The Joy of Giving

    Just about every day when I come home, Addison is waiting with her pink helmet in hand, asking if we can take a ride on the four-wheeler.  I change clothes and off we go, into the undeveloped places around our home. The thing that strikes me every time I am out in nature is the sheer lavishness of creation. God was not stingy when he set about the work of creation. A true work of art, God’s creation is baroque—gilded and decked with exquisite detail. It is bountiful in every sense of the word. Further, Scripture assures us that God delights in his creation. And, if we are to believe Scripture, we are to delight in it also. Herein lies one of our core values: Grace is Everything. We inhabit a place we did not earn or create, and God says, “Enjoy.” What kind of gracious God must we serve?    If we are instructed to receive creation with grace and thanksgiving, surely we are to do the same with money. God told his ancient people in the book of Deuteronomy (we have been reading through this in the Soul Room), “For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.” (Deut. 16:15) Even the ability to create wealth is a gift from a good God who lavishes his people with good things. Yet some people say that all money is evil and the creation of wealth is evil; they believe great wealth must surely be evidence of some kind of exploitation. I would beg to differ. I would argue there is more wealth created by virtue than by vice. While it is true that some people’s wealth is ill-gotten gain, for the most part true wealth that lasts comes from virtues like delayed gratification, saving, investing well, and being trustworthy in character. And yet, why does the Bible seem so paradoxical in its teaching about wealth and money? This is a question we must all struggle with because the same God who lavishes us with a good creation, including the ability to create wealth, also gives us stark warnings about the power of money to seduce our hearts.Jesus refers to money and wealth as “mammon”. When Jesus says, “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6:24), he is saying that money is a rival god—an idol. We tend to think of money as something neutral, but Jesus did not. He never condemns wealth as evil, but he does warn that it has the power to seduce our hearts and carry us away from the real God. The power that money has over our hearts is subtle, so subtle in fact that Jesus warns us to “watch out for greed.” The interesting thing about this is that he never warns us to watch out for adultery, lying, or stealing, yet he gives this warning for greed. Why is that? Well, we are fully aware when we lie, commit sexual perversion, or steal, but greed is different. The reason Jesus says to watch out for greed is that we are often blind to it. Unlike stealing or other more obvious violations of God’s law, we can be greedy and not even see it! That is why Jesus says that, in the area of money, we have to be particularly careful and watchful, lest our heart be seduced by money and we be totally unaware. Money has such power over the human heart that Martin Luther said, “There are three conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, mind, and the purse.” Money can get you what you think your heart needs—status, approval, comfort, security, or power. In fact, the temptation is to get these needs met with our money rather than through the Gospel. The only problem is that, like all rival gods, it is never enough. If your heart rests in your wealth, life will be either fearful or prideful because ultimately you will lose all of it. The question then becomes, if Jesus doesn’t condemn wealth as evil, per se, but he does say things like, “It is harder for a rich man to get into heaven than it is for the poor,” what should our attitude be towards our wealth? We can’t answer that completely, but we can start to adjust our attitudes towards money and begin to ask ourselves honestly if we are in fact controlled by money. Ask yourself these kinds of questions: How much time do I spend worrying about finances? Am I envious of other people who have more stuff than me? Am I only happy when things are going well financially? Do I fear giving away money? If so, is the reason I fear giving away money that it might mean I cannot have a certain lifestyle or that I am worried about my financial security? Do I ever give to the point of personal sacrifice to my family and myself?These are hard questions, but they are necessary questions. In fact, the power of money is so great that one of every three parables of Jesus deals in some way with money! The prevailing attitude in the Bible, from the lips of Jesus and echoed in the book of Acts and by St. Paul, is that the only way to not be controlled by money is to develop a heart of giving. The gospel is that God emptied the treasury of heaven (Jesus!) for us. At the heart of God is radical self-giving, and at the heart of the kingdom of God is the cross. For us, this means that the gospel will advance and all things will be made new as we give generously and share our resources so that, spiritually and physically, people can be made whole.Through the incarnation, cross, and resurrection, God says, “I am giving everything I have to redeem sinners.” The model we are given is one of supreme generosity and self-sacrifice. So, for the first couple of weeks in October, we are going to talk about giving—the joy of giving and how to excel in giving. After all, if giving is woven into the very fabric of reality by a most generous God, then joy unspeakable must surely be around the corner as we imitate our Creator and Savior!