JP Morgan and Jesus May 16, 2012

For many of us, the Charlotte skyline is always before us. At night, circling the center city on I-277, we see Charlotte lit up like the queen's crown. When I first arrived in 1985, churches were the city's most prominent feature. That has changed. Now St. Peter's Episcopal Church is in the shadows of skyscrapers. A downtown church, it was once a noticeable structure. Today only those who know to look take notice.

Plenty of good has come with our progress. Our city offers more well-paying jobs than it did before banks realized a vision. We have good museums, professional sports, theaters that thrive, great restaurants, one of the finest greenways in the country and the list goes on.

Life is good…sort of.

JPMorgan Chase lost $ 2 billion this past week on what was crazy betting against the market, so complicated that not even the CEO seems to be able to explain to the public what happened with public deposits. Of course JPMorgan is not a Charlotte bank; still it represents the financial climate of our time: The pressure for large profits outstrips common sense. It led to our economic turmoil in 2008 and before that the warning signs of Enron and AIG.

I am a Methodist preacher with a degree in Theology. I couldn't spell out a decent definition of a hedge fund or corporate derivative if you threatened me bodily harm.

I do know this: Gamblers eventually lose and gambling for large profits has no future. It tilts us out of balance for what makes a just and compassionate society. We lose perspective. We want the good times we had before the great recession, even if they bring us harm. And if we keep at it, in time it will.

Times have changed. Our cityscape boasts office towers not steeples. The volume of secular life has been turned up so loud clergy grapple daily with how the church can be heard. Regardless, our message has not lost significance.

"Then Jesus said to them all…For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves." Luke 9:24-25
 

It is a message worth remembering throughout the workweek.