RCL texts this week are:
- I Kings 17:8-16
- Psalm 146 (my fave!)
- Hebrews 9:24-28
- Mark 12:38-44
So, I apologize for making everyone – myself included – a little
anxious and uncomfortable today. But
take heart – we’re all anxious and uncomfortable together, it’s not just
you. :) And here’s the other thing – and why I wanted
to tackle this today. The church, in
many places, has gotten into the unfortunate habit of only talking about money
when the church is asking for money. We often get trapped in the cycle of saying, ick, money, awkward, but hey, we need a new roof, or
a new Sunday School wing or to pay the electric bill, and besides, there are
starving children in Africa, so, time to fork it over – God says be good
stewards, after all. And then we all
feel guilty, and nobody wants to say, look, I barely managed to pay rent this
month, or hey, maybe if the confirmation class would remember to turn out the
lights when they leave or…whatever. Am I
right?
But that’s a really bad habit to get into – first, because
one of the things that we believe as Christians is that God cares about and
wants to be a part of every aspect of our lives – money included. And like it or not, money is a huge part of
our life. Take a minute and think about
the last day when you did not in any way interact with money – you didn’t
pay any bill, go to the coffee shop or grocery store, give your kids allowance,
shop online, buy gas, go to the ATM, transfer funds from savings to checking,
cash a paycheck, find a five dollar bill in the pocket of your winter coat, anything. When was the last time you had a day like
that? And if you can think of a day like
that, can you think of a whole week?
So
if God cares about us, and every part of our lives, then surely he cares about
money, yes? And second, as Christians,
we believe that God gave us the Bible because it is, at its most basic level, information
that He wants us to have. And the Bible,
it turns out, talks about money a lot.
Depending on how you define “talking about money”, I’ve seen figures
that say anywhere from 800 to 2300 verses about money – wealth, debt, saving,
budgeting, etc. So if the Bible isn’t
shy about talking about money, we in the church shouldn’t be either,
right? Besides, most of us know that
when we ignore the subject for too long in our own lives – if we never look at
bank statements, for example – that’s when things start to fall apart.
So, have I convinced you?
Can we talk a little bit about money now without being too amped
up? Alright, here we go…
First thing to be aware of is this: poverty and wealth are
not, in and of themselves, good or bad.
Your bank account, on the basis of numbers alone, does not represent a
moral value. Being poor, or being rich,
is not inherently better, or inherently worse.
In the Bible, there are stories about rich people and poor people whose
prayers are answered, whose faith is held up as an example to others, who give
generously to God and other people.
There are also stories about rich people and poor people who turn away
from God, and who do not follow or believe in Jesus, and who are miserly and
stingy. So…from the perspective of sheer
moral value, the playing field is level.
So, what does God
care about, then, in relationship to money?
There are three main things – and I’ll mention the first briefly, and
then talk a little more about the last two.
First, God cares about how you get the money you do have – whether you
are rich or poor, are you obtaining the money you have through fraud or
dishonesty? If you’re a rich business
owner, are you overworking and underpaying your employees, so that you’ll have
more money for yourself? Are you
charging customers more than the goods or services you provide are worth? That’s stealing. If you’re poor, did the five dollars you have
to your name come from pickpocketing someone on the bus? No matter how much you need the money, it’s
still stealing.
Second and third – and I mention these together because they
are very closely linked – what do you believe about the money you
have, and what do you do with the money you have? (And let me warn you here – the answers aren’t
as straightforward as you think!)
When we say the Apostles Creed in worship every Sunday, we
start with the first section – “I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator
of heaven and earth.” What does this
mean, though? Martin Luther explains it
this way in the Small Catechism: I believe that God has made me and all
creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my limbs,
my reason, and all my senses, and still preserves them; in addition thereto,
clothing and shoes, meat and drink, house and homestead, spouse and children,
fields, cattle, and all my goods; that He provides me richly and daily with all
that I need to support this body and life, protects me from all danger, and
guards me and preserves me from all evil; and all this out of pure, fatherly,
divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me; for all of which
I owe it to Him to thank, praise, serve, and obey Him.”
Yikes, that's a lot.
A little more simply stated is the Lord’s Prayer, when we pray “give us this day our
daily bread,” which has a similar meaning as the first part of the Creed: Daily
bread is “everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as
meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a
pious spouse, pious children, pious servants,
good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends,
faithful neighbors, and the like." And we
know, even as we pray this prayer, that “God gives daily bread, even without
our prayer; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it, and
to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.”
So let me ask you a tough question – is this your attitude
towards your money and all of the things that money buys? Do you believe that “I worked for it, I
earned it, it’s mine!” Or do you believe
that, yes, you work hard, and you are honest and wise and make good decisions
about your money and property, but that, ultimately, what you have comes from
God?
Because what we believe – what we know, our attitude toward –
what we have changes how we act. Think
about how you treat dandelions growing in your yard, versus dandelions that
your child picked from the yard and brought inside to give you.
What we believe
about what we have changes what we do with
what we have. And the inverse is also
true: what we do with what we have reflects what we believe
about what we have. And that’s what this
morning’s gospel reading from Mark is getting at. Sometimes this story is explained as “aaaand,
that’s why you should give all your money to church, look at that poor widow, she
did it, so should you.” But this story
is not about draining your bank account for the Kingdom. In fact, if you are down to your last dollar,
please don’t put it in the offering plate this morning. Let us know if that’s your situation, so that
the church can help you. No, this story
is more about is “do we believe that all that we have comes from God, and do we
trust God to somehow or another provide us with everything that we need?”
This is Jesus’ point – while it is good that rich people contributed
large sums of money, that action says little about their understanding of God,
or of their wealth. They were doing what
they knew they were supposed to do, and that is all. (And yes, we should do
what we know we’re supposed to do – Jesus isn’t condemning acting out of duty
or obligation – notice that he doesn’t say that what the rich people were doing was wrong.)
What he is saying is that the widow, although she gave very little,
demonstrated her trust that even what very little she had came from God, and
her trust that God would continue to provide for her.
And that’s what I really want you to take away from this –
God can be trusted to provide. Because
this sermon isn’t about trying to guilt you into giving more money to this,
that, or the other thing. The point of
this sermon is to remind you that what we do with what we have reflects what we
believe about what we have.
And what I
want to promise you – what I desperately hope you believe – is that God can be
trusted to provide. In the Old Testament
reading today, the widow trusted what Elijah said – that God would provide, and
the flour, and the oil would not run out.
The New Testament reading, from the letter to the Hebrews, says that God
can be trusted to provide for our salvation – that’s what Jesus’ sacrifice on
the cross was – God’s way of providing for our greatest need – for our sins to
be forgiven and thereby reconnected to God.
That’s what Psalm 146 says – blessed are those who have the Lord as
their hope, because he does provide – He is the Maker of heaven
and earth, the sea, and everything in them— he remains faithful
forever. He
upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives
food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the foreigner and
sustains the fatherless and the widow.
God can be trusted to provide.
If you’re sitting here today, and you are
in a state of material and financial comfort – if you have enough or more than
enough to live on, then you know that God has provided for you. If, on the other hand, you’re sitting here
today, and like the widow in the gospel story are down to your last two coins,
then God has also provided for you. He
has brought you to this church today full of people who love Him and who love
you and care about you and are ready to help you.
To all of us – no matter our financial
situation – God can be trusted to provide.
He has provided for our salvation, he has and will continue to provide
for our daily bread.
So there was a sermon about money for you –
that wasn’t so bad, now was it? Just remember: what we do with what we have reflects what we believe about what we have – and what we believe is that God can
provide, God does provide, and God will provide – for all of our needs.
Amen.
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