Our word “economy” has its roots in the Greek word for “household,”: oikos. Economy is the “nomos”, the laws, of the oikos, the “household”. It is how things work in the household. The study of economics is supposed to show how all of the people in the “household” of a country or a society work together, understanding the rules of those things. Since we have two economics Ph.D. students in our congregation, I’ll leave my definition at that and tell you to talk to Sam or Jacob for more details.

But what I can talk about is the economy of creation. Last week, we talked about how Luther started his Small Catechism off with the 10 Commandments because he wanted to begin with our “creatureliness”. God created us human beings as His creatures, a special kind of creature that would carry His image into the world. But in that creation, God has set up an economy – and we miss out on the grace of His created order if we don’t see it.

God’s economy goes something like this: He creates the “raw material” for our lives. He creates plants and land, birds and fish, cattle and golden retrievers, air and atmosphere, and all sorts of other things that are used by humans. Even the things that we would today call “intellectual property” are things that God has created for our use as human beings. But He also creates human beings. He makes us to be His agents, His image to the world and to each other. Luther sums it up this way in the catechism, “He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.” (1st Article of the Creed, Explanation) All that I need is provided for me by God’s own raw materials and by my fellow human that He has made to be His image to me.

That means that we are all simultaneously wrapped up in this economy together – an economy and a household where I love my neighbor and my neighbor loves me. The more love that I show, the more that I live into the economy that God has created for humanity. Of course, sometimes we try to cheat the economy – we don’t love our neighbor as ourselves, and in so doing, we break the economy that God has set forth.

This is why God sent Jesus, to right the economy of His creation by the forgiveness of our sins and point us toward a day in the Resurrection when the economy will work exactly as it should without our sins. As we look forward to that day, we do our best to live out the economy of His creation that He created in us – loving our neighbor and receiving their love as if receiving it directly from God Himself. Thanks be to God that He sent my neighbor to love me and Christ to save us all.