Dancing Around Money
Based
on a message by William G. Carter.
Jackson Snyder,
1994
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PREVIEW What the Bible Says about Stewardship A.Q. Van Benschoten
Mark
10:17-31 (24. "Children, how hard it is for those who
trust in riches to enter the kingdom of G-d!”)
Exodus 20:2"I
am Yahweh your god, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house
of bondage. 3"You shall have no other gods before Me.”
“Gain
all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” (Wesley)
We Dance
Around the Issue of Money
Stanley Hauerwas, a professor at
Stanford, has an idea about how churches should receive new members. Whenever
people join the church, they should publicly answer four questions: (1) Who is
your Lord and Savior? (2) Do you seek
to be his disciple? (3) Will you be a faithful member of this congregation? (4)
How much money do you have? You heard
me right. When people join the church, Dr. Hauerwas thinks they ought to tell
what they’re worth. Obviously, the
professor doesn't serve as a pastor. His idea wouldn't work, since income
figures are more sacred than prayers.
What's more, parish experience tempers the kind of questions a minister
asks of members. Most ministers learn how
to dance around money without ever mentioning it.
A young minister was serving his first
congregation. He asked the Lay Leader to put out a sign with the words,
"Stewardship Sunday." He wrote a sermon about money and preached it
that Sunday. Afterwards, a lady came up to him and said, "Pastor, thank
you for that sermon. When I saw the sign outside, I was a little anxious about
you speaking on the subject of our money. But your sermon calmed my
fears." The minister replied,
"Did I say something helpful?"
The lady said, "Oh, it was better than that! Today you said absolutely nothing at
all."
It’s tempting to say “nothing at all”
about money in church. We talk about bills, the cost of Sunday School
curricula, apportionments and mission projects. But the conversation usually
remains on the good works of the church. Any mention of money seems
out-of-place. That is, until a great
deal of money is approved and spent on some project. After the fact, folks will talk money, money, money.
Dear Abby received a letter about church
contributions that illustrates the point:
Dear Abby: We are not overly religious
people, but we do like to go to church once in a while. It seems to me that
every time we turn around, we are hit for money. I thought religion was free. I
realize that churches have to have some money, but I think it is getting to be
a racket. Just what do churches do with all their money? Curious in North
Jersey.
Abby wrote back, Dear Curious: Even
ministers must eat! Since they work
full-time at their tasks, their churches must support them. Buildings must be
maintained, heated, lighted and beautified.
Custodial staff must eat and feed their families. Most churches engage
in philanthropic work (aid to the needy, missions, and education); hence, they
have their financial obligations. Even orchids, contrary to folklore, do not
live on air. Churches can't live on air either. Religions, like water, may be
free, but when they pipe it to you, you've got to help pay for the piping and
the piper.
It's good to hear Abby spell out and
approve the typical church budget. Yet she’s shortsighted in two ways. First,
when we give to the church, we are doing more than supporting an institution;
we are participating in the Savior’s work within and without these
walls. The utility bills, salaries, premiums and supplies are all means to a
far greater end. If the Holy Spirit has descended upon this church and people,
then I, for one, want to support what he’s doing through people like you and
me.
The second problem is the assumption that
religion should be "free of charge."
There are plenty of cheap religions!
Our faith is costly. It demands a radical commitment. Those who
would follow Yahshua must pick up their crosses and give their lives
just as he gave his for us. True religion costs plenty.
The Heart of
the Text
That brings us to the Gospel text. It
begins as a success story. Yahshua is preaching about the Kingdom, traveling
here and there. Somebody runs up, kneels down, and says, "Yahshua, what
must I do to gain the eternal life you’ve been preaching about?" That's the kind of question Yahshua wants
to hear. For seven chapters he’s been surrounded by disciples who chase away
children, quiver in disbelief and argue over which of them is the greatest.
Finally, here's an honest seeker who wants to know what it takes.
Yahshua discusses the ethics of the law: don't murder, don't witness falsely,
don't steal, take care of your old folks, keep the Sabbath. Do these things and
live. The man says, "I do all those things." Isn’t he good?
The Gospel writer says that Yahshua
"loved" this man. In Mark, this is the only place where it mentions
that Yahshua loved anyone. Usually he’s too busy, going immediately here
and immediately there. He heals one sick person after another. He shouts
at storms and casts out demons. He never slows down to love anybody, even his
disciples. In Mark, the twelve are knuckleheads who stand around
scratching whenever Yahshua says or does anything significant. Mark never says
Yahshua loved Peter, James, John, or the others. But he insists Yahshua loved this
man. Maybe that's because (a) the man actively sought out the Kingdom and
(b) he did what the Law of Yahweh commanded -- at least by all outward
appearances.
But something’s amiss. This is also the only
time in Mark's Gospel when Yahshua invites someone to follow and that
someone can’t. The reason for the refusal is given: "He went away
grieving, for he had many possessions" (Mark 10:22).
"There
Must Be More Money"
Maybe professor Hauerwas is right after
all. Maybe we can't follow Yahshua
until we can come clean about the role of possessions in our lives: For mammon
can become our center and things our hand-made gods
competing with Yahweh for our time and affection. Let me ask you a question: Which do you know best, the
Almighty or the almighty dollar? Be
honest. As someone notes, "Money
has no material force except as people attribute force to it. Money would be
absolutely nothing, materially speaking, without human consent." Despite this fact, there are occasions when
the desire for money and goods -- for having them, holding them, keeping them
-- becomes more important than anything else.
D.H. Lawrence tells a story about a
family with a boy and two little girls. They lived in a nice house in a nice neighborhood,
yet there was the constant anxiety of never having enough money. Both
mother and father had small incomes, but not enough to reach their goals. The
father pursued business leads that never materialized and investments that rose
then fell. The mother tried to make extra money through working long hours,
which etched deep lines into her face. Their home was haunted with the phrase,
"We need more money." No one
ever said it aloud, least of all the children. But the words filled the house, whispered
by the minds of the parents until the children could hear it all
the time. “We need more money.” “We
need more money.” They would often stop
playing or studying to listen. “We need more money.” The whisper was everywhere; that’s why no one needed to speak the
words aloud. It’s just like no one ever
says, "We’re breathing," despite the air of breath moving around us
all the time. That whispering breath
can be felt in a lot of homes. “We need more money,” even though, like
breath, money is coming and going all the time.
Fortunately, only two kinds of people want
more money -- those who don't have it and those who do. Yahshua loves the rich man enough to tell
him the truth: "You lack something, brother." What “something” could he be talking about? The man had everything. To have everything, including eternal
life, was his life-long goal. That
made him a conscientious commandment-breaker. Which commandment? The
first. The soft, comfortable chains of
a false god had him bound and tied. He
was not free to follow Yahshua and gain what he wanted next – eternal
life. He had everything but that,
and that couldn’t be bought.
To Become
Free
Yahshua didn’t command his friend to take a
vow of poverty. Neither did he take an
offering to empty his pockets. But he summoned his friend to cut all ties to
the gods that enslaved and entangled him. He invited the man to become free:
free from the demonic need to possess and control things and people; free from
gauging his importance by his possessions; free from the invisible
entanglements of wealth's tentacles; free from the quiet, deadly grip of
materialism. The gospel lesson
proclaims good news and bad news this morning. The good news is nobody who
clings to his material possessions can ever enter the Kingdom. Or is that bad
news? The good news is anything is
possible with Yahweh; His Holy Spirit has the power to purge us of all our
possessiveness. Or is that bad news? Decide for yourself.
One thing’s for sure. If we want to
follow Yahshua and possess life, this most valuable commodity of all,
we’d better brace ourselves. He calls us to serve a god who loves us but a god
who will keep disturbing us until we finally relinquish our grip on
the false security of our false gods. Once we say yes to him and begin to
follow, we can expect holy disruptions in our lives until that day when
Yahweh alone will purge and possess our hearts for the eternity we seek.