Money Trouble (Luke 12:13-21)

KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
August 1, 2010


“Money” by Pink Floyd (1974)
Money, get away / Get a good job with more pay / And your O.K.
Money, it's a gas / Grab that cash with both hands / And make a stash
New car, caviar, four star / daydream / Think I'll buy me a football team
Money get back / I'm all right Jack / Keep your hands off my stack
Money, it's a hit / Don't give me that / Do goody good bull----
I'm in the hi-fidelity / First class traveling set / And I think I need a Lear jet

Money, it's a crime / Share it fairly / But don't take a slice of my pie
Money, so they say / Is the root of all evil / Today
But if you ask for a rise / It's no surprise that they're / Giving none away
Away ... Away ... Away ... Away...

We have money trouble. We Christians have this love/hate relationship with money. Our attitudes are mixed like this Pink Floyd song.
Money, get away ... but give me a good job with more pay.
Money, get back ... but keep your hands off my stack.
Share it fairly ... but don’t take a slice of my pie.
Money, so they say, is the root of all evil today ... but they’re giving none away.
Some preachers talk like God wants everyone to be rich, and if you’re not rich, then there’s something wrong with you ... but others talk like God wants everyone to be poor, and if you’re not giving all your money away, then there’s something wrong with you.
We know that life isn’t about money ... but we spend most of our lives trying to get money and spend money.
We know that too much money can be a problem ... but we all want just a little more.

We have money trouble. We will be talking about money for the next 2 weeks. That’s never fun - for you or for me. This might be a good time to explain how we get our sermon topics each week. Sometimes, we go through sermon series on a particular topic, like family or community. You can blame me for those topics. Other times, we work through a weekly plan called the lectionary. The lectionary is a plan to help churches talk about all the important parts of the Bible within the scope of 3 years. You see, preachers - and church members too - have a tendency to read only the parts of the Bible that we like. We read our favorite stories or verses again and again, and we often ignore the difficult or challenging parts. The lectionary is designed to solve that problem. During the summer, when we’re preaching through Luke, we’re following the lectionary.
So when things get uncomfortable today (and they will), keep two things in mind. First, I didn’t choose this text. People wiser and smarter than me decided that it’s really important for Christians around the world to hear this story. Second, Jesus is the one who told this story in the first place. Sometimes we think Jesus talked all about love and being kind to people - “turn the other cheek” and stuff like that. But Jesus talked a lot about money, a whole lot. Money was one of Jesus’ most frequent topics. Jesus cares deeply about what we do with our money.

OK, enough introduction. Let’s read Jesus’ story about money. Luke 12:13-21.

The first thing for us to notice here is that this story isn’t actually about money. It’s about greed. The rich guy’s problem isn’t that he is rich. His problem is greed.
Greed is listed as one of the “Seven Deadly Sins,” which was a list developed in the 4th century to warn Christians of the most dangerous sins. Paul seems to agree. Our epistle lesson today says, “Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolator, worshipping the things of this world” (Colossians 3:5). That’s pretty serious. Greed = idolatry. Greed is acting like stuff or money is more important than our relationships with God or people.
Steve has been telling me for a while that I need to start listening to this guy Timothy Keller. This summer I finally subscribed to his podcast. His sermon about money1 has really helped me make some connections between this passage and our world. (Thanks Steve.)
Keller says that one of the most dangerous things about greed is that it’s deceitful. Greed makes us blind to our own greed. Almost nobody thinks they are greedy. We live in one of the richest nations in the the world in the richest era in human history. We have tools, resources, food, medicine, opportunities, entertainments, and travels that would only be accessible to the outrageously rich at any other time in human history. All of us have more money in our bank accounts right now than 50% of the world will make this year. Most of us will spend more money on food at lunch than 20% of the world will make this week. And yet we don’t think we are rich!
The problem with greed and assessing our richness is that there is always someone richer. It’s those people over there who are rich, not me. No matter how much you make, there’s always somebody richer. Unless we are listed in a magazine as one of the wealthiest people in the world, most of us probably don’t think we’re rich.

Maybe we should pause here and take another look at the rich man in our story. I want to find a reason to condemn him. I want to say, “Look at that rich ------. He’s cheating his workers. He’s using unjust business practices. He’s taking advantage of others. He’s in trouble because he is getting his money in the wrong way.” I want to say that because then I’m different from him. I’m not a farmer. I don’t have barns or employees, and I’m not cheating anyone. So I must not be like this evil rich guy.
But the text won’t let me say any of that. As far as we can tell, the rich guy didn’t do anything wrong to get his money. He just had a good farm on a good year. He runs a good farm as a good business, and it all pays off. And he is smart enough to know that if his farm did well, all of the other farms probably did well, and the price of grain will be low at harvest time. So he plans to save his crops until the market is right and the price goes up. He is smart and rich, but God say’s he’s a fool.

Why is he a fool? He is greedy. He is acting like stuff or money is more important than his relationships with God or people.
Keller says that money tends to have this deep power over us. We make money act like our god.
First, we try to find our significance in our money or stuff. We feel like we are worth more if we have a bigger apartment, a nicer car, a faster computer, better clothes, better jobs, more savings, more travels. We don’t say it out loud, and most of the time we don’t even think it consciously to ourselves. But let’s all be honest here. We tend to put our significance in our stuff. When we have good clothes, we feel good about ourselves. When we see our investments go up, we pat ourselves on the back for being so smart. When we visit our neighbor’s apartment that is newer and nicer than ours, we return home to our older, smaller apartment, and we don’t feel as good about being us. (So we tear down our barn - or sell our apartment - and get a bigger one.)
Second, we try to find our security in our money or stuff. We surround ourselves with nice things. We work really, really hard. We build our bank accounts. We push our kids to get really good grades so they can get really good jobs. Why? Because we trust money to give us a good future. We believe that life is all about possessions. We believe that if we have enough money we’ll be OK. That’s the most important thing. Just make sure you have enough money.

So this rich guy is a fool because he is making money his god. He is finding his significance and security in his possessions. “And I’ll sit back and say to myself, ‘My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!” (Luke 12:19)
But money can’t give us significance or security. Money and stuff will always disappoint us. We could talk all day about this, but let me just give you two little examples.
I remember reading years ago a little story about Matthew Perry, Chandler on the hit TV show Friends. The story told of his struggle with addiction to alcohol and some of the lessons he has learned as he has journeyed through rehab and AA. He said something that I’ve always remembered: “You can have all this money and a big house and be all alone and sad inside.” Money will never be enough.
This summer, we visited my grandparents in Arkansas. Every week, Monday to Friday, they always go to their local senior citizens center. They sit around and play dominoes and drink coffee and gossip. Then, they eat lunch. Then, they go home and take a nap. Whenever we go to visit them, we usually go with them to the senior citizens center (partly because that’s one of the few times of the day they are actually awake!).
This year, I was sitting at the table when some people started talking about how much money one of the couples at the table has. They have over 1,000 acres of land (400 정보). One of the big things in that part of Arkansas is that people have recently discovered oil and gas under normal farms and forests. So this little retired couple with a decent patch of farm land is now very rich with several dozen oil and gas wells.
The other old people at the lunch table were kind of teasing them about it. But then the woman said, “It doesn’t make me walk better. I still wobble about.” After lunch, when they were leaving, I watched them go. The old man walked carefully behind the old woman, and he had his hand firmly around the belt of her pants - kind of giving her a wedgie. He had to hold her steady just so she could walk out the door. All the money in the world couldn’t help her walk without falling down.

And so Jesus says, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own. ... Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God” (Luke 12:15, 21).

But how? How do we guard against every kind of greed? How can we break free from the power of money?
OK. Here it comes. This is the hard part, right. You all knew it was coming. If we want to deal with greed, then we actually have to do something.
Before I get into this, I need to remind you that I am not just a pastor asking for money. “Money, money, money - that’s all churches care about.” Remember, I didn’t choose this text, and Jesus told the story, not me. As a pastor, my primary concern is your life - your relationships with God and your relationships with people. Your relationships are WAY more important than your money.
But here’s the thing: your money reveals a lot about your relationships. Do you trust God more than your bank account? Are you thankful to God for blessing you? Are you using well what he has given you? Are your committed to the health of others? Do you care about the poor? Do you care enough to give some of your money to help others? I’m doing this because I care about you not your money.
OK, that’s enough of the disclaimers. I want to challenge you to do three things to battle greed in your life.
First, GIVE. You all knew I was going to say that. But I want to challenge you to give in two ways that you might not have thought about.
GIVE as a regular practice. Make giving one of your life habits like exercise or eating well. Make it a spiritual discipline. Make it part of your worship every Sunday. Even if you usually give your tithe all at once, also give a little each time you worship. It’s a little way for us to remind ourselves that money is not the most important thing in our lives.
And make sure you’re tithing. (That means giving 10% of your money to God through the church.) Tithing is a basic minimum standard in the Bible. This is a way for us to say every month that we trust God more than our money.
I’m just going to come out and say this because there’s really no way around it. If you’re not tithing, then you have a problem with greed. I know that’s hard to hear, but it’s true. Every adult in this room makes a decent living. There is absolutely no reason why we can’t give 10% of our income away. The only reasons to hold onto our money are greed or fear, and fear is just another form of greed here. We are afraid we won’t have enough money for a secure future. If we aren’t tithing, then we are trusting our money more than God. There’s no way around that. God cares about you not your money. But if God doesn’t get your money, then he doesn’t have you.

But don’t just give money. GIVE away something you love. Let me make a confession. I’m kind of a clothes horse. I love having lots of clothes in lots of different colors. When I go into a store and I see those racks of ties with all the beautiful ties lined up in a row with the shades gradually changing from red to pink to blue, I want to buy 10 different ties. And I don’t even like ties! So I’m trying to battle my greed for clothes. If I get a new shirt, I give a shirt away. 1 for 1. I love my clothes, so I could get more and more and more. I’m trying to battle my greed by giving stuff away.
What do you love? Is it shoes or movies or books? Do you love nicknacks or furniture? Maybe you’ll decide to give away your favorite shirt or that one picture that you just really love. Take your stuff down to the thrift store over by the KNU soccer field. They’ll be glad to find it a new home.
Giving is powerful. Giving is like taking medicine for greed. Giving something we love is like upping the dosage, taking a stronger medicine.

Here’s the last thing I want you to do today to battle greed. TALK. Talk about money. Money is a taboo subject. Most people don’t talk about money or sex, and if we’re going to be healthy, we really need to talk about both. Keeping everything secret just gives our darker desires more power. So be bold. Start the conversation. Talk here. Talk at snack time. Talk later at lunch or dinner. Talk in your small groups. Talk with your husband or wife. Talk with some of your coworkers over lunch. Just start talking. Let’s get money and greed out of the dark corners of our lives and out into the open where we can help each other think about it.
In fact, let’s start talking right here and now. Get into groups of 2-3, and talk about the first question.


Questions:
Why is talking about money so hard?
For you personally, what is the hardest part of dealing with money?
How do you decide how much money you give away?