| Thinking about the Use of Money in Hard Economic Times. |
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| Monday, May 30, 2011 | |
 We live in a secular world. This means that most people go about the ordinary routines of life without a connection to spiritual, biblical, or even moral concerns. For example: most of us do not think of economics or our patterns of consumption in spiritual or moral terms. For many, money and the economic system that produces it, is seen as neutral ground where the individual can do what he or she wants. This viewpoint is illustrated every time we read about a high profile story where a trusted leader, an employee, a business owner, or a civil servant mishandles money. But this viewpoint may be may also be found closer to home in the ideas we hold which guide our use of money.Until the last century Christian thought has been a strong influence that helped form the guiding ethics of the market place. If you look at the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, you find whole sections of his theological work devoted to economic issues. He asked such questions as: "What is honest work? What is a just price? and How should we deal with poverty?" Today, these questions, if they are even discussed at all, would be discussed in a class on economic theory. But in his time, these ethical and moral issues were a critical and integral part of the teachings the church brought to society. Later, in the Protestant Reformation, we find the same thing. In John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, whole sections are devoted to government and economics. In the Wesleyan revival, John Wesley wrote sermons to guide the early Methodists in economic matters such as On the Use of Money. So Christians should not feel that money and economics are outside the domain of Christian teachings. If anything, we need to recapture this arena and bring a strong biblical message to it. In reality, the Bible speaks to economic issues more than any other issue. Whole sections of the book of Proverbs and many of the parables of Jesus deal with economic matters. They tell us what our attitude should be toward wealth and how a Christian should handle his or her finances. The Bible also provides a description of human nature, which helps us evaluate the use of money in society. The Bible teaches that there are two aspects to human nature. First, we are created in the image of God. One of the meanings of this is we have a power to choose. We have a responsibility to God and others in the arena of our choices about the use of money. But secondly, human beings are sinful and thus tend towards selfish greed and the exploitation of others. This fact points to the need to protect individuals from human sinfulness. Our use of money can be in the service of God: we use it to express faith, sacrifice, compassion, love of neighbor, service to others that meets the needs of the least and the last, and deeds of mercy that uplift. Our use of money can also serve selfishness, soulless consumption, fear, or greed, and express disregard for others through our neglect. John Wesley’s sermon, The Use of Money has something to help us in times like these and can be summarized in a straightforward manner: "Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can." "Gain all you can," sounds to our modern ears like a call to workaholism. From Wesley, this is a call do work that suits the individual, does not degrade one's health, nor harm one's body nor mind. Or risk one's soul by requiring lying, cheating or conforming to a practice that is inconsistent with a good conscious. Wesley was also clear that however wealth was earned, it must never harm others -- that is, our every action must be consistent with the law of Love: specifically Wesley mentions undercutting neighbors in trade, collecting exorbitant interest, or anything that might pass for "doing evil that good may come." At first pass, this all sounds fairly basic and common sense. But Wesley's admonitions are as timely now as then. Our decisions about employment should always include the ethic of doing no harm. Wesley's approach to "save all you can" has nothing to do with 401K plans, retirement funds, stocks or bonds. With "save all you can," Wesley challenged his listeners to live simply so as not to waste resources on trivial expenses, to be content with simple foods, to live with plain furnishings and clothing, and spend nothing to gratify the pride of life or to gain the admiration of others. Wesley himself lived on about 28 pounds (English) when he was a student at Oxford. He continued to live on about that amount for the rest of his life -- by living simply, eating simply, dressing simply. He wrote extensively that excess wealth -- that is, anything left after one fed and clothed one's self and family -- should be put to work for the poor. We certainly live "higher on the hog" than Wesley would. The questions for us are "When does enough become too much? When do my possessions own me?" Many of us can resonate with a time when a 'thing' has taken over importance in our life -- even if briefly. Each generation redefines what is essential and necessary to life. But each generation must also curb the appetite to have the newest, latest, most cleaver or advanced item simply because we want it. We are called to consider God and others each time we face choices about a new car, a home of our own, a dress for the prom, a new pair of shoes, some material item that fills our mind. Finally, we cannot imagine that Wesley would stop with merely gaining and saving. He did not. The purpose of these first two is the last tenet, "Give all you can." Wesley takes seriously the radical New Testament stewardship as Jesus taught. We are stewards of the world: ownership rests in God. We may get to use and employ some things, but God retains the control. Wesley was concerned that no members of any Methodist Society or Class meeting should ever be hungry or poorly housed or inadequately clothed. Wesley extended this concern to neighbors who were not "Methodist," too. His message of deep generosity was set in gratitude for God's goodness and generosity of grace. Therefore generous use of money for God and neighbor was a natural expression and extension of holy living. "If the Methodists would give all they can, then all would have enough." Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can sums up Wesley's understanding of stewardship: that giving is basic to Christian discipleship --a grateful response to God's actions in the world and in our lives. This grateful response is the natural result of one's own salvation – a transformation that works in us through God’s grace as we walk in obedience to Jesus and live in a deep and personal relationship with God. Ted Jennings who has studied Wesley's preaching writes: "Wesley emphasized a personal relationship with God coupled with holy living that is inseparably linked to a real transformation in the form of one's life. This transformation of one’s life brought one into necessary conflict with the character of the world and its conventional wisdom. Above all it had to result in a transformation of one's relation to the world, especially this world’s love of 'mammon,' the desire of riches, the ethos of acquisition and expenditure." Jennings goes on, "Those evangelicals who preach a conversion that does not turn us toward the poor, that does not result in a redistribution of wealth are offering individual salvation as a substitute for meaningful transformation either of persons or of society. Such a project receives no support from either Wesley or the Gospel he sought to serve." [Good News to the Poor: John Wesley's Evangelical Economics, Theodore Jennings, Jr., Abingdon Press, 1990, p. 17.] Holy living put one at odds with the status quo. Personal transformation through holy living as understood by Wesley put one in a new relationship with wealth and its uses, turned one to use wealth outward in the world toward the transformation of the world. Wesley took the Gospel quite seriously "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21  He believed that the increase in possessions lead to the death of one's faith and religion, and was not at all bashful about hammering home this message. It is a message that even the early Methodist movement gave little heed to, but one that Wesley preached all his life -- one cannot serve both God and possessions. Wesley didn't believe that money is itself evil, nor that it is more sinful to be rich than to be poor, but that being rich is "dangerous beyond expression" to one's soul; that possession of riches naturally breeds the love of them. And if they were increasing one's wealth, they weren't working for the poor. Yours in Christ's love and service,
Pastor David |
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