Sunday, October 6, 2013

Redefining Wealth (Sermon for 10/6/2013)

2 Corinthians 8:1-15
  8 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6 Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7 But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.
  8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. 10 And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. 11 So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. 12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. 13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”

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We're going to talk about money today.  We don't spend a lot of time talking about money in this church, so over the next three weeks we're going to focus on a few of the things God's Word has to say about money.  We're going to start today by redefining what we mean when we say wealthy or rich.

Think about this—what comes to mind when you hear the phrase, “She made it.”  When we say that someone has 'made it', usually we mean that they've secured themselves financially.  This could mean that they've landed a great job or are otherwise secure. 

Now, think about someone who is rich.  I bet a name or an image comes to each and every one of our minds.  It might be Bill Gates or Warren Buffet or some other financially well-off individual.  Regardless of who it is, when we think of wealth, we probably think of a certain someone.

I want to challenge some of these thoughts today.

But first, we need to pay attention to what's going on in the world around us.

How many of you are frustrated by Congress' inability to do anything constructive?

How many of you have an idea or suggestion on how to fix that mess in Washington?

What do you believe it would take for your idea to be heard by the powers that be in Washington?

Money.  It takes money to get access in Washington.  Don't believe me?  Wander up and down K Street and look at all the lobbying firms making fortunes lobbying Congress.  If you're an industry, you spend money to hire lobbyists to get your point heard.  Even our denomination spends money lobbying.  You won't get heard if you don't.

For example, I've got some great ideas about how to solve the problems in Washington.  Warren Buffet also has some great ideas about how to solve the problems in Washington.  Guess which one of us gets public airtime.  I'll give you a hint—it's the one with several billion dollars.  Second hint—I don't have several billion dollars.

Money buys access.  Not only in Washington and other political arenas, but in the world, too.  We listen more closely when the rich talk.  We weigh their opinions more heavily.  We grant them more privileges.  If two people walk into the service and start offering ideas, we're more likely to listen to the one that is well-dressed than the other.  It's just the way that this modern world works.  Why do people listen to Donald Trump?  Why do people pay attention to him?  He's got a lot of money.

When this line of thinking invades the church, we get big, big problems.  It is terrible when we judge others by their apparent wealth, but what I'd like to suggest is that we do dangerous theology when we begin to judge ourselves by our wealth or lack thereof.  See, if we assume that 'making it in this world' means that we've made money, if we assume that others judge us based on our apparent financial position, it's not that great of a leap to then assume that God might judge us based on our financial position.  If we believe that money buys access in this world, it doesn't take much for us to believe that more money might buy more influence with God.  If we believe that we're not valuable or important in this world because we don't have money, it's not a giant leap for us to believe that we're not valuable or important in God's eyes.

And this is a terrible, egregious mistake.  We cannot, as the Christian church, afford to make this mistake.  We cannot allow anyone to believe, even for a moment, that God judges us or hears our prayers based upon our financial situation.

We cannot buy access to God.

I cannot emphasize this enough—God's opinion of you is not changed by how much or how little money you have.  In God's eyes, money is a tool, something to be used.  It doesn't have value.  In God's eyes, every single one of us is equal.  We are all seen as precious by God.  What we have does not make us wealthy.  Who we are, in Christ, is what makes us wealthy.

So how do we understand wealth?  It clearly says in our reading today that Jesus Christ was rich.  What does that mean?
Let's go back to our call to worship—God is described as rich in mercy.

And wouldn't we rather God be rich in mercy?  If we could choose between a God who was rich in money or rich in mercy, which would we pick?  A God sitting on a giant pile of money who is unmoved by the suffering of humanity wouldn't be much good to us, would he?  A God obsessed with counting money rather than counting his children would be useless.  We'd be stuck, mired in the pit and despair of sin, while God's riches would do little for us.

Thankfully, God is rich in mercy.  Thankfully, God is rich in love and grace, and he chooses to distribute this wealth among us!  Though he was rich, we read, Jesus Christ became poor.  In other words, he gave up the eternal love and wonder of heaven to descend to dwell with us on earth, where we are poor not because we don't have money but because we live far from God's grace.  Christ did this so that we might become rich.

When we read that we might become rich, none of us read that as a cry for money.  We read that as a description of the type of people we will be when we are in Christ.  We will be rich because we will have the greatest treasure of all, a treasure that gold cannot buy, a treasure that the richest person in the world cannot obtain on their own—we will have the treasure of eternal life with God, of peace and joy and love for all of eternity.  That is true wealth.

And it's all a gift.  God gives this to us freely.  He wants us to be rich in grace and mercy.  He wants to spread his riches among us.

Now, none of this directly gives us money.  But when we realize what we do have, we recognize our true riches, and we realize how sad it would be to spend our whole lives believing that money can give us these things, when true riches come only by the grace of God.

Now, the Bible is very clear that a faithful Christian life will not necessarily give you lots of money.  You may end up with lots, or you may end up with little.  This doesn't matter, Scripture seems to cry.  What matters, we read, is how we treat it, how we live.  Paul urges the Corinthians, a people who struggle with the divide between rich and poor, to recognize all that has been freely given to them.  Look around, Paul says, and see the riches of God's grace and mercy.  Realize that you are all rich because of what Christ has done.

This should, Paul tells us, lead us to give generously.  We shouldn't be worried about the dollar amount that we give, but rather the way in which we give.  Whether you can write a check for $5,000 or can barely scrape together $.05, you should give out of a heart that recognizes how eternally rich you are. 
We don't give out of guilt or obligation.  Let me say this—the church of Jesus Christ doesn't need money.  We use money and it helps us pursue our mission of proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ all over the earth, but we don't need money.  The Good News of the Gospel doesn't depend on dollars and cents.  Our activities would look very different if we didn't have money, but we don't need it.  We have wealth that money cannot buy, and our gratitude for that should compel us to live generously.

But above all, let us never believe for a moment that God listens to the rich more than us.  Let us not buy into the mistaken thinking that believes that money buys access to God.  It may buy access in Washington, and it may make many parts of the world run, but the church of Jesus Christ, the only organization that will stand forever, does not need money and does not value its members based on financial traits.  You are loved because you are made by God and saved by Christ.  Let that be enough.

Let us pray

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