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.
Now, in some ways this series builds on, or is a continuation of, our series on the Proverbs, because there is a strong obviously a strong connection between wisdom and money, one which Wesley understood. He said that “the right use of money” is “an excellent branch of Christian wisdom.” Wesley refers to wisdom seven times in his message on money. But, he also recognized that money was not often talked about in the church, at least beyond the idea that you should give, and there is, honestly, a self-serving part to that message, and while I can admit that, I’m not ashamed of recognizing it either. Wesley said money is “a subject largely spoken of… by men of the world; but not sufficiently considered by those whom God hath chosen out of the world.” That is, we talk about it in our secular life, but not how money impacts or plays a role in our spiritual life. Someone who was not afraid to talk about money, however, was Jesus, as he addresses money and finances more than he talks about just about anything else, because what Jesus understood was that where our money, or our treasure, is is where our hearts will be. Notice he does not say that our hearts will lead to our treasure is is where our hearts will be, because our treasure drives our heart, and so we have to make sure that our treasure is the right thing, that our heart is the in the right place. So, before we undertake approaching our finances from God’s perspective, from a Christian perspective, we first have to understand the costs, as Jesus says in today’s passage.
If you were able to ask God for anything that you wanted, what would you ask for? Reportedly, that was exactly the situation that occurred to Solomon. He was told that whatever he asked of God, God would give to him, and so Solomon asked for the wisdom to rightly rule his nation and his people. And because he asked for wisdom, God granted him not only wisdom, but also everything else that a king might desire, including wealth and power. But it is his wisdom that we remember Solomon for, and partially we remember it because it was his wish was not about him. It was not about glorifying himself or making his name the most popular, but instead his wish was about others, about how to be a good king, not thinking of himself. In the passages that immediately lead up to the passage from Luke, Jesus is also talking about not thinking too much about ourselves; about humility. He tells people that when they go to a dinner party not to take the seat of honor, even if they think they might deserve it, because someone more important might show up and then you’ll be forced to have to move to a different seat. Instead, Jesus says, seat at the lower seat and then the host can ask you to move up to a position of honor, and you will then be honored among the people, “for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Jesus then tells people that if they are throwing a dinner party, not to invite your relatives and friends, who can invite you to their party in return, and thus you would be repaid for your actions. Instead, Jesus says, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, who cannot repay you, but you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Then the third parable is about another man who throws a dinner party and all those who invites don’t come because they have other things to do, excuses for why they can’t come.
That is what then leads into Jesus saying that unless you carry the cross, you cannot be my disciple. It is these stories leading up that begin to give us an idea of what that statement means, at least in the gospel of Luke. We often think, or hear people say, “oh I have to put up with a troublesome relative, or there’s this coworker I can’t stand, or I have an illness, and that’s the cross I have to bear.” But, that is not what Jesus is talking about. He’s not talking about how we relate to others or to things, but how we relate to God, and what we are willing to give up in order to follow Christ, in order to be a disciple. Are we, like Christ willing to give it all? Jesus wants to make it very clear that being a disciple comes with costs. And so, when he gives the analogy of building a tower or going to war, first is that he expects the answer of who wouldn’t figure out the cost before doing it to be no one, and secondly, he’s not actually talking about building a tower or going to war. He’s talking about that if you are going to choose the path carrying the cross, you better know before you take it up what it entails. This requires deliberate sacrifice and a reordering of our lives in order to get our priorities straight, that we can choose to serve God, or we can choose to serve someone or something else, but we cannot do both, so no one can be a disciple if they do not give up all their possessions.
In Proverbs, we are told that fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. Here Jesus is saying that getting rid of idols is the beginning of discipleship. I know it says possessions, but it could just as easily say money, or something else, because this is about idol worship, those things that possess and own us. The things that control our lives rather than us controlling them. What is our treasure, what is it that we worship, what is it that we are willing to risk, or even lose our lives for? There are lots of things that can become idols to us. Jesus likes to point out that money and possessions, but flags can become idols as can songs, as can causes or political ideologies or race or politicians or nations or bands or families or even baseball teams, there are lots of things that want to claim our allegiance and have us bow down and make pledges to them, to put our trust and our hearts with them, but God is saying there can only truly be one master, so who is it going to be? What is it that we are going to worship. And just as an aside of this topic, I understand why some people are upset by the whole NFL thing, and I’ve talked about this before, but I truly wish people would be just as upset when an unarmed 12-year-old is shot to death while playing in the park, or at the fact that more than 10 million children in the US will go to bed tonight hungry, among other things.
Are you ready to bear the cost of discipleship? Paul says that when we accept Christ that we don’t just become good people, but we become new creations. “Everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new.” This is not the easy thing, but the hard thing, and the cost of discipleship is paid with many different kinds of currency, the most important being with our lives. Not just on Sunday morning, or a couple of hours a week, but everyone moment of every day.
So, as we begin to think about our finances, and about God’s rules, and about Wesley’s rules, it requires us to fundamentally reevaluate everything in our lives, and to see where our loyalties and priorities reside. Is it with God or is it with something or someone else? Biblical teachings on money are not set up to make middle-class Americans feel comfortable, or no tension between their lives and their money, instead they serve to teach us to order all of our lives, especially our financial lives, around our commitment to Christ, who tells us to “strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” and that begins first with carrying the cross of discipleship and pledging our allegiance to God, and that’s where the hard work begins. I’m not saying it’s easy, and I don’t think it’s any easier for me than it is for you, and that’s why we need to evaluate the costs before we begin the journey, because we know what the costs can be because they are represented by this table. The table which reminds us that Jesus laid down his own life for us, and so our journey begins at the table as we remember Christ’s mighty actions on our behalf and we reaffirm our commitment to be not just followers of Christ, but disciples of Christ, those who are ready to lay down everything we have, even our lives, in order to follow our Lord and Savior, and so our journey begins. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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