The Use and Abuse of Wealth

It was five years ago, just a couple of weeks after September 14, 2008, the day when Lehman Brothers went under, that I received a couple of phone calls, and they were very different from one another. One was from an executive of an investment firm and I think a couple of years ago I shared with you his plight, wondering in fact if in the light of what had happened financially his life was worth living, and he was concerned and worried.

The second phone call, however, came from a rather elderly lady: No one who regularly attends this church but someone who was fretful and anxious and concerned and worried, because she knew that she had lost a lot of money with the financial melt-down. She wanted to speak to somebody, just talk about it, and so I went to visit her. It was a very moving conversation. She told me exactly the amount of money she had lost. She told me how she did not think even if she waited it out she could re-claim a lot of it. She explained to me her own personal struggles that she went through on a day-to-day basis and the anxiety that she was facing. However, in the midst of all this, she said something that I never expected to hear. She said, “Reverend Stirling, does the Bible not tell us that we come into this world with nothing and we leave this world with nothing?”

I said, “Yes it does.”

And she said, “Therefore is there cause for me not to worry?”

I said, “Tell me more.”

She said, “Well, it seems to me, that I am anxious here and I know my days are limited and I know my resources are now limited but is there not something more? Is there not something for which I can hope? Is there not an eternity? And I, in having lost so much here in this life, in fact prejudice that life to come?”

An amazing conversation and I’ve thought about that conversation many times over the last five years because I run into many people who genuinely, have no sense of peace or contentment in their lives because they’re continually feeling that they are never wealthy enough, they are always striving for more. The more driven they are, the less they’re able to appreciate the things they actually already do have and that are around them. But because they’re obsessed with the pursuit of wealth, they do not enjoy the simple things of life. They do not enjoy their relationships. They do not enjoy the beauty of creation. They do not enjoy peace of heart. They do not enjoy the simple laughter of a child. They do not enjoy the camaraderie they have at work. Rather they are driven to such a point that they have no peace in their heart and their soul. So frightened of not having enough or losing what they do have that they are ill at ease and have no peace.

I think part of that is due to a distorted view of hope. You see I think at the heart of it, they have placed their hope in the attainment of wealth. They believe that their hopes are realized, that their life is fulfilled at a certain point when they have wealth and when they have things. But then they find that it’s elusive, they see it as a continually moving target and the closer they think they’re getting to it, the further away it seems to be. Their hopes are not realized. Their anxiety is increased. They do not see what their goal really is and it’s unattainable. They place their hope not only in elusive things, but in things that actually, fundamentally can be destructive. That this passion for, that this drive for material success or wealth at any cost is in fact in and of itself a burden. Even if they have arrived at their goal, even when they have all the things that they want to accumulate, they weigh them down.

There’s a wonderful line in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. In Scene 4 where Vincenzio is talking to Claudio, and Claudio is worried about his life and he is sick, and he says for a sick person all that’s left is hope. Vincenzio then talks about that, and he goes on and he says something profound to him. This is what Vincenzio says: “If thou art rich, thou art poor. For like an ass whose back with ingots bows, thou bears thy heavy riches but a journey, and death unloads thee.” What Shakespeare is getting at and what’s so profound about what Vincenzio says to Claudio is that even if you’ve achieved all these things for which you’ve hoped, they themselves can be a burden and weigh you down. Like ingots on your back, they bow it. So do not then place your hope in those things, for in so doing you are the poorer.

In our passage this morning, the Apostle Paul is dealing with this very issue of the relationship we have with wealth. When I read a text like this, I sometimes feel like saying, “Lord, why do you give us texts like this?” And then I ask, “Lord, why do you want us to preach on texts like this?” And then I say, “Lord, can’t you get somebody else to preach on a text like this?” For indeed it is not easy. It is challenging, but it is not negative. It is inspiring. The Apostle Paul is writing to young Timothy, his protégée. As the church is emerging, Paul sees that there are some dangers before Timothy that can confront the church. He’s worried, particularly in those that are metropolitan cities with wealth and the exchange of chattel and with the exchange of goods, that Timothy and the early church could get swept up with wealth. He worried about false teachers who are coming into the church, and they’re saying things like, if you are faithful, if you are full of godliness then you will have great wealth. Paul understands that there are some who are trying to appeal to people to become Christians, to place their faith in Christ, with the end result being the accumulation of wealth. For Paul this is a distortion of the faith. This is completely contrary to everything that he holds dear, and he’s warning young Timothy, do not buy into the belief that wealth is the ends and faith is the means. If you do not think, my friends, that that is not a problem 2000 years later, then clearly you have not been listening to some who are trying to seduce people, often poor people, often vulnerable people into believing that they will be wealthy and that the blessing of God necessitates the accumulation of wealth. If only they are faithful enough and godly enough to be able to attain it.

Paul knew this was a problem from the very earliest days, and it continues to haunt all kinds of false teaching. Paul also knows that this is idolatrous, that the accumulation of wealth for itself and for its own sake can become an idol. It can be the object of worship. It can be the thing that actually causes people to lose their faith in God because the idol of the material world has taken over and that people are confused and do not know which the real God is. That is why Paul is basic in his teachings. He says, “Look, we come into this world with nothing, and everything that we do have in this world is provided to us by God, whether it is food or whether it is clothing, it’s all we really need.” He warns Timothy then not to get caught up in the belief that faith leads to riches, or that riches are the ends. No! For Paul, everything is about God, everything is about Jesus Christ. It is God who is the source. It is God who is the supplier. Do not be consumed with chasing after those things that you see with your eyes rather than in the God who is the giver of them in the first place. Paul sees that there are people who unfortunately have made the accumulation of wealth their primary mission and he says to young Timothy, “Look, do not fall into the trap. Do not fall into the trap of being seduced by the wealth that you might see.” Paul is a good Jew here. He is echoing I believe what we find in the Book of Proverbs, particularly Proverbs 15 and 16, where the young courtiers in the house and in the temples and the castles of the king, are told to be careful, not to be seduced by the wealth around them, not to be seduced by the power that is there, but as courtiers, always to remember that it is God who they are there for. That it is God that they worship, and godliness is the goal, not the accumulation of all the wealth that you see around.

Paul also understands, not only as a good Jew talking about Proverbs, but as a good Christian. He understands that Jesus Christ came to Earth to give us a gift that is greater than material wealth, to give us the gift of eternal life. Paul wants young Timothy to keep his eyes focused on that eternal life, on the gift that has been given by Christ: An eternal life that we can live and enjoy now because we live in the presence of the risen Christ. So the last thing Paul wants is for Timothy to be pushed to one side in his following of Jesus by this desire for the accumulation of wealth. It is that accumulation that keeps drawing and keeps being the mission. Paul sees the mission of the church disappearing if wealth is made the goal. But he’s more concerned about the deep motive in peoples’ lives.

Paul would be aware of the teachings of Jesus. In Luke, Chapter 12, Jesus says the following, and it’s an incredible passage, “do not be afraid,” says Jesus, “for their father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor, provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” If your treasure is what God is, if your treasure is truly the love in the Kingdom of God, then the love in your heart will go with it. But if your treasure is only in material things, only in wealth, there your heart will be. Paul goes even beyond the words of Jesus, and he says that incredible phrase, which is unfortunately so often misquoted. “For the love of money” says Paul, “is the root of all kinds of evil.” “For the love,” notice the language, now the word in Greek to describe this is “philagurgia.” Philagurgia is related to a word that we all know, which is Philadelphia and Philadelphia of course means brotherly love, or it can mean cream cheese, but mainly brotherly love. Philagurgia though, is the love of money, it is the covetous of the eye and the soul and so if you have this love for money, this philugergia, if that is what drives you, it can be the source of all kinds of evil. Not all evil, all forms, all kinds of evil.

One of the things I really enjoy watching at the end of August is young children getting ready to go back to school. And what do they say? It’s the biggest shopping day of the year, or the biggest shopping week of the year, competing maybe with Christmas. But all these children going into stores, getting ready to go back to school, and making sure they have the hippest outfits and they have the coolest bag, and they have the best running shoes, and it is an important moment to arrive the first day in school looking like you’re successful and you’ve had a good summer, you know? I was in a sports shoes store watching the children and there’s nowhere on earth, nowhere, where the worship of little children can come out more than in a shoe store. It’s amazing what they wanted. Of course, I was with them, so I’m no better, right? So I’m there, and my mind goes back as I look at those children, to my childhood for a moment. You know how as an adult you have flashbacks, something reminds you of something you saw as a child. I went back and thought of something I saw as a child, and it was when, the first day back at school, all the boys had to show up for soccer practice and that particular summer a new boot had just been released by Adidas. Everyone wanted this new boot. It actually had orange stripes on it; it was very cool. Every boy in the class had bought these orange boots. I had bullied my parents into buying me orange boots. We all looked great, but there was one kid, Eric. Eric didn’t. He came with his boots and they had the old white Adidas stripes on them, and he was un-cool and everybody laughed at him. Poor Eric. Poor Eric has no sense. Poor Eric has no class. Poor Eric must be poor. It was really dreadful, actually. But Eric was torn. Because Eric loved those boots, and he loved them so much because last year he had actually scored a hat trick with those boots, and he felt good about those boots. He didn’t want to let them go. They were his boots. They were close to him. They were important to him. They were symbolic of more than just the fashion statements. But he felt so, so pressured by the covetousness in his soul of what all the others had and everybody else tempting him and saying “come Eric, buy the orange boots, buy the orange boots,” that by Christmas, he’d bent to their wishes and after Christmas came back with orange boots. But they weren’t the boots he loved. The boots that he loved were the ones that had given him joy on the pitch.

Where your treasure is, your heart is and if your heart is in philagurgia, driving continually, covetous, always wanting more, always wanting to accumulate, then there is no peace. There is no joy. It becomes dark and we lose sight, in fact, of what really matters.

In a wonderful little book called Voice in the Wilderness, some years ago I read the following quote, and it has stuck with me so much that I cut it out and I’ve kept it and every now and again I need to remind myself of it and its simple wisdom, simple biblical wisdom. Listen to this: “Money will buy you a bed but not sleep. Books, but not brains, food, but not appetite, finery, but not beauty, a house, but not a home, medicine, but not health, luxuries, but not culture, amusements, but not happiness, religion, but not salvation, a passport to everywhere but heaven.”

The Apostle Paul would say “Amen.” Timothy! Do not love money and make that the core. Love God, make him the core. But is this a negative message?  No. Paul speaks out of great pastoral love and great faith. He speaks to young Timothy by wanting to lift him up. He wants to encourage him. And he says to him in his encouragement, “God is the source of everything, God is the one in whom you should place your trust.” And, faith in God causes us, I believe, to re-examine our priorities, to realize when we are actually wealthy, and to celebrate and to thank God for it. Paul never says to Timothy, the accumulation of wealth is bad. He never says the world should not expand and grow. He does not say, you should not work hard and enjoy the fruits of your labour. He does not say you should not be rewarded for work that is well done. What he says is you must not love, you must not love that pursuit at the expense of God, for you will not have contentment.

I went to hear a presentation by a friend of mine from World Vision a couple of years ago. When he said what he said, I was shocked. He asked all of us there to do something. He said:

This is what I want you to do, I want you to take out in your mind, all the furniture in your home, except for one table and a couple of chairs, and use your blanket for your bed. I want you to take away all your clothing except your oldest dress or suit, shirt or blouse, and leave only one pair of shoes. I want you to empty the pantry and the refrigerator, except for a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a few potatoes, onions and a dish of dried beans. Dismantle the bathroom. Shut off the running water and move all the electrical wiring out of your house and while you’re out of it, take away the house itself and move into your tool shed. Place your house, then, in the middle of a shantytown and move the nearest hospital or clinic ten miles away and put a mid-wife in charge where the doctor has been. Throw away your bank book, stock certificate, pension plans and insurance policies. Leave only less than $10.00 cash under your blanket. Give the head of the family a few acres to cultivate and raise a few hundred dollars of cash crops. Lop off 25 years from your life expectancy. When you have done that, you will live like half the world’s population.

We’re all rich when you consider so much of the world. I love the sign in one of the banks as you drive by. I’ve mentioned it before. “You’re richer than you think.” Aren’t we just? But we should not be feeling guilty about this. We want to lift up the poor. We want to increase their peace and their happiness. We want to improve the length of their lives and their sanitation.

Paul says he knows this and he says to Timothy, therefore be rich in good deeds. Be rich in giving thanks to God for what you have been given. Be rich in the things that worship offers you. For Christ Jesus himself has offered himself for you and given his life for you. How much richer can you be that that? It is not that we should bemoan what we have, it is that we should not worship it. We should not love it but love the source. We should not hoard it, but share it. “For we know,” as Paul said to Timothy, “when you and I came into this world, we had nothing. God has taken care of us.” At the end of our life, we will have nothing, except the eternal life given to us by Jesus Christ, our Lord. This is a great text. Amen.