George or Jesus?
Money – one of our greatest treasures. We can’t do with it and we can’t do without it.
Money affects all sorts of things:It affects relations between countries for example: “A visiting American textile-buyer told a long but amusing story at a luncheon in Seoul, South Korea. The translator repeated it to the group in a just a few words, and the audience laughed and applauded. Later, the textile-buyer commented to the translator, “I think that it was wonderful the way they appreciated my joke. It’s amazing how you were able to shorten in Korean.” The interpreter replied, “Not at all. I merely said, ‘Man with big checkbook has told funny story. Do what you think is appropriate.”
It also affects personal relationships: Mr. Jones said to Mr. Smith, “We’re having a raffle for a poor widow. Would you like to buy a ticket?” Mr. Smith replied, “I’m afraid not. Even I won, my wife wouldn’t let me keep her.”
Money also affects good deeds: “Pastor Smith felt sorry for the old man he saw every morning in the park through which he walked to his office. It seemed the world had been hard for him. One morning he handed him an envelope with $10 inside and note that read, “Never Despair.” The next day the man handed Pastor Smith $60. “What is this for?” the astonished minister asked. “Never Despair was in the money paying 6 to 1 odds in the second race,” the man answered.
And of course money affects, as we are aware of these days, employer/employee relations: “During an inflationary period several years ago, employees at Hughes Aircraft in Torrance, California, found this sign over a company water cooler, “Due to inflation and other rising costs, the water in this cooler is now twice as free as it use to be.”
And strangely enough money even affects pastors and pets: A Baptist minister received a call from a lady who was quite upset over the death of her cat, Homer. She wanted the preacher to conduct the funeral service for Homer! The Baptist preacher explained that this was a little out of his line and referred her to a friend, the Presbyterian pastor at a church down the street. Later, the preacher learned that his Presbyterian friend had referred her to a Methodist minister, who referred her to someone else.
About an hour later, she called the Baptist preacher back and she was still upset. The woman said that she was at her wit’s end. She couldn’t find a preacher to conduct Homer’s service and didn’t know what to do. She said that she planned to give $1,000 to the church of the minister who performed this service for Homer. The Baptist pastor later said that it took him only a moment to mull it over and then to say to her, “Well, why didn’t you tell me that Homer was a Baptist cat in the first place?”
Money – we can’t do with it and we can’t do with out it. Money is perhaps the most powerful tool, other than our tongue, that God has given to us to use for furthering His mission here on earth. Doug Rumford, who I will quote a couple of times this morning has said this, “Money is one of the most ‘spiritual’ substances in the world; it becomes the vehicle that moves us toward or away from a deeper knowledge, and I would add, experience, of God . . . . Money is a powerful force.”
Yes this is the money sermon. One that many pastors dread to preach and parishioners dread to listen to. One that evokes a wide range of emotions from outright hostility to careless indifference to shame and guilt from everyone and anyone.
But, money is a powerful force and a powerful tool. It is so because, in His remarks to His twelve disciples at the beginning of their three year journey together, Jesus makes a very profound statement about money and other treasures that goes to the very heart of this message about this tool that God has given to us to use for the right reason and purposes.
We read these words in Matthew 6: 19-24.
(READ THE PASSAGE)
In this passage, Jesus tells His leadership and ministry team that
1. Real treasure, real value in life comes not in money and material possession, but in the intangibles that come to us as we carefully and consistently walk with God.
2. That where our treasure is, what we really value as most important in life, is what will preoccupy us.
3. Our eyes are a light for the body and the kind of eyes you have will determine what kind of light you will let in to your soul. In other words, money has spiritual power to either darken or lighten your soul.
4. Finally, He says, ‘you have to make a choice to serve God or serve money, you cannot do both.’ In today’s language, we might translate that as “George or Jesus.”
By this statement, Jesus raises money and all of the associated issues that are related to it, to a level that directly competes with God for our attention and our loyalty. Money is a very powerful and very spiritual substance.
Now when church discussions about money take place usually one of the topics to come up deals with tithing. I do not want to talk about that quite yet because I want us to understand some important relationships between God and money.
In his book, Soul Shaping, Doug Rumford, a Presbyterian pastor makes these very important statements about money: The first purpose of money is to test our loyalty to God and our dependence on Him. He goes on to say that ‘money is one of the most tangible evidences of our priorities. He cites an important passage in Mark 17:17-31 of the rich young ruler who asks Jesus who to inherit eternal life.
As the encounter takes place Jesus tells him to sell all that he has and then follow him. But, the young man can’t because as Rumford says, “money was his source of security, his motivation in life, and the primary concern of his days. God couldn’t compete with it! Therefore, the rich man had to let go of the money clenched in his fist so that he could hold the hand of God.”
The second role of money is to allow us the privilege of responsible and meaningful contributions to God’s work. I like what Rumford says in support of this point, ‘the offerings of the Old and New Testament were frequently associated with a joyful outpouring for the willingness to serve the Lord . . . our money can enable people to go where we cannot go and do what we cannot do.
When we worship through giving, we have the ability to enable people like missionaries to go to places and do things that we cannot go or do. We extend our ministry through them to another part of the world that we will probably never see.
When we worship, we serve, through giving, we have the ability to teach 30 kids on Tuesday night and help them understand and experience God’ s forgiveness through His grace. Who knows but that some of them will one day become influential leaders of this and do so under God’s leadership in their lives that they learned on a Tuesday night at Oak and Mitchell streets?
When we worship, we serve, through giving, we have the opportunity to provide our youth leaders with resources and support to shepherd our middle and high school students and enable them to attend camps and conventions and make memories that they will long treasure and will be sources of inspiration for them in their adult years. But, who knows but that one them may become the pastor of this church someday? Who knows but that one of them may come back to the community as a teacher or a doctor or a nurse and help provide, in Jesus’ name critical care and support to this community?
When we worship, when we serve, through giving we give to a cause. A cause that is bigger than us and always will be. It is a cause that has been here before we were and will be after we have gone. It is a cause that cannot be measured merely by a bottom line, important as that is, but in human terms. Terms that often do not become apparent until years later.
The third purpose of money is to shape us for greater responsibilities. Rumford says in this regard, ‘Jesus uses money, which we consider a major responsibility, as a training ground for service in the Kingdom. The way we handle our money reveals much about how we handle our lives.” More about that next week.
But, there are still important questions to be answered in regard to the stewardship, the management of our treasure, of our money. One of the first that is asked is, ‘how much?’ And this question leads us to the question of tithing. ‘
Tithing’ is another of those church words that create a wide variety of responses from us - from indifference about the whole issue to resentment about the challenge to do so and, again to guilt and shame about our lack of commitment to give at all.
Here are some statistics about giving from the Barna Organization, which conducts significant research on the church in America:
8% of born again Christians tithed their income in 1999
17% of adults claimed in 1997 to have tithed but only 3% actually did so.
29% of adults surveyed in 1997 actually believe that Bible commands us to tithe.
The purpose of sharing these numbers is not to embarrass you or make you angry. Rather to bring some important perspective on a very important, and sensitive, topic.
I think that one of the reasons that churches have trouble financially is that the motivation for giving is, quite frankly, based on fear that creates resentment, shame, and false guilt about giving. The Christian life is not to be lived on those motives – but love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.
There are many honest and caring Christians who struggle financially, not because they go on spending binges, but because they are in situations not of their own choosing and struggle to make ends meet. There are periods in our lives when we life situations force us to borrow in some way and we find ourselves short of money even for some living expenses.
Giving should not be a burden but a joy and act of worship. I think that is why Jesus pointed out the widow who gave more than what she needed to give and honored her giving above those whose coins made the coin pots rattle like a mad rattlesnake.
Tithing is a Biblical term. It is rooted in the Bible. We need to recapture the reality that the practice of tithing is rooted in covenant relationship that God had with Israel. It is a statement that says, “All of this is God’s, none of it is my own.” It should, it must be done, as indicated in the New Testament, with gratitude.
Leviticus 27:30 helps us understand something important about the issue of the tithe: ‘A tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain or fruit, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy.’ The Israelite society of that day was agricultural. The offerings that they were to give were a part of the land that they had worked to grow food to live on land that was created and owned by God.
But, the tithe was more than just a reminder of God’s ownership. It is also a reminder of God’s favor, of God’s care, of God’s purpose, and ultimately of God’s redemption as evidenced in the Passover when God proved Himself to be the only God. Out of that great act of salvation, came the people of God – the Israelites – through whom our salvation was made possible. Part of their covenant relationship was the act of tithes and offerings as recognition of whose they were and as well as whose possession they truly had.
Tithing should be an expression of joy, an expression of thanksgiving to God for all that He has given to us and done for us because He has done so much for us and has blessed us in many, many ways.
A sobbing little girl stood near a small church from which she had been turned away because it ’was too crowded.’ "I can’t go to Sunday School," she sobbed to the pastor as he walked by. Seeing her shabby, unkempt appearance, the pastor guessed the reason and, taking her by the hand, took her inside and found a place for her in the Sunday School class. The child was so touched that she went to bed that night thinking of the children who have no place to worship Jesus.
Some two years later, this child lay dead in one of the poor tenement buildings and the parents called for the kindhearted pastor, who had befriended their daughter, to handle the final arrangements. As her body was being moved, a worn and crumpled purse was found which seemed to have been rummaged from some trash dump. Inside was found 57 cents and a note scribbled in childish handwriting which read, "This is to help build the little church bigger so more children can go to Sunday School."
For two years she had saved for this offering of love. When the pastor tearfully read that note, he knew instantly what he would do. Carrying this note and the cracked, red pocketbook to the pulpit, he told the story of her unselfish love and devotion. He challenged his deacons to get busy and raise enough money for the larger building.
But the story does not end there! A newspaper learned of the story and published it. It was read by a realtor who offered them a parcel of land worth many thousands of dollars. When told that the church could not pay so much, he offered it for 57 cents.
Church members made large subscriptions. Checks came from far and wide. Within five years the little girl’s gift had increased to $250,000.00 - a huge sum for that time (near the turn of the century). Her unselfish love had paid large dividends.
That caring Pastor was named Russell H. Conwell. He became the founder of what is now known as Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The little girl was named Hattie May Wiatt who died in 1886.
In a sermon on December 1, 1912, which honored Hattie Dr Conwell reminded his congregation of the impact of that 57 cents –“ think of this large church,” he wrote, “think of the membership added to it – over 5600 – since that time. Think of the institutions this church founded. Think of the Samaritan Hospital and the thousands of sick people that have been cured there, and the thousands of poor that are ministered to every year. Think of how in that Wiatt house (by which 54 cents of that 57 cents was used in the first payment) were begun the very first classes of the Temple College.”
If God can do that with 57 cents think what He can do with $5.70, $57.00, $570.00, and even $5700.00. When we use the tool of treasure, of money, that God has provided us, and give, we don’t give it to programs or buildings we give it to a cause – the cause of God.
Are you giving joyfully? Are you giving willingly? Are you giving because you realize and see the mission, the cause? It’s all around us – it’s the faces of those we know and have yet to know who need God in their lives and the fellowship and care of this congregation.
Give joyfully! Give willingly! Give what you can! Give regularly! Why?
Because our mission, our cause has a human face and it requires us to use the tool we call money as one way to advance the mission of the church.
A lot of people say the church is after their money. It shouldn’t be. It should be after fulfilling the mission of God – and that is nothing less than the transformation of the human heart and soul into something of great value and worth which is something that money can’t ever buy. Amen.
