Serve God or Wealth Or Serve God with Wealth

18 Pentecost, C p 20, September 18, 2016 

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1  Psalm  79:1-9

1 Timothy 2:1-7   Luke 16:1-13

Lectionary Link

   One of my goals in preaching has been to show the connections between biblical writings.  How were biblical writers influenced by other biblical writings and how did these influences affect their own writing?  Obviously, New Testament writers borrowed whole-scale and reinterpreted in applied ways, the entirety of the Hebrew Scriptures and other intertestamental writings, such as the books called the Apocrypha.
  One of my main interest has been to show how the Gospel writings mirror the concerns of the early churches, particularly the Pauline churches.  All of the Pauline writings were not written by St. Paul but they did originate in communities where his followers regarded him to be a primary influence for their lives.
  The chronological irony of St. Paul is that he wrote before the Gospels were written down.  This confuses our chronological minds.  Jesus came before St. Paul, but the presentations of Jesus in the Gospels came after the early writings of St. Paul and Paul's writing relate to us the habits and practices of the early churches.   The early church had enough experience of socio-economic diversity to come to this reflection in the letter to Timothy about wealth.  It is written there:  The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  So in the Pauline churches there is proof that members had the ability to be people of means.  One can note a diversity in the Pauline churches. In the writings to the  churches it is stated that in Christ, there was to be no Jews, no Gentiles, no male, no female, no slave, no free and by extension, no rich, no poor, but a new creation.  St. Paul believed that a person who was aware of the presence of the Risen Christ in their lives were free to remove ethnicity and socio-economic status to a secondary identity in their lives.
  St. Paul's had an interesting personal economic philosophy.  He wrote, I have learned how to be content in every circumstance.  I know how to deal with times of adversity and want; I know how to deal with times of abundance.
  What does this means?  It means that being in Christ, should give us the ability to be rightly related to our current situation of wealth.  Isn't that a worthy goal of our faith?  To learn how to be content with whatever the material circumstances that comes to us in our situation.
  If for the Pauline churches, it was proclaimed that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, how was that expressed in the churches to which the messages in the Gospel of Luke were first preached?  In today's Gospel, we have read a parable of Jesus within the parable about the presentation of an oracle of Christ:  You cannot serve God and wealth.
  Is this a new economic philosophy of austerity?  Does this mean that the only valid Christians are those like St. Francis of Assisi and Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta?  You cannot serve God and wealth.  So get thee to the monastery and the convent if you truly want to honor these words of Jesus in a literal way.
  You cannot serve God and wealth.  This saying is another way of applying the Ten Commandments in a new era.  The teaching of the Ten Commandment instruct us to love God alone and not to make graven images.  We are not to steal and we are not to covet.  In the time of the early church, there was less concern about the worship of images of gods and goddesses, they were more concerned about the worship of wealth.  The worship of wealth means that God is the one from whom we steal.  Coveting expresses our desire, our worship energy, being projected on the wrong things for the wrong reason.  Coveting is energy which could be used for worshipping God but instead it gets used to serve the material things that we desire wrongly.
  You cannot serve God and wealth.  This is quite a difficult saying since our wealth in life can be so demanding of our time and devotion.  If we own a home, how much time do we have to spend taking care of it?  If we own a car, how much do we have to spend in time and money for it?  If we own clothes, we have to pay for them and then we have to spend time taking care of them, washing and ironing them.  Everything that we own or possess as our wealth requires our time and further money to take care of.  The question can easily arise: Do we own our wealth or does our wealth own us?  Does our wealth command the further time, talent and treasure to serve the wealth that we possess?
  How do we solve this dilemma of serving God or wealth?
  I would suggest the following expansion of this saying of Jesus:  You cannot serve God and wealth, but you can make your wealth serve God.
  With this expansion of the phrase, we promote the right relationship and attitude to God and our wealth.  If we acknowledge that God who is wealthy in being the owner of all that is, and if we understand ourselves to be God's children who share in the wealth of our heavenly parent, then we will join with God's program to use the wealth of the world to take good care of all of God's family on earth. 
  An incredibly important part of being rightly related to God and the wealth in this world is the gift of true enjoyment.  It is the enjoyment akin to a child's response to seeing gifts under the Christmas tree.  Wow! Are these for me?  But the excitement is the awareness that all of God's wealth is for us, collective humanity.  And we serve God with our wealth by using the portion of the wealth over which we have direct responsibility by helping to promote the family values of mutual care which is God's official economic program.  From enjoyment of God's wealth shared with us, we can be inspired to the experience of gratitude and generosity. 
  So how can we make our wealth serve God?  Enjoyment, gratitude and generosity liberate our wealth to become creative for God's purposes in our world.
  It is common in American politics for people to give their money to the candidates who support their own particular view of the world.  And some people give quite a bit of money.  How do you and I give our time, talent and treasure to express our particular Christian values?  One of the ways in which we promote our Christian values with our wealth is to give to the mission of the church.  Fall season is the time to think about stewardship within our parish and when we give for the mission of Gospel here, it is a witness to an attitude switch as we acknowledge that God is the owner of all things and we are called to be stewards.
   You cannot serve God and wealth; hopefully you and I are trying to learn how to use the wealth of our lives with enjoyment, gratitude and generosity to serve God as we support the spread of the good news of Jesus Christ in the words and deeds of our lives.  Amen.
    

Sunday School, September 18, 2016 18 Pentecost C proper 20

Sunday School, September 18, 2016    18 Pentecost C proper 20

Theme

You cannot serve God and wealth

What if you are hungry and you make yourself a sandwich to eat, but while you go to get some milk, someone takes your sandwich and eats it, how would you feel?

You might be upset.  Why?  Because you were the maker and the owner of that sandwich and someone took it without your permission and they ate it instead of you.

God made the world and so the world belongs to God.  What if people just take all of the things in this world without asking God, without thanking God and what if people just pretend that everything belongs to them and they ignore, forget or just plain steal from the owner.

You cannot serve God and wealth.  What is the solution to this problem?

You shall serve God with your wealth.  If we come to know that we are God’s sons and daughters and that we have inherited everything from God, then we will use all of our wealth for God’s family business.  What is God’s family business?  It is to make sure that everyone in God’s family is taken care of and so we use our wealth to take care of everyone in God’s family, including our God.

You cannot serve God and wealth.  We can think that this is hard and difficult choice or we can accept God as our Father and the creator and owner of the universe and if we believe this then we can happily use our wealth to serve God.

Think about how you and can use what God has given to us to serve God.

Sermon

What if you let me play with your Legos.  And while I was playing with your Legos, I decided that I would give some of them away to some of my friends.  And when you came to me to get your Legos back, I hand you a few Legos.  And you would ask me where are the rest of my Legos?  And I would say to you: Oh, I gave them to some of my friends.  What would you say, “Why did you do that?  They belonged to me.  You cannot give away something that does not belong to you.”  You would be upset wouldn’t you?

  What if one of you girls let your sisters play with five of your dolls.  And what if your sister decided to give a Barbie doll and a Snow White Doll away to her friends.  So when you came to get your dolls, there was only three dolls left?  How would you feel about your sister giving away two of your dolls?  Not very good.  You would say to your sister, “Why did you give my dolls away.  You had no right to do so.

  So you understand ownership?  When something belongs to you then you are the owner.  And what does it mean to be an owner?  It means that you have control over the things that you own.  It means that if you want to give your things away, you can but since you are the owner, you alone can choose.

  In our Gospel lesson, Jesus reminded his friends that God is the owner of everything.  Everything belongs to God because God made the world.  But God is a good maker.  God shared everything that was made with us. But when God shares everything with us he asks us to remember two things: First, remember that even though I share everything with you, I still am the owner of everything.  Second, since I share everything with you, then you need to share so that everyone has enough.

  That is why Jesus gave us two rules: Love God with all of our hearts.  That is how we recognize God as the owner of everything.  And love our neighbor as ourselves.  That is the rule of sharing.

  So how does God if some people have nothing to eat in this world and other people have so much to eat that they throw away good food?  How does God feel if some people have no home to live in and other people have five homes to live in?  How does God feel if some people have no clothes to wear and other people have a hundred dresses and shirts to wear?

  God the owner of life, who has shared everything with us, must feel very sad when some people have too much and other people have almost nothing.

  How can we correct this problem?  Love God and love our neighbor.  When we do this we remember that God is the owner of all things and we learn to use the good things that God gives us in the right way by learning to share and care for people who do not have enough.

  So today, let us remember that God is the owner of life.  And we need God’s help to know what to do with all of the good things that God shares with us.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

September 18, 2018: The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Jesus in the Morning, If You’re Happy, Seek Ye First,  Let There Be Peace

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Jesus in the Morning   (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 134)

1. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in the morning, Jesus at the noon time.  Jesus, Jesus, Jesus when the sun goes down.

2. Love Him  3. Serve Him   4. Praise Him

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the First Letter to Timothy

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 113

Hallelujah! Give praise, you servants of the LORD; * praise the Name of the LORD.

Let the Name of the LORD be blessed, * from this time forth for evermore.

From the rising of the sun to its going down * let the Name of the LORD be praised.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God!

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said to the disciples, "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist:          The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:                        And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Offertory Song: If You’re Happy  (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 124)

1-If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know it, then your face should surely show it, if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.

2-Make a high five 3-Make a low five  4-Shout Amen!

Children’s Choral Anthem:

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of God.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All  may gather around the altar)

 Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments) 

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Alleluia, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia.

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Seek Ye First  (Blue Hymnal, # 711)

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.  And all these things will be added unto you, allelu, alleluia.  Refrain: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, allelu, alleluia.

Ask, and it shall be given unto you, seek and ye shall find, knock, and the door shall be opened unto you;  Allelu, alleluia.  Refrain

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: Let There Be Peace On Earth (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 251)

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.  Let there be peace on earth the peace that was meant to be.  With God as our Father, brothers all are we.  Let me walk with my brother in perfect harmony.  Let peace begin with me let this be the moment now.  With every step I take, let this be my solemn vow to take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally.  Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

Dismissal:   

Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.

People: Thanks be to God! 

  

Liberation Theology, Wealth and the Words of Jesus

18 Pentecost, C p 20, September 22, 2013  

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1  Psalm  79:1-9

1 Timothy 2:1-7   Luke 16:1-13

Lectionary Link

     Perhaps you have heard the phrase “liberation theology” in the media.  Liberation Theology is more generally associated with the Roman Catholic Church and liberation theologians did not have the favor of the two previous popes but there is some indication that Pope Francis, being from South America, the seed bed of Liberation Theology, is bringing the themes of liberation theology back into public view.  Pope Francis is indeed raising eyebrows by suggesting that Roman Catholics not make side issues the main issues and by suggesting that poverty and social justice are more important issues of the Gospel.

  What is Liberation Theology and why has it been controversial?  The controversy of Liberation Theology is due to the fact that theologians borrowed the social theory of Karl Marx to analyze wealth and poverty in society.  Since Marx was an atheist and his theory morphed into State Communism, some have disapproved of any use of Marx’s social analysis.  In Marx’s social analysis, the public propaganda and even the laws of a society function best for the advantage of persons with wealth and power.  The public beliefs statements are called ideology and ideologies were seen by Marx as the justifying reasons that are given for the wealthy to maintain and expand their wealth.

  Roman Catholic priests and religious in Latin America found themselves working among the poor .  They found that the laws worked against the poor.  They found even unhealthy alliance in places between the church hierarchy and the people with political power, the dictators.  When the compromise of church hierarchy with dictators supported the suppression of the poor, those who worked with the poor wanted to expose these conditions.  The liberation theologians did not believe that the church practices could be used to take the side of the wealthy against the poor.  In their theology, they agreed that all theology was ideology on behalf of some group with power.  So they asked the question what is the preferred ideology?  They answered, “The safe and preferred ideology is the ideology of Jesus Christ, and his teaching was overwhelmingly on behalf of the poor.”  Liberation theologians chose to read the Gospel as the infallible teaching of Jesus Christ on behalf of the poor.  And the Gospel of Luke is perhaps the favorite Gospel of liberation theology since there are poignant teaching upon wealth and poverty.  The writer of the Gospel of Luke was also the writer of the Acts of the Apostles and he depicts some of the early communities as living communally; holding all things in common.

  The punch line of the appointed Gospel for today is: “You cannot serve God and wealth.”  One can seek to know in an intuitive way the conditions in which the Lucan Gospel writer was writing.    One could cite the separation from the synagogues of early Christian communities.  Separation within families for loyalty to synagogue or to the Jesus Movement had attending socio-economic consequences.  Many people who were used to flesh and blood family support had to accept their new Christian communities as their extended families.  They had to choose to leave wealth and inheritance.  The writer of Luke is recalling the poverty life style of Jesus to give members of the community support in their choice to continue with the Christian community.

  And as I said before, Gospel writings are context specific, that is, their most telling significance was in their original settings.  The details of their setting cannot be absolutized or literalized to any future setting, including ours.  If we dismiss the literal significance of the Gospel, we do not dismiss the inspired meanings that derive from the Gospel situations but with our appreciation of Gospel meaning we add to that a request for God’s grace to help us apply the corresponding and relevant meanings in our own situation, here and now.

  You cannot serve God and wealth.  That may be true but does that make God totally opposed to any notion of wealth?  How can the wealth of this world be re-appraise as the gifts of God to us to be used for Gospel outcomes?  It need not be a matter of serving God or wealth but how do we make our wealth, our gifts, serve God and divine purposes in our world.  How do we make earthly treasure into heavenly treasure?  This is alchemy of our Christian faith today.  How do we make the wealth of our lives serve higher purposes for our own benefit and for the benefit of the people in our world?

  This is the stewardship question of our lives.  The parable about the dishonest manager is a parable about the adage, “Possession is nine tenth of the law.”  Even though the manager knew for whom he worked, he treated his boss’s assets as his own and used them for his own selfish purposes.  This “apparent absent boss” who trusted his manager so much that he did not do regular audits of his holdings eventually caught the manager red-handed, and the clever manager quickly prepared for  his firing by doing favors to creditors to ensure him future employment.  Jesus wished that people who could be such expert at greed would convert that energy to be equally diligent in their stewardship excellence for God.

  Today, we can come here and pretend that Gospels have salutary teachings about wealth and being wealthy.  We can come here and make saints out of poor people assuming that they do not have problems with wealth and money.  The reason poor people do not have problem with wealth is only because they don’t have as much practice but in their own way poor people also have problem with wealth and money.  We could even use the Gospel to insist that only true Christians are monastic persons adopting the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Or we can accept ourselves as belonging to God and that all of our belongings also belong to God.  We can accept ourselves as gifted people, as wealthy people but as those who are charged with using our wealth in the service of love and justice.

  Today, we can accept the wisdom of the right relationship to wealth as being generosity.  Generosity is expressed in our lives as bubbling with gratitude and such esteem that we believe that we have something to give to the people and situations of our lives.  Faith is expressed as generosity in our relationship to wealth.

  There are many worthy recipients for our generosity in this world.  Our generosity has many forms of wealth: our time, our talent, our treasure in many places of deployment.  At St. John’s we hope that you believe enough in our mission and what we are trying to do to build a vibrant Gospel community to deploy your generosity for our mission and ministry here.  Our needs change and our needs are real and we hope to inspire generosity because we depend so much upon generosity for our ministry.

  You cannot serve God and wealth.  Are you worried about the words of Jesus making you feel guilty about wealth?  We need not feel guilty about wealth if we convert wealth to heavenly treasure through the practice of generosity and gratitude  for the wonderful gifts of God.  The practice of generosity is the most liberating theology of all.  Amen.