The use of money

Sermon given at Grace UMC 2/28/16

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Scripture Reading:

^NRS  Luke 16:1 Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. ² So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' ³ Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' ⁵ So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' ⁶ He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' ⁷ Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.' ⁸ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. ⁹ And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. ¹⁰ "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. ¹¹ If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? ¹³ No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

When John Wesley wrote this sermon in 1760, life in England was difficult for the common person. Many of the people of his day had migrated to the towns and cities where jobs were available. The Industrial revolution was in full bloom and many of the factory workers lived lives of scarcity. They worked 12 to 14 hours a day for company script that could only be spent in the company store or numerous bars that sat outside the gates of the factories. Half the population lived lives barely surviving. Gin was cheap and available and Wesley led many a revival to the common people preaching against alcoholism. Religion was on the decline in the institutional church, sounds a bit like today, and the great George Whitefield and John Wesley preached on the streets. In fact many historians report that if not for John Wesley’s revival there would have been a civil war in England. So John Wesley writes this sermon amidst this current reality in his country. It by the way was one of his longest sermons though I will not try to break that record today.

We have all heard it said that money is the root of all evil. Matthew 6:21 reminds us that wherever our treasure is there is where our hearts will be. The only time God tells us to test God is in Malachi 3:10 where God tells us to bring our whole tithe to the storehouse and if we do that, God will open up the floodgates of heaven and pour out blessing in abundance. Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 5:10 that whoever loves money never has enough and whoever loves wealth will never be satisfied with what they have. And Hebrews 13:5 reminds us to keep our lives free from the love of money and to be content with what we have because God tells us that God will never leave us or forsake us. Jesus spoke more on the love of money than any other subject. Jesus constantly reminded us that we should place God first and God would provide for us. I can honestly say that over the course of my own life God has been constant in providing the things that I needed.

Wesley begins his sermon reminding us what God wants us to know. But he tells us that the fault does not lie in the money itself, rather, the fault lies in how we use it. Personal wealth is provided that we might do well with what we have. He remarked in his sermon that in Jerusalem, the disciples all gave what they had to the common pool that no one may find themselves in need for the essentials of life, food, shelter and comfort. The abundance we have is a gift of God and it is placed in the hands of God’s children to provide food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty and clothing for the naked.

Wesley would tell us to gain all that you can in life. He is saying that we are to work at being successful so that we can receive all the money and wealth that we can acquire in our life. This may seem a remarkable statement considering the scriptures that he has quoted and the direction we expected him to go. But he tells us to work diligently to earn as much as we can as fast as we can. He remands us to work honestly with integrity to earn it, doing whatever labor or skill that God has given us to earn our way. He admonishes us to earn that wealth in ways that do not deceive or steal from others in our efforts to get rich, but to find ways to use our hands and our minds to find success. Do not engage in illegal or immoral behaviors and do nothing to hurt your neighbor as you earn your wages. In today’s world there are so many ways to earn a living honestly if we are willing to set aside our egos and pride. I often struggle with young people in this area who will not move to where jobs are more abundant or will not take jobs they consider beneath them but instead remain out of work fighting alcoholism and addiction. This was true when John Wesley wrote this sermon and it is still true today.

Next Wesley tells us to save all we can. Rather than spend our money on new cars, new houses and new clothes, learn to be content with what we have and put our earnings in places that grow the money and accumulate it for the future. I wish that someone had taught me the 80-10-10 rule when I was younger. The rule is to learn to live on 80% of your wages, save 10% in a place that you will not touch and give the other 10% away to those who are in need. What a wonderful rule to reach our young people. Our children’s moment showed the power of compound interest in just 30 days’ time. We are told not to waste money on extravagant spending that we really don’t need. Marketing people are working hard to separate you from your money and will do anything to convince you how much you need something. We are not to worry about what others will say and we should not spend our money seeking the praise of others. Interestingly Wesley also says that we should not throw money away on our children or save it to leave to them when we die so that they can squander it away. I suspect he is quoting from the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

We have been told to gain all that we can as fast as we can and then to save all that we can. I remember in the 1970’s living in North Dakota, times had been good and young farmers were buying new combines and farm equipment. I worked briefly with an older farmer who had his old tractor and worked at keeping everything in tip top shape. He said that while the price of sunflowers and alfalfa, the two primary crops back then were at an all-time high, that the prices would fall. And when they did, the payments for those new combines would still be due. Wise wisdom from one who had lived through the Great Depression.

So Wesley comes to the final words of this sermon, Give all that you can. Wesley reminds us that we are all stewards of this great creation. That God put us here to care for all of creation. That means that we should care about how the land is cared for, how the air is kept clean from pollution and how the waterways are kept clean for drinking water and recreation. Fish cannot survive when we contaminate the seaways and rivers and when there are no fish to catch, no crops to harvest because the land is no longer fertile and the air is poison, we will all starve. I often wonder at the increase in skin cancer and digestive issues and the reality that our air and water is not the clean water of our grandparents. But John Wesley tells us to give all that we can to the world around us to make it a better place. We are told to love our neighbors and that love is best seen when we assure that no one in hungry, no one is without shelter and warmth. Jesus reminded us in Mark 12:17 to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Matthew 6: 19-20 tells us to not store up treasures here on other that can be taken or will not last but to store up our treasures in heaven where we will receive eternal reward.

Examine all that we do through prayer and guidance from the scriptures that God wants us to know. Gain all that you can as fast as you can, save all that you can and give all that you can. Sounds like a recipe for success.  

Why Me

Sermon given at Grace UMC 2/21/16

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Scripture Reading:

^NRS  Acts 9:1 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest  ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.  ³ Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"  ⁵ He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.  ⁶ But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."  ⁷ The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one.

 ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.  ⁹ For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. ¹⁰ Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." He answered, "Here I am, Lord."  ¹¹ The Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying,  ¹² and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight."  ¹³ But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem;  ¹⁴ and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name."  ¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel;  ¹⁶ I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." ¹⁷ So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."  ¹⁸ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized,  ¹⁹ and after taking some food, he regained his strength. For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus,  ²⁰ and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God."

Three young boys had been playing at being ministers. Now you may remember back to your childhood and remember that being a boy meant often being competitive. So they began to argue about who was the greatest preacher among them. One of the boys said, I know how we can settle it. Let us baptize something this week and the best baptism is the best preacher. At the end of the week two of the boys met up at the appointed hour and began to share their experiences. The first boy said he had gone home and his little brother had come to Christ as he poured water over his head. The second boy said well I did better than that, I went home and preached to my dog and he came to Christ and I sprinkled water over his head. Well they waited and waited and the third boy never showed so they walked over to his house. His mother told them he was in bed but they could visit with him. When they arrived in his bedroom they found him bandaged from head to toe. What happened they asked? He said, well, I wanted to be the best preacher I could be so I preached and preached. Then I decided it was time to baptize so I filled the tub with water and grabbed the cat to baptize it in the water and the devil came out of him as I dunked him. The moral of this story is babies and dogs are children of God, but those cats, hmmmm.

"Why Me?" is the first question we ask when tragedy strikes.

For some of us, the same question pops up when we have a flat tire. Or get a cold. Or get caught in a freak rain shower. Somewhere along the way, we have become convinced that life should be all good, all the time. If you are a Christian, you may believe God should protect you from every hardship, large and small. God is good, so life should be fair. But life isn't fair. You probably learned that lesson early from the schoolyard bully or the cruelty from the in crowd of girls. Just about the time you forget, you're reminded with another painful lesson that hurts as much as it did when you were ten years old.

It's not just that we think our life should be good because God is good. We have been conditioned in our western culture to have a low pain threshold, both physically and emotionally. We have shelves full of pain relievers to choose from, and people who don't like those turn to alcohol or illegal drugs. TV commercials tell us to pamper ourselves. Any type of unpleasantness is treated like an affront to our happiness. For most of us, famine, the ravages of war, and epidemics are images we watch on the news, not horrors we go through firsthand. We feel bad if our car is more than five years old.

Saul was on the road to Damascus to persecute them Christians. Saul was a devout Jew, brought up to believe that God was the center of his world. Saul was extremely zealous about the Lord’s work. So much so that maybe he got lost in the translation somewhere. Have you ever been doing something you thought was right only to later find out it was wrong? Paul thought that he was doing the work of the Lord. What he discovered instead was that he was persecuting God. For example, years ago a young lady was having an asthma attack. I had always been taught that when a person is having difficulty breathing that they need to breathe into a paper bag in order to stabilize their CO2. For an asthmatic, that is the worst thing to do. So in my ignorance I actually was not helping. So in a very simple sense, I can understand Saul doing what he thought was right and then I also understand what emotions one has when you discover that you were wrong. Fortunately in my case, no one got hurt. But Saul who is also called Paul was responsible for people’s lives.

On the road to Damascus he encounters God. When the light of God shined down upon him, surely he knew that something special was happening. When he heard the voice surely he knew that God was speaking to him but I suspect because of the message he was confused. Wouldn’t you be? Thinking you are working for God only to have God ask you why you are persecuting me. And it is that to which he responds. Who are you that I am persecuting you? Or it might be interpreted, why are you speaking to me. Haven’t you ever done something unwittingly and had someone let you know. At that moment when you think you are right you are confused as to why they are calling you out. And so it was with Saul.

Saul is convicted of his wrong doing by Jesus. I can imagine the moment he realizes that Jesus is who he said he was. Now he must deal with the emotions that not only was he wrong in his zealous persecution of Christians, but now he carries the guilt of Stephen and the other martyrs that he was personally responsible for. Remember that Saul is at the least, an accessory to Stephen’s murder. Can’t you imagine the hurt and anguish that is going on inside of Saul at that moment? Maybe here is the real reason that he never uses his Hebrew given name. He is so ashamed of his Hebrew roots that he can no longer call himself by that name. Who knows for sure except Saul who is also Paul? In those days it was not uncommon for a Hebrew man to have a given name like Saul and a Roman name like Paul. So from this point on we never hear him use the name Saul again. But let us look closely at what happens to him. For three days he is blinded by the light of God who has convicted him. For three days he must depend on others to lead him. It tells us that he fasted, neither eating nor drinking. I wonder if you knew that you had upset God if your desire for redemption would be so great that you would almost feel like giving up your life for death. Judas did just that? Paul spends those three days in contemplation, reflection, fear and anxiety. What is God going to do with me? What will happen to me? Have I lost my eternal promise forever because of my foolishness? Would not these thoughts have been your thoughts? The scriptures tell us that Paul is converted at this moment and become the most important disciple of Christianity. He will go from this experience and bring the message to millions, shaping the church that we know today. But it began with God calling him out.

This scripture is important to you and me. It is important because it reminds us that God can and will use even the most unlikely person to do the great works of God. Paul, a murder and a man who was persecuting the very people of God, becomes one of the greatest evangelists of all time. If God can use Paul in this way, imagine what he can do with you and me. But in order to use us, God may have to convict us. Have you been convicted of loving God beyond all else? But loving God is not enough is it? Paul loved God. There is something else that we need to understand. We live our lives today loving God but many of us are persecuting God at the same moment. When we deny God at our workplace or in our daily lives by doing the things we know that God does not want us to do. Many of us are living in the moment and living selfish lives that are all about us. We have heard the message of God’s love but we ignore it either because we think it is not for us or that we do not deserve. Or we know that what we are doing is wrong and we refuse to repent. Or maybe you think I will make this right in time. The only thing that you must hope for is that there is enough time. Many people in the earliest days of the church refused to be baptized until near death because they did not want to have to live their lives in a right relationship with God thinking there is always time. I wonder how many of them are now looking toward heaven wishing they were there. I have also heard many young people tell me they are just not ready. Would you be ready to win the Publisher’s Clearing House if they knocked at your door? Sure you would. So why are you waiting for something infinitely more rewarding than that.

God can use us wherever we are. Our present lives are no obstacle to God. No matter where you are and no matter what you are doing right this moment, God can use us. Here is one of the most important messages you will ever hear. God loves you so much that no matter where you have been, no matter what you have done, God’s love can overcome it. God’s promise is not for those who have lived perfect lives only. In fact, most of us have messed up once or twice. Some of us more than that! Paul caused the followers of Jesus to be put to death, imprisoned, punished and abused. And yet, God called Paul to one of the greatest ministries we know. God is not concerned with your personal characteristics. Paul was a small man with a gravelly voice. He was passionate to the point of being abrasive. Yet, he reached thousands. Moses stuttered. David had a man murdered so he could have his wife. All of these are counted among the greats for God. So why not us? 

I want to ask you a question this morning. We are in the season of Lent. Lent is a time to reflect on who we are, redefine who we want to be and shape our lives as Disciples of Christ. So ask yourselves this morning. Are you really saved or have you been living your life as a good person, baptized, a church member and coming to church when it is convenient? Or do you really believe and work daily at being a Disciple of Christ? Have you surrendered to the power of the cross? During every waking moment is there a desire within you to live for Christ? Would you die for your faith? Do you leave time in your day to be in conversation with God and to be used by God? Are you in a position where if God called you could give to God? Are you willing to be used by God no matter what God may ask of you? Maybe you are like I used to be and the answer to most of these questions is Maybe. Don’t be surprised if one day you get a wakeup call from God. But don’t wait. God is calling each of us today to be in right relationship with God because God loves us all.

Love is the Key

Sermon given at Grace UMC 2/14/16

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Scripture Reading:

^NRS  1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. ⁹ For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; ¹⁰ but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. ¹³ And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Today we are pulling materials from two of John Wesley’s sermons. The first is titled Original Sin from 1759 and the second is titled God’s Love to Fallen Man from 1782.

The writers and intellectuals of John Wesley’s day began to explore the ideas of enlightenment, that human beings were both innocent and perfect from birth and because of that there was in fact no such thing as original sin. Since there was no sin there was no need for God and for divine grace. Some things haven’t changed in the last 250 plus years. In fact John Wesley argues they have even gone so far as to say that in reality we are created just a little less than God. But if that is true, Wesley asks, “…what must we do with our Bibles? For they will never agree with this.” [i] 

Wesley suggests that if we were born and never educated about God, we would never have a relationship with God. He uses the example of infants raised without being spoken to who develop no language outside of infant babbling raising the reality that language is learned just as everything else. We know that children must be taught how to reason between right and wrong. Without such education children become little more than animals fighting and manipulating for what they desire. That leads to the conclusion then that what God saw before the flood is in fact the reality of human behavior. The truth is we are born with a self-centered brain focused on what we need, desire and want. Our very nature then is selfish and evil in that we don’t consider the impact on others, only that we are satisfied in our desires. We know for example that there is a ruler in China. We may even have seen his picture or heard his name, but if we were to meet him on the street would probably not know him. So it is with God. If we never have the chance to meet God, the opportunity to learn of God, we would not know God nor desire a relationship with God. No human being loves God by our very nature anymore than we might love a rock or a sunset. So in our inherent nature we invent God. That is why we create idols to replace the emptiness we sense without the knowledge of what that emptiness represents. So we go about our lives doing what we want and to who we want because it is our inherent nature to do so.

So what then separates us from goats or other types of animal? Wesley would suggest that nothing. The strong among us would find a way to bully the weak and control them into submission. What we see we desire and our nature is to have it any cost. So what then is the answer?

God loves us unconditionally and unendingly. I have often been told that my answer is too simple, that is truly must be more complicated than what I say. There must be rules, doctrines and guidelines that I am not telling and I am using this simplistic explanation to suck people in. But the reality is that it is simply that God loves us unconditionally and unendingly, nothing more, nothing less. We make it difficult because we want to believe that life everything else it life, it can’t be simple and uncomplicated. God loves us unconditionally and unendingly.

In a sense we need to be glad that Adam fell. “For if Adam had not fallen, Christ had not died.”[ii] Could God have prevented Adam’s indiscretion? Absolutely but to what end. If Adam had not had the freedom to sin then “free will” meant nothing and the love of God means nothing. God did not create human beings with intelligence and choice only to attach strings that made creation out to be a puppet show. Because Adam sinned, the world has the ability to know and experience grace. If we never fail we can never truly succeed since it is in failure that we recognize our weakness and seek to find our strength. So our failures led God to send us Jesus out of God’s love for us. Through Jesus we have the opportunity to experience that love first hand.

Today is the day we celebrate love. It is if you will, one day we set apart during the year to recognize relationship and we find ways to express our relationship with each other especially those special to us. But why one day alone each year? Why not every day. Well the answer is probably buried in the background of Hallmark, Candy makers and those who stand to gain millions of dollars from setting aside one day. God wants us to know love every single day of the year. Jesus came to the earth not to bring atonement for sin alone, but more importantly to bring the knowledge of relationship and love. If we view Jesus from the viewpoint of atonement alone, then we center our human existence on what Adam did as the central view of what God created. But God created us perfect, created the world in a desire to bring love into physical reality, and we are the ones that perverted that, not God.

Richard Rohr writes that it was God’s plan all along to bring Jesus into the world. That the 14.8 million years since creation began, God has intended all along to bring Jesus into the world. Not to bring atonement but to allow us to learn about God. Jesus came not to change how God is in relationship with us but how we are in relationship with God.

So what does perfect love look like? I read a poster just the other day that sums up perfect love in a wonderful way. It said, “You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. Jesus came to teach us to look at the world perfectly. To see the love that weaves its way in the flaws of humanity, in the creases of age, in the beauty of a sunset and in the imperfections of our bodies. What lies within all of those things is the love that God gives each day, reaching out to us in a desire for us to feel the warmth of an embrace, the whisper of a kiss and the fullness of being loved. Today is the day when we have the opportunity to go out and change the world. It cannot be done through violence, deceit or manipulation. It can only be done when people understand that you care about them in an authentic genuine way. Paul sums it up well when he wrote these words, “⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant  ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;  ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  ⁸ Love never ends.”

As we go from this place today let us go with a desire to open our hearts to the world around us. Let us go forth from this place in a desire to share love with everyone we encounter. That is the way of the early disciples. Let it be our way too.   

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[i] Outler, Albert and Heitzenrater, Richard, John Wesley’s Sermons, 1991, Abingdon Press, Nashville, page 326

[ii] Ibid, page 477