FIRST AND SECOND THINGS
Luke 16:1-13
[Since spoken communication differs from written, some of the grammar and syntax of this transcript may seem awkward in written form. To keep integrity with the spirit of the original delivery, the transcript stays close to the exact words spoken.]
Here's a quote from one of the writings of C.S. Lewis. It's a quote he actually has taken from some of the letters of Keats. The quote goes like this: "One converses better when one does not say, 'Let us converse.'"
What does that mean? It reminds me of a story. A story about a colleague I knew when I was serving a congregation in Brooklyn. I remember him telling a story about how he fell in love with sailing. He would go sailing with his friends, and he found it to be an absolutely transcendent experience to be out there in the wind and the waves. And so he would rent a sailboat and take his own family sailing. And he loved sailing so much that he bought himself a sailboat. And he found himself, after he'd done that, spending a good deal of his weekend doing things like rebuilding the bilge pump, and patching the hull, and primping the sails. He found himself spending a good bit of his money on the mortgage for the boat and the slip rental. And he said that when he did go out sailing he would feel a lump in his throat and a tension in his shoulders, because he'd be worrying about whether it was performing as well as his friend's boat…he'd think about, you know, were there gas fumes in the hold? Wondering whether the head, that is, the bathroom, was working correctly. And he said that in a moment, as he stood there at the helm of his new boat, a boat that he owned, he realized that he had lost his love for sailing. And he realized that he no longer owned a sailboat--the sailboat owned him.
How shall we use conversation if we are to enjoy talking? How are we to use sailboats, if we are to enjoy sailing? How shall we use money, if we are to enjoy material things in the blessed life, in the kingdom of God? I think that the parable that Jesus tells us today through Luke's gospel has to do with those kinds of questions. How are we to use the good things of life, or anything in life, such that we are not only able to enjoy them, but use them to know the very best thing about life? So let me say that again, in maybe a slightly different way. How are we to use the good things in life, or anything in life, such that not only do we enjoy them, but so that we use them in service to the greatest joy from which all enjoyment proceeds. Do you follow me? Hang with me.
And before we take that too far, we need to explore a little bit of subtlety in this story that I just read. Maybe you noticed that the story is about money, of course, and that Jesus' attitude about money betrays a kind of ambivalence about it. He doesn't speak of money, as I have said here before, as a good thing in life. He calls it "unrighteous mammon." And I'm sure some of us have heard that term before. Mammon is an ancient Semitic word that means money. It's often been personified as a god, or even a demon. So, in our vernacular, we might understand Jesus to be saying "filthy lucre," when he talks about "unrighteous mammon."
So there's the impression in this story, this parable, that if you're to live the holy life, the blessed life as I've been calling it in this sermon series, that we should get as far away from money as possible. It's filthy lucre. We shouldn't be dirtying ourselves up with it if we're to live in the kingdom of God, if we're to be a holy person. And of course what's surprising in this story is that the shrewd manager uses the money, the filthy lucre, entrusted to him not only to ingratiate himself to the people who owe money to the master, to the boss, but to the boss himself. The boss praises this shrewd manager, even though his approach would have gotten an F in his ethics course in business school.
He uses "filthy lucre" to get into the kingdom of God. I think that's one of the points of this story. Jesus' message seems here to have something to do with the idea that nothing in human life is categorically good or bad in itself, and that anything, when put to proper use, can be a means to get us into the kingdom of God. Even money. Money can land us in Hell, or it can get us up into Heaven. The experience of money can be the source of our greatest misery, or enable us to experience the greatest joy from which all enjoyment proceeds.
In Dante's great poem, The Divine Comedy (there he goes again, I know you're saying), there are people down in Hell who are there because they've made money the center of life. They've lost all proportionality about the use of money. And there are people in Heaven, who are there because they know the center of life is God; they are in heaven because of the way they used money for the purpose of heaven. C.S. Lewis puts it this way, in his writings. He says, "You can't get second things by putting them first. You can get second things only by putting first things first." Essentially what Jesus is saying here is the same thing, in the punch line of his parable. "You can't worship both God and mammon." Because if you do, you lose both enjoyment of money and God.
Think of it this way: does a gluttonous person, a person who makes food the center of his or her life…does such a person truly enjoy food? Does a person trapped in addiction to alcohol truly enjoy drinking? I would venture to say that such people do not use food or drink for enjoyment but rather out of compulsion. And by making it the center of their lives, they lose both enjoyment of food or drink, and enjoyment of life.
Can we really use money and enjoy money properly if money and materialism are the focus of our life? I think one of the biggest tragedies of modern life is that, in many ways, we are teaching our children, or our television is teaching our children, that material good is all there is. And that your highest joy can only be attained from what you can buy. I think we here need to practice a different way of life. How shall we use our money if we are to live the blessed life?
Kris Deni, a couple of weeks ago--and I should be quiet because, you know, Chris Maurer just preached the whole sermon anyway. You stole my thunder, man! He's bearing witness to what I am talking about, and we didn't compare any notes at all….But Kris Deni, in her talk a couple of weeks ago, said we're doing things completely backwards. It's backwards year for stewardship. Because usually, we think of stewardship as funding the church budget, and you should give to pay your fair share. I'm coming to think of that approach as really a pagan approach. Because what we're saying this year is no--the reason to give your money is so that you can experience the abundance of God! (And I wish I had about a thousand exclamation points to communicate that message.) Because you see, in the crazy backwards lifestyle that Jesus invites us to practice, in this kind of life, here's the irony: that giving enables us to enjoy having. That's a paradox, isn't it? And that knowing first things--the true purpose of money, which is meant to serve the kingdom of God--enables us truly to enjoy second things, like money.
Now here's something I invite you to try at home. Try this at home, and see if it works. And I suspect that many of us are practicing this lifestyle already: a lifestyle of sacrificial giving. Again, and as Chris was talking about in his talk…here it is: making giving the first thing instead of the last thing. Because let's face it, I think many people look at the cable bill, and the mortgage, and the grocery bill, and the Visa bill, and then if there's something left over, then will give that to the church, and perhaps to other charitable causes. And lest you think I'm self-serving here, I don't want you to give just to the church, but to make your giving discipline about what you give away to a variety of causes. A lot of us approach giving that way.
And let me be clear, too, it's important to say there are families here who are struggling to make ends meet. You know, families who don't have a lot under the "want" category, but are struggling with the "need" category. So, sacrificial giving may look different to them. And the last thing that I would like anyone to do is give out of guilt. Because what we hope people will do is give out of joy, and in so doing enjoy what giving and money are all about.
Let's face it, I think most of us wouldn't miss it if we gave 10% of our money away. And I say that…because sometimes we joke about tithing, like it's so unrealistic. You know, I was joking with a member of the church who started a new business, saying, you know, you'd better tithe that new money! Give 10%! The fact is that most of us could live on 90% of what we make. And I bet that if one were to adopt the practice of tithing, or if not giving 10%, reserving a specific portion of your income for giving, that you would experience what you have as more, rather than less. If we make giving the first thing, we might experience that kind of math of the Kingdom. That the more you give, the more you experience the abundance of what you have; and that the purpose of money isn't so that we can experience having stuff, but in giving our money we experience the real joy of having, because we know the true center of our life.
In the same way as we see the variety of breads on this table today, representing our Worldwide Communion, we remember that Christ taught us to think of this bread not just as that which keeps us alive and gives us calories to keep our body functioning; we also remember that human beings shall not live by bread alone. And in taking this bread in faith, we experience the true purpose of…bread--a means for an inward and invisible grace, in this meal. Not just to keep us alive, but to be for us living bread--to impart to us the life of Christ, and the experience of the Kingdom. Overflowing joy of life in the Kingdom of God pressed down, spilling over.
And so this year, may you know that life--the true joy of what you have, through what you give. Amen.
October 7 , 2007
Jeff Vamos
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