Calvin Synod Herald, 2012 (113. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2012-03-01 / 3-4. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD 9 small business practices. In this way we participate in production. Another very good way is to be involved in production is to buy locally produced goods and foods. An example of bigger scale involvement is the Church Supported Agriculture, which creates direct link between farmers and local congregations. The Fair Trade movement is another example “how Christians can be global in a way that does not lead to detachment from the local” (87). Although, I agree with Cavanaugh that what he calls kenosis plays a very important part of the Christian understanding of life, I think the name itself is misleading. The word kenosis is used in Philippi 2: 7, “but [Christ Jesus] emptied himself, taking the form of a slave ” (NRSV). Jesus emptied himself when he was "in the form of God” (Phil. 2: 6) to become human. What it means is that a human being is empty in herself. Thomas Aquinas’ argument above is very similar to this, when he says that God is the proper owner of everything; therefore we should regard ownership as a gift of God. "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there,” as Job says in Job 1: 21. We simply cannot empty ourselves as Christ did. What we have to realize that we are creatures whom cannot “hold water.” We are not containers, we are channels. From realizing this fact we can have two very important results regarding to virtue ethics. First, we will see how dependent we are on God’s grace, which naturally makes us humble. Second, we will realize that everybody (the whole creation) depend on the same grace. There is no difference, in this regard, between the different parts of ORDER BLANK - MEGRENDELŐLAP Please send all subscription orders and address changes to: Wilburn A. Roby Jr. 264 Old Plank Rd. Butler, PA 16002 e-mail: warairCa emhurumail.com Please enter my subscription for the Calvin Synod Herald. Megrendelem a Reformátusok lapját. ( ) for one year or____years ($15.00 per year) ( ) egy évre vagy ____ évre ($15.00 évente) Payment enclosed / Előfizetés mellékelve $___________ ( ) Renewal ( ) New Subscription ( ) Change of address only — (Please attach old label) Name............................................................................................ Address........................................................................................ City, State, Zip........................................................................... creation. We also have to consider that, “[God] shows no partiality to nobles, nor regards the rich more than the poor” (Job 34:19). According to James partiality is a sin, “but if you show partiality, you commit sin’’ he says in James 2:9. God wants equality in ownership of goods. He did not choose some to be rich and others to be poor. He miraculously showed it in the wilderness when the Israelites gathered the manna and, “those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage ” (Exodus 16: 18). When they entered into the “Promised Land”, they received a unique economic system in the Mosaic Law. The laws contained different safety guards which were designed to keep the social differences on a minimal level. Not just the law of the remission of debts in every seventh years and the proclamation of liberty in every fifty years. The Torah is full of halakhas driving the communities’ economy by sharing, from the prohibition of reaping the edge of the fields in harvest time through the three-tithes-systems (in which the third tithe was entirely given to the poor). Paul uses the wilderness story in his second letter to the Corinthians as an example of creating “fair balance” not just in the geographical community of the saints, but in the whole body of Christ (2 Corinthians 8: 13-15). In the very next chapter he says, “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly [7tspaasvtjts] in every good work” (2 Cor. 9: 8). The end of ownership is than to always have enough to share abundantly. He says that God will always supply seed for the sower. Here seed represent the “basic unit of life” as Ellen F. Davis calls it (Davis 48-53). Our income is the “harvest of our righteousness” (here and in Psalm 112 to be gracious, merciful and righteous is one thing). It is a ministry (/.r.noupyia) which “overflows with many thanksgivings to God” (9: 12). Instead of calling it a kenotic lifestyle, I would call it “perisseustic” lifestyle (one of the meanings of Ttspioaeúco is overflow). “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly (nepioaov), ” said Jesus in John 10: 10. This Scripture does not mean that Jesus came to make us rich, but to provide for an overflowing lifestyle for us. Our telos is than to be the channels of God’s overflowing grace. Rev. Viktor Toth http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57366436/putting-a-human-cost-onthe-ipad/ 1 have found the description of three tithes in the Hungarian edition of Joseph H. Hertz's book, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, where he is dealing with Deuteronomy 26: 11. In Hungarian: H.J. Hertz. A zsidó Biblia. He was the Hungarian bom Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom between 1913 and 1946. His book is available in English published by Soncino Press Ltd (the 2nd edition was published in 1987). Works Cited Cavanaugh, William T. Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire. Eerdmans, 2008. Davis, Ellen. Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible. Cambridge University Press, 2008. New Reversed Standard Version of the Bible. Hendrickson 1989.
