But it has me thinking some about where my dollars go.  In a booming economy, it seemed no one minded giving their hard-earned dollars to big companies that moved all the money to one side of the boat – tipping us toward a capsize.  Well, I don’t want to go into the water.

Instead, a few years ago we as a society remembered what it was like to buy things from each other.  Rather than a computerized woman checking out our oatmeal creme pies and CoCo Puffs, now we’re buying locally – handing cash (or in some cases, local currency!) across a fold-up card table in exchange for a heirloom tomato picked this morning in a farm just outside of town.

You know that feeling you get after a cross-country flight?  That’s how your tomato feels too.  …Buying local is great for taste, and your pocket book.

But there’s something I’m adding to the long litany in your purchasing portfolio:

BUY SOCIAL!

I’m finding my friends and family are taking advantage of our current economy along with the rise of Facebook and other sites like it to step into a new venture.  My sister-in-law sells wickless candles, my friend sells gourmet meals, two of my cousins just released their first album (rock and folk), and my mom sells health products.  I’m certain that I can get into the paper goods business, selling all my friends and family toilet paper and such.

Just think – the more connected we all become, the more we become self-marketers, (every status update is a promotion of you.)  If you wanted to make money what better place to advertise than to your friends and family on a place where they spend an average of 45mins a day waiting for you to say something?

Now, no one wants a nag – and we’ll all have to learn to continue to treat our friends and family as real, honest people – something corporations with million-dollar commercials forgot a long time ago.  Maybe with a real, honest social connection, we’ll know how to best keep our “warm market” from becoming “warmed over.”  I love my family and friends more than I want their business.  Much much more!

And it works.  I’m finding that my family and friends involved in this new economy: 1) deeply respect the boundaries of marketing to me and 2) we are engaging each other in new ways as we talk about the products and services they truly believe in!

I love handing money to a local farmer – but I really love handing money to a friend or family member for goods and services.  It is as if I am once again looking at changing my buying habits – why buy from Sam Walton’s family when I can buy from my own?

“The solutions to the biggest problems in life will not be complex, only difficult.”

This is SO true.

When we look at the brokenness of our world, from the savage violence in Libya to a father abandoning his family to cling to his drink, you get the sense that things are very, very wicked – and turning this burning ship around will require more than well-crafted policies or enticing tax incentives.

There is no law that will make me love my neighbor as myself.  There is no external motivation that brings me to my knees in prayer.

We have been trying to end poverty, war, hunger, homelessness, spousal abuse, gang-violence…well, the list goes on and on.  The evening news shows begins each night with “Good evening…” then tells you all the reasons in the world why it isn’t!

But that’s not the end of the story –

The solutions to the world’s biggest problems…to the biggest problems in your own life… are not complex rules or well-managed institutions…no, they are quite simple…they are just difficult.

It is not a matter of the head figuring out the solutions – it is now down to a matter of the heart.

Can we trust our neighbor?

Can we love them?

Can we forgive them…and ourselves?

Can we love our family as God loves them?

Can we offer troubled youth a place in our family before they are sucked into the vortex of a gang?

Can we rend ourselves of our wealth so that urban food deserts disappear?

When Jesus quoted, “There will always be poor among you,”  he was hoping that his disciples would be convicted by what was obviously an ironic and tragic reference to Deuteronomy 15:4-11, The text begins: “There should be no poor among you…” Is Jesus misquoting Scripture?  Is he confused?  No – he’s making a point; that the end of poverty comes not with well-crafted laws of tithing, but by overcoming one’s self-centered selfishness.  ”There will always be poor among you,” was a rebuke of the disciples.

“Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.” (Deut. 15:11)

Did a command do the job? Did that verse end poverty at the stroke of a pen (or chisel as it were)?  No – there were plenty of people in Jesus’ day that were poor – thousands of years after the Law of Moses was written.

Jesus knew this problem, like so many others in his world, and in our world today – can only come from overcoming the most difficult hurdle in the world — the human heart.

Many churches put a lot of emphasis on the first question – but few churches are willing to ask the second question.  As we consider the nature of the church – as we imagine the organic structure of Christ-centered community; could dying, the tangible end of a congregation’s life, actually be a central part of the mission of God?

I’m going with “yes” on this one.

I had a friend once tell me that the main reason why he can’t suffer the church, even if Jesus had some good things to say, is because the church as an organization is fundamentally opposed to the aims of Jesus.  My friend’s problem with the church is that while Jesus propelled himself toward death, churches generally want to stay alive as long as possible - often to the detriment of what Jesus originally died for!

But what if your church saw an opportunity to help contribute to the mission of God that was so powerful, so important – that it was willing to clean out the bank, sell the property, and “die” in order to see the mission provided for?

What might dying like Jesus do for the mission Jesus died for?  What new life might be resurrected?

As we head into the Easter season – ask yourself, as your faith community to “come die with Jesus” (Bonhoeffer).  It may just be what leads to a harvest of new life. (John 12:24)