Love, the Big Spender

Text: Luke 6:27-38
November 7, 2004, Dave Philips

 

 

Next week is Pledge Sunday when we ask you, the members and friends of First Presbyterian, to give us your estimates of giving to the church for the coming year. So, this morning is a "money sermon." It’s also a sermon in our continuing series on love.

I don’t know if you noticed, but our scripture lesson this morning is about love and money. Jesus talks a lot about money, and he talks a lot about love. Sometimes he talks about both money and love.

What’s the relationship? Money is money, love is love. When you preach the money sermon, you’re supposed to get your people to cough up and give lots to the church budget. When you preach the love sermon, you’re supposed to get your people to behave in a more loving manner toward each other and their neighbors. But love and money: what’s the connection?

Well, Jesus saw a connection. In fact, when you look at some of his most famous parables, you see that he frequently made the connection between love and money. The parable of the unmerciful servant is about love and money. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is about love and money. The parable of the prodigal son and the jealous brother is about love and money.

And these words from Luke’s gospel that we just read are also about love and money. What prevents us from getting into heaven? Loving money more than God and your neighbor. What happens when you start loving God and your neighbor more than you love your money? Your money becomes a blessing to you and not a curse.

Jesus tells us that loving God and our neighbor is far more important than having a lot of money. He counsels us to love everybody, even our enemies. He counsels us also to be free in giving both our love and our money. In fact, his words to us are so outrageous, it’s hard to take them seriously. He tells us that if an enemy sues us for our cloak, we should give him our shirt, too. In those days, most people had only two articles of clothing -- the cloak and, underneath it, the shirt. Do you get the picture? Do you think maybe Jesus got the attention of the crowd he was teaching when he said that loving our enemies was so important that we ought to be willing to demonstrate our love by stripping down? Do you think he got a laugh when he said that?

Maybe you remember Bob Hope saying once that banks are institutions that lend money only to people who don’t need it? Jesus has a different idea. He told us to lend to our neighbors without expecting repayment. That’s a crazy notion! You can imagine the business men and women in his audience shaking their heads and rolling their eyes.

What’s the point of all this craziness? Jesus tells us that if we do these things we’ll be like God, we’ll be children of the Most High. That’s how God behaves toward us. He loves us even when we don’t love him in return. He gives with no strings attached. God is nuts! He couldn’t last for five minutes as a business man! But he’s nuts ... about you. He loves you so much that he’s willing to die for you. I love the craziness of Jesus. His craziness makes more sense than our sanity.

And why should we listen to Jesus and behave in this crazy and outrageous way? Because when we give generously, we get back abundantly. Jesus tells us that when we give, it will be given to us, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into our pockets. For the way we give will be the way we receive.

Does any of that make any sense at all? Does it work? If we do crazy things like giving our enemy our last article of clothing to prove that we love him, will that make our enemy respond to our love? If we are suckers for the easy touch, won’t the beggars we meet treat us with contempt at the same time that they are ripping us off?

And if we give generously, is it a fact that we will receive back more than we give? Will we in fact have a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over poured into our pockets?

Yes, I believe so! Although the blessings we receive may not always be material. Remember, these words of Jesus are not always meant to be taken literally. There’s no record in the New Testament of any Christian actually walking around Jerusalem -- or Rome -- naked because someone sued him for his cloak and he handed over his shirt as well. I believe Jesus was exaggerating, as he sometimes did, to make his point.

But I think he was absolutely dead serious about the relationship between love and money, and there’s no question in my mind that he meant us to learn that being greedy and mean is deadly, but being generous and loving is life-giving.

Back in the 1950s, there was a very popular Catholic bishop on television. Perhaps some of you remember Bishop Fulton Sheen. I was a Bishop Sheen groupy when I was in high school, although I was a bit uneasy, as a loyal Presbyterian, about thinking that a Catholic bishop would say anything worth listening to.

One day when Bishop Sheen was preaching, he made an appeal to his audience to contribute to one of his charities. A little boy, six years old, was listening, and he urged his family to come and listen also. The family was so moved by Bishop Sheen’s appeal that they rounded up all the money they had in the house. Being a family of very modest circumstances, all the money in the house amounted to $5.35. When someone raised the question of whether they should give all of it to Bishop Sheen, the mother of the family insisted, "Yes, we should! It will come back to us many fold."

A week later, the family won $100 in a contest at their supermarket. Not bad! They got their money back at almost twenty to one! When they were discussing what they should do with this windfall, the little boy said, "Let’s put it all back on Bishop Sheen!"¹

So, is God some kind of heavenly bookie who always pays off when we bet our money with him? No, of course not! But did the little guy have the right idea? And would Jesus have been pleased with his faith? Count on it!

So, what is there for us smart people to learn in these words of Jesus about both love and money?

First, the love of money is deadly. Greed kills! Ask Ivan Boesky who told the students at the University of California at Berkeley during a commencement address, "Greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself." But Boesky was singing a different song when he stood before federal judge Morris Lasker who was about to sentence him for insider trading: "I am deeply ashamed and do not understand my behavior," Boesky said to Judge Lasker. "I would like the opportunity as I go forward to redeem myself and leave this earth with a good name."²

Dostoyevsky tells the story of a woman who died and went to hell. In her torment, she cried out for mercy, much as the rich man in Jesus’ story. After a long time, an angel answered, "I can help you if you can remember one completely unselfish thing you did while you were on earth."

"I can certainly do that," the woman thought, but when she began to recite her good deeds, she realized that all of them were motivated by her own selfishness. Finally, when she was about to give up, she remembered that she had once given a carrot to a beggar. She was afraid to mention the carrot because it had been withered and useless for the stew she was preparing.

Nevertheless, the angel consulted his records, and he found the incident of the carrot. The woman had indeed been prompted by unselfishness. So as the woman watched, that very carrot that she gave the beggar was lowered on a slender string from heaven to hell. She reached out gingerly for the carrot, wondering if it possibly could bear her weight and lift her up to heaven. In desperation she grasped the withered carrot and found herself rising slowly toward heaven. But as she rose, she felt a weight dragging her back down. She looked and to her distress she saw other tormented souls hanging onto her, hoping she could pull them out of hell.

"Let go! Let go!" she screamed. "This little carrot won’t hold us all!" But the desperate souls still clung to her. Again she cried, "Let go! This is my carrot, I tell you. It’s mine." And as she said this, the string broke. Still clutching the carrot she had claimed for herself, she fell back again into hell.³

What a powerful story! Not terrifically good theology, I doubt if John Calvin would have approved of it in every detail, but what a great picture of what greed does to us. I know people like that woman, and they aren’t in hell. Their hell is an earthly one of their own making. They are pathetic, miserable people. Who would be fool enough to want to change places with them, for all their wealth? Jesus says, Don’t be like that! "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed," Jesus tells us, "for your life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions."⁴

Greed kills, but generosity gives life. Money finds its proper place when we are motivated by the love of God. Money is good! It is one of God’s most beautiful blessings. "Wealth and riches are in the houses of those who fear the Lord," says the psalmist.⁵ A wealthy person who is a sincere and generous Christian is a powerful blessing to the people of the earth. Rejoice in your wealth, those of you who have it, and use it in the service of your Lord!

You may know the name, R.G. LeTourneau. LeTourneau was an incredible individual, an industrialist who held 299 patents at his death including the bulldozer. He amassed an immense personal fortune as the owner of a large company in heavy machinery. He came from very humble circumstances, he was one of those people who never went to school but was so very bright that whatever he touched seemed to turn to gold. However, he didn’t succeed in business until he gave his life to Christ. His fortunes started to turn when he began to give ten percent of his income to the Lord. The more he tithed the more he prospered. And the more he prospered, the greater the proportion of his wealth he felt moved to give to the work of God. At the end of his life he felt moved to give ninety percent of his income to God while he lived on ten percent, and he even tithed that ten percent! Some might be tempted to say that he was obsessed with tithing. But what a powerful influence for good was R.G. LeTourneau! His influence for good lives on in LeTourneau University which he founded originally as a technical school to help uneducated workers in his plants to better themselves. He told Forbes magazine, "I like to do two things. One is to design machines, turn on the power, and see them work. The other is to turn on the power of the Gospel and see it work in people’s lives."

There are plenty of other stories of people who have seen their fortunes turn, people who have become immensely wealthy, when they began to tithe. But these stories, let’s be honest, are exceptional. This doesn’t happen to everybody by a long shot. I want to close by telling you about my good friends, Bill and Shirley. Bill and Shirley were members of a congregation I served several years back. They were typical nominal Christians, very nice people, well respected in their community, and pillars in their church. But they didn’t have a clue about what it meant to follow Jesus.

Well, they learned! And watching them take off and soar on the winds of the Spirit has been one of the great experiences of my life. Bill and Shirley post-renewal heard the stories about people like LeTourneau, and they decided to tithe. They tithed faithfully over a period of several years. They were not wealthy people at all, and I know they would have appreciated having a larger income and a nicer house like some of their wealthy friends.

But nothing happened! That is, even though they tithed, even though they gave their time and talent sacrificially for the work of Christ in their local church and beyond, they remained people of moderate income. To this day they still live in the same modest house that they have occupied for the past thirty plus years.

But when I say nothing happened, I don’t mean nothing happened in the spiritual lives of Bill and Shirley. Over the years I have seen them both grow into people of immense Christian maturity and wisdom. They have been a blessing to their church, to their neighborhood, to their presbytery, and to our Presbyterian denomination. Thursday evenings at Bill and Shirley’s when they invited everyone in the world to have dinner with them became legend in our community. They welcomed people of all sorts to their home and board. They invited refugees from Kosovo, Muslims, to live with them, and these people were so impressed by Bill and Shirley’s love that they wanted to know why Bill and Shirley were so loving, and Bill and Shirley told them about Jesus. To be in their presence is to experience the powerful blessing of God. They have been transformed over the years by the work of the Holy Spirit to the point that there is minimal similarity between what they are now and what they were thirty years ago when they were nominal Christians.

Bill and Shirley gave the way Jesus told us all to give. They gave their time, they gave their talent, and, even though they were not rich, they tithed their treasure, giving ten percent to the work of the Lord. The return they got was not material. It was spiritual. But I can say without hesitation that Bill and Shirley have received the good measure Jesus told us about, pressed down, shaken together, running over.

Bill and Shirley are genuinely happy, genuinely fulfilled people. What a blessing to be in their presence and to count them as friends.

So, dear friends from our Grants First Pres community: how’s your life going? Are you happy? Have you given yourself without reservation to our gracious Lord? Do you tithe, giving ten percent of your income to the work of the Lord? And have you experienced the wonderful joy of receiving back from the Lord much more than you have given, that good measure Jesus tells us about that is the reward of those who give freely and happily, pressed down, shaken together, running over?

Love is a big spender! The happiest man who ever lived showed us the secret of his joy: when you give freely, you receive back abundantly. Check him out and see if he’s not telling the truth.