Insatiable!

Rev. Elaine Burleigh

“The common good? But we’ve worked hard to acquire our gifts and now you tell us they are meant to be used for the common good? Well not until I’ve secured my future…then maybe I’ll help those less fortunate. But I don’t want to hear talk about “the common good. That just smacks of socialism!”

I’ve heard variations on this theme for as long as I can remember. Reading between the lines what I hear is anxiety and maybe even a little anger. We’re anxious about many things, but we’re especially anxious that there won’t be “enough” to go around. Not enough power, not enough wealth, not enough security. So we jealously guard what we have and reach for even more. And we respond with anger when someone suggests that we have a duty to share our resources or use our gifts to help someone else. Especially if we don’t know or like that someone else.

But then the Jesus Creed begins to move through our anxiety and our anger, bringing the promise of redemption and the power of a new perspective. As our love of God and neighbor increase, anxiety and anger decrease. Soon, the lens of scarcity through which we have viewed the world is transformed into an awareness of abundance – God’s abundant love and attentive care for us and for the world. And this is what I love about the power of the Jesus Creed -- the more we for God and neighbor, the more joy we find in using our gifts for the common good, and the more we use our gifts for the common good, the more deeply we desire to love God and neighbor. One feeds the other. May our appetite for God be insatiable!