All of this conversation about COMMUNITY. You'd think we'd be able to get through 40 days of conversation on its distinctly Christian warp and woof and leave all of our pocket books well enough alone! But no. It doesn't work like that.
You'd think we'd all get a pass because the stock markets look like they do and because we see plunging pension accounts, bank accounts, and rising consumer prices! But no. It doesn't work like that.
You'd think we'd all get a pass because so many of our homes are in foreclosure or because so many of us are losing our jobs or see shaky employment ahead! But no. It doesn't work like that.
You'd think that we'd be able to sell ourselves on the age old addage: "I worked for it! It's mine." But no. It certainly doesn't work like that.
It doesn't work like that because we are community centered on Jesus...the same Jesus that spent the majority of his time talking about stewardship, where it is that you and I are investing the resources (read MONEY) of our lives.
It doesn't work like that because we are community formed around a generous God. He gives all life, nourishes and sustains, and provides in all circumstances. As his community we take on the characteristics of the One (God) that we serve. Because we serve a generous God, we are called to be his generous people. No doubt none of us will ever be able to out give God...but our generosity, especially marks us as his. Because generosity isn't natural for most of us. Generosity calls us to give, even when it is not apparently beneficial to do so. It calls us to give even when our family's balance sheet reads deficits. It calls us to give because the Scriptures are all unanimous on this point: when we are generous, we find a depth of life we never thought we could have.
Mostly this is because generosity frees us from the illusion of self protection. As we give generously financially, we are freed from the illusion that our lives need to revolve around our pocketbook, the false gods of security that we all erect in our lives.
I know that there are many ways to give. But there is no way that given the Scriptural witness and the words of Jesus (that where your treasure is there your heart will be also) that we can get away from the need to give money, at some level, to the work of God's kingdom.
In Christian community, and what Rick Warren is driving at, we take our generosity of resources and pieces that may seem like a little come to form A LOT. It's amazing how when we begin to offer the money resources of our lives to our King, how that same King multiplies that little and leverages the increase for the transformation of people. It's just how it works.
We're not talking about duty. We could talk about it at that level...because there is a conversation to be had about duty. But God really wants us giving, financially, together, in community, from hearts of joy and gratitude. As St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:7, "Each person should give what they have decided in their hearts to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
The surest way to spiritual transformation? Giving. Straight up. Where your money goes, there goes your heart. You want your heart to be with God? Give to him. You want your heart to reside where his heart resides? Give to him. You want your life to reflect his generosity? Give to him. It's that simple. It's not rocket science. It's just a matter of budgeting...of making giving to God first a priority for your lives and then investing, diligently, consistently, from the resources that God gives you.
I know that there are situations that may make giving an impossibility. But I think even the Scriptures deconstruct this. Jesus' model for generosity is the widow who takes and puts her very last bit of money in the temple treasury. All she had. Blown not on food, but on God.
I have to believe, from the way that Jesus highlights her and lifts her up, that she was fed that day and the day after. That God honored her life because she so clearly honored his. He loved her anyway. But how much more so because even in her lack, her little bit of treasure communicated LOUDLY exactly where her heart was.
Where's your heart? What percentage of your income are you intentionally putting in the service of the King? Are you on the journey? If you're not? Why not? What's preventing you?
I know that this money conversation is a Sacred Cow, but I don't know anyway to deconstruct the Sacred Cow without just talking about it. And here's the thing I know for sure about every good Sacred Cow. They make the BEST gourmet burgers!
Sizzle-sizzle folks. That's the sound and smell of a community full of individuals and households coming to terms with their own scarcity thinking and self-serving practices with regards to their finances.
Give it all to God. See what happens. And don't be surprised if you find life: ABUNDANT, RICH, AND OVERFLOWING.
From the old gray leather coach in the Swenson-Reinhold family room,
Pastor Nathan
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