Nancy E. Petty
October 29, 2006 – Reformation/Harvest Sunday
Text: Mark 10:46-52
It’s All About Attitude
Throughout the bible there are
roughly 2,350 verses concerning money. This is roughly twice as many as faith
and prayer combined. In the first three gospels, one of every seven verses
deals with money and possessions in some fashion. Fifteen percent of everything
Jesus said related to money and possessions. More specifically, sixteen of
Jesus’ approximately 38 parables dealt with money. If we were to strike the
comments of Jesus about money and possessions, we would reduce his teachings by
more than one-third. In fact, the only subject Jesus spoke of more often is the
We’ve heard Jesus’ teachings on money and possessions a hundred times over.
In the gospel of Matthew we read:
“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and wealth.” (Matthew 6:24)
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)
“Truly I tell you, it will be hard
for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is
rich to enter the
Mark records, in his gospel, Jesus’ response to the rich man inquiring what he must do to inherit eternal life.
Jesus tells the rich man: “Go,
sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure
in heaven; then come, follow me. When the rich man heard Jesus’ words he ‘was
shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.’” (Mark
And we can thank Luke for the story of the widow’s mite and Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Plain.
He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.’ (Luke 21:30)
“Blessed are you who are poor, for
yours is the
If, like me, you love to read the Hebrew scripture you might be remembering some different biblical teachings about money—teachings where money is portrayed very positively. Abraham is described as “very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.” (Gen. 13:2) Job was a man of great wealth, and Solomon was granted riches and honor unparalleled among the kings of his day. Proverbs tells us that “the blessing of God brings wealth” and describes a simple work ethic: “A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.”
While the bible as a whole might present some ambivalence regarding money and possessions, Jesus’ teachings make clear that there is a fundamental connection between a person’s spiritual life and one’s attitudes and actions concerning money and possessions. I sympathize with those of you who each year get frustrated with the annual “stewardship sermon.” If indeed there is a fundamental connection between our spiritual lives and our attitudes and actions about money a “one time sermon” is a weak attempt to explore that connection. Like you, I also get tired of the endless pleas from worthy organizations asking me to give more money. And in times past I have resented worship being one more place for such appeals. But if Jesus is right in saying that “where your treasure is, there your heart is also” maybe the worship of God is the most appropriate place to ask the question, “Where does my treasure lie?”
Consider for a moment these statistics on how Americans spend their money. In the year 2000 we spent on personal care products 8 billion; on personal computers 108.8 billion dollars; on furniture 294.6 billion; on food and beverages (and some of those beverages left us with a headache and a bad morning afterwards) 881.3 billion; on clothing and shoes 335.3 billion; on tobacco products 42.8 billion; on recreation 227 billion; and on contributions to faith organizations 81 billion. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a sermon preached at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church on October 27, 1957 noted that most of us would consider it “idolatry of the lowest form if…you should find on the altar of the church a bottle of perfume, a carton of cigarettes, or a pair of tickets to the Coliseum—and yet,…these are the things…on the private altars of many Christian hearts.”
With these statistics in mind and as we ponder the fundamental connection between our spiritual life and our attitudes and actions concerning money and possessions I offer you two pieces of wisdom to consider. The first comes from C.S. Lewis. After his conversion experience at age 31, he wrote: “I realized I could no longer say ‘my’ about anything. Everything is God’s.” Indeed, all that we are and all that we have is ours by the grace of God. What we do with our lives, what we do with our talents, what we do with our time, and yes, what we do with our money, speaks directly of our gratitude to God for our life and our blessings in life. C.S. Lewis gently reminds us that we really own nothing. Yes, God is entrusting us with much. But we are not our own nor do we own the things that we are given in this life to enjoy. All things belong to God. The awareness of this spiritual truth is both humbling and profound. If we believe it to be so we come closer to understanding God’s ways and following in the way of Jesus.
The other piece of wisdom comes from Peter Gomes and you can read it on the front of your bulletin. He writes, “What God wishes us to understand is that giving is concerned not so much with the size of gift as it is with an attitude toward life, toward self, and toward God. If you understand that life itself is a gift from God…and if you are confident and hopeful that God will sustain you in wealth and poverty and in everything in between, then you will see life as giving and not as holding.”
Often, when
preparing a sermon I will awake in the middle of the night with a clear thought
on what I need/want to say. I like to think of these moments as messages from
God but I’m wise enough to know that it’s just my anxiety about sermon writing.
However, on Monday night I awoke at
By now, if you haven’t forgotten the Mark text that we read earlier, you are probably wondering what the story of Jesus healing the blind man has to do with this sermon. It reminds us that there are many voices in this world asking for mercy and as God’s church we are called to listen and respond to those voices—not silence them. It reminds us of what our priorities as a church must be—responding to real people. In the midst of so much hype while attending to large crowds of people, Jesus stops to attend to one human being in need of his mercy and healing. And finally, it reminds us that faith is an integral part of healing and wholeness.
If as a church our mission is listening to those voices that others are trying to silence, offering mercy to one human being at a time, and learning together what it means to live a life of faith, and I do believe this is our mission, then I make no apologies for asking you for your financial support of this church. This church has a just claim on your active, practical, and financial support if for no other reason than that it is trying to make this community, this nation, and this world a better place for all of God’s children.
As you
consider what of your time and resources you will give to this church in the
coming year keep in mind: everything is God’s and what God wishes each of us to
understand is that giving is concerned not so much with the size of gift as it
is with an attitude toward life, toward self, toward others, and toward God. As
we begin to trust more fully in a God who does sustain us in all things—in
wealth and poverty and in everything in between—we will begin to see life as
giving and not as holding and our church, our community, our world and our
lives will be immeasurably richer. And to that end we may realize the one thing
that Jesus spoke of most often—the