Can a Christian be a banker? Usury your imagination

The gospel of the Lordship of Jesus invites us into a world that we can't even imagine. We are so bound by our conception of 'how things must work' in the broken world around us, that God's kingdom is simply incomprehensible to us. This is why studying history is so worthwhile. At the very least it trains our minds to imagine the world differently.
And as we look back, the evil of past times, that seemed so necessary, so unavoidable, so world dominating, we see as passing, unecessary, and well, evil.
Who could have imagined that the British and American economy would survive without slave labour? or child labour? The notion seemed absurd when christians started questioning slavery. The christians that opposed it were extreme, unreasonable, unrealistic, did not understand the way the world worked, idealistic, unpatriotic and downright dangerous.

There has been a discussion in the Sydney Anglican magazine, Southern Cross, about housing and debt in Sydney. Post GFC, I guess everyone is talking about debt.

Who could have imagined that christians would one day be fine with usury? (usury is lending money for interest. In our system I guess it includes both 'lenders' and 'depositors' who make interest). Or more pointedly, what contemporary christian can actually imagine a world that is not dominated by debt and interest. I certainly can't.
Yet historically, christians have not tolerated it. The Bible is totally against it. In Ezekiel, usury is listed as one of the practices that leads to God's wrath and ultimately to death. It is right up there with eating at idol shrines, raping your neighbours wife, oppressing the poor and needy and robbery. Proverbs describes lending as making someone your slave.

Now, in the article, Andrew Cameron, quite rightly, says that we have to be very careful when trying to apply Old Testament laws to current situations. We are not Israelites, but followers of Jesus Christ.
the difficulty is, Jesus goes even further than the OT when it comes to lending. It is very difficult to charge interest when you expect NO PAYMENT WHATSOEVER!
Yet this is just what Jesus says about lending.
"Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back....and if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high; for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men" Luke 6
For Jesus, the motivation for giving someone money is the future reward from God. the expectation of reward before the resurrection of the righteous nullifies the futurereward. It is the 'bad stewardship' of Luke 16:10. You will either use your money to buy friends for yourself in the kingdom or you wont. Now, I don't think I will be giving a warm welcome to the shareholders of banks in the kingdom. The money they liberally spread around is not gift, but obligation and slavery. The whole system of debt is not about 'gaining friends' but getting their money. (the same is true when I deposit for interest too). We are literally wasting money when we lend it for interest. We are squandering our resurrection reward.

We have a giant edifice of debt which holds up the world as we know it. I can't imagine the world without it. Perhaps this is why we no longer pray 'release us from our debts, as we release those indebted to us'. But that does not mean it is right. Or that christians should oppose every last instance of usury. Or should start practically imagining other ways of living and giving and investing. I'm sure it will cost a great deal. but the reward will be great