Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 452

Consider your ways!
You have sown much, but have brought in little;
you have eaten, but have not been satisfied;
You have drunk, but have not been exhilarated;
have clothed yourselves, but not been warmed;
And whoever earned wages
earned them for a bag with holes in it.


Christians are often accused of being idealistic. When we make suggestions as to how a family, business or government should proceed we're told, "That's not realistic." 
Indeed, idealism has deep roots in our ways of thinking. Communism, Nazism and fascism were idealistic. They constructed futuristic visions on the foundations of an idea, which proved to be absurd. Today's ideals -- equality, freedom, fraternity, (notions born of the French Revolution) -- are usually vague and often dangerous. 
Civil Rights and Women's Liberation describe ideals that seem within reach if people were only a bit more generous and a bit less fearful. Meanwhile, our worsening ecology demands attention. 
These movements spawn counter-movements to oppose them. Reactionaries describe a future which is patently absurd (e.g. an America without minorities) and yet some people believe in them. 
Philosophers tell us this "age of ideology" started with Descartes' cogito. "I think therefore I am." suggests that "I" am an idea; indeed the world is nothing but imagined ideas, malleable and contingent. I heard on NPR once that the whole universe is just numbers, consisting of zeroes and ones. 
Opposed to these idealists are the realists who claim a better grasp of reality. 
When the prophet Habakkuk challenged his fellow Israelites to begin rebuilding the Temple they replied, "The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD." African-Americans, women and homosexuals have met similar resistance. 
Not yet generally means, "Wait till I am dead, and then build your new world." Sometimes, in my unkindness, I have asked people who complained about the changes in the church, "Do we have to wait till your dead before we can make these changes?" 
Habakkuk challenged his contemporaries, "Look how your realistic policies are working for you! You have sown much, but reaped little. You have eaten but not been satisfied. You have drunk but not been exhilarated...." 
Or, as God said to Adam, "By the sweat of your brow you will reap thorns and thistle." 

The true realist does not ignore God's providential care. Or, to put it contrariwise, an atheist is idealistic; he tries to live in a world without God, a place that does not exist. 
Many Christians insist they cannot afford not to tithe. They must consecrate the first fruits of  their income to the Lord in order to survive. That disciplined discipleship steers them and their children away from consumerism with its habitual waste. They cannot afford recreational drugs, excessive alcohol or shopping sprees. They do not dream of winning the lottery or life on Easy Street. Those visions cannot come from God.
To maintain the discipline they must spend time in prayer and meditation, individually and as families, in the privacy of their homes and the public of their churches. This way of life is neither idealistic nor realistic. They have abandoned Descartes' vision for the promise of Jesus.