Where God's Mouth Is

Sermon for Proper 20 C RCL 9/19/2010


Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry


Texts: Jeremiah 8:18-9:1; Psalm 79:1-9; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13



We began with a fun dramatic script from the Iona Community in Scotland called, “Of mouths and money.” It imagined an "off the record" (meaning, not recorded in Scripture!) dialogue between Jesus and Peter about which subject the Lord spoke about the most. Peter wonders if Jesus is obsessed with money, since he speaks about it so often. Jesus contends that many people have "a money problem" that keeps them separated from God and from one another. You can find this dialogue (and many others directrly related to the Gospels) in this book here on Amazon.com:
Jesus and Peter: Off-the-record Conversations




Yes, my sisters and brothers: Jesus talks a lot about money! He talks more about wealth and money than perhaps any other single subject matter.


Now, this can be difficult for us to hear. Very often, I hear people complain that all they ever hear the church talk about is money. But I don’t think this is the same as the way Jesus talked about money. Jesus wasn’t concerned with fundraising or with budgets or pledges or anything like that.


Always, Jesus is focused laser-like on the disposition of the human heart and how this guides all of our actions.


All of his teachings on money reach their climax in the final saying from our reading today:


“You cannot serve God and wealth” (Luke 16:13). His point is this: here are two different paths that we can follow. The path of pursuing money or the path of pursuing God. It is a matter of eagerness and energy, of devotion and commitment.


This teaching is so crucially important for us, because we here in our nation are so easily distracted and blinded by the plethora of goods around us. This past week, our high school son, Angus, and I got into a little argument about the relative importance of technology. He reported to me that our upper elementary school just received a gift of 25 new I-Pads so that students can learn to use this new technology. I replied and said, “Angus, that’s stupid! How are I-Pads going to help 5th graders with their math and creative writing?” Of course, he responded that he felt it is important for kids to learn about new technology.


But is that really important? Is this the technology that matters, I told him? When thousands of children die every day because they do not have clean water to drink, is it really important for us here to learn how to use the newest touch screen computers? Is that what our children need to learn? For that matter, do we really need have to have the best flat screen TVs and the newest and fanciest gadgets when there are 1 billion people in the world today who suffer from chronic hunger?


I know that many of these folks are hungry because of their own dysfunctional governments. I know that. But still, we have to be careful not to excuse ourselves too easily. You and I have an extra responsibility to turn away from the sea of advertisements in which we swim every day, to not be fooled by these siren voices calling us to buy more and more.


What did we hear today from our Epistle reading? That God “desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). Last week, we talked about what it means to be saved. That to be saved is to be released from the baggage of our past, the bonds of ignorance and foolishness and selfishness and greed which we have picked up over the years, in order that we might be healed and recover our true, natural selves.


This process of healing includes coming to the knowledge of the truth, and surely this knowledge includes an awareness that God calls us to lives of deep generosity and compassion. That kind of life is impossible as long as we continue to listen to the voices of greed and possession rather than the voice of God.


So may the Holy Spirit grant us grace to be among those who put our money where God’s mouth is as we live with the compassion of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Do You Want To Be a Billionaire?

Sermon for Proper 17 C RCL 8/29/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Jeremiah 2:4-13; Psalm 81:1, 10-16; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16; Luke 14:1, 7-14

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have” (Hebrew 13:5). My brothers and sisters: we need to speak together this morning about our relationship with money and about God’s intentions and desires for the way that we use money and wealth.

To begin with, though, please let me apologize. You see, I have teenagers in my house. Two of them: 13 years old and nearly 15. Because of that, I am forced – on occasion – to listen to really bad pop music, despite all my best efforts to minimize any potential exposure on my part!

So, as I read the lessons for today, I immediately began to sing one of these new pop songs that has been playing on the radio recently. “I want to be a billionaire, so freaking bad; buy all of the things I never had.” Travis McCoy and Bruno Mars sing this song. (You can listen to is here: YouTube "Billionaire" video).

It’s really quite a stupid song, but you know that those fellows are certainly not alone in their desire to have unlimited wealth at their disposal. It’s quite common for people to dream about being rich. Have any of you ever dreamed about being rich? (Be honest!)

But why? Why do people dream about being rich? What is it that money offers that makes people want it so badly?

Each one of us has a relationship to money. We all think about money in a particular way; we all feel about money in a certain way. Each one of us acts toward money in a certain way. This constitutes our relationship with money, and it a relationship that has a major bearing upon the quality and depth of our discipleship to Jesus Christ.

Let’s start with the basic attitude that Jesus and the apostles had toward money, the attitude that God longs to find within us as well.

And that is this: Money is a tool. That’s all it is. It is one of the tools that our society has created in order to facilitate the building of relationships.

The money that is within my sphere of control is not mine. I have it only on loa;, I am the temporary steward of it. This money, this little bit of wealth has been given to me to use so that I can build stronger relationships with others: with my family, my neighbors, and even with other people in need all around the world whom I am likely never to meet in person.

Never am I given money so that I may use it only for my own selfish wants and desires. God knows our hearts; God knows all things. God knows that we need money for this life; that we need to have some joy and pleasure in life. But God knows most of all that the desire for money can easily become a cancer that eats away at our hearts, that strips us of our freedom and our dignity, that robs us of that abundant life which Jesus promised.

And so, as we read this morning, the Bible says: “Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have” (Hebrew 13:5). This verse sounds a lot like a verse from the First Letter to Timothy which is a bit more famous. This one states: “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). We are given consistent guidance in the Bible to be careful with our relationship to money.

As in all the matters of life, Jesus is our Teacher, our Guide. In today’s gospel episode, Jesus concludes his teaching by inviting us to the practice of generosity. To throw a dinner party, of course, is a way of using our money and wealth, and Jesus here proposes two different ways that we can use this. We can throw a party in order to build important connections which will benefit us later on down the road. This is what we usually call “politics”. That would be in the self-serving category. Or we can throw a party for those who don’t ever get to have parties for themselves: the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.

In that case, Jesus tells us that we are building an eternal connection with God that will have even more benefit than any other. Either way, the Lord continually reminds us, we have to choose: connections and pleasures and benefits here in this life, or else blessings and joy in the life to come. It is impossible for us to choose both.

Now, the question that most people ask at this point is, “How?” How can I possible live that kind of life where I have no emotional attachment to money and wealth?

We need only read the rest of this verse: “Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have. FOR…[or Because] God has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ So we can say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid, What can anyone do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5b-6).

Oh, my dear friends, I would love to hear each one of you indeed say this with confidence, with boldness in your words, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”

That is faith. That is trust in God. That is confidence in God. There it is, right there!

This is the secret! This is the means by which we can handle money and wealth without any emotional attachments whatsoever. The secret is this constant remembrance of God in our minds, and in our hearts.

When I see my money slipping away, and when it seems insufficient to cover the pile of bills that never cease to stop, and my anxiety begins to build, what can I do?

Stop and remember: God has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. God is trustworthy and true. I can trust and believe that everything which happens to me is given to me for my good.

Deep, abiding trust in the goodness and loving-kindness of God is the secret to a non-anxious relationship with money. When we taste and see that God is good, then we are set free to use money and wealth to be a blessing to others, sharing generously with those in need.

Being a billionaire can actually be a really bad thing. There is an old Irish poem about the deleterious effects of wealth upon friendship. The poet ponders the best way to handle this problem. This old Irish poem goes like this:

People gather round the wealthy man like flies round a flame.
When he boasts, they praise him; when he lies, they believe him.
When he jokes, they laugh; when he’s serious, they frown.
“He is wise and handsome,” they say […] in his hearing.

I would hate to be rich and surrounded by flies.
I want friends to prick my pride and speak the truth.
If ever I grow rich, I shall hide my wealth.
Then my friends will still be real, and their voices honest.

But if I hide my wealth, I shall be lying.
Better [then] to remain poor.
(Celtic Parables by Robert Van De Weyer, Northstone Publishing, 1997: P. 123).

This is a choice that most of us are not able to make! Most of us do not have the ability to choose to be rich or poor. Many circumstances are beyond our control. But we do have the ability to choose our attitudes, our perspectives.

The Scriptures say: “Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have.” Let’s keep our lives free, be content with what we have, share what we have with the poor, and trust always in the goodness of God. That, my friends, is the path of true and abundant life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ten Rungs Into the Summer Air

After a week of the most intense heat that I have ever felt in New Jersey, a poem came to me. Every night (and on my days off), I am working on our house exterior. Well, these words came to me in the heat high up on our 32' ladder as I was thinking about my lovely wife, Erin. It's a personal poem written for her, but I thought I'd share it with the world as well. Why not? Maybe it will be a blessing to someone else as well.

Ten Rungs Into the Summer Air

Which is better for a man:

to know how to make money
or to know how to make love


Random thoughts fly in and out
Haze and heat induced
like the cumulous clouds
seen from my elevated perch
so full of promise and potential
yet unable to deliver

The drought lingers on
the account stays negative
No rain dance will change this pattern


At least I know how
to make you feel good
with the one thing
I can (usually) control.