Grace Congregational UCC

“Justice and Money”
Philippians 4:10-20
Matthew 6:24

March 21, 2007 - Kim M. Henning

I recently listened to a speaker who began with this sentence that: “All the church ever talks about is.......”

With hardly a pause, the audience responded: ‘money.’ All the church ever talks about is ‘money.’ There was laughter throughout that room because we could all identify. He continued, however, without a smile as he said, ‘but preachers avoid money like the plague.’ Then he said, When did you last hear a sermon about money? In October, on Stewardship Sunday? Probably not.

Go to a Christian bookstore. Pick out your favorite author. Gather together all their books. You’ll be hard-pressed to find one chapter, much less one sermon on money. We don’t talk.

Or, befriend a clergy person and she will probably will tell you that her greatest anxiety is not the hospital room where someone is dying of cancer, but money.

It is Lent. This is our season of repentance and personal growth. I’d like to address one of my public anxieties, I’d like to talk about money. I’d like to talk about money because Jesus talked about money and Moses talked about money. At least five of the commandments have an implication of money.... ‘you shall have no other gods before me; you shall not make for yourself any idols, Remember the Sabbath—keep it holy, you shall not steal, you shall not covet.’ At least five of the great commandments have an obvious connection with money.....

And Jesus, Jesus’ #1 focus was the Kingdom of God. His #2 focus was money. More than Jesus talked about worship attendance he talked about our treasures, our money, our possession.

The parable of the Prodigal Son is a story about a young boy who wants some free and easy money. Free and easy money, listen to the story, will destroy us.

There is a story of a rich young ruler who comes to Jesus. For the rich, young ruler, money was literally everything and even when Jesus was <><> close, (he could feel his breath) the rich young ruler couldn’t let it go. Money has power.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is a story about an outrageously compassionate person who covers the health care costs of a total stranger. Compassion is not free. That is what the story says. Compassion is not just words, it is costly.

The story of Judas is a story of how a mere 30 pieces of silver broke a relationship between him and Jesus. How many times hasn’t money broken a family? And I’m not talking about a shortage of money, it’s usually the other way around.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor.”

And then Jesus said, “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 God and wealth.”

This is not easy for me to talk about. But it is the season of Lent and this is the time of year to push ourselves. Jesus talked about money. And if justice is about right living, I guess it doesn’t make any difference if this makes me feel uncomfortable or not.

So how would you talk about money and justice?

I have money for a computer. Do I have money for......

I have money for a nice automobile. Do I have money for......

I have money for a closet full of clothes. Do I have money for.......

In the liturgy for Holy Communion we say that we ‘look forward to the day when sharing by all will mean scarcity for none.’ That is a bold statement for Christians to make. We look forward to the day when sharing by all will mean scarcity for none. That is a justice proclamation that comes close to heart of Jesus. And its hard. It’s hard to talk.

What are the questions? Is money mine? Is it God’s? What do I do with temporary ownership?

Tough questions! One of the questions I hear is, ‘Why does the church have to talk about money–can’t we just trust God? Can’t we just talk about faith? Can’t we just talk about my heart (my heart)?

The other day I was going through the drive-through at McDonalds and a Country Western song came on the radio. The song I heard was the song, “I can’t make you love me.”

Have you heard that? It’s a sad song. I can’t make you love me. The chorus goes, “Cause I can't make you love me if you don't; You can't make your heart feel something it won't.” This song by speaks to a lot of people....’Cause I can’t make you love me if you don’t; You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t.”

Have you ever felt that you should love something more? Have you ever felt that you don’t have the power to change your feelings? You can’t control your heart, can you? You can’t make yourself love someone or something when you don’t, can you?

It’s a sad song, but it’s not true. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is....there your heart will be also.” Notice that Jesus does not say this the other way around......he said ‘where your treasure is, there your heart will be.’ You can control your heart—You can control your feelings. You can draw near to God–if, according to Jesus, you know where to put your treasure....”

Someone just told me this story. It seems that an African American woman found her way to a local church. She was down on her luck and things just weren’t working out. The pastor, bless his heart, took time to be with her, not once but many times. He knew that she was for real and she was trying her level-headed best to make-it off her Social Security check.

The pastor worked with her. He found some housing. She liked it. It was, he said, Section 8 housing that was affordable. He helped her move. He helped her move her furniture. He helped her move her appliances. He helped her move her clothes into that apartment.

A couple weeks passed. One day, surprisingly she appeared again. She said she needed $20, $20 to purchase prescriptions that she really needed. Could he please help her, her SS check was still a week off. He wrote a $20 check to the pharmacy. She said ‘thank you.’ And then she said, “I just didn’t know what else to do. The only money I have is my tithe to God on Sunday morning. And you know, pastor, I just can’t touch that.”

Money can be hard to talk about. But it sure is interesting to hear what our money says about us.