertilizes, and can even irrigate,
but it is God who gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:7).
In biblical times, farmers would
often employ a no till method by casting their seed upon the shallow flood
waters in the spring. When the water receded, animals were allowed into the
area to trample the seed into the soil. (See Isaiah 32:20.) The writer of
Ecclesiastes was apparently familiar with this method of farming, which helps
explain what he meant in Chapter 11.
Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. (11:1 NIV)
Instead of hoarding grain for food,
farmers had to set aside a portion to plant the next year. This is a lesson
that modern society has forgotten. We spend virtually every penny we earn –
often more than we earn – and invest little for the future. We hoard things for
ourselves instead of investing in what would provide opportunity for others.
Jesus told a parable (Luke 12:
15-21) about a rich man whose crops are so abundant that he has huge barns
built to store it. But the barns are not the problem; his attitude about his
wealth (the grain) is. Having abundance is not in itself wrong; it’s what we do
with our abundance that makes the difference.
The rich farmer decides to quit
working and live off what he has accumulated. He has enough for “many years.”
Instead of investing that grain into the ground where it would provide an
income for his workers, and support the poor from its gleanings, the farmer
became a miser. His thoughts are all about what his riches can do for himself
instead of what it could do for others.
Perhaps the biggest problem with our
economy here in the United States is that we have become a nation of greedy
hoarders instead of entrepreneurs and investors. We accumulated real estate and
commodities, assuming their value would continue ever upward, instead of
investing in businesses that actually produce a needed product and provide a
living wage for its workers.
Greed takes root when we depend upon
ourselves instead of God. We need to get back to trusting the God “who gives
the increase” and “spreading the wealth around” – not because the government
redistributes it, but because we invest in enterprises which help others.
