First Presbyterian Church
October 15, 2023 (Stewardship)
Proverbs 11:23-28; Matthew 19:16-26
Extreme Stewardship?
This handful of verses from the book of Proverbs, clustered together as it is, provides an interesting look into how so many people assume "morality" or "goodness" or "blessing" works; good people get good things, and bad people...don't.
Honestly, it must feel nice to be able to believe such things.
We live in a world that proves, over and over again, that such things simply aren't true. Some of the richest people in the world are also some of the worst people in the world. Meanwhile, too many hard-working and gentle people end up in homeless shelters. (I've never served a meal at a homeless shelter that didn't ask us to set aside at least one, usually two or three, meals for folks who hadn't yet gotten off from their job, or one of their two jobs.)
To be honest, though, the issue isn't to say that "all rich people are evil" or something like that, but it becomes necessary to point out that greater concentrations of wealth do damage, not only to those who end up poor because of it, but also to those with whom that wealth is concentrated.
In his collection Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter's Dictionary, the novelist and Presbyterian minister Frederick Buechner says of today's reading from Matthew's gospel that "Jesus says that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. Maybe the reason is not that the rich are so wicked they're kept out of the place, but that they're so out of touch with reality they can't see it's a place worth getting into." It is perhaps for a similar reason that the oft-quoted and oft-misquoted 1 Timothy 6:10 says not that "money is the root of all evil," but that "the love of moneyis a root of all kinds of evil."
Perhaps most telling is a statement from Jesus in Matthew 6:21; "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Or, to put it in a modern vernacular rendering, "What we own, owns us." This seems to be the best way to understand Jesus's questioner in this reading; we are told that after Jesus's final answer to his persistent questions, "he went away sad, because he had great wealth."
Here's the thing: most of us do not have "great wealth," by the standards of the Jeff Bezoses and Elon Musks and Warren Buffetts of the world. This does not, however, mean we are free from the potential peril that "what we own, owns us." Sometimes that peril becomes greatest for poorer people, even if they are able to come out of poverty. It is a potential hazard for anyone with possessions of any sort. It's the kind of trap that requires us, in dealing with wealth or possessions, to observe an instruction that Jesus gave the disciples earlier in this gospel (10:16): we have to be "wise as serpents" even while we are called to be "innocent as doves."
Now it's worth noticing of today's reading that this is not a commonplace event in the life of Jesus. This same story, with slight variations, is also told in Mark 10:17-31 and Luke 18:18-30. The instruction that Jesus gives here is not repeated again. It's not a commonplace event that Jesus tells someone to give everything away; it's a one-off, only issued in the face of this one rich man who, even as he says he has kept all the commandments, sees and knows himself to be lacking something, despite his great wealth.
For us, this instruction doesn't necessarily compel us to give it all away; if anything, the stories of too many unscrupulous televangelists wheedling widows out of their last dime is not an example this church or this pastor wants to follow. Nonetheless, we are challenged here. What are we holding on to that we don't need to hold on to? What of our finances or possessions are we at risk of being owned by? Or what really does own us? This may even be a question that the church, as a whole, needs to ask itself as well, but that starts with members asking the question of themselves.
Here's what it comes down to: if we really believe we are God's own, if we truly even want to be one of God's people, what we do with our possessions, perhaps especially how we provide for and support the church - the "body of Christ" in the world, after all - is going to reflect that. Providing for the work of the church is a necessary part of any member's own stewardship.
Not that this is the only worthy church, or that there aren't other church-based or charitable organizations worthy of support, but the church - again, this particular unit of the body of Christ - is a needful starting place, one that is particularly needed as a voice and witness in this community. Even if we haven't figured out what it is yet, we have something to offer this community that no other church does. But we can't do that without the support of the people who make up this church.
It's as simple as that. And if we allow ourselves to be owned by our possessions, we won't be able to live up to that.
Tune in for part two next week.
For the call to be good stewards of our possessions and the church, Thanks be to God. Amen.
Hymns (from Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal): #708, We Give Thee but Thine Own; #712, As Those Of Old Their Firstfruits Brought; #697, Take My Life
No comments:
Post a Comment