Someone in the Ephesian church where young Timothy was a pastor was teaching what we call today “prosperity theology.” I’m sure you’ve heard it too. It says that God will give you material gain (a profit) in exchange for spiritual cooperation. It may sound something like this, “if you send our church or Christian organization money, God will give it back to you 10 times.” The writer of 1 Timothy speaks to the false claim of prosperity theology and goes on to talk very clearly about wealth.

Read Matthew 8:1-4.

Other cultures I think have shown a better understanding of the burden of wealth. Take for example the Yap Islanders. The Yap Islanders in the South Pacific make big money. I mean literally. “Their largest currency is an eighteen-foot high stone ring that weighs up to fifteen tons. Their smaller “change” is 30 inches in diameter and weighs over a hundred pounds. It is a giant rock donut with a hole in the middle so it can be carried on a pole. You might be asking yourself what value a rock donut might have. The exchange rate is  ¼ acre of land, an eighteen-foot canoe, 10,000 coconuts or a wife.”^[i] Think about carrying much of that cash on you! The Spartans of Ancient Greece minted their money in heavy iron disks rather than silver coins. Every time they used their money they were reminded that wealth is a burden, not just a privilege.^[ii] The fact that we spend so much time working for, worrying about, arguing over, spending, and investing money supports the wisdom of the Yap Islanders and the Spartans.

In the first letter to Timothy we are warned about the burden of wealth and the temptations and traps that are associated with a desire for wealth. Then the writer gives explicit instructions on how to avoid the traps and keep the burden of wealth from weighing you down. He really speaks to three different groups of people in the part we read today. He speaks to those who want to get rich, those who want to honor God and those who are rich and want to honor God.^[iii]

We should all know about the temptations of wanting to get rich. We are inundated every day with the temptations of materialism. Commercials constantly try to convince us that their product will bring us happiness. Lotteries have become huge enterprises. The other night the headlining story on the local news was about someone winning the lottery. Of course they failed to mention the millions of people who lost their money. There was an article in last Sunday’s Courier about an 81 year old woman who fell into the very trap that the Scripture talks about; she lost all of her savings, charged up credit cards and even took out loans to cover “taxes and other fees” so she could receive a promised $250,000 lottery prize. Finally a concerned bank employee seeing this woman go through so much money contacted the police. ^[iv] The woman was scammed over a period of several years losing so much in the hopes of turning a quick profit, but what profit did she really receive?

Even if it’s not a scam and we get rich quick, it’s not always the profit we think it will be. I’ll let Curtis Sharp tell you his story.

SHOW VIDEO CLIP “Your Money or Your Life” about 3 minutes.

Winning the lottery didn’t profit the quality of Curtis Sharp’s life. He learned the hard way the traps and temptations of the love of money. Now I want to be clear. This passage is not anti-wealth as it is often misquoted. It says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.” (1 Timothy 6:10) As we saw Curtis Sharp pierced himself with many pains, but fortunately he repented and returned to the faith where he found real profit for his life. Money is a good servant but a terrible master. When we love money more than God, more than our families, more than our health, more than our integrity, then the profit is no profit at all.

Carol talked about the spirituality of the calendar last week when she spoke about the stewardship of time. This week I am talking about the spirituality of the checkbook or debit card. If you think that there is no connection between your spiritual life and your money you are wrong. If you think the church has no business talking about money in church, you are wrong. How we use our money and the other resources we have is a spiritual issue. It is a stewardship issue. Remember what stewardship means? As writer Dan Dick explains “Stewardship is the appreciation [that is cherishing] and management [sharing] of resources and opportunities for ministry that God has given us. And it is about also about maximizing these resources and opportunities potential for Christian transformation in the world.” ^[v] This is why our stewardship campaign this year is called “Cherishing and Sharing God’s Gifts.” We begin our spiritual practice of stewardship recognizing that all that we have is a gift from God. We cherish those gifts and in thankfulness treat them and use them well. This includes our time, the earth, our bodies, our relationships, our faith and our resources. Then we are called to share some of the generous gifts we have been given to further God’s reign on earth, “to love our neighbor as ourselves” and to care for other parts of God’s creation. We have been given so much and how we respond to God’s generosity is certainly a spiritual matter.

The second group of people the Scripture this morning addresses are people who want to honor God. I hope you noticed that for all the talk about money, it is not mentioned in this section. We can honor God with our lives whether we are materially rich or poor. Honoring God is not tied to wealth, it’s tied to character. The Message Bible paraphrases the Scripture this way, “Pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to, the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses.”^[vi] We honor God by our character and our character impacts everything we do including how we cherish and share God’s gifts.

The third group the Scripture addresses are the people who want to honor God and who are wealthy, most of us fall into this group. Now before you protest, “I’m not wealthy,” the Scripture says that if you have food and clothing you are wealthy. So if you have more than one or two things in your cupboard and closet, you fall into this category. The writer says to Timothy tell this group (and I’m going to quote the Message Bible again) “to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they'll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.”^[vii] Now that’s a real profit!

When we have been blessed with material gain we are to share that blessing with others. Money is our energy and work in portable form. We can send it across the world to speak the love of Christ and our love by buying mosquito nets to protect Kenyan children from malaria. We can give it right next door to help someone eat today or to provide a safe place for an abused woman and her children. We can use it to start churches in Cambodia or support this church right here. And the thing is that like a river with many tributaries if we all give with the generosity we receive all our efforts flow together and create a mighty force for God and for good in this world. I invite you to participate in a spiritual exercise this week. Take a good hard look at your checkbook register. For what profit are you investing your time and resources in? Are you being a good steward cherishing and sharing God’s gifts? Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” I invite you to “take hold of the life that really is life.” Amen.

Sermon delived by Rev. Nancy Cushman on October 26, 2005.