Last week Samantha asked me if I would rather have too much or too little? Would you rather have too much or too little? I had to think about it for a moment, and then I said too much, and there are some things we would rather have too much of it, but then it occurred to me that I wouldn’t really like to have too much pain, or sorrow, or illness. On the flip side, we might like to have less of those things, or something else, but we wouldn’t want to have less happiness or joy or laughter. I think sometimes we think the same thing about money. We want to have more money rather than less, right, but at the same time we also know that have too much can bring problems, and there is also a sort of guilt that comes with having too much money, although perhaps we all think we’d like to be a little more guilty than we are. But, it’s that idea that leads us into today’s message continuing in our series looking at Wesley’s rules on Money. As I said last week, as people began to follow some of the expectations that Wesley had set down on how to live your life if you were going to be part of the Methodist movement, people found themselves doing better economically, which we’ll hear about more next week, and so Wesley felt he needed to respond to new economic issues and he laid down three rules, the first was to gain all you can, or as James Harnish said, to earn all you can, the second was to save all you can, and the third rule was to give all you can.
Now today we start with the first rule, and for most people it is the rule that is most surprising and that is being told to make as much money as you can. That’s shocking because of some of the comments that Jesus makes that would seem to contradict such an instruction, like that it’s easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than it is for someone who is rich to get into the kingdom of God. That would seem to say that being rich is a problem, and Wesley would actually agree with that, but it’s dependent upon why we are seeking money and more importantly what are we doing with that money. Wesley says that “the right use of money” is “an excellent branch of Christian wisdom… inculcated by our Lord on all his followers.” And then says of Christians, who don’t normally talk about such things, that they “generally do not consider… the use of this excellent talent. Neither do they understand how to employ it to the greatest advantage; the introduction of which into the world is one admirable instance of the wise and gracious providence of God.”
So, it’s not that Wesley was not concerned about problems that arise with money, because he certainly was and there are several sermons in his collected works about the danger of wealth. But, if we are to understand that God owns everything, then we need to understand that all money also belongs to God, and so therefore we need to understand that rather than shying away from it and denying wealth, instead we need to be seeing it as a tool for other purposes. Because money by itself has no attributes, either positive or negative. It simply is. We are the ones who give money, or wealth, or possessions, either positive or negative connotations. Wesley, referencing me several hundred years before I was born, reminds us that it is not that money is not the root of all evil, but it is the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil. The world may be corrupt, Wesley says, but it is not gold or silver that makes it so, that rests with those who use money inappropriately or seek it for the wrong reasons. But when we see money as a gift from God, and a tool to be used for the furthering of God’s kingdom, then we can see that money in the hands of God’s children, “it is food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, raiment for the naked… it is therefore of the highest concern that all who fear God know how to employ this valuable talent.”
Now, when we think about talent, we normally think of it the way that Wesley is using it here, as a gift or special skill that is natural to us, and something we can ignore or use to their full potential. As Christians, we also understand that these skills, these talents, to be given to us by God, and therefore we have to use them, and so the gospel passage we heard from this morning, known as the parable of the talents, has often been interpreted this way, and I’ve even preached that message myself. But, talent, and the way Jesus is using it in this passage, is about money. A talent was equal to around 15 to 20 years of the average workers income. According to the bureau of labor statistics, the average worker in the US makes around $44,000 a year, so the person who receives five talents is given $220,000, two talents is $88,000 and of course you know how much one is worth. This is not an insignificant amount of money that’s being given here, and contrary to what the third slave says at the end, I think indicates the generosity that is being displayed by their master.
These three people then do different things. Two of them go out and use the money and double what they had received, while the third buries his money in the ground, which was apparently a common practice at the time in order to protect it and keep it from being stolen. The parable doesn’t tell us what the two did to increase their money, but investing in something does take on some level of risk. It also doesn’t tell us how long they had to double their money. I think the common perception of this story is that they are doing amazing in their investments, but what we know is that the master comes back “after a long time.” Which actually means that they could have been pretty conservative in their investments, but they had long enough in order to get a good return. Does anyone know the financial rule of 72? What is says is that if you divide 72 by the interest rate you are receiving it will show you how long it will take you to double your money. So, if you are receiving 6% it will take you 12 years, and if you receive 10% it will take 7.2 years. Now this is not an exact number, and it has to be changed for interest rates lower than 6 or higher than 11, but still easier than trying to figure out the logarithm in your head. It also doesn’t account for compound interest, but again it’s supposed to be simple. The other piece is that we should remember is that the higher the rate of the return, in general, the more risky is the investment, and the lower the rate of return the lower the risk of investment. So, if you’re getting just 1%, it’s pretty safe, that’s why the third slave is chastised and told that if he was afraid of taking any risk, he should have at least given the money to bankers so that it would at the least have earned some level of interest, rather than actually losing total value, and so he is accused of being wicked and lazy.
I preached on this parable not too long after the financial meltdown in 2008 and remember people wanting to have a lot more sympathy with the third slave, with some wishing that they had just buried their money in the ground rather than seeing some of the losses they saw. Because taking risks is, well, risky. But, while I can sympathize, I don’t think that the first two slaves get rewarded necessarily because they doubled their money. Instead, they get rewarded because they were willing to do something about it, and the reward was not also dependent upon the amount the returned, because both of them are initially given exactly the same reward and both of them are told that they are “good and trustworthy.” The difference is they were willing to go out and do something. Is there any indication that if they had lost it all they would have been in trouble? We might try and read that into the story, but it’s simply not there. To me, and I could be wrong, I don’t think they were rewarded for doubling their money, and I don’t think they would have been punished if they had lost money, because this is about being engaged in the world. It’s about living. It’s about investing. It’s about taking risks with the generosity that God has given us. As we say, it’s better to have loved and lost then to have never loved at all. It’s about not sitting back and letting things happen, or not doing anything, but about going out and working, of engaging with the world and gaining what we can.
Now, the conclusion to this story is sort of counter to what we normally hear from Jesus as he says, “For to those who have, more will be given… but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” To help understand this, we have to know that this parable is told in the midst of passages dealing with eschatology, that is the end of time, so Jesus is telling us how to be prepared, to be ready, to be engaged with the world, and that we will be rewarded for doing so. This parable is followed immediately by the parable of the sheep and the goats, in which we are told that whatever we do to the least of these is what we do to Jesus himself. So, although a talent is about money, this is not Jesus saying that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and that this is the way God works. Instead, I think it’s Jesus saying, as he does in another parable, “from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.” (Luke 12:48b)
In some ways this is also similar to what we heard in the proverbs about work, that if you are lazy that bad things will happen to you, but if you are industrious, if you work, that you will become prosperous. It doesn’t say you will become rich, and this is not the prosperity gospel that says that God wants you to be rich, and all you have to do is believe, and send $10 to the preacher and you’ll receive bounty in return because the only people getting rich off that scheme is the charlatans who are preaching it, because what proverbs will also teach us is that if it sounds to be good to be true, it is. Get rich quick schemes do not work, and they do not last. Instead what builds wealth over time is diligence and hard work, but diligence and hard work in the right ways. Proverbs also says, “It’s better to be poor and walk in integrity then to be crooked in one’s ways even though rich.” And so, while Wesley tells us to earn as much as we can, he also lays down some rules on how we are to do that.
The first is that we are not to gain money at the expense of our life or of our health. So, this would include employment where we are exposed to toxic chemicals or other things that can injure or kill us, not as sort of a long-shot, but as something where that is just the expectation. And, Wesley adds that even if leaving that position will cost you money, that is have you not make as much as you can, protecting your health and life is more important. Now, for most of us, it’s not that our jobs have significant risks attached to them, but instead it’s what we do in them that risks our health. This week there was the story of a 31-year-old Japanese reporter who reportedly worked herself to death, a problem prevalent enough in Japan that they actually have a word for it. We should not be in any job, Wesley says, which deprives us of proper sleep or food, that would be working through meals. In 1992, I was working at a job where 70 hours a week was the routine and often it was more than that, but I was making really good money, I’m talking nearly 40,000 at the age of 21, remember this is 25 years ago. And I really wish I could tell myself then how to better handle that money, but after doing that for a while I came to realize that while the money was good, the hours, the cost to get it, just wasn’t worth it. We have to decide what our true priorities are, and they will be different for different people, just as what might injure one won’t injure someone else, but we should not risk our health or life for work, for gain. Again, proverbs says, “Do not wear yourself out to get rich be wise enough to desist.”
The second rule is that while we should gain all we can, we should not do anything that hurts our mind or our soul any more than it hurts our body. That is, we should not be engaging in anything which is sinful, or can lead to sinful acts either by us or by someone else. This would include cheating or lying or stealing. But it also includes being engaged with others who are doing something which endangers your mind and soul. Corporations, businesses, even churches, have a certain DNA, and it tends to become part of who we are, even if we don’t want it to be, so if you are working for a company, or a boss, or a division, that has a tendency to act unethically, then more than likely you will eventually be put in an unethical position yourself with the expectation that you will go along. Now, again, Wesley wants to make clear that these situations are dependent upon the individual. He says that he could never study math or algebra without becoming a deist if not an atheist, and thus they would be damaging to his soul, but knows that others can do that without any danger, so we need to determine what it is that is damaging to our minds and soul.<
The third rule is that we cannot gain all we can if doing do will hurt our neighbor in substance, body or soul. Substance refers to their material wellbeing or possessions, so again lying or cheating. Wesley also includes charging interest on things, although he exempts pawn-brokers, they must have had a good lobby within the Methodist movement. But it also includes doing things like selling liquor or drugs, both what we would call illegal and legal drugs, as he has a lot to say and doctors and pharmacists, and I really wonder what he would say about drug prices today. And finally, it’s about selling diversions, which may be innocent in and of themselves, but if they can lead to sin, or are natural inlets to sin, then they do not fulfill the duty to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Finally, as we think our honest industry, as Wesley calls it, it is to understand that all of us have a call from God. All of us are called into ministry, which is not having to be involved in the church, but that everything we do we should do for God. It’s about understanding our lives and talents, in the modern sense of the word, as gifts from God not to be frittered away or wasted. It means being diligent in all that we do. Not to be trifling away our time on diversions. Not to be putting off to tomorrow what we should do today, and trying to do better today than we did yesterday. we know what faithful living looks like, yet we bury too much time, love, goodness, treasure in the ground. Faith is not about personal security, it’s about taking leaps. And, the truth is, when we begin to live out of faith, to follow these rules, then we don’t have to worry about trying to gain all we can because the gain will come, we will take our talents in all of their senses and begin to multiply them and to learn to use them for the good uses to which God has entrusted them to us, which is where we will continue to cover over the next few weeks. So, seek God’s providence in all its forms so that when the master returns we can hear said to us, “well done my good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master.” I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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