“Who has taken counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth? The Lord of hosts has purposed it, to bring to dishonor the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.” (Is. 23:8-9)
Pastor Leithart has pointed out that merchants are a kind of nobility, princes in the land. They ought to be servants of kingdoms, a sort of royalty that bring glory into cities. But where there is greed and pride, God will bring it down. Here at this table, we have been given the calling of being Kings and Priests to our God. And this includes a calling to be merchants, to be princes in our work, in our vocations, in our labors. We are given here an economics of the city of God. It is built on the self-giving of the Son of God, the love of God for the world. In the cross, all the coercive powers of the world were proven powerless, and all of our guilt for being complicit with their ways of manipulating markets and showing partiality to the rich and powerful has been taken away. We are forgiven, and here slaves and masters, male and female, parents and children, rich and poor, are all alike, are all equal and called to love and serve one another. This is our economy, the law of love that governs our city. Here we swear allegiance to our King and to one another, promising to bear one another’s burdens, promising to work hard for one another, promising even to lay our lives down for each other gladly. And just as Jesus became the Lord of all Glory in His death and resurrection, we have been rescued from all futility, and here God promises that as you lay your lives down for one another, as we give of our time and resources, it will all become fruitful. None of your love will be lost. Every dirty dish, every diaper, every glass of water, every prayer, every invention, every discovery, every honest day’s work, every meal, every sacrifice, every gift in love: When done in faith, when done before the Lord, it all goes down into the ground like a seed, and the God of the harvest promises fruit. This is Christian economics. So come, eat and drink this promise of God. You are princes, merchants of the Kingdom God, forgiven and free, and you are called to this glory.
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