Pastoral Care in Economic Uncertainty

There’s nothing like a snow day to find the time to attend to things that are important but that have no particular deadline. In staff meetings and in conversations throughout the church many of us have been wondering aloud about how the economic downturn and uncertainty are bringing unwanted change and causing broken dreams for millions through job loss, reduced retirement and college savings accounts and the drop in the housing market. How do we offer a Christian and pastoral response to what is happening?

As Presbyterians who stand in the Reformed tradition we affirm that God is not absent from these events. John Calvin, our theological godfather, insisted that God continues to govern the world. This conviction can be both comforting and unsettling. In the words of Psalm 139, whether we are in the highest heavens or the darkest depths, God is with us and we are not forsaken, for God’s hand shall lead us and God’s right hand shall hold us fast. But the unsettling question about God’s presence and rule is this: Has God caused our woes? I am not brave, foolish or, for that matter, wise enough to answer this question one way or another, but I can say with confidence that these times are not beyond God’s ability to redeem and heal.

Another important aspect of our Reformed tradition is that we take the Old Testament seriously. While the Old Testament gives us context for understanding Jesus, who was, after all, a Jew rooted in the traditions of Israel, those in the Reformed tradition have insisted that the Old Testament is every bit as important as the New Testament for understanding who God is and how God works in the world. A key Old Testament theme that is relevant for us is that of exile. In 587BC Jerusalem fell to and the Temple was destroyed by the Babylonian Empire’s armies. The confidence that God’s people had in the Holy City and in God’s presence in the Temple was shattered. All the institutions that had given God’s people a sense of meaning, purpose and identity were gone. I wonder if people who have lost jobs or taken a major blow to their investments can relate to this experience of exile. Just as Israel’s trust in its major institutions – the Temple, the kings who traced their lineage to the mighty David, their identity as residents of the Promised Land – was shaken to the core, so our trust in major institutions - financial institutions, corporate America, the economy, government, our careers - has also been shaken to the core.

As those who believe in God’s sovereignty and as those who believe the Old Testament is a reliable guide for understanding how God continues to act, perhaps we can understand our situation as one of exile. A key element in pastoral care at this time may not be to reassure people that everything will return to the way it was, but to help people face the truth that careers or companies or other institutions that provided a sense of identity and purpose can no longer provide these things. The most difficult work of the Old Testament prophets, especially Jeremiah, was convincing Jerusalem’s leaders and people that an irreversible and unwanted change was about to happen and that everyone had to enter into a time of exile when the old ways no longer worked. Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann speaks of this prophetic task as one of relinquishment, which requires us to go through the pain and grief of letting go of dreams that can no longer be fulfilled and ways of living that no longer match present realities.

But once we have relinquished old dreams and old ways of living we are able to receive from God new dreams, new ways, a new identity. This movement of relinquishing and receiving is mirrored in our baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In baptism we die with Christ, we let go of old ambitions and habits. In baptism we are also resurrected with Christ, receiving new dreams and new ways of living.

I do not mean to sound all doom and gloom; I do not pretend to have more insight into our economic situation than anyone else. But, in the words of Jeremiah, God condemns those who “dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14). In this Lenten season where self examination encouraged as we pick up our cross and follow Jesus it may be a good time for us to consider what it is we may need to relinquish given the changed economic realities we are facing. What dreams of ours may go unfulfilled? How do our careers define who we are, whether for good or for ill? How is the economic uncertainty we are facing helping us to know what it is to die with Christ?

More posts will come with ideas for caring for those most effected by economic troubles. I invite you to click the “comment” link at the end of this post and join in the conversation.