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Good morning. Setting a budget is no new idea. Even in the New Testament we’re into project planning, with the conventional trade-offs of duration, expenditure, and quality. Jesus asks his followers, ‘Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost?’ In any form of life a budget is the way we plan a major endeavour and communicate that plan to others so they can hold us accountable for its progress. It’s a key feature in the economy. The ancient Greek word oikonomia means household management. Economics means putting your house in order. The Bible has two words to describe two rival kinds of economy. One is mammon. It’s fine as far as it goes – but the problem is, it doesn’t go very far. It only includes certain people, only buys certain things, only lasts a limited length of time. Mammon is fundamentally the economy of scarcity. It names the anxiety that we live in a world in which there’s not enough to go round. It’s the sense that, if there’s going to be enough cake on my plate, some might have to miss out. The other economy is called manna. Manna’s the food God gave to the Hebrews in the wilderness: always more than they needed. It only dried up when they tried to take two days’ supply at once. Manna is for everybody, gives what money can’t buy, and never expires. Manna is the economy of abundance. It’s the currency of the kingdom of God. Mammon makes us long for the things that slip away. Manna draws us towards the things that never run out. The secret of happiness is learning to love the things God gives us in plenty. There’s no global shortage of friendship, kindness, generosity, sympathy, creativity, faithfulness, laughter, love. These are the currency of the economy called manna. When God makes a budget to plan the project of taking human form, that budget recognises the risk of living among us – the terrible cost of death on the cross. We could say it’s a reckless budget, a foolish project. But what that project shows us is the choice between the two economies. We all know the economy of mammon: we live with it every day. What the gospels portray is the economy of manna. There’s a certain hubris in envisaging any project, and setting any budget. Things never turn out as expected. If we want to make heaven laugh, we tell God our plans. But behind every project plan, at the back of any budget, there’s the same constant question. Am I living by the laws of mammon, in the economy of anxiety? Or am I discovering the currency of manna, in the economy of grace?