Do Not Store Up Treasure

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 6:19-21:

I was having a conversation with a member of a United Methodist Church that was going through the disaffiliation process, which means they were talking about leaving the United Methodist Church, and he supported that movement. And he said that he was doing so because he took the Bible seriously and followed every injunction. And since he was then trying to imply that I therefore didn’t take the Bible seriously and didn’t know what I was talking about, I decided to challenge him a little bit. And so, I asked if he gave to everyone who asked for him for money, to which he said no, and then wanted to make a statement about “those” people.  But I told him that Jesus explicitly says that we are to give to anyone who begs of us (Luke 6:30) And then I asked him if he wore clothing that had mixed fibers, which he did. He also had a tattoo, which is forbidden in Leviticus. He also had fruit trees, and he didn’t leave some of the fruit for people to glean from his trees. And I, of course, could have gone on and one about the things that he apparently didn’t take very seriously, largely I think because they applied directly to him, rather than only applying to others, and as conversation was deteriorating, I decided to leave it there. And yes, I will totally admit to my culpability in this, especially since we just talked about last week that we should put away anger and malice and that our words should build up and convey God’s grace. But all of that leads us up to what is Rev. Adam Hamilton, who is the pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in the country, often counters this same issue by asking the other person, often to clergy, if they have a retirement plan and are contributing to it. And when they invariably say yes. He then says, to quote today’s passage, “so what part of do not store up treasure’s in heaven do you not understand?”

And so that’s where we find ourselves today in our series on the nots of Jesus, the things that Jesus tells us not to do. So far, we have looked at the injunctions not to doubt, fear, judge, worry, sin, stop children from coming, and complain, and now do not store up for yourself treasure here on earth. And just a funny aside, Julie pointed out that in the preparation for this service that I had written do not store up for yourselves treasurers, which we actually want to do, and to thank Kim for her service as our treasurer, and this has nothing to do with her. So, there are several things here. First is that this isn’t all about treasure being bad. There is a place where Jesus specifically says that we are to store up treasure, and where is that? In heaven, where, we are told, moth and rust and thieves won’t be able to get to it. But the problem is, Jesus does not tell us here how to do that, although in my research those who wanted to try and tackle this seemingly were arguing for a sense of works righteousness. that is do good things in the world in order to build up this treasure in your account for when the judgment comes. I don’t know that those who were arguing would necessarily see it that way, but that’s how I interpreted what they were saying. And so, this is a reminder that we are saved by faith alone, and one of the reasons, as Paul tells us, is because otherwise we would brag about it and what we had done, and there is definitely some of that that plays in role as we think about our treasurers. And so, when it comes to that, I have some good news and some bad news.

Earn All You Can

Here is my sermon from Sunday. The text was Matthew 25:14-30:

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.”

Know The Cost

Here is my sermon from Sunday. The text was Luke 14:25, 27-33:

Today we begin a new sermon series looking at John Wesley’s rules about money.  Wesley, who is the co-founder of the Methodist movement, put down some strong rules and expectations for those who chose to join the movement, including about simple economics, which we will hear more about over the course of the next four weeks. As people then began to live out those rules, they began to advance in economic possibilities and opportunities, moving out of the lower economic classes, and then Wesley faced an unexpected situation with members wanting to buy nice clothing and bigger houses and, heaven forbid, they even wanted to finance fancier churches. And so, Wesley responded in several ways, but one of them was in writing a sermon entitled “On the Use of Money”, of which we will also cover more, but in that sermon Wesley expounded on three rules when it comes to money which was first to gain all you can, which James Harnish, who wrote a book on this, changed to earn all you can, second was to save all you can, and then finally was to give all you can.

Now I know some of you are saying, O pastor John is talking about money, it must be stewardship time again, and the good news is that it is. But, this sermon series is not about how much you should give, as important as that is, but instead this is about your personal finances and making them better, or at least helping you understand them better, especially from a biblical perspective. Because the truth is, I could tell you that you need to be giving ten percent, or even 50 percent of your money, to the church and other causes, but if you don’t have even 1 percent to give because of other issues in your home economics, then it doesn’t matter what I say to you about what you should give because you can’t do it. But, if I can teach you some new skills, or maybe some new ways to think about our resources and how best to be a good steward of those resources then we enter a space where I can actually give you guidance about giving and how to invest your money for God’s Kingdom.