Luke 12: 13-21 (NRSV)
Do
you remember the old joke about the priest, rabbi, and the televangelist?
A priest, rabbi and
televangelist were playing their usual Wednesday round of golf, and started
discussing their weekly collections. They began to compare how they decided
what portion of the collection to keep for themselves and what portion to give
to God.
The rabbi explains:
"I draw a circle around myself and toss the money in the air. Whatever
lands in the circle I keep for myself. Whatever lands outside the circle, I
give to God."
The priest then adds:
"I use a similar method, except that whatever lands in the circle I give
to God, and whatever lands outside the circle I keep for my personal
needs."
The televangelist then
proclaims: "I also use the same method. Except, that I toss the money in
the air and I figure that whatever God wants, he can take."
Tithing is one thing,
but how do we return God’s abundant blessings? Stewardship!
Money and possessions
are not easy topics for serious sermons and discussions in the church. Most of
us would not like to be placed in the uncomfortable position of being forced to
give up our wealth and possessions or to even talk about the need to fundraise
in the church. But it works the other way too.
Let me tell you a true
story of a church in Georgia. A few years ago a church had an anonymous donor,
who did not attend the church, make annual donations of about
$100,000 to the church. The church is a 350-member congregation with an annual
budget of less than $300,000.
Members of the church weren’t surprised when the man bequeathed
money to the church after he died. But there was stunned silence among the
assembled members when the pastor broke the news that the man had owned 49
percent of the region’s Camden Telephone Company and had left the church $60
million.
“This is a number that doesn’t have any reality,” the
pastor said. The man’s will gave no instructions on how the money was to be
used, so the church has set up an advisory board to decide how to handle the
money.
The church has been besieged by calls from people asking
for money. The pastor admits worrying that greed could consume his
congregation. “How do we remain a Christian church with all this money?” he wonders.
Jesus would agree that the challenge is a dangerous one: Luke 12: 13-21 -
Someone in the
crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance
with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator
over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds
of greed: for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
Then he told
them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to
himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’
Then he said, ‘I
will do this: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will
store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample
goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’
But God said to
him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the
things you have prepared, whose will they be?’
So it is with
those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
Honoře
de Balzac wrote, “As a rule, only the poor are generous.” Jesus agrees.
As
a general rule some folks give and then try to retain the right to what their
gift is used for. This is especially true in churches.
A
church member angrily complained to the pastor that the church had purchased
five new brooms, and he felt the purchase was unnecessary and wasteful.
The
pastor mentioned it to the church treasurer, who responded, “No wonder he was
upset. How would you feel if you saw everything you gave in the past year tied
up in five brooms?”
St.
Francis of Assisi preached, “…it is in the giving that we receive, it is in
pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal
life.”
John
Raleigh Mott said, “The world asks, ‘How much does he give?’ Christ asks why
does he give?”
One
Sunday morning the pastor encouraged his congregation to consider the potential
of the church.
He
told them, “With God’s help we can see the day when this church will go from
crawling to walking.”
And
the people responded, “Let the church walk, pastor; let the church walk.”
He
continued, “And when the church begins to walk, next the church can begin to
run.”
And
the people shouted, “Let the church run, pastor; let the church run.”
The
pastor continued, “And finally the church can move from running to flying. Oh,
the church can fly! But of course it’s going to take a lot of money for that to
happen!”
The
congregation grew quiet, and from the back someone mumbled, “Let the church
walk, pastor; let the church walk.”
Instead we concentrate on accumulating possessions.
Did you know that the people in the United States
possess about 1.9 billion square feet of personal storage space outside of the
home? This self-storage space is in nearly 40,000 facilities owned and operated
by more than 2,000 companies such as Public Storage, Storage USA, and Shur-gard.
According to a recent survey, the owners of one of every
nine homes rent a self-storage space. This represents an increase of 75 percent
since 1995.
As the amount of storage space required by homeowners
has grown, so has the average size of the American house. The National
Association of Homebuilders reports that the average American house increased from
1,660 square feet in 1973 to 2,400 square feet in 2004, and it’s close to 3,000
feet today.
So let’s get this straight — houses get bigger, average
family sizes get smaller, yet we still need to tack on almost two billion
square feet of extra space to store our stuff? We have been blessed as the
wealthy landowner was blessed, haven’t we?
But
what about spiritual growth and eternal preparations?
If
we can’t follow God’s request to be generous with the abundance He has given thenlet me give you a final piece of wisdom
you can understand with simple human logic:
One
day a famer sat in front of his house, smoking his corncob pipe. Along came a
stranger who asked, “How’s your cotton coming?” “Ain’t got none,” was the
answer, “Didn’t plant none. ‘fraid of the boll weevil.”
“Well
how’s your corn?” “Didn’t plant none, ‘fraid o’ drought.” “How about your
potatoes?” “Ain’t got none, scairt o’ tater bugs.” “Well,” finally asked the
stranger, “what did you plant?”
“Nothin’,”
answered the farmer. “I just played it safe.”
Likewise
a lot of churches and Christians are playing it safe as well. The rich man in
Jesus’ parable thought he could play it safe too. He left God out of his wealth.
But
out of the abundance that God has given He expects some to be returned to build
up and strengthen His kingdom to reach out to His people. It is not wealth that
is important but how that wealth is used. If we can’t do this then God
considers us as good as dead.
Remember
the story of Peter and John in Acts chapter 3: They encounter a lame man
begging in the Temple who asks for their help. Listen (Acts 3: 4-8):
Peter, along
with John, looked at him intently and said, “Look at us.” So he turned to them,
expecting to get something from them. But Peter said, “I have neither silver
nor gold, but what I have, I give to you; in the name of Jesus Christ the
Nazarene, get up and walk!”
Then, taking him by the right hand he raised
him up, and at once his feet and ankles became strong. So he jumped up, stood,
and started to walk, and he entered the Temple complex with them – walking,
leaping, and praising God.
God
would not have us be stingy with the abundance he has given – wealth includes
time, talent, and wisdom. All can be shared to build His kingdom and lift
others out of the burden of sin.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment