We don’t need to look far to see that Jesus’s life was filled with moments of working toward economic justice. In fact, roughly 10 percent of the verses in the Synoptic Gospels speak about money in some fashion. Talk about a tithe! 

While Jesus likely would not have used “economic justice,” much of his teaching about money focuses on the kingdom of God and how we can build it. With the benefit of two millennia of hindsight and understanding, we easily can see that building the kingdom of God must include economic justice, which we must work toward daily. 

This is especially true during Holy Week. We need only to scratch the surface of what Jesus said and did during his last week on Earth to show his deep commitment to the marginalized and to confronting injustice. From riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, to knocking over tables in the Temple courtyard, to washing the feet of his followers, to allowing himself to be sold for thirty pieces of silver, Jesus’s final acts consistently point toward a kingdom of God that draws near only when justice is oriented toward “the least of these.” 

Over the past year, the Presiding Bishopric has engaged in study together, including books such as The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics by Ched Myers, Grace Abounds by Walter Brueggemann, and Money & Faith: The Search for Enough, edited by Michael Schut. These books have challenged our thinking about what it means to be a people who work toward economic justice in a world that often resists. These books have led us to continually ask, “How can we live the principles of economic justice every day as people of faith?” 

Building the kingdom of God must include economic justice, which we must work toward daily.

One answer came in a paragraph on page 19 from Money & Faith, speaking about the characteristics of God’s economy: 

First, God’s economy imagines and intends an abundant life. Second, God’s economic household includes room for all creation, challenging any economic system that excludes concern and care for the entirety of life. Third, God’s economy pays special attention to the poor and powerless, and argues with those whose households exclude them. Finally, God’s economy is ‘meant for this world,’ is meant to be embodied here and now, challenging those who believe that abundance is a promise meant only for the sweet hereafter. 

I want to explore each of these characteristics and connect them not only to Easter, but to how they are lived around the world in Community of Christ. 

“First, God’s economy imagines and intends an abundant life.” 

Among the most prevailing lies of the world is that scarcity is inevitable—that there never will be enough. Therefore, fear drives decisions. It leads to hoarding, exclusion, war, hurt, and pain. Many of us believe this lie of scarcity so deeply that we allow it to shape who we are. So much of our time and energy goes into “keeping up with the Joneses” and protecting what we have that we have little left for the things that really matter. 

The story of Easter is the ultimate disruption of scarcity. The resurrection is the definitive “Yes!” to life, signaling that God’s creative abundance is not exhausted by death or poverty. God’s economy begins with the radical belief that there is enough when we live in right relationships with one another and recognize the Worth of All Persons. This is not a “prosperity gospel” that benefits the few, but a vision of abundance where life is restored. 

We see this at work in the story of Emmanuel Mumba in Ndola, Zambia, Africa. Raised in the Chipulukusu Congregation, Mumba faced the loss of both parents, leaving him responsible for raising his younger brothers under extreme difficulty. In a world shaped by scarcity, Mumba’s story could have ended in terminal poverty. 

However, members and friends of the Chipulukusu Congregation chose to embrace God’s abundant imagination. It provided rent assistance and an emotional sanctuary. Through the Young Peace Makers Community School and partners like HealthEd Connect, what appeared to be the scarcity of Emmanuel’s orphaned status was met by the “abundance” of a community that believed in his future. 

The story of Easter is the ultimate disruption of scarcity.

Today, Mumba serves as a head teacher of the school he attended and is a pastor of the Chipulukusu Congregation. His life testifies that abundance becomes real when a community chooses to see someone not as a burden, but as a beloved child of God. 

“Second, God’s economic household includes room for all creation, challenging any economic system that excludes concern and care for the entirety of life.” 

The word economy shares the same root as ecumenical, both referring to oikos, the household. God’s household calls us to make sure everyone has a place at the table, and no one is left out on the porch. 

During Holy Week, Jesus clears the temple—a space that had become a place of economic exclusion—making a bold statement to authorities that God’s temple was no place for economic injustice. His actions declared that God’s household is borderless, challenging systems that prioritize national or ethnic identity over the inherent worth of persons. 

This expansive hospitality is illustrated in the story of Apostle Joey Williams and a community of Congolese people. What began as “junk email” in 2022 transformed into a global web of connection. Joey’s encounter with Congolese refugees in Independence, Missouri, USA, revealed shared family relationships formed years earlier in Belgium when he was the Mission Center President of the Western Europe Mission Center. This is God’s “inclusive household” in action: recognizing refugees not as “strangers,” but as family members in the global body of Christ. 

This connection expanded further when Congolese members in Independence mentioned people they knew in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, who also were seeking a spiritual home. Within hours, new relationships were formed, and a physical and spiritual home was offered in the Forest Hill Congregation to learn more about Community of Christ and to be together. 

This is what God’s inclusive household looks like—cultural needs are honored, and voices are joined in song, challenging systems that treat refugees as “other” and insisting that all belong. 

God’s economy begins with the radical belief that there is enough when we live in right relationships with one another and recognize the Worth of All Persons.

“Third, God’s economy pays special attention to the poor and powerless, and argues with those whose households exclude them.” 

On Maundy Thursday, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples, upending social hierarchies. God’s economy is not neutral; it takes a side. It sides with those the world has pushed out and confronts the systems that create and sustain poverty. This is an essential part of God’s economy. Those who call themselves disciples cannot continue to stand on the sidelines and be comfortable. If God pays special attention to the poor and powerless, so must we speak out to injustice. 

In the Andhra Pradesh Mission Centre in India, this truth took form. Syamal Rao Landa witnessed a family that had converted to Christianity, and then the family’s home was destroyed by an electrical fire. Neighbors and relatives used this tragedy as a weapon of exclusion, claiming the fire was punishment for the family’s faith and abandoning the family in its time of greatest need. 

God’s economy, however, refused to accept such exclusion. Through the Vempa Congregation and oblation ministry shared by Community of Christ, the family received financial assistance, food, and clothing. The church made a clear declaration: You are not alone. 

Today, the family serves in the congregation, including teaching Sunday school. This is the mission of Christ—not pity, but dignity, restoration, and belonging. 

“Finally, God’s economy is ‘meant for this world,’ is meant to be embodied here and now, challenging those who believe that abundance is a promise meant only for the sweet hereafter.” 

God’s household calls us to make sure everyone has a place at the table, and no one is left out on the porch.

The message of Easter is not solely about a hoped-for future, but a “new community” breaking forth in the present! In Community of Christ, we understand this as Zion—a place where all people feel worth, where all community is considered sacred, where generosity, justice, and compassion are what we wear every day. A place where God’s vision is real and tactile. It is a place we sing about in the hymn “Let Justice Roll like a River,” where all oppression is washed away, and swords are beaten into plows. This abundant life is not light-years away, but here in this moment. 

In Perth, Western Australia, a congregation asked how assets could best serve mission. Rather than waiting, it acted. Since 2007, congregants have leased church-owned property to a childcare center to fund social ministry. They also have operated a food pantry since 2011, providing free food hampers, clothing, and household items every Wednesday. 

Each year the congregation provides $45,000 (AUD) to pay for food and a part-time coordinator, partnering with supermarkets and even a bakery to ensure the community is fed. Congregants offer Christmas lunches, children’s toys, and a morning tea that creates sacred community for people in public housing, those recovering from addictions, and the isolated. 

For the forty to eighty people assisted each week, the abundance of God is not a distant promise—it is a warm meal and a bag of groceries in Perth. 

As we celebrate the resurrection, the empty tomb becomes a call to action. Economic justice is the practical application of the peace of Jesus Christ. When we follow the patterns of God’s economy—imagining abundance, expanding our household, prioritizing the powerless, and embodying the kingdom now—we participate in the kingdom-building process. 

This Easter, may we view our resources, our neighbors, and our global family through the lens of the Risen Christ, who invites us all to an abundant table, where there is always enough when people embody God’s extravagant generosity.