MONEY MATTERS; SELF WORTH; NET WORTH
Psalm 107:1-9, 43; Col. 3.1-11; Luke 12:13-21
Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
My 18 year old nephew, Ders, really wanted to come to the UW for college. He’d be near his extended family, plenty of Sunday dinners, even laundry! He loves basketball and golf so Huskies would be a good team!He got in - he was thrilled. Then he and his folks got the out of state tuition bill. $62,000/year for a public, public university. A quarter of million dollars for an undergraduate degree at a public university. Money Matters.
The cost of food is 10% higher today than it was 3 months ago. Gas is still close to $5.00/gallon. Rent is high too, unless you work for one of the tech companies where your base salary is $125,000/year to start. Bidding wars for houses make their prices go sky high, which is great if you already own, hard if you don’t. Average minimum wage in the U.S. is $11.25/hour. Federal contracts just went to $15/hour. That is $120/day, $600/week, $2400/month, minus taxes. Where in Seattle can you live?
Health care bills are bankrupting individuals and families. Lines at every food bank in town are filled with people over 70.
Every day I open the app for BECU, my bank. I run through expenses and deposits and then take a quick glance at my net worth. I try hard to not let the #’s determine my self worth for the day:)
Money Matters. Money matters. Money matters.
Jesus going to get up in our business today. No two ways about it. Our gospel story takes us right to into the shadows of our anxiety, money matters. He flat out says human greed is the root of many sins. It's one of Luke’s gospel messages over and over again: where is your mind focused? Where is your heart focused? Are you rich toward God?
Having wealth is a theological issue for disciples of Jesus Christ. Economic status and possessions are not neutral in God’s economy. Exploitation of the poor by the rich is common, historical and something none of us, nice, white Christians here at WPC want to admit is true for us. “We’re not rich, Tiare. Stop it!” Yes we are. We are.
The average net worth of Americans is $121,000, according to the Federal Reserve. Many of us in this room have 5, 10 or 10’s more times this net worth. We have advantages of education, skin color, economic status, family inheritance, the luck of the draw; trappings of a capitalistic economy that places value based on more, maximize, super size, storage spaces, store houses.
We are at risk of being the fool. I know. Jesus is up in our bizness again.
Money Matters.
Where did this guy go wrong? His life consisted ONLY of his possessions. His guard was always and only about himself, his net worth, his storehouses and his insatiable greed for more. If you examine the famous painting that Rembrandt did in 1627 of The Rich Fool, you will see a man surrounded by piles of books and other art, yet his gaze is only on the coin in his hand. This is one kind of greed, a particular one that is popular in a market driven economy, where net worth = self worth.
But there are other greeds too.
Hoarding. Keeping everything for yourself.
Comparison. Or that old-fashion word envy. A besetting sin.
Entitlement. Of course I deserve this - don’t you know who I am?
Overspending. Credit card debt is the easy portrayal.
The fool is alone, segregated from the community with clearly no sense of the presence of God in his life. “I don’t owe anybody anything! I get to keep it all for myself. I’m going to have a good time.” No word of prayer here…
It is this estrangement we have to examine, not simply his accumulation of wealth. Like the brother who demands his inheritance, the rich fool is out for one thing - to get more, but only for himself. He speaks of no family, no friends who might need help, no tithing, nothing that indicates relationship.
What we do know, the more wealth you have, the farther away you are from the lived experience of most of the world. Money Matters.
His bumper crop could have been seen as a blessing from God. He could have gathered the community together in a big celebration and shared some portion of it. He manages plenty of land, a whole district. He has workers, staff that do the heavy lifting for him. What about a bonus or big salary raise for them? He’s not out in the fields, right? He hoards his abundance and is greedy for more. Judgment lands, You fool.
But Jesus doesn’t talk to the fool. He’s not schooling him about his greed or wealth or what to do about it. Rather, Jesus is talking to us, His disciples. Be on your guard, for greediness can sneak in, subtle like a snake, and begin to corrode your compassion. Anxiety regarding money is both normal and a pit of despair, let’s be honest. We live in a society that has no concept of ENOUGH. At least it is never on display. Go to the grocery store: do we really need 40 or 50 different kinds of cold breakfast cereal?
The market says we do.
What else does the market teach us? How to be rich toward God?
Not exactly. It teaches us to look out for our bottom line.
I bet we could have a deep and thoughtful conversation about our anxieties re: $, both now but especially for retirement and end of life. For most Americans, $1.7 million is the magic retirement number
The average American has $65,000 saved toward retirement.
For Hospice care, it’s $150 a day for in-home to $500 a day in a facility. Money is made even while we die.
No wonder we get anxious. Money Matters
God’s economy is scaffolded with practices that define a person or a group of people: forgiveness, love, mercy, generosity, care for others, help for the poor. The end purpose? Glory to God. Glory to God. Rich toward God.
Let’s try something here. Keep a safe distance, turn to your neighbor and talk about what it means to be rich toward God. And if $ anxieties bubble up, talk about them too.
Within the structure that God creates for us to live, there is something else that is incredibly valuable, but not measured in dollars. It is God’s attention toward us and Her deep and abiding love for us. All that anxiety you carry? God sees it, knows it, understands it and wants to hear from you about it. Sit down and have a conversation where $ Anxiety is front and center. See what happens. Try it more than once, trust your gut, write down what you hear. It might be silence, it might be a nudge, it might be a full blown ‘have you thought about this?’
We do this as part of our guard against greeds. We need to be reminded on a regular basis of the abundance that is ours. Your life is so much more valuable than what you have stored in the barn of the bank.
Its counter-intuitive to cling to this idea. It is expensive to live and to die in this country. The economic structures are designed to benefit those nearer the top. There is a whole Christian critique to be made of this market driven system. We will save this for another day.
Today, know this: All your cares are to be cast on Jesus, I mean ALL. All.
Ask the big, hard questions of your lives: your money, your spending, your giving away. Guard against those sneaky greeds. And remember, whose you and how you are loved. Money Matters.