“Fat Wallets, Empty Lives”
Luke 12:13-21
Last week there was a reader’s poll in The Chattanooga Times Free Press that caught my eye.
The question asked: “Do you tithe to a church?”
Now what is a tithe?
A tithe is giving, at least, ten percent of your yearly income to God.
So, giving, say, 4 or 5 % of your income, while it’s a good start, is NOT a tithe.
Again, a tithe is 10% or above.
Knowing that 80% of Christians—at the most--only give, on average, 2.5% of their income to the Church, I was curious to see what the result of the poll would be.
Sure enough, the next morning when the poll results were in 50% of responders said they tithe to a church.
If that were truly the case, things in this world would be much, much different.
For example, if that were true, here’s just a few things the Church could do with that kind of money:
--We could relieve global hunger, starvation and deaths from preventable diseases in five years.
--We could eliminate illiteracy in five years.
--We could solve the world’s water and sanitation issues
--We could fully fund all overseas mission work and still have $100-$110 Billion Dollars left for mission work in our own backyard.
Those are some amazing numbers!
Numbers like that can invoke a lot of guilt, which isn’t really the point.
The larger point is what would happen if believers were to increase our giving to a minimum of 10%?
The global impact would be beyond phenomenal!!!
And it’s really not very difficult.
For example, every month, before we have even gotten our paychecks, my wife makes a budget.
And the first thing in that budget is that she takes out 10 % of each of our paychecks—right off the top—for our tithes to our two individual churches.
For those of you who may not know, my wife is also a pastor.
So, she tithes to her church; I tithe to Red Bank United Methodist.
I never have to ask my wife if we have enough money to tithe to the church this month.
It’s already been figured into the budget.
And we’ve never missed it.
Now, are we lavish spenders?
No.
Not really.
But we certainly don’t want for anything.
And, as far as our finances go, we have peace, knowing that God is getting 10% right off the top.
But, of course, I always want to give more.
And, sometimes we do.
When it comes down to it, giving is a heart issue, not a money issue.
And those who are blessed the most when Christians tithe are the Christians themselves.
Because when we tithe, we are saying: “I trust God, and I am putting God first in my life” or at least, “I am trying to.”
A few years ago, the Boston Globe ran an article that asked the following question: “Does money change you?”
The article stated that “most people are convinced that gaining a lot of money wouldn’t change who they are as people.”
But is that true?
The article went on to report:
“As a mounting body of research is showing, wealth can actually change how we think and behave—and not for the better.
Rich people have a harder time connecting with others, showing less empathy to the extent of dehumanizing those who are different from them.
They are less charitable and generous.
They are less likely to help someone in trouble.
And they are more likely to defend an unfair status quo.”
The article goes on to say: “If you think you would behave differently in their place, you’re probably wrong: these aren’t just inherited traits, but developed ones.
Money, in other words, changes who you are.”
The article went on to summarize research studies which found that even the mere suggestion of getting more money—a technique known as “priming”—makes people less friendly, less sensitive to others, and more likely to support statements like, “some groups of people are simply inferior to others.”
The article noted that “If you win the lottery and you want to avoid becoming an insensitive lout, there is a simple solution: ‘Give most of it away.’”
In any event, the Bible is not telling us that we shouldn’t work hard and seek to be successful.
We most certainly should do these things.
But as John Wesley, the founder of Methodism put it: We are to “make all we can, save all we can, give all we can.”
If some of the early Christians, like Barnabas for example, weren’t people of wealth they wouldn’t have been able to give in order to help alleviate the suffering and hunger pains in the stomachs of their brothers and sisters.
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning, Jesus is starting to gain a lot of followers.
He is becoming a bit influential.
Crowds are surrounding Him and hanging on His every Word.
So, someone in the crowd yells out: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
According to Jewish inheritance practices, an older brother would get two-thirds of an estate and the younger brother would get one-third.
This brother wants Jesus to use His influence to force his brother to give him his rightful part of the money.
Instead of getting involved in this, it causes Jesus to say: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a person’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
In other words, Jesus is warning this man and the crowd listening, “Don’t get all caught up in this money stuff.
Don’t let greed be your master.
Don’t waste your life.
This isn’t what the Kingdom of God is about.
This isn’t what you were created for.”
And then Jesus goes on to tell the parable we read this morning as an example of a wasted life.
Jesus is saying, “Here is how NOT to live.”
There was once a guy whose barns were already bursting to overflowing.
He’s a rich man and he harvests another bumper crop.
It’s enough to feed him for years and years and then some.
It’s more food than any one person could ever need.
And since, before this bumper crop occured, he already has more than one person could ever need, he says to himself: “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops?”
And it doesn’t even occur to him that there are people—hundreds, thousands of people who are hungry, starving, struggling to feed their families, dying in the streets even—who could really be helped if he were to simply give these crops, that he obviously doesn’t even need, AWAY.
It doesn’t even cross his mind.
He’s so focused on himself that he has forgotten both the God Who caused the crops to grow and the neighbor without access to these things.
With all this excess at the center of his life, the man plunges into the trap of idolatry.
Money and possessions have become his god and so he misses the purpose of his life.
It’s terribly sad, really.
I truly believe that God’s plan is that those who have much are to give to those who have little so that all have enough.
We just can’t seem to trust God enough on this, though.
We just can’t seem to let go of our grip on the material enough.
We just can’t seem to get that Kingdom minded when we are living in a culture that worships money and things.
In our culture we often measure ourselves and others by the size of our storehouses.
In the Kingdom of God, however, the storehouses are sold, and life is measured by what we do for others.
Not many of us are living this way.
And we sure do miss the point of life when we fail to understand that our lives and possessions are on loan from God.
They don’t belong to us.
And they are to be used for God’s purposes.
If we waste them, or don’t share them, is this not a slap in the face of the One Who has shared His Creation with us…the One Who gave His very life on the Cross for the salvation of our souls?
And not just for our souls but for the souls of all people.
Greed is a sin.
And sin is anything that separates us from God.
It’s interesting that we, in the Church, often tend to put more emphasis on some sins and less on others.
I mean think about it.
How often do persons judge those who make mistakes or bad choices sexually, or those who have problems with addictions, or anger, or whatever…
…and yet, if a fine church member drives up in a $60,000 car, just having pulled out of his or her million dollar garage we say: “Bravo! Good for you!!! What a great person you are.”
I’m not saying we should judge anyone, it’s quite the opposite really I’m just saying that the sin of greed is, perhaps, the “forgotten sin,” or the sin which we consider as no sin at all.
It’s been said that the rich man in Jesus’ parable practices what has been called “practical atheism.”
And, he might not and probably would not agree with this.
He may say that he has always believed in God, but when it comes to managing his life, dealing with possessions and planning for the future, he lives as if there is no God.
This parable, therefore, kind of probes our basic commitments, doesn’t it?
What difference does our faith in Jesus Christ make in our approach to life?
Where do our priorities lie?
Who or what is our God?
Believe me when I say I’m preaching to myself as much as I’m preaching to anyone else this morning.
This parable is tough stuff.
Is money getting in the way of my giving myself totally to God and God’s Kingdom?
Is money getting in the way of my love for God and others?
I think it is.
I think it does.
That doesn’t mean that we are to make ourselves destitute.
It doesn’t mean that we aren’t to provide for our family.
It doesn’t mean that we don’t save for retirement.
But it does mean that we make sure that we aren’t living for stuff, and putting money before God and people.
And a good starting point for this is tithing to God’s Church, but it’s just a starting point—but it may just change our lives.
The story is told of a man who had a horrible dream.
“I dreamed that the Lord took my offering and multiplied it by ten, and this became my weekly income.”
He says, “Soon I lost my flat screen t-v, my second laptop computer, my new car, and I couldn’t even make the payments on my new house.”
And then he added, “How can a person live on $20.00 a week?”
Isn’t it funny how $25.00 or $100.00 looks so big when we take it to church and so small when we take it to the store?
The man in Jesus’ parable is totally self-consumed.
There is no one else in the story—just the man and his possessions—until God speaks to him.
No sooner has the man laid out his own future than God speaks to him to declare what that future actually holds.
And then God addresses the man as a “fool,” which brings back a similar reference which is found in Psalm 14 which states, “Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’”
Moreover, in verse 19 the man says to himself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.
Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”
But then God says to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.”
In this parable, Jesus wants us to hear that our hearts will point out our true treasure.
Do we get it?
Do we understand where our real happiness lies?
Scientists talk about the way our brains are wired for certain behavior.
They theorize that we are wired to survive, to flee from danger, and to love our children.
But the Lord has also wired our hearts to find our real happiness in loving God and people.
If we look for our fulfillment in money or any other place, it is just not going to work.
We are not wired to find fulfillment apart from the Lord.
Let’s not have fat wallets and empty lives.
Amen.
