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I am starting this sermon with a
warning. That’s right, I am warning you that in just a
couple of minutes, I am going to bring up the single most
divisive topic that a pastor can bring up. I am warning you.
You can’t say you weren’t warned. As soon as I say it, it is
going to get uncomfortable. I am warning you, it’s going to
be a bumpy ride tonight. As a preacher, I have been advised
to stay away from this topic, because as soon as I bring it
up, someone is going to be offended. Someone is going to be
insulted. Someone might hear what I have to say tonight and
get so angry they will never come back again. So once again,
I am warning you we are about to tackle the single most
uncomfortable, difficult, thorny, hard, controversial issue
that a pastor can ever dare to preach about. So if you don’t
want to be uncomfortable, if you don’t want to risk being
offended, then now is the time to leave.
What is this most controversial
topic….the topic that is so contentious and so divisive that
I had to warn you in advance? What on earth am I going to
preach about tonight that needed to be prefaced with such a
cautionary tag?
Is it about sex? No.
Is it about the war? No.
Is it about who you should vote for? No.
Is it about hell? No.
Is it about abortion? No.
Is it about stem cell research? No.
Is it about gay marriage? No.
Not a single one of those topics
even comes close to getting people as riled up as the topic
I am going to talk about tonight. So, are you ready? Are you
sure? All right, you asked for it. Tonight, we are going to
talk about…money! That’s right, money—cold, hard cash, dead
presidents, big bucks, greenbacks, moolah, dinero. We’re
going to talk about money. And let’s face it, preachers
would just as soon preach about anything other than money
(and congregations would just as soon listen to any sermon
except one about money).
Why do we hate sermons about
money? Why is money such a problem? One reason is because of
the way churches talk about money and the way preachers
preach about money. Too often, the church has earned a
reputation of being obsessed with money. It seems like every
time we turn around, the church is asking for more money.
Another appeal. Another need. And when it comes to money,
too often churches and preachers pull out the big guns to
get it. That’s right, they use the strongest tools at their
disposal: guilt and shame. You know, the “if you were a
better Christian, then you’d give more” or the “if don’t
give, you’re saying no to God…and you know what happens to
those who say no to God” arguments.
Here is a story. Unfortunately,
it’s a true one, one that epitomizes the very worst of the
church’s coercive and insensitive approach to money. It is
story I read in a sermon from one of my favorite preachers,
Ed Markquart,
the senior pastor of
Grace Lutheran Church in Des Moines, Washington. He told a
story of a man now attending his congregation who is a
Vietnam veteran. He was involved in the ugliest parts of
the war. He was in the worst kind of face-to-face combat—and
the word “awful” does not begin to describe what this young
man did and had to do. When he finally did come out of the
jungle, he went back to his barracks to discover that he had
received a letter from his church.
Was it a letter of support? No.
Was it some cute drawings from the kindergarten class? No.
Was it a copy of the church’s newsletter sent just to
provide some comforting thoughts of home? No.
The letter he received from his
church was the quarterly financial statement. The letter
noted that he was behind in his pledge. In fact, it
highlighted that he hadn’t given a dime, and implied that in
order to remain in good standing, he should be sending the
church his offerings. Meanwhile, out in the jungle, many of
his buddies were being killed. And as each young man was
killed, his GI friends took all of their money, gathered it
together, and sent it back to the dead soldier’s family.
These soldiers were giving away every dime they had to the
families of their dead buddies. So you can imagine the
anxiety this man now felt anytime his church began to talk
about money. And while this example is a bit extreme, it
touches one of our deepest fears when our church starts
talking about money: that the church is more interested in
what’s going on with our checking accounts than with what is
going on in our lives.
But our struggle with mixing our
religion with our money isn’t just a church problem. It’s
also a human problem. We get so uncomfortable with any talk
about money because money is personal. Money is power. Money
is protection. And we don’t want our church getting too
involved in our personal business. We surely don’t want to
give up any of the power or prestige that money gives us.
And it is hard enough to protect ourselves from “the wolves
at the door”—the bills and the mortgages and the
tuitions—without the church continually asking us to go the
“second mile.” We get uncomfortable when the preacher
starts talking about money because money is personal,
private and protects.
And if we are really honest
about it, we all know there is one other reason we hate “the
money sermon,” and that’s because money matters are private
matters. We believe that the money we make is ours. We put
in the blood, sweat and tears to earn it, so we should get
to decide what we are going to do with it…thank you very
much. So let’s face it, we’d just as soon not hear the
preacher preach, and the preacher would just as soon not
preach, about money.
But here we are, right in the
middle of the annual stewardship campaign. And so before we
go any further on this topic of money, as your pastor, I
need you to know two things. First, I love Jesus, and
second, I love you. Because I love Jesus, I want you to know
what his teachings and his gospel have to say about money.
And because I love you, learning what the gospel of Christ
has to say about money is one of the most important things
we can ever discover. But here’s the thing about the gospel
approach to money: there is no guilt and no shame. None. In
fact, when it comes to money and giving it to the church,
the Gospel says that if we are compelled to give out of
guilt or shame, then we should just keep the money. The
place where we get the best understanding of what to do with
our money is in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.
Hear these words from the eighth chapter of Second
Corinthians:
And now, brothers, we want you
to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian
churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing
joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and
even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they
urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in
this service to the saints. And they did not do as we
expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and
then to us in keeping with God’s will. So we urged Titus,
since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to
completion this act of grace on your part. But just as you
excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in
complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you
also excel in this grace of giving.
I am not commanding you, but I
want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with
the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your
sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might
become rich.
As we read Paul’s letters to the
church in Corinth, we discover that Paul had no small task
ahead of him in trying to get the Corinthian church on solid
footing. Let’s just say they had issues. There was
infighting, selfishness, pettiness, sexual immorality,
racism and classism keeping them from being the people God
had called them to be. Yet right at the end of the first
letter that deals with the centrality of the gospel, Paul
talks with them about giving. Despite their problems,
they had the responsibility to participate in giving, along
with the other churches. The particular offering Paul was
collecting was to help the impoverished Jewish church in
Jerusalem. Part of Paul’s rationale in such an effort was to
help the Gentile believers appreciate the Jewish believers
for laying the foundation for their spiritual
transformation.
However, it seems that the
Corinthians didn’t care much for sermons about money. In the
passage we just read from his second letter to them, Paul
points to the churches of Macedonia (Philippi, Thessalonica,
and Berea) and says, “Look at them. This is what giving
looks like.” So why did the Corinthians have so much trouble
giving their money when it seemed these other churches
didn’t? We might think that it was because the Corinthians
were in dire financial straits, so that giving had to take a
backseat to surviving.
Yet, just the opposite was the
case. Paul tells us of the Macedonian believers’ “deep
poverty.” The region of Macedonia had been a wealthy state
due to gold and silver mines during the heyday of the Greek
Empire. But Rome had stripped their wealth by taking over
the mines, and additionally, by adding high taxes and
increasing the costs of housing and food. “The country was
like a lacerated and disjointed animal,” describes one
writer (Rogers, Linguistic Key, Revised, 408, quoting
A. Plummer). The Macedonians understood the depths of
poverty.
On the other hand, Corinth sat
at the center of the trade route between the East and West.
The narrow isthmus connecting the Ionian Sea and Aegean Sea,
along with the ports of Cenchrea and Lechaeum, put Corinth
in the middle of plentiful jobs and a booming economy. Yet
the impoverished Macedonians led the way over the wealthy
Corinthians in giving.
So, what was the difference
between the reluctant giving of the Corinthians and the
abundant giving of the Macedonians? This is where our
passages of scripture tonight offer the most practical
advice in all of Scripture on the subject of giving. But
before we look in detail at these verses, let me tell you
what we won’t find there. We won’t find manipulation or
arm-twisting techniques to squeeze money out of the
Corinthians. Nor do we find rigid rules that rob persons of
the joy of giving. We don’t find promises that God will
bless us with more money for the money we learn to give. We
find none of the stuff that churches are notorious for
saying when it comes to trying to press their people to give
more money. Instead, we discover the central truth for
matters dealing with church and money. This scripture makes
it plain. We can’t out-give God.
Remember how Paul describes
these congregations of Macedonia. They were filled with joy.
Despite their hardships, they were overflowing with
generosity. They pleaded with Paul to be a part of the
offering. It was like they begged for him to preach about
giving their money. And get this. When the offering baskets
were passed, there was a tremendous applause. And when the
offerings were counted, all were amazed at the amount of
money these poor congregations had collected.
And then comes verse five. If
you go home and underline one piece of scripture, make it
this one. Verse five of the eighth chapter of Paul’s second
letter to the Corinthians has the secret to Christian giving
and the key to understanding our relationship with money. It
reads, “And they [the Macedonians] did not do as we
expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and
then to us in keeping with God’s will.” There it is, the
secret to not just a Christian understanding of money and
giving, but the very secret to the entire Christian life.
“They gave themselves first to the Lord…and then to
us.”
The Macedonians were able to
give their money away so freely and abundantly because they
had first given themselves to God. And once they had done
that, everything else was simply a response to that. You
see, the Macedonians discovered that in giving their lives
to Christ, they had encountered a God who had given them the
things that money could never buy…peace, love, hope, grace,
forgiveness, purpose, direction and joy beyond measure. And
once you have come into contact with this God made known in
Christ, then you realize that everything in our lives is a
gift. And when you realize that everything is a gift, how
can you not share it with others? The Macedonian Christians
discovered that when it comes to giving, you can’t out-give
God.
That is preciously what Paul
wants the Corinthians to come to know. He doesn’t want to
coerce or guilt them into giving. No, he wants them to come
into a relationship with the God who has given them more
than they could ever imagine, a relationship that will
change and transform their lives. And then he paints them a
picture of this God. It is right there in verse nine. “For
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he
was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you
through his poverty might become rich.” In Jesus Christ, God
gave himself. God, who lived and reigned in heaven, took on
human flesh and became one of us. And not only in Jesus did
God live among us, in Jesus God died on the cross for us,
and in Jesus God rose from the dead to transform us. Make no
mistake, God gave us the greatest gift of all. In Jesus, God
gave us himself.
Friends, before we even talk
about giving our money to the church, I want to make sure we
talk about giving our lives to Christ. Because once you do
that, once you finally say to Jesus, “Lord, I don’t know
everything about you and I don’t know everything about what
you want me to be or want me to do, but I want to follow you
and I want to receive the gift that you offered the world in
life, death and resurrection and make it my own,” then
nobody will ever have to convince you about how and where to
give your money. Because, simply put, when you look into the
eyes of Jesus, you realize you can’t out-give God.
So here’s what I want you to do
this week. I want you to pick one day this week where you go
around for a whole day with a small pad of paper and a
pencil, and I want you to make notes of everything you
realize is a gift from God. When you lay your head down on
the pillow that night before you go to sleep, I want you to
say a little prayer of thanksgiving for all the gifts you
have been given. And then I want you to do one more thing.
When the pledge card from the church comes in the next week
or so, asking you to make a monetary commitment to the
church for the year, I want you to pull out this list and
place it by the card and make your pledge in light of what
God has given you. If we do this, I think we will find
ourselves like the Macedonians, in the “privilege of sharing
in this service to the saints.” For in the end, it will be
made plain: “We can’t out-give God.”
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