TEARING DOWN THE WALLS

Next Sunday is our Pledge Dedication Sunday and we are asked to turn in our pledge cards for the coming year. So, then, in the coming week as we think and pray about our financial commitment to the work of Trinity Church, I ask us to focus on the biblical understanding of stewardship as a spiritual discipline.

Even so, approaching stewardship as a spiritual discipline is a challenge for us Presbyterians because on the whole, we are a pragmatic and reasonable people of faith. In my experience, Presbyterians tend to be “nuts and bolts”, bottom line type people. So, talk of an intangible such as spirituality makes us uncomfortable.

Let me share a story about 4 friends that highlights our practical approach to spiritual matters. Each of these four belonged to a different church. There was a Baptist, a Methodist, a Roman Catholic, and a Presbyterian. They would gather regularly to have coffee and shoot the breeze. One day the topic of discussion revolved around whose denomination really understood what God wanted from us in order to get into heaven.

The four friends hatched something of a plan. Whoever died first the other three would attend the funeral and slip a ten dollar bill into the casket. The deceased would then bring the money back to the one whose denomination most truly pleased God.

Well, as it happened, the Catholic fellow died first. At the funeral the Methodist went up to the casket, stood there somberly and discreetly slipped his ten dollar bill in next to the body. Next the Baptist approached the casket and eased his ten dollar bill in next to the other one. The Presbyterian slowly made his way forward to casket. He stood over it for a moment deep in thought, he reached into his coat pocket and brought out his checkbook and wrote out a check for $30.00, placed it into the casket and took out his $20.00 change.

The honest truth is we Presbyterians tend to be very faithful to our commitments, yet at the same time we also tend to be quite pragmatic. To approach something such as stewardship in a spiritual way is not something most of us do well. Yet, we are called to try.

From a biblical perspective, stewardship is fundamentally a spiritual issue, not a practical issue. The stewardship we exercise over our time, talent, and treasure, is a spiritual exercise, not unlike praying or hymn singing.

I ask you this morning, “How do you understand stewardship?” Is your view primarily a pragmatic one following along these lines, “The church needs money to stay open, and so I give, or do you see stewardship as an opportunity to draw closer to God and to grow spiritually? At least for a few minutes this morning I ask you to try the latter.

This sermon is a stewardship sermon primarily about money. However, it is not a sermon about budgets or expenses. Most stewardship sermons focus on the needs of the church, and that is right and proper. BUT, before we can rightly talk about those needs we first need to understand why we give in the first place.

Christian stewardship is not fund raising. The United Way raises funds, the church does not. At its most basic level, Christian stewardship is about our need to give, not about the needs of the church. If we approach the issue of stewardship from a spiritual point, the question is not, “What does the church need?” Rather, the question becomes, “What do I need to give?”

In slightly different ways both the Micah passage and the Matthew passage before us address this issue of giving from within a spiritual framework, not practicality.

Our gospel reading today is taken from the section of the gospel of Matthew known as the “sermon on the mount”. The ethical teachings of Christ in this section of the gospel describe how the believer is to live out the “better righteousness” of the Christian life. In short, the “better righteousness” of the Christian life is marked by an acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and by a deepened understanding of the Mosaic Law in regard to ethics.

The verses before us, 6:19-24, specifically address the issue of how we are to think about, relate to and handle, our earthly treasure as we seek to live the higher righteousness of Jesus Christ. In the time of Jesus, treasure was gold or silver, perhaps even salt. In our economy today treasure means money.

Jesus instructs us not to store up treasure here on earth where the forces of decay and evil can and will ultimately destroy whatever we have. Despite its straightforward character, it is easy to misunderstand what Jesus is saying here. He is not telling us to avoid the accumulation of wealth that is not the point.

The point is that if we make storing up earthly treasure our primary focus, then we will neglect storing up heavenly treasure. In other words, if we make earthly pursuits a priority in our lives we inherently lose sight of God and the Kingdom.

Instead, we are instructed to focus on storing up wealth in heaven. We are instructed to grow in our discipleship of the “better righteousness”. The way we do that is by living a life that tangibly reflects the “better righteousness” of Jesus Christ.

When we live a life devoted to earthly treasure we darken our souls. Verse 22 tells us, “The eye is the lamp of the body”. In the ancient world there was the understanding that the eye brought light into the soul. Whatever the eye saw was reflected into the body. When we live with an eye always turned to our earthly wealth we darken our souls. A life viewed through the lens of money will shroud our souls in darkness because, in the end, money is transitory. It comes and it goes. To live with our eye on money is to darken the light God desires to shine into our souls.

In verse 24 Jesus drives the point home in unequivocal language, “You cannot serve God and wealth”. This teaching is often misunderstood as a slam against having wealth. It is not. Notice that there is no general condemnation of wealth. Jesus did not say that treasure was evil in and of itself. But he did say that when we let our concern for earthly gain become our primary focus in life, we allow money to become a dividing force in our discipleship. Money becomes a wall between God and us.

Too often in the church these versus have been interpreted as a general denunciation of wealth. Wealth is neither bad nor good. It is a thing. As a thing it can be used for either good or evil. It has no inherent value. It has value only in how we use it. To claim that Jesus denounced wealth is to say too much and more importantly, it is to miss his point in the first place. The point of this whole discussion is to highlight the role of money in faithful discipleship, not denounce it.

Remember, these verses appear within the context of an ethical discussion; a discussion where Jesus describes what it is like to follow Him. Jesus is reinterpreting the ethics of faithfulness. We are being instructed in how to relate to the earthly treasure under our control. Jesus wants us to know how a follower of His “better righteousness” relates to and acts with regard to earthly treasure.

In light of these verses the basic question for us is who or what do we serve in our discipleship? Put bluntly, the real question is whether our money serves us or do we serve our money? Who is in charge? Do we accumulate wealth in order for it to serve us in our discipleship, or do we accumulate wealth because we have become its slave?

Speaking spiritually, it does not matter how much wealth each of us may have. The amount of wealth we have is unimportant. It is how we use, or don’t use, what we have that is important.

Spiritual stewardship then, means that we approach money as a way for us to draw ever closer to God through Christ. Money can be a hindrance for us when it separates us from God. When we value money so much that we refuse to spend it, or when we value it because it allows us to buy material things which we mistakenly hope will bring us happiness, then, our money is getting in the way of our discipleship. But when we have enough control over our wealth to give it away to God, then it no longer enslaves us and separates us from the one who loves us.

Stewardship understood in this way turns the notion of fund raising on its head. We need to give in order for our wealth not to have control over us. It is in this way that stewardship is truly a matter of the heart and not a matter of the checkbook.

Jesus’ teachings about money are a guide for us in our search to be His faithful followers. He knew what a hold our possessions can have over us. Who among us does not have a favorite “something” that we either already own or hope to purchase someday when we have enough money. Jesus understood the all-pervasive power of wealth to control us and enslave us.

This awesome power of money to enslave us is important to keep in mind when we think of stewardship. A comprehensive view of stewardship recognizes the need for each of us to devote our time, our talents and our treasure to God. If we fail to give any one area attention our spiritual growth is stunted. The biblical witness as a whole informs us that God wants us to devote a meaningful portion of each aspect of our lives to God.

Think of all the Christians who feel called to work in through and for the church by giving of their time. Some teach classes, some volunteer to lead us in worship through the gift of music in the choir, some work hard to make sure that God’s house is clean and well maintained. The list of those who give of their time is long and it is impossible to list them all. But they all are engaged in a genuine exercise of spiritual stewardship.

Stewardship of one’s time is a question that we cannot escape. The work of the Kingdom takes many hands and long hours. Every Christian is called to share in the fulfillment of these demands.

However, Jesus’ words about treasure and wealth are important even as we talk about the stewardship of time. If we spend our time doing God’s work but our money is doing something else, are we truly being good stewards? Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Think of the stewardship of talents. Many people have specific talents that they employ to the glory of God. To mention just a few: singing, carpentry, financial acumen, teaching, painting, cooking, sewing, organizational skills. All of these and more are needed in the church. People give these talents freely and with great joy in their hearts because they have a chance to give something to the Lord. Yet the same is true of talents as it is of time, we cannot isolate just one area of stewardship.

Jesus’ words about where our treasure is lies our heart remains important. If we offer up our talents to God freely and with great joy, and then exclude our money have we truly been good stewards?

While there is no doubt that God desires that we give from every aspect of our living there is also the plain force of Jesus’ words in Matthew “For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also”. A truly biblical understanding of stewardship incorporates all three areas; our time, our talents and our treasure. We cannot have the first two without the third.

Let us remember why stewardship is important. Stewardship is important to us because it is our opportunity to tear down a wall that separates us from God. When we practice spiritual stewardship, giving from every aspect of our living, we proclaim to God that there is nothing which takes precedence over our relationship with God.

Our OT reading from Micah 6:6-8 addresses this very question of our relationship with God. It is the same question I asked about stewardship at the beginning of this sermon, What does the Lord require?

The passage in Micah 6:8 reads, “¼What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” The last phrase is what I want us to pay particular attention to, “¼to walk humbly with your God.” In the verses preceding this one the speaker has proposed all sorts of wildly fantastic ways to satisfy the Lord; whole burnt offerings of fully grown cattle, human sacrifice, and thousands of rivers of precious oil. All are items of inestimable value. Yet the response from God is a simple one. God requires NO-THING. What God requires is YOU! God has no need of fabulous wealth or human sacrifice, but God does have need of you. He has need of you in the same way a mother and father has need for their child, because he loves and cares for you as His very own creation.

To walk humbly with the Lord your God means to give yourself over to the Lord. This is what the Lord requires. The Lord requires that we hold no-thing back from our lives.

A well known philanthropist was once asked, “How is it that you give away so much, and yet have so much left?”

“I suppose it’s like this,” he replied. “I shovel out, and God shovels in, and God has a bigger shovel than I do!”

Our ability to give through spiritual stewardship is God’s gift to us. It is a way for us to tear down a wall that we have erected to draw ever closer to God. As we give we also receive; we receive the gift of a mature spirituality that is grounded in scripture, supported by the very power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives, and focused on the one who loved us first - Jesus Christ.

So, let us tear down the wall, brick by brick.

Reverend Marc V. Mason

November 12, 2006

Trinity Presbyterian Church

Travelers Rest SC