I begin this morning with an invocation from my favorite poet,
the bard of Baltimore, Ogden Nash, who addressed our
favorite god in prayer:
“Oh, money, money, money; some may think thee holy.
But I cannot figure out how thou goest out so fast and how
thou comest in so slowly.”
Ogden Nash, like most of us, found that there is generally
more month than money, and so considered himself poor.
But of course he was not poor, and neither are you and I.
Yes, some of us are in financial distress. Yes, some of us
need a jobs or maybe a better job. But few if any of us are
destitute; I know none of you in hard-core poverty. In fact,
by the standards of much of the world, we are rich. We have
enough; maybe not as much as we owe, and certainly not as
much as we would like. But we are not poor; we are rich.
And yet in some ways we are poor. In the places where it
counts we are impoverished. There some things we really
ought to have, but which money cannot buy.
The Apostle John is now an old man, exiled on the Isle of
Patmos. He lets his eye wander to and fro among the
churches of Asia, and he comes to the church at Smyrna.
Smyrna was one of the finest trade centers of the ancient
world. Smyrna was wealthy enough to have constructed an
immense temple to venerate the emperor Tiberius. Smyrna
was where merchants from every direction converged.
Anything made anywhere in the Roman Empire you could
buy at Smyrna. Any whim you might have could be satisfied
in the trading stalls of Smyrna’s marketplace. Silks from the
far east, spices from the islands. Gold from northern Africa,
beasts of burden from Egypt. Slaves from the interior of
Ethiopia, timber from the forests of central Europe. It all
came together in Smyrna. They were rich there, filthy rich.
Smyrna’s people thought that money could buy them
anything they wanted.
There was a church in Smyrna. One of those little bands of
Christian believers planted by missionaries. Only a few
years before the good news had come to Smyrna, and now
there was a church, well established, on its way, with a fine
tradition and good people. A bright future for that church,
because even though the politics of the Empire were hostile,
still these Christians had resources. They could have hung
out on their little corner of the city for a long time to come,
with no immediate problems. But the Lord of the church
speaks to them and suggests that wealth is not all they
suppose it is: “I know your affliction and your poverty, even
though you are rich.” I know more about you, brothers and
sisters, than you think I know. And I know that despite your
bank accounts, you are poor. In the things that I measure,
says the Lord of the church, you are poor.
There was a church in Takoma. One of those many bands
of believers planted on nearly every corner of the capital city.
Well established, with a fine tradition and good people. The
pastor there at Takoma loved to talk every year at annual
meeting time about the bright prospects for its future. He got
very caught up in statistics. He liked to remind this church in
Takoma that they had three million dollars worth of property,
they were out of debt, and they had thousands of dollars in
invested funds. He especially loved to tell the people at
every business meeting how much better they were doing
financially this year than last year. But the Lord of the church
spoke to him, this pastor, and said, “I know your affliction
and your poverty, even though you are rich.” I know more
about you than you think I know. And I know that despite
your bank accounts, you are poor. In the things that I
measure, says the Lord of the church, you are poor. So
pastor, tell them: there are some things their money cannot
buy.
I
For example, money cannot buy compassion for people in
need. Money cannot make you love people. People need
things and put claims on us, and sometimes we don’t like
it. They want things. They need expensive stuff. Children
want shoes. Young adults want a college education. Wives
want to be clothed and husbands want to be fed. Where
there are people, there are wants. And you may have the
resources to pay the bills, but that is not the same thing as
having a compassion for the needs of people. Money cannot
buy compassion.
I sit on the boards of a couple of organizations that were
formed to meet certain human needs. But the leaders of
those groups quickly caught on to the fact that if you tell
donors, that you are in the need-serving business, they might
give you money to do your work. But the people who had
money to give said, “We don’t have money for the thing you
want to do, but we do have money for this project over here
or that idea over there.” So what did we do? Very quickly,
without batting an eye, we turned everything around, and
went where the money was. Sure, give us the money and
we’ll do what you want us to do. Never mind what we started
out to do. Just give us the money. I am ashamed to say I
am sitting on the boards of organizations that have forgotten
why we organized in the first place! Money cannot buy
compassion; money cannot create an urge to serve people
who truly need ministry.
Why does our church sponsor programs of ministry? Why
do we bother to offer mental patients a good meal and quality
recreation? Why do we open this place to children after
school? Why do we criss-cross the community with hot
meals? Why do we bring in low-cost food once a month
through the SHARE program? This is all about people, it’s
about service, it’s about bringing people joy.
Why are we now talking about serving ex-offenders, maybe
even letting some of them live in one of our church-owned
houses? Why are we thinking about offering computer
training to unemployed people? Is it just to fill up the
schedule? Just to stay busy? No, in our church there is a
compassion for those in need; there is a drive to minister
redemptively. Money will not buy that for us, but if we are
not careful, our money may tempt us not to do it. If we are
not careful, we will decide that money is to be used for us
and our own comfort. But money cannot buy compassion for
people.
You know, it’s wonderful that the Lord shows us the way in
tiny but beautiful examples. One of our men told me the
other day that he and another of our men had been out
together, visiting others to share the Gospel. And the one
said of the other, “You know, he doesn’t have much. He’s
really living on next to nothing. And yet I saw him take his
last five dollars out of his pocket and give it to somebody that
needed it more.” Oh, that’s the compassion that is more
precious than gold; that’s the spirit that is more refined than
sterling silver. If that spirit is here in our church, I believe
we’ll find our way to compassion. I believe we’ll grow in what
we do in ministry. Money cannot buy compassion for people
in need. But compassionate people use their riches for
others, for the Kingdom.
II
Something else money cannot buy. Money cannot buy a
passion for the souls of lost people. Dollars cannot measure
how much we care for the spiritual condition of others.
Churches sure do spend a lot of energy preaching and
teaching the Gospel, don’t they? Why are we always talking
about coming to Christ? What is it about urging people to
make a salvation choice? Do we do that just because we
want a bigger church, with more people to give more money.
Do we preach the Gospel because, well, good folks expect to
go to church and to be told, don’t worry, you have your one-
way ticket to heaven? Do we preach and teach the good
news of salvation because we really just want to congratulate
ourselves on being good enough to get eternal life, and, my
oh my, isn’t God privileged to have such nice people as we
are in His heaven?
Or isn’t there something more urgent? Must we preach and
teach the gospel because without it, men and women are
dying in their sins and are lost in eternity? Must we handle
the Gospel message as the most urgent thing in the world,
because the stakes are eternal? Why is it that when we see
our neighbors who have no faith, and are plunging headlong
into the abyss of sin, we will not do anything more than cluck
our tongues and go about our business, saying not one word
about a Savior? We need to find a passion for the lost.
Money will not buy that for us. Dollars in the bank does not
translate into caring for the spiritual condition of others.
In fact, money might even work against genuine spiritual
passion. I knew once of an organization that paid a bounty
for every soul saved. If you worked for that group and you
reported a profession of faith, they paid you for it. One
irreverent friend of mine said he got himself saved ten times
one afternoon on a Florida beach, just so some of the kids
out there doing their witness thing could get paid. But that’s
not a passion for lost souls. That’s bounty-hunting. That’s
spiritual prostitution. Money cannot buy a passion for lost
souls.
Money cannot purchase the spiritual success of a church.
That’s where a lot of churches go wrong. They are money
mills, churning through dollars week after week just to pay
the preacher and keep the lights on. Every week it’s chicken
dinners to build a new building and pastor’s aid societies to
pay for the old boy’s anniversary cruise to the Bahamas. But
church is not about money as an end in itself. Church is not
about budgets and buildings and pastors and programs.
Church is about Kingdom work. Church is about salvation.
I read recently of a church that was in dire straits. It had
dwindled down to about forty people, in a neighborhood of
St. Louis that was really on the skids. They were talking
about closing their doors, going out of business. The only
thing they had was an endowment fund that made it possible
to pay the bills, because forty people couldn’t give enough on
their own. But one day somebody stood up in the morning
service and said, “My neighbor is hungry. The heat has
been turned off, there is no food in the house, the mother is
sick, the father is gone, and there are four little children.
Can’t we do something?” Well, the pastor got spontaneous.
He took a chance and did something that was not printed in
the bulletin. I guess we should call it the Holy Spirit. The
pastor said, “I am not going to preach today what I had
planned to preach. Instead I am going to lead you to pray
and think about what you have just heard, because that
family isn’t the only one. There are many families like that
around here. What shall we do?” Well, out of that Sunday
service – a no-sermon service (don’t you dare say “Amen” to
that) – out of that Sunday service, that tired, worn-out little
Missouri church dug into its endowment funds, built a food
pantry, started an employment ministry, began English
language classes, and now, not only do they have people
coming for ministries. They’ve seen many of those people
come to Christ. They’ve found new life because they
discovered that their money was in their way, but it could be
used for Kingdom purposes.
Of one Baptist denomination, it is said that because it has a
large endowment fund, it is supported by more dead Baptists
than live ones, and that if every church closed the
denominational bureaucracy could just chug right along and
never even notice! Sounds dead to me.
There are some things money cannot buy. The souls of
people cannot be purchased except with passion. Their
hearts cannot be won except with compassion. And their
lives are worth vastly more than any balance sheet can
reckon. The Lord of the church says to Takoma as He said
to Smyrna, “I know your .. poverty, even though you are
rich.”
III
There is something else, however, that money cannot buy.
There is another dimension of Kingdom life that cannot be
purchased.
Money cannot buy love. Money cannot buy mutual respect.
Money cannot purchase unity in the house of God. No
amount of cash in the bank can give us love for one another.
The Lord said to the church at Smyrna, look out for the
slander of those who say that they are Jews, but are not.
We don’t know all that was about, but pick up on that word,
“slander”. It sounds like there were some folks there in
Smyrna who had decided that they were spiritually superior.
They made it their business to put down the reputations of
other believers. It sounds like there were some folks who
were very proud, of who they were and of what they had
done, and who are you, you Gentiles, you new members,
you youth, you young adults? You don’t measure up!
Slander and malice, within the community of faith; and to that
the Lord says in a ringing rebuke, “I know your poverty .. you
are poor, although you are rich.” You may have money,
honey, but you are dirt poor in the things that count, things
like love for one another..
If there is any one thing I am here to do today, it is to preach,
“Love one another.” If there is any one message I am led to
proclaim today, it is, “Love one another, as I have loved you.”
You must know that there are people not here today because
they have felt estranged and hurt. There are members of
this congregation who have not been here for a while, and
when you ask them why, they tell you: “You’ve got some
people there who can be vicious. You’ve got some folks
whose hearts aren’t right.” There are people who would
have joined us, but they picked up the murmurs and they
heard the petty grumbles, and went running a mile a minute
in the opposite direction.
Now I hasten to say that there are many testimonies on the
other side. I hasten to assure you that there are plenty of
people who receive good care. I told you last week how
proud I was when many of you stepped forward for a hurting
family. This week I got a note from someone who spoke in
glowing terms of your response to her bereavement. We are
doing some things right. Some of us have got the idea. But,
oh my soul, as long as there is one person who cannot find
love here; as long as there is one church leader who runs
roughshod over those who disagree; as long as there is one
Sunday School teacher who belittles his students; as long as
there is one senior pastor who doesn’t hear it when
somebody needs counseling or who is running too fast to see
the pain of one of his flock – as long as anyone in the scope
of this fellowship feels that we are pursuing anything other
than loving one another, we have Kingdom work to do and
lots of it. For high among the things that money cannot buy
is love for one another.
If we do not have that, nothing else works. If we do not love
one another, our ministries will be drudgery and our
evangelism cold. If we do not love one another, the world
out there will know it in a heartbeat, and everything will be
lost, including the money. Love one another.
We begin today another year of work for the Kingdom.
There is much to be done. There are resources with which
to do it, more resources than ever before, praise God. And
yet, “I know your poverty and your affliction”, says the Lord.
“You are rich.” You have much. You have wealth. But your
true riches are that you have some people who love each
other and the Lord. You have opportunities for service. You
have unsaved people all around you. You have a calling to
fulfill. What else, people of God, could you want? What
else, indeed, except maybe this: “Be faithful until death, and I
will give you the crown of life.”
