The business world has never appealed to me, or “suited” me (pun intended). In my first permanent duty station with Navy Band San Francisco, we would sometimes have a gig downtown. Driving through it one time, a bandmate remarked, “business clones.” Suits, leather portfolios, the whole nine yards, trudging from city block to city block. No joy, no passion; if anything, the exact opposite. It made me grateful that I was not part of that rat race. “The bottom line,” separating the sought-for black from the dreaded red on the corporate financial chart. In matters of faith, many people who have lived the life of the business world probably can’t help themselves in wanting to know what God’s “bottom line” is. It becomes a point of contention sometimes, particularly when someone uses it pejoratively, like “closing the deal” in a debate with someone. To conclude with the words “bottom line” aims to shut the door on any other opinion or viewpoint.

The person may be authentic in their own mind’s voice, not intending harm. We all have carry-over catch-phrases from our professional lives. But it was that very transactional aspect going on in God’s very house that got Jesus all spun up. When our Lord drove the “merch” out of the temple, it was for a much deeper purpose: the cleansing of the soul. If church is nothing more than marketing and balance sheets, then we become “church clones,” concerned only about keeping the lights on and the doors open, preserving the institution. Dead end. Flat line. Congregations on life support, and by that, I mean spiritually.

Pray for that which is sacred, for it is priceless. Grace, forgiveness of debts both moral and even financial, and seeing the reality of God’s unconditional love will be in keeping with the wisdom of the prophets and not the profits. The truth is in God’s bottom line, that all of us might be free and saved.

Pastor Art