“Planning for the future”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Friday, September 8, 2023
James 4:13 – 5:6 (Forward, p. 41) CEV p. 1275
At first glance, James’ advice today seems to run entirely counter to what most of society, and most financial planners in particular, say about the future. Most of them would most surely advise a person to plan for the future, whether it has to with establishing an educational fund for your children or grandchildren, or with setting up a nest-egg or the necessary investments for one’s retirement years. And certainly, when it comes to a business, or even a non-profit, it is considered wise to have a business plan and to engage in strategic planning.
And yet, James seems to weigh in against such moves. He disparages the idea of planning to go to the city to do business there and make a lot of money. He describes this as unwise, seeing as no one can ever know how the future will turn out. But, if we were ever to take this advice fully, we would never even get out of bed, for who knows what the day will bring.
But maybe, maybe, James’ words aren’t really about planning at all, but merely about pride and boasting, which really aren’t about planning at all, but about me, me, me.
And, then, there is the second part of today’s reading. Here, once again, he takes aim at planning for the future, specifically against ‘storing up wealth in these last days.’ To me, it sounds like saving for retirement and retirement planning. But once again, maybe that isn’t his real message. Maybe, he’s weighing in on two other things, firstly the method by which they have obtained all this wealth. James says that it has come about by underpaying their workers, or not paying them at all. It sounds a lot like the sweatshop and ‘forced’ labour we hear about in certain parts of the world. And then, secondly, there is the matter of motive. James says that their motive in gaining all this wealth, all these ‘things’, is simply to live ‘high on the hog’—‘filling their own stomachs and having a good time.’ So, once again, it is about me, me, me.
So, what James is saying is not that we shouldn’t be prudent or deliberate or careful in setting out of life goals or planning for the future or making decisions. No, he is saying that the end goal should not be just about ourselves. None of this should be a matter of boasting or pride, and, in the
process, we should always be thinking about others, and about the impact that this will have on all of them.
Forward notes: “Listen! The wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts” (chapter 5, verse 4).
“Plenty of psalms and prophetic texts speak of God paying attention to poor people. Wages themselves crying out, however, is an image I have not encountered in any other Scripture.
“Cries of unpaid wages suggest how people acquire wealth and compensate others matter to God. God cares about economic systems as well as people’s livelihoods. A stark disparity between rich and poor defined the Roman imperial economy—and ours today. Then and now, powerful people gain wealth through exploitative systems. Tax and debt burdens, land appropriation, and enslavement impoverish a wide swath.
“For people struggling to subsist in poverty—maybe most of James’s audience—the image of wages crying out may have brought relief and hope. It shows a God who notices economic injustice. Their cries will not go unheard.”
Moving Forward: “What do you think about the image of wages crying out? Do you see similar examples of exploitation and injustice in your community?”