Fall Stewardship 3: Financial Giving

For all the ways that modern North American Christians are different from the people of the New Testament…for all the cultural, political, economic, and intellectual differences between them and us…every once in a while, Jesus speaks about something that cuts right through time and speaks directly to a modern issue.

In the Gospel that we’ve just heard, Jesus touches on something that is both ancient and modern. Jesus connects money with anxiety. Jesus invites us not to be worried, not to be anxious about our life, our possessions, our treasures. To invest in God’s Kingdom, rather than our own little kingdoms.

Jesus says do not worry…do not fear little flock. I get the sense that Jesus is pained by the unnecessary suffering that he sees his disciples going through. Consider the lilies, he says, they don’t worry themselves sick, yet they are full of glory just as God made them.

Easy for Jesus to say, you might be thinking. He didn’t have a mortgage to pay. Or car insurance. Or an orthodontist, therapist, accountant, and life coach, either, for that matter. Not to mention that Jesus did not have the single biggest financial liability you could ever take on: children.

You might be (rightly) wondering if considering the lilies can help us out at all with our modern financial worries. Especially when it’s so uncomfortable to talk about money in church. Believe me, I know that I’m swimming into an emotional minefield, just by talking about money from the pulpit. We have guilt: we haven’t given enough; we haven’t saved enough; we haven’t spent enough! We fear for our safety: will we have enough to pay bills, to retire, to afford health care?

And to top it off, we often treat money and finances as such a private issue that our worries can end up being hidden from our friends and family. We even try to keep our finances private from God. I’ve heard people try to make the case that our faith is spiritual, so it shouldn’t really matter what we do with our money and possessions, it should only matter what is in our hearts.

Jesus takes a very different approach.

Jesus talks about possessions and money early and often in his ministry. He talks about money more than almost any other subject. So much for just being ‘spiritual,’ right? But if it matters to us, it matters to God, and God knows money matters. We consider it when making important decisions. We assign value to things we care about with money. The receipts in our wallets say a lot about what we value.

Maybe the most powerful thing that Jesus says about money comes right at the end of the Gospel that we read today.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12.34 NRSV)

Depending on how you hear this, I think it can either set you free from financial anxiety or confirm your deepest fears about it.

Traditionally, I’ve heard it that second way. I think about how little I’m actually able to give, and all the things that I still worry about, (will there be enough?) I think about the fact that I can’t seem to make that leap to ‘sell all my possessions,’ as Jesus advises his disciples to do. And since ‘where your treasures are is where your heart will be,’ I saw all of this as confirmation that my heart just wasn’t in the right place. And if my heart wasn’t in it, then I guess I wouldn’t be able to give as I ought, and that my heart would never really be in it.

But this is almost exactly opposite of what the Gospel says. Listen closely to the words of Jesus: “where your heart is, there your heart will be. Where your treasures are now, there your heart will be in the future. It’s not that our giving the right way follows from getting our heart right, it’s that growing our heart and love for God follows from giving and investing our treasures in the Kingdom. Regardless of how you feel now, whether you feel generous or stingy or guilty or afraid, God can change your heart starting with the treasure that you already have.

This is a startling claim: if you want your heart to be in the right place with regard to money and possessions — if you want to let go of the anxiety that permeates our relationship with money…God has a path for you to do that: give it away.

Now, I’m not going to tell you what some preachers have said, which is that if you share your money with the church, that you’ll guarantee a return on your financial investment. That your bank accounts will grow if you make a ‘down payment’ with your church. In my experience, it does not work that way. Religious institutions from Biblical Times to modern day Prosperity Preachers have manipulated people to give to the church based on our inner anxiety and greed to make more money.

Please, do not give money out of a sense of guilt. Do not give money out of a sense of fear. And please, do not give as a scheme to get rich quick. You will likely be disappointed.

So why should you give to the congregation? Well, I think it really comes down to two reasons: sacrifice and support.

We give as a sacrifice. We give sacrificially. Because we have been called to give. We give in order to be faithful. We give as a spiritual practice. This is that change of heart that is possible, Jesus says, when we share our treasure with the Kingdom of God. This is giving that is pure sacrifice, it doesn’t promise financial return on your invest, but it does promise to change your heart. Even if you don’t give financially to your congregation, please give to something outside of yourself. It will change you.

Many of you do already give to your congregation, and that kind of giving is support. It’s the idea that if you are a part of this community of faith, then I assume that you care about its mission, that you want to see it continue, and maybe even grow, and for that to happen it needs financial support. In order to employ staff and keep our campus safe and inviting and to reach more and more people with the good news that has already reached us, it’s reasonable that each of us would financially support the congregation to the extent that we can.

As we have been given different financial gifts, we are able to give different financial gifts. Throughout the Bible, God’s people are consistently called to share in proportion to what they have received.

If I make $1000 this week and want to give a tithe, or 10%, my $100 offering might be significantly more or significantly less than your tithe. The dollar amount does not make me a better or worse Christian than the next person — and to be honest, even the percentage I give does not make God love me more or less than you. But it makes sense that the amount we share is relative to our income.

And this is where each of us can consider how we might grow in the percentage that we give. I know it’s not easy at first. When Leslie and I first discussed giving back 10% of what we make off the top, it was an awkward conversation. It forced us to talk about savings and spending and budgeting. Stretching to that number forced us to be generous in a way that didn’t come naturally. But we don’t regret it.

In fact, I think about all the folks that I’ve gotten to know at the end of their lives. And, as a pastor, I have had the privilege of sharing time with a lot of people considering their life’s legacy. I have never spoken with someone who regretted giving too much at the end of their life. I have never yet heard someone say, ‘boy, I wish I hadn’t been so generous.’

Next week in worship, we will dedicate Estimate of Giving Cards. You may have received one in the mail, or if not, we have cards that you can pick up. I hope you’ll take some time in the next week to prayerfully consider how your household might grow in giving as sacrifice and as support.

Investing your treasure, your time, money, and possessions, in the Kingdom of God does not guarantee that you’ll become rich, but it does promise to change your heart. Practicing the spiritual gift of generosity opens each of us up to the flow of love that God has planned for us. Love that always comes down, no matter what we give or do not give. But when we allow that love to flow through us, we can be a part of something we could never do on our own.

Through this flow of love, God sets us free from fear so that like the lilies in the field, we can be exactly who we are meant to be, clothed in glory, and without fear. Amen.