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"Where your treasure
is, there your heart will be also" (Lk. 12:34).
"On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother
Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and
presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh" (Mt.
2:11).
Ebeneezer Scrooge . .
. a great name for a great character!
His name has become a byword for miserliness, and lack of charity. Though wealthy, he is nickel-nursing
cheapskate. His dinner is gruel,
which he prepares himself, because gruel is cheap. His meager lodgings are dark because
darkness is cheap . . . and barely
heated because coal is not free. But
it’s not just his house that is cold.
In the book, Charles Dickens writes, “The cold within him froze his
old features, nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips
blue, and he spoke shrewdly in his grating voice.” And of course, Scrooge has a neurotic
hatred of Christmas. For one reason,
it means he has to give his clerk, Bob Cratchit, Christmas Day off . . .
with pay. In this way, Scrooge feels
like Christmas picks his pocket on an annual basis.
A part of us can
identify with Scrooge. Christmas is over;
New Year’s too . . . all but the paying for it. The credit card bill nearly took your
breath away. (Isn’t it remarkable
how it adds up?) If you’re
self-employed, another quarterly tax estimate is due in another week . . .
that so soon on the heels of the personal property tax. (Isn’t it remarkable how our taxes add up?) And now, in early January, it’s time to
get serious again about work . . . and weight . . . to tighten the belt on
finances . . . and our fat. If it’s
not done already, it’s time to take the tree down and put the decorations
away, tasks none of us enjoy. And just
when you think coming to church will offer a brief respite from all that, you
learn the preacher has in mind a stewardship sermon. That’s right . . .
this sermon is about money. It’s
about cash . . . cold and hard. “Bah
humbug!”
They didn’t want to hear about
money in Jesus' day either, but he kept bringing it up. He would not ignore the topic or give it only
superficial treatment. Jesus just
kept talking about it. He would not
let it go. Most of his parables had
something to do with money. Jesus
had more to say about money than he did about prayer or heaven . . . combined. Apparently Joseph and Mary never taught
Jesus that it was impolite to talk about money.
Most of you grew up in
households where there was no public talk about salaries or income. “None of your business” your parents
said. Adults during the Great Depression
never stopped worrying about having enough money. But what they had and what others had was
nobody's business. People now talk more
now than ever before about their sex lives and familial problems and
illnesses, but money talk remains taboo.
Money talk is
personal. The reason it's so
personal, is that money talk is about more than just money. It is about heart and soul. It’s about how we see ourselves and the
purpose of our lives. It’s about
values and priorities. How we think
about money, how we acquire it and use it, is very close to the essence of
who we are. They say you can learn a
lot about people by looking at their trash.
You can learn even more if you could look at all their receipts.
That’s what Jesus was
teaching when he said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will
be also." We've heard the
phrase so much that we have almost become numb to its meaning. But Jesus is suggesting that the deepest
affection of our hearts is revealed, not by our words and intentions, but
by what we do with our money.
Someone went so far as to say that our personal creed is not so much
the words we recite in church as it is the stubs in our checkbook. Your
money, how you get it, how you use it, what it does for you, is a very
important part of who you are. With
your money, you practice not necessarily what you preach, but what you
believe.
Today, we are
celebrating the Epiphany of our Lord, where the lessons begin unpacking who
this Jesus is that was born in Bethlehem. Today, we hear of the visit of the wise
men, who believed this infant was worthy of their worship and of their
wealth. Matthew chapter two: "When the magi saw the child with
his mother Mary, they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and
presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh." In that simple act of quietly giving
treasure to the infant Jesus, they were making a bold confession of
faith. They didn't use any words, at
least none that were recorded. They
didn't have to. They were confessing
and worshiping Jesus as Lord also with money. Jesus would later say, "Where your
treasure is, there your heart is also."
There's a stewardship
lesson in that. This wasn't a part
of some annual stewardship campaign that the magi were responding to. No one was cajoling them or bugging them
or meddling. They were giving a
portion of their treasure away because they wanted to. It was an integral part of their worship. With their gifts they were confessing
their faith.
Keep in mind that at
the time there were many questions surrounding this infant, who he was, who
he would be, what he would do. By no
means was that all sorted out, even by his parents. But all who saw what the wise men were
doing knew where they stood. They put their treasure where their
hearts already were. They worshipped
him. Then they gave him their gifts.
What about you? Does the way you use your money adequately
confess your faith? Does your money
confess the same faith your mouth does?
It's not only a matter of quantity.
It's a matter of quality. Are
you giving of your first fruits or are you giving the leftovers? Are you giving intentionally, deliberately,
thoughtfully, or is it more like a careless little tip left behind? Are you giving to your Savior or to a
budget? Are you giving out of joy
and gratitude like the wise men, or, like Scrooge, do you feel like your
pockets are being picked. One bit of
pastoral advice: Don’t give even a
penny to the Lord begrudgingly. Just
keep it. He doesn’t need or want your dollars out of obligation. He who
gave his very life for you out of love would find it highly offensive if we
thought of our offerings as obligatory, like some sort of ecclesiastical
tax.
If, however, you feel
there is reason to thank and praise the Lord, then by all means, thank and
praise him also with your money. If
you love the Lord, show it to him, not just with your words, but also with your
wealth.
Of course, there are
risks. There is the risk you will
not have enough for retirement. And
there is the risk you will not be able to do all that you want to do . . .
with your family, your house your vacations. But the risks cut the other way as
well. If we’re not able to give it
away, money has a way of taking ownership over us. Ebeneezer Scrooge became
a slave to his own money.
Perhaps it’s
simplistic, but I still think the old formula is the best, and I make sure
I talk about it with every couple that comes in for pre-marital
counseling. It’s called the 10-10-80
rule. If you can, try to live within
80% of your income. That may mean
investing in a small house rather than large, buying a used car rather than
new, taking vacations close to home rather than far away. It may mean giving up cable T.V. and
eating out less. Live within 80% of
your income. And then try to save
10% of your income for retirement and emergencies and college
education. Use a financial
planner. Take advantage of
compounding interest, which even Albert Einstein said he could hardly
understand. Isn’t saving also a part
of Christian stewardship?
But first, when you
get a pay check, right off the top, give ten percent away. Give it away, to those charities
important to you. Hopefully some of
it would be here, but it’s fine if it goes elsewhere as well. The point is you want to feel good about
the places to which you give money.
Your treasure follows your heart.
For that reason, Gail
and I give most of our offering to Good Shepherd. This is where our hearts are. But each month we give a smaller
percentage also to LCMS World Relief and also to the mission efforts of our
church body. Then, occasionally,
Gail and I will also send a small check to the Seminary, and to Calvary
Chapel, (the campus ministry in Madison),
because they own a part of our hearts as well . . . even a foundation that
supports surgery and rehabilitation of hands in 3rd world
countries. We enjoy giving money to
these purposes, and we think of all of it as a way of giving back to the
Lord, motivated by gratitude . . . not obligation.
Now, for most of us,
our percentages are probably a bit out of kilter. Instead of 10-10-80, it may be
2-6-92. But I still think the 10-10-80
rule is a good goal. Like anything
else, it usually can’t happen all at once.
Work towards it gradually.
If you recall, Scrooges’
conversion didn’t happen easily or all at once. He didn’t change his ways until he was
confronted with his own mortality, the brevity of his life. Then Scrooge began to understand that
life is a gift. Be began to understand money, what it can do and what it cannot
do. And though the book never quite
says it, he discovered the words of Jesus are true: it is indeed more
blessed to give than to receive.
When he was finally able to give it away, then he was able to open
his heart and laugh and sing and rejoice and join in the celebration.
You and I have one
life to live. It’s a short life with
our days passing faster than a weaver’s shuttle. It is a finite resource. It is made up of our time, our energy,
our intelligence, our love. It is
made up of our money. God's intent
is for us to live this life fully.
God wants us, in Paul's memorable language, to "take hold of
the life that is truly life."
Part of that means changing the way we think about money.
I think the wise men
had already figured that out. Full,
rich, meaningful life was not in the gold, frankincense and myrrh. It was in the baby that was sleeping in
front of them. Somehow it had been
revealed to them that the little one lying before them came from God and
was of God, and that it was their delight to love him with all their heart
and with all their soul and with all their mind . . . with everything they had,
including their gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Jesus also loved the
Father with everything he had. And
he loved us that way too. He held
nothing back. The death and
resurrection of Jesus made us wealthy in ways we could never make
ourselves. His baptismal promise to
us gives us a sense of security whether we are rich or poor. His body and blood give us a sense of
peace, even when we’re dying. His
forgiveness is far more comforting than the best health plan or retirement
package. Freeing us from death and
from the fear of death, Jesus has, in a very real way, given us our lives
back.
The wise men saw the
child and bowed down and worshiped him.
Then they opened their treasures and presented to him gifts of gold,
frankincense and myrrh. Their
treasure was very personal to them, and that’s why their gifts were such a wonderful
confession of faith.
Your money is a
personal matter to you. For where your
treasure is, there your heart, your soul, your very life will be also.
Amen.
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