Living Faith: Church in Society, Economic Life

The RMS Office of the Bishop in partnership with leaders across the synod has created a community discussion guide to engage challenging topics as people of faith. Each week we will share a personal reflection on that week's featured social statement.

 Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All conveys ELCA teaching that economic activity is a means through which God's will is served for the thriving and well-being of humankind and the care of the earth. It recognizes that even though sin distorts human activity, we are called to practice economic activity justly and with special concern for those who live in poverty.

In this work, the church is guided by the biblically grounded imperative to seek sufficient, sustainable livelihood for all. This means recognizing the loving scope of God's concern (for all), the means by which life is sustained (livelihood), what is needed (sufficiency) and entails a long-term perspective (sustainability). The statement recognizes that these criteria may be in tension with one another, but together they provide a sound framework for discernment and action. Toward that purpose, the statement discusses commerce, law, vocation, public policy, work, human dignity, agriculture, business and efforts to empower those who live in poverty. This statement was adopted by the 1999 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. [credit: elca.org]

Matthew 25:40
Truly I tell you, just as you did it one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.

Love God and Love Neighbor
Ruth Hoffman, Santa Fe, NM

This social statement was adopted by the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, which was held in Denver, in August of 1999. I had just accepted the position of director of the Rocky Mountain Synod advocacy office in New Mexico and was preparing to begin my ministry by serving as a volunteer during the Churchwide Assembly. As I watched the Assembly debate and then adopt this social statement, I was deeply grateful for the ELCA’s discernment and action. I knew that “Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All” would be central to advocacy ministry in New Mexico which was established by congregational leaders and the Rocky Mountain Synod to intentionally and faithfully respond to God’s commandment to “Love God and Love Neighbor.” The ministry of advocacy is a means to love God by loving our many neighbors living in poverty and experiencing hunger. New Mexico consistently ranks among the states with the highest rates of poverty and hunger in the nation. This document speaks specifically, prophetically, and urgently about what the church and we, as followers of Jesus, should and can do carry out the moral imperative to address economic life locally, nationally, and globally. From the social statement: “through human decisions and actions, God is at work in economic life. Economic life is intended to be a means through which God’s purposes for humankind and creation are to be served. When this does not occur, as a church we cannot remain silent because of who and whose we are.”

 “Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All” is a title that does not trip lightly from one’s tongue but it does well describe our goals in the work to bring about justice in our economic life. As outlined in the statement:

  • the scope of God’s concern: “for all”
  • the means by which life is sustained: “livelihood”
  • what is needed: “sufficiency”
  • a long-term perspective “sustainability”

  Link to full discussion guide

 

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