Westwood Presbyterian Church

October 21st, 2007

197 Browning  Boulevard, Winnipeg, Manitoba  R3K 0L1

REV. PETER BUSH's SERMONS

It is about Money

Money is one of those things that is dangerous to talk about. If you don't believe me ­ try this. Next time you are invited to a party, ask each of the people at the party that you have a conversation with how much they make. My guess is that you will never be invited to a party by that host and hostess again.

We all have things in our lives that have taught us about money, some of those events have helped us relate to money in positive ways, some of those events have given us distorted views of money. But these money stories have power for us years after the events. I want to tell one of my money stories.

I am thankful to my parents for teaching me to give. It was 1971 and I was in grade 4, we had just come back from Beirut. My allowance was $0.30 a week. My parents were very clear, I was to give 10% of my $0.30 away to the church. So each week I took 3 pennies and put them in the offering plate at Sunday School. Other kids in my class put in dimes and quarters that their parents slipped them as they went off to Sunday School. Against that my 3 pennies looked like nothing. But my parents were very wise - it was my 3 pennies - I was giving out of my money. They taught me to give.

What do we treasure? What do we value? What matters to us? Monty Python the British comedy troop sing "The Money Song" and the lyrics go like this:

 

I've got ninety thousand pounds in my pajamas .. I've got forty thousand French francs in my fridge. I've got lots of lovely lira,

Now the Deutschmark's getting dearer,

And my dollar bills would buy the Brooklyn Bridge.

There is nothing quite as wonderful as money! There is nothing quite as beautiful as cash!

Some people say it's folly, but I'd rather have the lolly, With money you can make a splash!

There is nothing quite as wonderful as money! There is nothing like a newly minted pound! Everyone must hanker for the butchness of a banker, It's accountancy that makes the world go round!

You can keep your Marxist ways, for it's only just a phase.

For it's money, money, money makes the world go round!

Money!Money!Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money!

Jesus confronts us with a stark choice - Where do we want our treasure to be? Here on earth, where treasure is temporary and is in constant need of being protected from moths and rust which destroy and from thieves who break in and steal. Or do we want our treasure in heaven where moths and rust do not destroy and where thieves can not break in and steal. Jesus is uncompromising - we can only bank treasure in one of those two places - here on earth or in heaven. Jesus is uncompromising on this because where our treasure is, that is where our heart will be also.

      There can only be 1 number 1 - there can only be one thing that is first in our lives.  Jesus would have us think seriously about what is number one.

We wish he was not so uncompromising, especially when he talks about money - did you know that in the gospels Jesus says more about money than he does about prayer-­and we wish he would not talk about money so much. Jesus said, "You can not serve both God and Money." And now we are very uncomfortable - we try to find ways to avoid what He is saying here - we know all the standard tricks

1.      Jesus means people who are rich - they are the ones who love money more than

God. And I am not rich.

The truth of the matter is - if we have food on our table and clothes on our back and a bed to sleep on and a roof over our head - we are among the rich in our world.

2.      Jesus is talking about people who are stingy - people who are not generous - and

we are generous - so this is not about us.

Jesus held up an example of generosity - there was a poor widow who put in the temple offering plate two pennies - and Jesus said "She is generous." Why? "Because she gave everything she had." Against that measure of generosity most of us fall

short ..

Jesus means exactly what we think he means - we cannot serve both God and money - we can not have two masters - for they will demand contradictory things from us.

Serving money - brings with it an uncompromising demand to acquire more. Does anyone ever think they have saved enough for retirement? There is an entire industry out there that wants to convince us that we do not have enough to retire. There is never enough, but then when we start to acquire stuff we have to make sure that we have protected what we have. When we have much, we tend to think that we have acquired it by our own strength and ability - that the much we have is ours. And that becomes incredibly dangerous - for we start to believe that we have made ourselves who we are.

Serving God reminds us that we are not in charge - that the things we have are not ours - they are gifts given to us. Our money, our things, even our very lives. Serving God confronts the delusion that we are in charge - serving God helps us see that there are things more important than money - more lasting than money. Things that are not available for sale in the market place. Serving God does not mean that we are not to use money to do God's work - what it does mean is that we recognize that money is merely a tool which is to be put to a greater purpose.

We have a choice we can serve God and use money - or we can serve money and use God - the choice is ours.

We have resources including financial resources - that we are invited to use for God's purposes in the world. We have been given the resources with which to be generous­ and our world presents us with the opportunities to be generous.

Watch this video clip of a girl in India.

We have a choice to make - we can be among the people who walk by - seemingly oblivious to what is happening. Or we can choose to make a difference.

There may be a couple of different responses to the call to make a difference: 1. We can't help everybody, and so we become unable to help anybody.

The story is told about a little boy who was on a beach - the beach was covered in star fish that had been washed ashore in a storm - and as the sun came out they were going to be baked by the sun and die. The boy was throwing starfish back into the ocean. An adult who was walking along the beach, said to the boy, "You can't save all these starfish, you can't make a difference to all of them, so why are you trying?" And the boy answered, "I made a difference to the starfish I just threw back in the. water."

We are not asked to take on all the problems of the world, we do not need to solve them all. We are called to the more human sized problem of making a difference in the lives of two or three or eight or ten people - to do what we can - and to not be overwhelmed by what we cannot do.

2.       A second response might be to say - "well, that video is about India - that is a long way away - you know the saying charity begins at home." In a global world, we have the opportunity to make a difference in a global world. Food and clothes and other goods come to us from all over the world - and our generosity should have a worldwide scope.

The saying "charity begins at home" comes from a 19^th century book on how to parent children. The context of the quote is that children learn charity at home - their learning to be generous people begins in the home. When the quote is used to justify only giving to my neighbourhood and to people like me - it is a misuse of the quote.

On Monday I heard the following statement from a Nicaraguan pastor - "The challenge is not figuring out how to better share our wealth, it is figuring out how to better share our poverty."

As the video clip ran you will have noticed that it invited us to write to our political leaders asking them to do something about poverty. And here is the hard reality - if government is going to do something about poverty it is going to impact us. Asking the government to put more into international aid - means not getting a tax cut. Asking the government to forgive 3^rd world debt, means getting a lower rate of return on bonds. Improving the lot of the poor, comes about as the comfortable choose to give up some of their comforts to make a difference in the world.

The environment can not ta..lce the more than 6 billion people in the world living the way that we in NA do. The object is not to make everybody like us. The goal is that through sacrificial giving - through genuine sharing of what we have - that the poor are raised up and the wealthy are lowered.

When Jesus said, "To those whom much is given, of them much will be required" he was thinking about those who have this world's things. We who have much will be held to account for what we did with that much.

"But, I need the money that I have, I can't live on less," is the thought that runs through our head. And we are not the first people to think that. The leaders of the people of Israel had been given clear instructions by God - they were to give a tithe - a tenth ­of their income to the work of God. But over time the leaders had found that too demanding and they had encouraged people to think about giving less, making the demand less onerous. And in the passage that we read from Malachi - God accuses the people of Israel of robbing from Him - they want to know how they have been robbing from God - and he says in tithes.

And then God issues a challenge - He says, "Give the whole tithe and see ifI don't throw open the gates of heaven and pour into your life more than you can hold on to."

God is challenging us as well - are we going to trust Him enough to give and give generously, believing that he will provide our needs.

To be brutally practical, I believe that God invites us to begin our thinking about giving at the 10% level - that being 10% of before taxes income. That giving is not necessarily to be through the congregation - there are a variety of places to give.

For those of us who are not yet giving 10% of before taxes income - the invitation is to consider moving up what we give from say 5% to 6% -- and then in eight months time move from giving 6% to 7%. Giving is something that takes planning and intentionality.

F or those of us who know the joy of giving 10% -- the invitation is to go further - to move from 10% to 11% and then in a year's time to consider going to 12% and so on. 10% is not a ceiling - it is the place we begin and are invited to go on from their as we experience the joy of generosity.

May we be people who lay up for ourselves treasure in heaven, may we be people who have the courage to test the limits of God's generosity.