"Money Matters"
November 12, 2006: 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, Year B
The Rev. John MacIver Gage, senior minister
United Church on the Green, UCC: New Haven, CT
www.unitedchurchonthegreen.org

Scriptures:
Luke 16:1-13
Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that his manager was squandering his property. So the rich man summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg...? Wait, I have decided what to do, so that when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes...' So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' And he answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' So the manager said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' And he replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' So the manager said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.' And his master actually commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. So I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

1 Timothy 6:6-12, 17-19
Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 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. But as for you, child of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses... As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

"May God speak through these words and make from them a holy word for us today. Amen."

Sermon:
Friends, there are some people who believe that money is evil, or dirty, or at least déclassé, and so shouldn't be talked about in church. There are some people who believe that life is divided into the spiritual part, where live for an hour or two on Sunday in the rarified atmosphere of church, and then all the other parts, where we live the other 166 hours a week when we're working for a living or paying bills or refinancing our mortgage. There are some people who seem to believe that the church is like a bromeliad, a hothouse flower that exists on only air and good will.

But Jesus was not one of those people. Despite what you may have been told and despite what you may want to believe, the evidence just doesn't bear it out. Jesus knew the value of a dollar, or a denarius, and he knew that, as human beings living in a complex web of social and economic relationships where money is meaningful and powerful, we need help to make our way as faithful social and economic beings in the world.

So Jesus talked about money. A lot. In fact, there's nothing he talked about more except the Kingdom of God. By some estimates, one out of every seven verses in the first three Gospel accounts touch on the subject of money. Jesus talked about money more than about heaven and hell combined. Fully 16 of his nearly 38 parables are drawn from the world of business. Remember the Parable of the Talents? Or the Laborers in the Vineyard? The Rich Man and Lazarus? The Lost Coin? And if you don't think the story of the Prodigal Son has got something to say about money, take another look.

And then there's this parable before us this morning, often called the Parable of the Dishonest Manager, with its shady dealings and decidedly earthy tone. I don't mind telling you, this story completely eluded my understanding for years. This Jesus who seems to affirm the manager's efforts to save his skin by using money to win friends and influence people doesn't seem to much resemble to the more pristine picture of Jesus I had in my head. Surely Jesus wouldn't sully his hands with such things, much less commend them to us? Jesus telling his followers to be shrewd, to be wily, to be wheelers and dealers for the Lord? It just doesn't compute. It looks like Jesus, but it sure doesn't sound like him.

But then our friend Rob Buford showed up to help with our big installation weekend festivities, and during our mini-retreat on Saturday morning, he helped open my eyes to see this text, and this Jesus, anew. He reminded me that Jesus doesn't float five inches above the complexities of this world, but walks right in the thick of things, in the marketplace, in the boardroom, in the hurly-burly of commerce and trade, in the daily grind of light and heat and water and liability insurance and salaries and benefits and repairs and improvements and preventive maintenance. Jesus is a hands-on kind of messiah, willing to get in there and wrestle with the tough issues of daily life. When Jesus said famously, "Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's" (Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:17, Luke 20:25), he's not so much making a hard and fast distinction between the two, but reminding us that, emperor-schmemperor, everything, everywhere, belongs to God first, Though the coins may bear the image of the emperor, all creation bears God's indelible image first and forever.

So it's up to us to discern how we can use the resources given into our care to the glory of God, that is, in line with God's priorities of life, abundant life, "life that really is life" for all persons. None of us are getting out of this world with clean hands. Think of the money that passes through your hands each and every day. We are too interconnected, and the complexity of the world simply too great, for any of us to remain completely untouched. But we are called to follow in Jesus' footsteps along and make hard choices that affect our lives and the lives of those around us, even, or even particularly with our money.

We might like to think we're above all this money talk, that we're more spiritual than all that, but we're not. And to say otherwise is to dishonor those billions of people around the world who do not have enough, who never have enough, for whom money is an ever-present concern. It's a hard, hard thing to be rich and faithful. Jesus himself warned that "it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven"—again, in Matthew (19:24), Mark (10:25), and Luke (18:25). And that is precisely the puzzle before us here today who, though we may vary widely in income and resources within our own small community, still all enjoy a standard of living undreamed of by the vast majority of the world's populous.

The question is not Do we have money? but What do we do with the money we do have? It's not easy. As the wily writer of First Timothy put it, though he is often misquoted, 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." How very true, including some in the church! How we pervert the gospel when we set monetary prosperity as the goal of the righteous life, instead of understanding that money, mammon, filthy lucre, can be used to open doors, rather than build walls; to oppose unjust systems, rather than enforce the status quo; to lift up the voice of the disenfranchised, rather than reinforce the privilege of the powerful. Jesus encourages us to be "wise as serpents" but "as peaceful as doves" (Matthew 10:16)—and not the other way around, I might point out. If we are followers in his way, we will take up the challenge of the church to "pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness" to "fight the good fight of the faith" so that we may "take hold of the eternal life.".

One way to do that, and a very good way, I firmly believe is to give some of that money to United Church on the Green—some. Not all, but some. There, I've said it. I've made "the ask." You know that this church—that is, you, me, us altogether—we are trying to do just that, to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. And we all know we're not perfect. We stumble. We can let excitement overwhelm prudent restraint. We can let fear deter us from taking worthy risks. But with God's help, we are seeking to put the significant resources God has given into our care as a community to work for God's gospel purposes.

We advertise in the newspaper and on television not to aggrandize ourselves, but so that those who need to hear the good news, can. We maintain this building, with its beautiful architecture, not as an end in itself, but as a beacon of hope for those find themselves drowning in apathy or despair, that they may walk in and discover that a graceful place has been prepared for them here. We open our doors to those many and varied ministries of care and transformation in our community, to the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen, to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, to the New Haven Scholarship Fund, and the Elm City Girls Choir, not so that we can list them in our annual report and pat ourselves on the back, but because, down at the bottom line, that is the work of the church.

Friends, if we call ourselves followers of Christ, then "we are ambassadors for Christ, and God is making God's appeal through us" (2 Corinthians 5:20), through us, through our time, our talent, and yes, our treasure—that means, our money. And with more money and the increased commitment that comes with it, we can do more. For my part, I finally wised up this year. For six years now, my "pledge" has been to turn back my car allowance to the church—that is a grand total of $600 which didn't mean very much to me, because I wasn't going to use it anyway. I guess felt sort of entitled, that since I was working for the church, I was entitled to give less, only a token really.

But now I see that, while yes, as your pastor, I am an employee of this congregation, I am also a member. And I benefit immensely—and directly—from the ministry of this church. It was through your ministry before me here that I was able to receive a call to ordination as an openly gay minister in the first place, and you continue to teach me more about God's purposes every day. And I see how many other lives God is changing here. I believe in our ministry here together, that it is powerful and effective and necessary. And I understand that, as a member with you of this community, I bear a responsibility to see that ministry not merely survive but grow and thrive. So this year, I am still giving back that $600, but I am also making a pledge $20 a week. You'll see me put it in the plate each Sunday, not because I want to show off, to parade my piety before you, but because I think it's important that we remind one another and those who are coming to faith among us, children and guests and new members, of our common responsibility for this work.

Friends, I don't come here to do church for you, and I hope you don't come here to receive church, much less to buy it, from me. But we come here in Christ's name to be and to build church together. The offering we share each week is not an interruption in the spiritual work we do together here but an integral part of it, a sacrament of our commitment to the work to which God has called us in Christ. Similarly, this stewardship season is not an annoyance to be endured but a challenge to be embraced, a challenge to us to engage our whole selves, even our checkbooks, in God's great project of reconciliation and transformation in the world.

So to those of you who have already made a pledge to the "United for Growth" campaign, thank you. And to those who haven't, I hope you will join me and your neighbors here in participating in this effort by making a personally significant pledge today. Jesus was right, you know: We cannot serve God and money. But with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can find ways to serve God through money. So call now. Ushers are standing by.