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    Oct 20, 2019

    Wesley's Simple Rules for Money - #1

    Wesley's Simple Rules for Money - #1

    Passage: Luke 12:13-21

    Speaker: Pat Botelle, Lay Speaker

    Series: Stewardship 2014

    Category: Stewardship

    “…Christian people live with a total disconnect between the faith they celebrate in worship on Sunday morning and the financial decisions they make every day of the week.” ~James A. Harnish

    Today we begin our three-Sunday series on stewardship. There are many, when hearing the word “stewardship” will not come to church. They don’t want to hear the preacher ask for money. Many don’t think the discussion of money has any place in church. But Jesus talked a great deal about money because of its effect on people. While Pastor Vivian and I will be talking about money, many of the things we talk about apply to our time, talents and resources as well.

    Many of you know that I have been involved in the finances of this church for over 20 years. I’ve been a member of the Finance Committee, chaired that committee, was Stewardship chair and worked on the capital campaign as its stewardship co-chair and I’ve been treasurer for the church. I’ve read books and sermons about stewardship, written you letters, tracked your pledges and your giving. Each year I wonder, how do I get the message across? How do I help people link their spiritual life to their financial decisions?

    As I was looking for resources for this year’s stewardship series, I found a book by James A. Harnish titled “Simple Rules for Money: John Wesley on Earning, Saving and Giving”[1] and I thought “Great! Simple rules for money management from the father of the Methodist church. The same man who gave us three simple rules for living: do no harm, do good, stay in love with God.” But as I read the book, I realized the rules are simply stated: gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can. But, as with Wesley’s rules for living, these rules are a lot more complex than they appear on the surface.

    In the introduction of the book, Harnish says that before we can make any commitment with our resources, we need to understand what “makes us tick,” what is behind our decisions. Harnish lists three things, borrowed from C. Douglas Lewis, a retired president of Wesley Theological Seminary, we need before we make decisions about our resources.

    First, we need clarity of mission. We need to ask ourselves “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What is God’s purpose for me?”  As a church, our mission is “Growing together in Christ through worship, fellowship, witness and service.” But we each need to define our personal mission.

    Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness fasting and praying to understand what his mission was. During that time, Satan tempted him with things of the world – power, prestige and possessions. But Jesus resisted the temptations because he knew what his purpose was. As Christians our mission needs to be defined through our lens of faith.

    Second, we need to define our core values. Harnish says “If mission defines who we are, our values define what we will and will not do in a particular situation.”[2] As an example, maybe part of our mission is to live comfortably. To live comfortably, we need money. We can either steal the money, live off others or we can earn it. Our values dictate what we are willing to do to get the money we need.

    Finally, we must commit to excellence. “If mission defines who we are and values define what we do, then a commitment to excellence defines how we will use the gifts, talents and opportunities we have been given.”[3] Wesley, in his sermon “The More Excellent Way” asks:

    In what spirit do you go through your business? In the spirit of the world, or the Spirit of Christ? I am afraid thousands of those who are called good Christians do not understand the question. If you act in the Spirit of Christ, you carry the end you at first proposed through all your work from first to last. You do everything in the spirit of sacrifice, giving up your will to the will of God; and continually aiming, not at ease, pleasure, or riches; not at anything "this short enduring world can give;" but merely at the glory of God. Now can anyone deny that this is the most excellent way of pursuing worldly business.[4]

    Once we have clarity of mission, have defined our core values and are committed to excellence, we can begin to look at how we make decisions, especially financial ones.

    So, let’s look at today’s scripture to see what made the farmer “tick.” What was the farmer’s mission? To store up all he could. To possess all he could. He even had to build bigger barns to hold all his crops.

    What were his values? Did he care about his workers? Was he gaining all he could so he could feed the hungry? If you look at the scripture again, you’ll see that all the statements from the parable use the words “I” and “my.” “My crops.” “My barns.” “My grain.” “My goods.” He will have ample goods for years, now he can relax, eat, drink and be merry. He was secure. He didn’t need anything from anyone else. He didn’t recognize that all we have comes from and belongs to God. We are stewards, not owners. We are here to care for what God has given us, not horde it. The center of the farmer’s values was himself not God, not others.

    As we look at how our decisions are made, we need to ask what are my values based on?

    But God said to him “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20, NRSV). The farmer had a mission, but his values were all wrong.

    Was the farmer committed to excellence? How did he use the gifts, talents and opportunities he was given? He used them for his own security or so he thought. Jesus reminds us over and over again that riches are not where our security lies:

    • Then Jesus said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” … It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. (Mark 10:23, 25, NRSV)
    • “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” (Luke 6:20 NRSV)

    Jesus knew that the love of money stands in the way of our relationship with God. It becomes what we focus on for our security as did the farmer.

    In the early eighteenth century, there was a major gap between the wealthy and the impoverished. Wesley taught personal and spiritual discipline. He did this so well that the Methodists were accumulating wealth and possessions and building bigger and nicer churches. Fearing his followers would become just like the foolish rich man, Wesley wrote his sermon “The Use of Money” and reminded his followers 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, NRSV). Wesley then provides this vision for the use of money:

    In the hands of his children, it [money] is food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, raiment for the naked…By it we may supply the place of an husband to the widow, and of a father to the fatherless; we may be a defense for the oppressed, a means of health to the sick, of ease to them that are in pain. It may be as eyes to the blind, as feet to the lame; yea, a lifter up from the gates of death![5]

    To realize this vision, Wesley’s first rule of money management is “Gain all you can.” Sounds just like the farmer. It even sounds greedy. But Wesley refined this rule with several warnings.

    Wesley tells us that we should gain all we can but “without buying gold too dear, without paying more for it than it is worth.” How many of us want what others have? I don’t mean a casual “I wish…” but we covet what others have. This can affect people who have money as well as those who struggle with their finances. How many of us, like the farmer, continue to accumulate wealth even though we have enough? We must ask ourselves what is enough? Do you know people who have been affected by “affluenza” – the constant desire for more and more stuff? How about “credititis.” Adam Hamilton defines credititis as a “buy-now-pay-later” addiction. Anyone who has or is paying credit card interest rates knows that with credit cards, you can end up paying way more for things than they are worth.

    Wesley goes on to say, “we ought not to gain money at the expense of life nor at the expense of our health.”[6] How many of us are or were workaholics or know workaholics who work at the expense of their health – they don’t eat right or get the rest they need. What impact does our working have on our family and friends? When I worked at BD we called that work-life balance. As a health care organization, BD realized the adverse effect of poor work-life balance and encouraged its managers to pay attention to employees who may be working too much.

    Secondly, we are to gain all we can without hurting our mind any more than our body. In other words, not to engage in any activity that is contrary to the law of God or our country. He goes on to say that every [person] must judge for themselves and abstain from whatever they find to be hurtful to their soul.

    In our study of Paul, we looked at the negative impact the Christian Way had on the economy in the cities where Paul established churches. In Ephesus, makers of incantation scrolls burned the scrolls because they realized that only God could bring about healing. This had a huge economic impact because people realized they did not need the scrolls to be healed and stopped buying them. (see Acts 19:18-20). The sellers of the scrolls realized the negative impact their work was having on their souls and the souls of others.

    Next we are to gain all we can without hurting our neighbor. This brings up the age-old question: Who is my neighbor? When Jesus was asked this question, he told the parable of the Good Samaritan. Neighbor doesn’t just mean the people next door or even in the community. Everyone is our neighbor and we need to look at how our work, our investments, the way we “gain all we can” affects our neighbors. Do the values of the companies we work for align with our Christian values? Do we invest in companies that pay unfair wages? Are we invested in companies that exploit their work force? Do the companies we invest in operate in countries where human rights are not respected? It is not just our work but the work of the companies and industries we support that affect our neighbors.

    Wesley concludes the “gain all you can” section of his sermon by saying:

    These cautions and restrictions being observed, it is the bounden duty of all who are engaged in worldly business to observe that first and great rule of Christian wisdom with respect to money, "Gain all you can." Gain all you can by honest industry. Use all possible diligence in your calling. Lose no time. If you understand yourself and your relation to God and man, you know you have none to spare.[7]

    Harnish sums it up this way:

    Gain all you can by working at it. Do your best with every opportunity you are given. Use the talents, opportunities, and resources you have to their greatest and most productive effect. Biblical wisdom consistently challenges us to make creative use of our talents with diligence and hard work.

    Gain all you can through gathered wisdom. Don’t be like the foolish farmer who tried to decide on his own. We need wise counselors and financial advisors. We need the shared wisdom of the Christian community in which brothers and sisters in Christ can hold us accountable for the use of our resources and give us guidance in the hard choices we have to make.

    Gain all you can without paying too high a price for it. Don’t earn money at the expense of your health, your soul, or your neighbor’s well-being. Contrary to what contemporary culture would have you believe, your life is not defined by what you own. There is more to life than the things you possess.

    Gain all you can as you honor God. Trust the God who sustains and cares for you. Allow the God revealed in Jesus Christ to enter into your calculations of who you are and what to do with what you have. Jesus promised that if we seek first his Kingdom, everything we need will be provided by the gracious God who watches over his children with infinite care.[8]

    After telling the parable of the foolish rich man, Jesus reminds his disciples and us:

    “… do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

    “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:22-34, NRSV)

    [1] James A. Harnish, Simple Rules for Money: John Wesley on Earning, Saving and Giving (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2009)

    [2] Ibid, page 16

    [3] Ibid, page 17

    [4] http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-sermons-of-john-wesley-1872-edition/sermon-89-the-more-excellent-way/ III, 3.

    [5] Ibid. page 13

    [6] http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-sermons-of-john-wesley-1872-edition/sermon-50-the-use-of-money/, I. 1.

    [7] http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-sermons-of-john-wesley-1872-edition/sermon-50-the-use-of-money/, I. 7.

    [8] Harnish, Simple Rules for Money, pages 34-35