Though
no one really likes to admit a mistake, I need to tell you that I have led you
astray. I have misdirected you these past three weeks as you have attempted to
move out of Scare City! You see, all the
while, we have had it all wrong!
It
started that first week of our worship series when we focused on how we build
towers and monuments to our wealth and how we cannot seem to escape our
obsession with wanting more, more, more.
We gotta leave Scare City, I told you, and get away from that!
The
second week we turned our sights on the deep-seated fear that causes us to believe
that we will never have enough, that we need to take care of ourselves first,
that there will never be enough to go around.
We gotta leave Scare City, I told you, and get away from that!
And
last week, we reflected on the barriers and walls we build to protect ourselves
from others in the world – often people different from us - who might make a
claim on us and on our resources. We gotta leave Scare City, I told you, and
get away from that!
All
the while, I led you to presume that we had to depart, move on, get away from
those impediments to realizing God’s dream of abundance. And so we tried to light a path for
ourselves. We figured that we had to
move out of Scare City and set down roots somewhere else.
However,
the fact of the matter is that we do not need to move anywhere. We do not have to transplant ourselves or go
somewhere else in order to discover a theology of abundance rather than a
lifetime of scarcity.
The
truth is that we can stay right where we are – in this broken and divided
world. In fact, the truth is that we need
to stay right where we are. Our focus should not be turning our backs on the
jaded, greedy, crazy and unpredictable world around us. In a way, our focus should not be on changing
the world at all.
Our
focus should be on changing ourselves – because when we change ourselves and
become people with generous hearts, people who live their lives with open hands
rather than clenched fists, people who understand that their power comes not
from what they possess but rather from what they give, then all those we touch,
all the world we live in, will change as well.
That
is what the author of this first letter to Timothy is telling the young and
eager church planter and leader. The
author writes under the name of Paul but most likely was not the Apostle Paul. The writer was simply someone with good
things to say who wanted to put some power and credibility behind his
words. So – he used Paul’s name – it was
a common practice in those days - and therefore we will too as we focus on this
passage.
Paul
had left Timothy in Ephesus after putting him in charge of the new church
there. The grizzled experienced
evangelist later wrote to the equally inexperienced, wet-behind-the-ears
preacher with some instructions.
In
his letter, Paul wrote about community ethics and good living. He also warned Timothy about false
teachers. These folks would be like
first century televangelists who spouted the classic line: “If you give me your money, guess what? God will bless you.”
It
was as appealing a message back in the first century as it is today for many
folks. However, all that focus on the
gifts rather than the Giver did not work back then, and it does not work
now.
And
so, Paul imparts to Timothy his thoughts on the right attitude toward money and
possessions. And because his letter was read and re-read
down through the ages and because it was cherished by the faith communities it
touched, it became sacred Scripture.
Consequently, it surely has something to say to us today – in our small
church with its big heart.
“Tell those rich in this world’s wealth (Timothy reads from the parchment he holds,
tell them) to quit being so full of
themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow.
Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to
do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous.”
I guess you
cannot get around it when it comes to advice on community ethics and right
living. It always comes down to….”Tell
those who are rich….”
It is difficult
to talk about generosity (which lies at the core of Christian community ethics
and right living) without talking about possessions. It is difficult to talk about material wealth
without contrasting it to the longer lasting
- albeit intangible - wealth God offers us –
the wealth of joy we feel when we do good, the wealth of
connectedness we experience when we help others, the wealth of well-being when we
know in our hearts that we have chosen to be generous in sharing and giving
away what we have.
All these are
topics, of course, that few preachers like to preach about and even fewer of
you Sunday morning faithful like to hear about.
You see, in the end, when it comes to attitudes about money and our
priorities for how we choose to spend it, that conversation can make us feel
really uncomfortable.
Theologian
Frederick Buechner had this to say about money:
“The more you think about it, the
less you understand it.
The paper
it's printed on isn't worth a red cent. There was a time you could take it to
the bank and get gold or silver for it, but all you'd get now would be a blank
stare.
If the
government declared that the leaves of the trees were money so there would be
enough for everybody, money would be worthless. It has worth only if there is
not enough for everybody. It has worth only because the government declares that
it has worth and because people trust the government in that one particular
although in every other particular they wouldn't trust it around the corner.
The value
of money, like stocks and bonds, goes up and down for reasons not even the
experts can explain and at moments nobody can predict, so you can be a
millionaire one moment and a pauper the next without lifting a finger. Great
fortunes can be made and lost completely on paper. There is more concrete
reality in a baby's throwing its rattle out of the crib.
There are
people who use up their entire lives making money so they can enjoy the lives
they have entirely used up.”
I have
now openly used the “M” word – money – making my thoughts this morning a money
sermon – a topic, by the way, that Jesus was not afraid to talk about, In fact,
did you know that in the Gospels, one out of ten verses (288 in all) discuss
money?
Now, I
hope you have not convinced yourself that all this talk about riches and money
does not apply to you because you are not wealthy. Not! You see, we are all considered rich by
global standards.
You
can go on any number of websites that will compare wealth in our nation with
every other country on earth. Even those
of us who hide behind the idea of being on a fixed income (And by the way,
aren’t any of us getting a paycheck on a fixed income – no different from
people drawing social security or disability or dipping into their 401K?), even
those folks or those who feel that they are living paycheck to paycheck in this
country are considered wealthy. And all
those websites take into account the variable cost of living – so there is no
excuse there either.
As
one blogger I read this week wrote, “You probably don’t feel (rich) – people rarely do. You
probably wouldn’t call yourself that. And in our culture, you may not be
regarded as wealthy. But in the global scheme, you are the 1%. You are wealthy.
You are rich. Maybe you just didn’t know it….Most of us would count ourselves
as middle-class. There are plenty of things we can’t afford, and far nicer
places to live that we can’t afford.
Yet we are able to provide a good education for our kids, and
have enough food to eat. When unemployed, the government, community and our
family help us get by. When aging, we have access to life-sustaining medical
care.”
Our blogger
continues: “So biblically, if you have (access
to) a car, can change your clothes a few times, and have some money in your
wallet or bank account (at any time during the month), then you are wealthy.
You are the one Paul is speaking to when he says, ‘Instruct those who are rich in this present age.’”
But please also
understand that Paul does not tell Timothy that being rich is bad or
sinful. It’s OK to be a rich American –
really!
However, Paul
does outline how we ought to approach our money. He tells us that we should not become
obsessed with how much we have or - more likely – do not have. Our focus should be on our priorities, that
is, how we choose to use our money.
And Paul writes
emphatically that Christian ethics dictate that our money is to be a means to
“go after God” as he puts it - to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be
extravagantly generous – exactly the attitudes that Jesus, before him, emphasized
throughout his ministry, exactly the attitudes that are difficult to embrace
today in our culture of unending materialism.
Think about it:
Jesus
said, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”
"Visa, it's where you want to
be."
Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you
will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and
despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
"There's always something more to
discover with your Discovery Card."
Jesus said, “For where your treasure
is, there will you heart be also.”
"American Express -- Don't leave home
without it.”
However, for us who say that we are followers
of Jesus, author Phillip Yancey noted, “Christians can do no better than to follow
the example set by Jesus” – and that
would be to do good, to be rich in helping
others, to be extravagantly generous.
Surely that is
the mission of a Christian church. To do
good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous: That is what must lie at the foundation of
our motto – “small church, big heart.”
And so - to do
good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous is what the
ministries of our church strive to achieve. We work to do good by offering
creative and musically amazing worship services that sometimes challenge and
sometimes comfort but in the end bring us closer to God and to one
another. We work to be rich in helping
others through direct financial assistance, putting together 16 Church World
Service emergency clean up buckets, and gathering the contents for over 25
Thanksgiving baskets. We work to be
extravagantly generous – with our time and talents at Maine Seacoast Mission,
in the offering of our space to AA, Scouts, line dancing, qigong, and the newly
formed Raymond Arts Alliance.
We need all of
you – whether you consider yourself wealthy or not – we need all of you to be
part of the mission of our church. We are all in this Christian business
together.
Consequently,
your Council needs each one of you to carefully read the letter and pledge
information you received this week. Your Council needs each one of you to prayerfully consider
and discern where this church fits into your priorities for how you spend your
money. Your Council needs each one of
you to make a financial commitment to the ministries of this church. Why?
Because this church is too important in these troubled times not to
support. Because this church is also on
a fixed income and can only live the Gospel message to the extent you allow it
to. In this case, money does indeed
talk.
And, trust me,
I am not saying it will be easy for any of us to pledge for the first time or
to increase a pledge for 2018 – even a few dollars. To do so involves an awful lot of trust in
God and in the value of the intangible wealth that God provides when we choose
to give – and give until it hurts.
There was once a man who
wasn’t giving as he should. His pastor pushed tithing, giving 10 percent, but
this man didn’t see how he could give that much and still meet his bills.
The
pastor said to him, “John, if I promise to make up the difference in your
monthly bills if you fall short, do you think you could try tithing for just
one month?”
As
a moment’s pause, John responded, “Sure, if you promise to make up any
shortage, I guess I could try tithing for one month.”
The
pastor shot back with, “Now what do you think of that! You’d be willing to
trust a mere man like myself, who possesses so little materially, but you
couldn’t trust your God who owns the whole universe!”
We only leave
Scare City behind when we trust in God’s abundance. We only leave Scare City behind when we
decide that we are going to live with different values than those put forth by
our culture, when we affirm that church means more than cable TV and more than
Starbucks. We only leave Scare City
behind when take to heart what our blogger noted, “In contrast to the life that
this world offers, Paul says that wealth, wisely used, will lead you towards a
life that is richer, sweet, more peaceful and luxurious than anything you can
imagine.”
We only leave
Scare City behind when, with the help of God, we embrace the irony that it is
only when we change ourselves do we change the world in Christ’s name. In the end then, leaving Scare City does not
mean moving out. It means letting God
and the Gospel message in.
No comments:
Post a Comment