October 27, 2002 - Money, Money

The book of Leviticus is not high on my list of things to read in the Bible. Nor do I suggest that you spend much time nosing about these stacks of rules covering everything from how to properly burn a sacrificial bull ? let?s see now, do you burn the intestines on the altar, or are they burned outside the camp, you know, with the skin and dung? To what to do about "itching diseases", and it?s in Leviticus that you?re told what to do with adulterers, which of course, is to kill them, just as you put to death anyone who curses their mother or father. It?s a document reflecting ancient religious practices.

But Jesus knew the book of Leviticus, and in fact he quotes it in today?s reading from Matthew. And the entire section leading up to that quote ? and you will recognize it immediately ? is very instructive. You?ll hear in this passage echoes of the Ten Commandments. But there other things, like, leaving part of your harvest in the field and in the vineyard so that the poor can come and eat. And the command that you pay your workers when they do the work, instead of putting them off ?til tomorrow. And, don?t be partial to the rich OR the poor in the courts, says Leviticus. And don?t go around gossiping ? slandering ? one another. And instead of hating your brother, reason with your neighbor.

In the second reading, from Matthew, the religious experts of the day put Jesus to another test, to see which of the 613 separate commandments in the Torah is most important to him. Jesus won?t give them just one; he gives two. The first one is another quote from our Old Testament, from the book of Deuteronomy. The second is from the Leviticus reading. These two commandments, says Jesus, contain all the other 609 commandments. Let us listen now for the Word of the Lord to us.

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Well, now, that about says it all, doesn?t it? Love God, love your neighbor. So maybe we could just go home now . . . But wait! The kids are still in Church School, and we have more songs to sing, and besides this IS a bye-week so there?s no game to worry about! So you might as well get your money?s worth because, after all, today is the start of the annual fund drive when money is front and center in our collective mind. But more about that in a minute!

First let?s look a little closer at what Jesus said. The question put to him ? a question that all of us ought to answer for ourselves ? is, What is the greatest commandment? That is, "What?s most important in this religion business, Jesus? We have age-old customs and finely-tuned rituals to carry out, sacred scriptures that we diligently learn, rules from the rabbis that cover every possible circumstance of life, and a magnificent Temple to maintain, a whole cadre of priests and religious scholars to pay . . . of all that religious stuff, Jesus, what is really the most important?" In even more broad terms: What are we to be about in this life, Jesus? What does God want us to be doing?

A fair question; the question for any time, any place . . . certainly for our time, in this place. For we too have religious customs ? ways that we do things here, have always done things ? and we have rituals ? not always very fine-tuned! But we try! We don?t have all the rules that the scribes and Pharisees had, but there are expectations, unwritten, but still there. We don?t have Herod?s Temple to maintain, but we have this building to keep up and we have staff to pay . . . We are a busy bunch here at First Church! And in the midst of all the activities of our religious practice, the question is still a good one: What is, really, most important? What is it we are to be about?

And Jesus answers us as he did the religious people of his day: Love God with all your being ? heart, soul, mind ? love God with all that you have. And love your neighbor too. The good neighbor, the one who is easy to love, and the not so good neighbor too. Earlier in Matthew he told us to do good to even your enemy. So what is most important among the many important things that we do to live out our faith? Love God completely, and love your neighbor and your enemy as you love yourself.

It seems like an obvious thing to say. It seems even trite sometimes, for we have heard it so much. But just how does one love God? Is it by being in church every Sunday? Or is every-other-Sunday enough? Once a month? Maybe every day . . . maybe if we loved God with every fiber of our being we?d be in church, worshiping every day? Or at least reading the Bible daily . . . for five minutes? Or a half hour? Or maybe a truly devoted person is reading and praying and meditating on God ? loving God ? for hours in a day? How does one rightly love God? However you define it, it?s always easier said than done.

And then: how do you love your neighbor? How do we love the poor, the disadvantaged, the mentally ill man or woman down the street, that brother-in-law that drives you crazy? How does one love our neighbors who live in other countries ? countries where they don?t believe what we do, where they don?t live the way we do, countries that we are told threaten us? How do we love Iraqis? North Koreans? How do we love ? really love ? our neighbor in this world? We don?t always know, do we. Hard to define; harder to do it; always easier said that done.

But even though we can?t easily say how one loves God or our neighbor, it is crucial for our world that we the church keep holding up this teaching of Jesus that what is most important is that we love God, yes, and that we love one another, even our enemy. Of all the myriad of activities that go on in this place ? of all the reasons there are, good reasons, that this church continue to exist and thrive and grow, the highest task of the church is to say again and again, week in and week out, year in and year out, in word and by example, that simple message: people of Oshkosh, let us love God with all our might, and let us love one another. We must keep on saying that, even when we know that is it far easier said than done.

Now let?s get to the money part. What enables this church to keep on saying by word and by deed that all-important message Love God, and your neighbor ? I?m afraid it?s money. We give our time, we give our talents; we share with one another and with the community the spiritual gifts God has given us. If we weren?t doing that we would not be a church. But nor would we be a church without the continual, sometimes sacrificial giving of the members and friends of this church. We just wouldn?t be here. Past generations knew that. We sit in a sanctuary given to us by those people . . . a sanctuary that would cost millions of dollars to replace, if indeed it were possible today to build anything like this. The stained glass, the organ, the piano . . . . these are worth another million, probably more. Our children are right now in a building worth another couple of millions at least. Past believers here in this church have presented us these gifts because they gave not just their time and talents, but their treasure as well.

Remember that "greatest commandment?" Love God, and your neighbor. One of the ways we love God and our neighbor is the giving of money ? a lot of money to keep this church not merely alive but able to meet the great challenges of a very quickly changing time. And let?s face it: the giving of money ? a lot of money ? is also easier said than done, isn?t it. But we?ll do it. We?ll do it by making hard decisions as one of these travel bags comes to our door. To help us in that decision, I thought I would share seven truths about money -- it?s attraction and its dangers, what it can do and what it can?t. Truths ? nothing new here, but still important truths that we need to keep in mind as we decide what to give to our church. Let me begin with a couple of things Jesus said about it.

1You remember the saying about the eye of a needle? It is easier, Jesus said, for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. C.S. Lewis wrote of this verse, "Christ said it was difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven . . . [because riches] tend to make you feel independent of God . . . " [Answers to Questions on Christianity: Letters to Malcolm on Prayer] That is, as much good as money can do, it can do much harm if we think that IT is all we need, and not God. Depending ultimately on anything but God alone is ultimately disappointing. There was once wealthy man who was dying. The man had stubbornly lived his life his own way, without regard for others or for God. And now facing his death he had regrets. And desperate he asked his pastor, "Do you think if I left my entire estate to the church, it would guarantee my entrance into heaven?" The pastor thought for a long while, struggled with himself, and then said, "It's worth a try." Which of course is NOT the right answer! Depending ultimately on anything but God in life OR in death is ultimately disappointing.

2. Jesus said, Do not store up treasures on earth. For where your treasure ? your wealth ? is, there also will be your heart. Money is alluring, attractive . . . and our hearts easily follow it. Rare indeed is the person for whom money has no attraction, no power over them. But one can turn Jesus? saying around and it is also true: where your heart is there your treasure will be. That is, money follows what the heart most treasures. For you see God doesn?t want our money; God wants our hearts. And when our hearts are right, the rest will follow ? including all the money this church could ever use.

3. A surprising and curious fact about people and money: in general, the more a person has, the less we give away, as a percentage of our income. One study showed that people with less than $10,000 a year income gave 5.5% of it to charity. Those with more than $100,000 income gave 2.9% of it to charity. A testament to the power of money over us is that the more we have of it, the less likely we are to give it away.

4. The mystical power of money is seen most tragically when we come to mistake it for life itself. You may remember the classic Jack Benny routine in which a thug comes up to him and demands, "Your money or your life!" Instead of getting out his wallet, Benny just stands there, and the robber says again, "your money or your life!" And Benny says, "I?m thinking! I?m thinking!" In the overwhelmingly materialistic society in which we live and move and have our being we have to consciously decide that our lives are not measured by the size our of bank account, nor the amount of goods we own. Money is not life. It?s not even close.

5. While wealth has power, there are things it can?t do for us. For one, it can?t buy us health. It can buy health care, but it cannot buy health, for ultimately our health is a gift from God and God alone.

6. Money can?t buy a good reputation. The story goes that there were two very rich but very bad men in a church, brothers. They appeared to be fine Christians, in church every Sunday. But in their homes, in their private lives, they were nasty indeed. One day the older brother died. The surviving brother came to the pastor the day before the funeral and handed him a check for $500,000. "I have only one condition," he said. "At his funeral, you must say my brother was a saint." The pastor gave her word, and deposited the check. The next day at the funeral, the pastor did not hold back. "Charlie was an evil man," the pastor said. "He cheated on his wife, he abused his family, he embezzled from his business." She went on like this a little while, ending with, "But compared to his brother, he was a saint." Money can?t buy a good reputation.

7. It is a cliche, but it is true: Money can?t buy happiness. How many times have we heard that? And yet how many of us spend so much time -- years -- acquiring things, only to look back regretfully because we have neglected what really brings happiness: the love of family and friends, knowing God and ourselves, serving those in need, sharing our wealth with one another.

Now, of course, all of this is easier said than done. But while living out these principles may be a challenge for all of us, it is not impossible for each of us to grow in our understanding of and relationship to whatever wealth God has entrusted to us. For as we heard last week in the end all of it ? every cent ? is really God?s and not ours. We are mere caretakers ? stewards ? of our money. Let me conclude my thoughts today by quoting from our Moderator?s letter that you received this week:

At this time of year when God?s blessings are so apparent let us pause to acknowledge and recommit all we have to the Source from whom they come. In a culture that places so much emphasis on self-sufficiency and working hard to earn [I would add, and KEEP] what we have, we must make a conscious effort to be grateful. Our capacity to be thankful is tied to our ability to be generous. Through our thankfulness and generosity we affirm . . . an all-loving and gracious God by giving thanks always for the gifts God generously bestows upon God?s people. . . . [let us then] focus not on "how much the church needs" but on "how much we each need to give" as a sign of thankfulness, faith, and commitment to the way of Jesus Christ. Amen!