Through much of the 1990’s, as most of you know, I was the co-pastor of five parishes in central Minnesota.It involved a fair amount of time in the car, going from one parish to the other.My time in those parishes also coincided with the economic boom of the ‘90’s.While I was in my car, often I had the radio turned to National Public Radio.It was simply amazing how much of the programming in those years dealt with personal finance.In particular, I remember listening often to the program Sound Money.And why not all this talk of investments, after all it seemed as if nearly everyone was getting rich on the stock market.I remember also a book on the bestseller list at the time called The Millionaire Next Door.The upshot of so much of all this was that, yes, you too could be a millionaire!All that was required was a good look at your financial portfolio, the watch word for Sound Money listeners, and making sure that you had the proper balance of investments between stocks, bonds, 401Ks and the like.
Now honestly, I am not, normally, too enticed by the prospect of having tons of money.To tell you the truth, though, listening to the talk of investments by the folks on NPR’s Sound Money and how it was paying off for absolutely everybody was tempting.As I drove around those parishes, listening to that talk of money and more money, I could see in my own heart a growing desire to be part of it.Certainly, if everyone was going to be a millionaire, I didn’t want to be left behind.And besides, all it took was a little, sound investment on my part and, so it seemed, I could be!
The readings today (Jeremiah 17:5-10; Lk 16:19-31) would make for good investment advice on a program called, not Sound Money, but Sound Theology.The heart of theology, after all, is faith.Faith is very much about trust.The question of faith concerns what you invest your trust in, what word you lean into for support, what strategy for life you adopt.
More precisely, faith is about origin and return (exitus-reditus in the Latin—now you are meant to be impressed because maybe I am investing myself in impressing you?!).It is about, in other words, where we as human beings come from and were we are going.The advice we receive from today’s program of Sound Theology is that it is best to invest in that which our origin and our end is found.In short, the sound investment is in a deep, abiding relationship with the living water, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit (see the image at the beginning of that first reading).
As I said, though normally not too enticed by loads of money, I was often amazed by how desirous my emotions would become to somehow get my share of the economic boom that was going on.Lent could be looked at, I suppose, as somehow allowing our hearts to be enticed by the prospect of sharing the fullness of divine life, being taken up in the enormous life of the Trinity.
Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the means to this growing enticement.Like my spending time listening to Sound Money on the radio enticed my heart, the three pillars of Lenten spirituality promise to entice our hearts to a Sound Theology.And who knows, if it catches on maybe someone will reach the top of the bestsellers list with the book The Saint Next Door.