Wesleyian Economics 21st Century Update

I wonder if a fresh reading of John Wesley's sermon; 'the use of money' can add anything to the current fiscal debate amongst world leaders in New York. In my minds eye I have a a whimsical vision of this 18th century Anglican cleric in cassock and cloak alongside president, prime minster and parliamentarian calling them back to basics.

Mind you, his basics are no simple formula or easy recipe. His sermon is complex and perhaps corresponds to the nature of the current crisis. The full text is available at http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/50/.

In this sermon Wesley advocates three equally important 'rules'; Gain all you can, Save all you can, Give all you can.

Wesley based his sermon on the text found in Luke 16:9 "I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." (NIV)

The simplicity of Wesley's Gain, Save, Give philosophy becomes distorted when this economic flow is stalled, diverted or high jacked. Does that sound familiar? In the Biblical Theology Bulletin, Fall, 2004, Douglas E. Oakman helps us understand that,

What was originally a radical social critique by Jesus and his
followers of the violent and oppressive political-economic order in
the countryside under the early empire becomes in Luke's conception
a rather innocuous sharing-ethic ambiguous in its import
for rural dwellers.... For Jesus, the kingdom of God was world
reconstruction, especially beneficial for a rural populace
oppressed by debt and without secure subsistence. For Luke,
political expediency demands that the world restructuring be limited
to alleviating the harshest aspects of political economy within
the local Christian community by benefaction and generalized
reciprocity [Oakman 1991 : 177].

Perhaps the issue is that within the 21st context we are obsessed with individual wealth and possessions, rather than contributors to a commonwealth for all. Perhaps it is this word "all" in Wesley's fiscal trilogy that needs additional consideration.