“What Do You Do With Money?”

Preached by John DeBevoise
At Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church
On October 18, 1998

  Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property.  So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you?  Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’  Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me?  I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.  I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’  So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’  He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’  He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’  Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’  He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’  He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’  And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly;  for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.  And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much;  and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.  If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?  No slave 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 God and wealth.”

      Luke 16:1-13 

This morning is Stewardship Sunday, and I want to speak about money and the gospel of Luke.  One of my favorite things to say at stewardship season is to repeat the joke that Father Mike from Christ the King told me once.  He talked about climbing up into the pulpit and looking out at the congregation and saying to them, “There’s good news and bad news about the stewardship drive this morning.  The good news is that we have located all of the funds we need for the church’s operating budget in the year ahead.  The bad news is that all of the funds have been located in your pockets.”

Well, Emily’s got it right, I think.  The Witness and Service Committee may not be after your money, but in some fashion, the Stewardship Committee is.  They’ve asked me to set aside this Sunday each year to lift up this cause and this effort before the congregation.  So I share a few practical matters at the beginning of this sermon about that.  The stewardship drive this year is built around the theme of Noah’s Ark.  You can see the ark displayed here, and it’s been portrayed on the literature that’s been going out in the mail to you as well.  This year we are seeking to use the image of the ark as a sign of the opportunity for the people of God to climb on board our common enterprise together.  We will be sharing together in Dedication Sunday, the second Sunday in November, once again.  We’re hoping that everyone will have the opportunity to turn in a commitment card by that Sunday.  During the first week of November, if you haven’t had a chance to turn in a commitment card yet, there will be teams from the church, captains, going out into the neighborhoods of the church with facsimile arks, trying to pick up as many of the commitment cards as we can, hoping to raise dramatically the percentage of the congregation that climbs on board.  If you’d like, I know that sometimes the simple mechanics of this is a part of the effort.  There is a table out in the courtyard, and it has commitment cards on it.  You can fill one out as soon as you leave today, and simply place it in the model of the church that’s on the table.  We’ll mark you “Present and On Board” before we send those teams out.

But I hope you’ll make plans to come on Dedication Sunday to be present not only when we dedicate this mutual work, this mutual effort to God, but also when we’ll share together in the Dinner on the Grounds right after the 11 a.m. service.  We had a wonderful meal last year, and I know it will be again.  We offer it to you free, as a part of our celebration for the way God has blessed us.  But it will help us if we know that you are coming, and so if you could mark that on the reservation pad on the table, or turn in the reservation card, we’ll know how to prepare for you.  I commend the campaign to you and look forward to hearing from Fred Frankland and John Oakley, the chairmen of the campaign this year.

I want to look at what the Bible has to say about stewardship, and not just this text from the gospel of Luke.  I’ve been working in the F.E.A.S.T. class, teaching a class on what the Gospel of Luke says about Jesus.  In the last week, we’ve been looking at what the Gospel of Luke says about Jesus and money.  That’s an interesting question, because Luke has a great deal to say about money.  I think Luke has more references to money than maybe any of the other gospels.  So, in an effort to try to discern what it was that Luke remembers Jesus saying about money, I went to the gospel of Luke and found all of the passages where Jesus talks at all about money.  I’ve made a list of them.  If you’d like to see them, I have copies for those who would want to pick one up after the service.  I was interested in the fact that I could not find this list in any other resource, and it seems to me that someone before me would have made a list of all of these places where Luke remembers Jesus talking about money, to see what kind of common themes come out of it. 

I want you to be Biblical interpreters.  I don’t claim to have the final word on what Jesus is saying to us as Luke remembers His talking about money.  I am interested in your opinions and recognize that there is a variety of interpretations here that will be guided by the Spirit.  You may find some passages that I haven’t found, but I am particularly interested in knowing what they may be.  I have found thirteen passages. 

The one that I read this morning from the gospel of Luke is one that is frequently read.  It’s the story of the dishonest manager, but I really want to speak about all of the passages this morning, and I thought I would simply try and place before you my conclusions about what all of the different stories say. 

I included in the list the story of the Good Samaritan.  Do you ever think about that as a story where Jesus talks about money?  It’s not a large reference, but it’s there in the story where the Samaritan uses his own funds to provide for the traveler who has been beaten.  And because it is a place where Jesus spoke directly about money, I put it in the list.

Then there’s the story of the foolish man who built bigger and bigger barns.  I also included those referenced from the sermon on the plain in the gospel of Luke, where Jesus says, “Why do you worry about what you will wear or what you will eat?  But the day’s own worries be sufficient for the day.” 

And the story about the man who never builds a tower without first sitting down and counting the costs ahead of time to see whether he will have the funds to finish it.  There is the account of Lazarus and the rich man, Lazarus who sat by the gate of a rich man day after day and was never given anything to eat or to drink, and the rich man who finds himself in torment in the life to come because of his ignoring of Lazarus.  It is a powerful and shaking story, especially for those of us who live in such a prosperous nation.  There’s the parable Jesus told about the Pharisee and the tax collector.  He doesn’t speak specifically about how we ought to use our money there, but I included it because of the fact that the tax collector is someone who makes his living on money, and the Pharisee, interestingly enough in this story, which Jesus tells, boasts before the Lord of how wonderfully he tithes his money before God.  I find it a curiosity that the only places I can find in all of the gospels where Jesus speaks of tithing are where he cautions people about the self-righteousness of it. 

I included the account of the rich young ruler, which all the synoptics have.  This man who came, and sincerely seeking to follow Christ, asked, “What should I do?”  And Jesus finally said to him, “Sell everything you have and follow me.”  And then, the wonderful celebrative story of Zacchaeus, who gives away half of his money, but keeps half of his money.  Zacchaeus, says the gospel of Luke, was a wealthy man.  The parable of the talents.  And the verses from the twentieth chapter, where Jesus tells the Pharisees to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.

And the last reference I could find in the gospel of Luke where Jesus speaks of money is when he sees in the temple, the widow bring her mite forward and place it in the temple offering. 

I have taken all of these passages from the gospel of Luke where Jesus talks about money, and one of the things I note is that this presumes, and in terms of my looking for guidance with what we ought to do with money, this presumes an authority for the scriptures in speaking to us about money.  Maybe that’s not a presumption you start with, and I can acknowledge that.  But it is the presumption that we start from in the Christian church.  And I want to point out that if it’s not scriptures that you’re using as the source of authority for what you ought to do with money, then what is the source?  Because we all reach for some kind of guidance, some sort of authority, even if it’s an unconscious one. 

I draw four things out of this gospel that I find Jesus saying about money.  The first is this:  I note that there are both wealthy people and poor people around Jesus in the gospel of Luke.  Even as there are both in this church.  One of the raps I hear about this congregation, sometimes when I’m out at a reception in the community, is that it’s a congregation that only has wealthy people in it.  You know, that’s not the truth.  I’m trusting that you know that about us, but if you don’t, I want you to know it about our character.  There are people in this congregation who have to wonder each week where they are going to get the money to pay their bills and feed the children.  There are people in this congregation who work at hard, physical labor every day in order to earn their funds.  There are people who have gone through the experience of bankruptcy, and there are people who find that money gives them a great deal of anxiety.  They grieve for what they are not able to do because of it.  I find this congregation, not just with respect to money, but really on all issues, to be a large tent.  And it looks to me like there is the full spectrum of American society within it. 

This is true about the gospel of Luke, also.  There are wealthy people around Jesus, and there are poor people.  I note that Jesus seems to engage with all of them.  He seems to encounter people not on the basis of whether or not they have funds, rather, across the spectrum he is interested in talking to all.  There are wealthy people and poor people around Jesus, even as there are both in this church.  One of the things I draw from this is that poverty is not a kind of righteousness.  Sometimes in the Christian tradition, I think we have sort of drifted off into believing that poverty is particularly righteous.  I want you know that’s not my observation.  Especially after being so recently back from the poverty of Haiti.  You know, what I observe about poverty is that it is humiliating.  What I observe about poverty is that it is dehumanizing.  What I observe about poverty is that it breaks people;  it takes enormous energy.  I don’t see anywhere in the gospel of Luke where it looks to me like poverty is glorifying.  I don’t see it celebrated at all. 

I also note from the gospel of Luke that wealth does not seem to be prohibited.  This has often been the long interpretation of the church too, and I want to hear your interpretations.  But it’s not what I see after looking at all the passages this week.  In fact, it seems to me that it’s useful.  In the eighth chapter of the gospel of Luke, he remembers how there were wealthy women around Jesus, who supported him and contributed the funds for his ministry.  And then there’s the story of Zacchaeus, who takes his wealth and uses it to repay any he has defrauded, and he repays them four times.  Then he also uses his wealth to serve those who are poor, yet retaining half of it.  And then there’s Joseph of Arimathea, whom I judge to be something of a wealthy man, at least a man wealthy enough to give his own tomb, his own funeral arrangements over for the burial of Jesus.  

No, it doesn’t look to me like poverty is righteous in the New Testament.  It does look to me, though, and this seems very clear across all of these stories, that wealth carries with it responsibility.  And I don’t think there’s any escaping that.  It looks to me like Luke remembers Jesus teaching us that wealth carries responsibility.  And the great responsibility, as I encounter it in the gospels, is that there is a propensity to help the needy.  This has to do with Christian compassion, whether it be in the story of the good Samaritan, or Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus tells us that our resources ought to be one of the ways that we seek to reach out in compassion to those who are hurting. 

It’s a very clear message that cannot be avoided.  There is a kind of compassion which is integrally a part of the Christian character, and our wealth ought to be an expression of it.  But it also has to do with the concern for the character and the lifestyle, not just of the hurting person, but of the disciple.  Note that Jesus celebrates the character of the widow who gives our of her mite as well as the story of the rich young ruler who is called to give out of his abundance.  It seems to me that Jesus is as interested in the character of the giver as he is in the ministry of compassion.  This is what B. David calls “developing the habit of Christian giving.”  I find the gospels seeking to lead us to a kind of character which has a sort of Christian generosity at the heart of it. 

It reminds me of the story of a man who drove up into an impoverished part of town, and he had a shiny, long, beautiful car.  Perhaps it was a lovely Lincoln (but I don’t mean to pick on folks who drive Lincolns.  It could have been a Buick Regal, which is what I drive).  But it was beautiful.  As he drove this car up, he got out and there was a boy seated on the steps of the tenement there, and the boy saw the man go in, and the boy sat out there and looked at that beautiful car.  When the man came out, the boy said to him, “Mister, that sure is a beautiful car you have there!  Where’d you get a car like that?”  And the man said to him, “Well, my brother gave me that car.”  The boy looked at the man and said, “You know, some day I hope that I can be a brother like that!”

I think that story could have come right out of the gospel of Luke.  The point of the story is that God is calling us to be people of generous character, that it is our own very character that God is concerned about with respect to money.

The third point is, then, that what matters about money is what we do with it.  Money, like all the other good things in creation, comes to us as possibility for curse and as possibility for blessing.  It hinges on the sort of stewards we are with it.  A number of the passages from the gospel of Luke teach us about the temptation of money.  The temptation to worship money.  I find the story about the man who built barns to be about that.  The problem with this man is not that he had money, but that he began to be idolatrous about it, and in his idolatry and neglect, the things that belong to God.  It was Calvin Coolidge who said, “Prosperity is an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.” 

I think Emily’s right.  The Stewardship Committee does want your money.  We want your money because we think that this church is a worthwhile cause.  We think it ought to be operating in this community, and the only way it can operate is by our coming together and climbing on board the ark, and paying for the funds that run the lights and that put out the funds for the resources, the paper, the glue, and the scissors that we use in the education program, that provide the funds for the salaries of the employees, that provide the funds for the mission causes that we use together in our benevolent work.  We will use that money well.  We seek to be good stewards of it ourselves.  I think this church is a worthwhile cause.

But God, on the other hand…. I don’t think God needs your money.  It seems pretty clear to me, out in the gospels, that God does not have a cash flow problem.  And if somehow we have it in our head and heart that we have to give our money to God in order to sort of help God’s little charitable cause, then I think somehow we’ve missed the truth about the power of God as Jesus seeks to portray it.  It was Jesus, remember, who told us that with enough faith we could save this mountain.  Get up and be moved!  And the very mountain itself would be moved.  I told you before, that when we go to heaven and the life everlasting and we find God there, if we say to him, “O Lord, why was there such suffering in the world?”  God is not going to say to us, “Well, you know, I just didn’t have the money!”  No.  God, Almighty God, who is sovereign, and the earth belongs to him, does not have a cash flow problem.  Rather, it seems to me, it’s about us.  God is passionately interested in us.  And God values our own decision and the opportunity to grow up into compassionate, generous stewards who care for our brothers and sisters.  God wants our soul.  And he seeks our stewardship as a means of our turning our very souls over to him. 

You know, there are two seas in the land of Palestine.  Two seas in the nation of Israel.  One is the Dead Sea.  The Dead Sea only has water that flows into it.  There is no real life in it.  Nothing can thrive in it, and it does not really support the community around it.  Water goes in, but no water flows out.  But the other sea is the Sea of Galilee.  Water comes in and water flows out of it, into the community and the countryside around it.  It teams with life.  The community around it prospers.  And from the flow of the give and the take comes the very life itself.  As I read the accounts of funds in the gospel of Luke, it seems to me that God is calling us to be like the Sea of Galilee, receiving and giving.  And in our giving we will discover there is life.