Putting My Money Where My Mouth Says My Heart Is

Usually one of the biggest complaints against the church today is that all preachers ever do is ask for money. Whenever the sermon on tithing rolls around (actually we try and make it more palatable and sophisticated by calling it "stewarship sunday") people are looking for the exits and tuning out. On the one hand I do not blame people for thinking that the church is just one big holy money-laundering scam. Thanks to the Benny Hinn's; Tammy-Fay Baker's; Peter Popoff's (yes he is a real guy - you can find him selling viles of holy water on late night TBN paid-programming, when I first saw it I honestly thought it was an SNL sketch) and Dr. Dollar's (also an actual person - there is absolutely no way that his last name is Dollar and he also happens to be a cheesy, heretical, prosperity theologian - I think a comical coincidence of that scale would tear a whole in the universe - but you can find his books in the Christian bookstore) of this world it is no wonder that many people think all we do is sing breathy worship songs in dim lighting and ask for people's paychecks.

And so although TBN and that lady with the purple-Marge Simpson--shaped like one of those termite nests they find on the African plains on the Discovery Channel-haircut may have ruined any opportunity for Christians to talk about money, the truth is that much to our chagrin Jesus actually talks a whole heck of a lot about the subject. It has been said that Jesus actually spends more time addressing the issue of money than any other topic when he was on earth. I do not know if this is true but I do know that when reading the Gospels it does seem to come up more than I like to admit and he speaks far more bluntly on the subject than I tend to realize.

And the thing is it wasn't like Jesus gave Christian Businessmen seminars or busted out a pie-chart during the Sermon on the Mount that told us how much money we should put where in order to be Godly, it just came up all the time in conversation. The disciples ask him about it, the Pharisees ask him about, he hung out with tax-collectors so the topic was never far off and he engages with rich people over the topic. And to me this indicates that the statement "money makes the world go round" may not be entirely true but it certainly carries some merit. For thousands of years, money has been at the focal point of kingdoms - it was in the Roman empire of Jesus' day and it is true in the American democracy of our day. For some reason - and I don't claim to know why and I don't even think Jesus explicity addresses it in the Gospels - money, more than almost anything else on earth besides maybe sex, has this all-consuming, addictive, powerful allure over our psyche's. And I think Jesus addresses it because since it is such an integral part of the kingdoms of the world, he wants to clue us in - as citizens of His kingdom - on how exactly we should view and handle this stuff that makes the said world go round.

The passage that made me begin to ponder all of this was the end of Matthew 6 when Jesus is in the middle of his Sermon on the Mount and after addressing weighty topics such as adultery, murder and vengeance he touches on finances and materialism and warns us not to store up treasures on earth- where they will only one day decay - but to store them up instead in heaven. From there I began to think of other passages where Jesus addresses these issues and I was reminded of the story in Matthew 19 where upon dialoguing with a rich young man who is too wrapped up in his wealth to follow him, Jesus exclaims, "It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God..." And as I thought about these words I was reminded of two things. One was the sermons I have heard where people try and tell me that there was a gate in Jerusalem at that time called "Needles Eye" and that it was so narrow that a person could barely enter through it into the city, let alone a camel. Second, I pictured all of those TV preachers, sweating and yelling and maybe even getting choked up for effect, in their $1000 suits and on their million dollar sets informing me that if I gave to their ministry and sent it to the P.O. Box on the screen that God would make me indepenently wealthy, healthy and wise.

I am fairly sure that neither one of those applications can be taken from such a passage. What I am fairly sure of is that I don't think God in his Word gives us a set income bracket to stay within. I am fairly sure that I don't think Jesus hates the rich, and I am fairly sure that we all need to search our own hearts and convictions when it comes to this matter but I do think that in Matthew 19 and other places God issues us a warning. And the warning is not that we must live in ghetto's and starve in order to be spiritual but that in many ways those who live in such situations are more likely to see the truth of the Gospel. See, when we have every luxury, comfort, appliance, automobile, vacation home, watch, gadget and desire that money can buy and we pursue more and more and surround ourselves with such things it becomes increasingly more and more difficult to hear the cry of Scripture that we are broken, sinful, helpless, weak, inept, defunct, lifeless, poor people who are in need of a Savior. And the reason that in America and Western Europe the Gospel has become an afterthought while in places like Latin America and Africa the kingdom of God aquires members daily is because in places where there is less stuff and more soul the promise of the Gospel of becoming spiritually alive and provided for in Christ is the greatest thing ever heard. But here in America we must turn off our TV's, unplug our iPod's, get out of our cars, turn the radio down, wash the makeup and self-tanning cream from our faces, dock the boat and cancel the reservations at the club sometimes before we hear the invitation of Christ to seek his kingdom.

Oh, that I may not be caught running after money when Majesty is before my eyes. May I not seek clothing of every new trend when I can be clothed in righteousness. May I not run after that which is fleeting when the eternal lies ahead. May even the places where I put my money indicate that I have been bought, not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.