Preached October 22 at Ascension Lutheran Church, Towson, MD.
Then Jesus said to them, "Give back to the emperor the things that are the emperor's and to God the things that are God's."
A coin with a picture
on it—the Emperor’s. It was required to pay the imperial tax. That’s the one
paid to their conquerors for the privilege of being an occupied territory. It
was a perverse tax and the Jews resented it. Well, not all of them. There were
some who were in cahoots with the Romans, like the Herodians. So, it was a
political question, the kind you can’t answer without getting yourself in
trouble with someone.
They wanted to trick
him, and he tricked them back. In the process, he taught us a concise lesson on
stewardship. Give to God the things that are God’s.
The things that are
God’s. And what would those things be? The way you answer
that question says everything about how you live as a person of faith.
I know that a lot of
people hate it when preachers talk about money. I was never crazy about it
myself. And that’s forced me to ask, why? In order to answer that, I have to
come clean about my relationship with money.
Some of you are
really good with money. Me…not so much.
I grew up in a home
where I was never taught about money and I didn’t have any good adult role models.
I don’t recall any budgeting happening. If it did, I wasn’t aware of it. My
parents had no pension plans. They assumed Social Security would get them
through old age. No investments. No savings. It worked like this… If you had
some money, you spent it. And sometimes you spent it when you didn’t have it.
There was no
charitable giving, other than maybe the Salvation Army kettle at Christmas time.
We weren’t a church family, so I had no awareness of the fact that somewhere
there were people who actually put money into an offering plate on a regular
basis.
I had a lot to learn
about money, as an adult. Particularly as an adult person of faith. It’s been a
journey for me.
When I first heard
the word stewardship, I thought
people were talking about a guy named Stewart who wanted to take us all on a
cruise. Then I learned that stewardship is about faithful management of all
that God’s given me—which is everything I have. I have to tell you that learning
that hasn’t made it any easier for me.
Once, when my son Ben
was 5 years old, for his birthday he got some cash. Actually, a lot of cash for
a 5-year-old in 1986. When we counted it, it came to 43 dollars. “What are you
going to do with all that money?” I asked him. “I’m going to give it to the
church to feed hungry people,” he said.
Without thinking, I responded,
“Oh, you don’t want to give it ALL to the church, do you? Don’t you want to
spend some of it on yourself?”
Yes, I said that. I’m
not proud of it. But it revealed a lot about where I was on my personal
stewardship journey. I was not what you what call a cheerful giver. There was
little generosity in my heart. When I gave money away, I was always thinking
about how I could spend it on myself. I would think about the car I could be
driving, or the wonderful vacations I could be taking with the money that I was
giving to the church. I gave, but I did it with resentment. I was begrudging in
my giving. I gave only what I thought was enough, so that I always had plenty
for myself and my family. I confess that I was stingy.
I came to realize
that there is a correlation between being stingy with my money, and stingy in
other areas, too. I looked at people I knew who had generous spirits. They were
generous in their money, in the way they spent their time, in their
relationships… Their generosity knew no bounds. They never seemed to worry that
they were giving too much of themselves or their possessions. To me, that’s
what it looked like to live by God’s grace. I envied them. I longed to be more
like them.
And I decided to open
myself up so that God could create a more generous spirit within me.
Now one of the
secrets of the faith is that if you long to become a person of faith, you don’t
just think about it. You don’t just pray about it. You do the things that a
person of faith does and eventually, your heart catches up with your actions.
So, I made some
changes in my behavior. I changed my spending patterns. Living within my means
came to mean, living within my means so that I could share out of my abundance
with others. That meant that I was okay with a used car. That I didn’t buy a
house with mortgage payments that made it impossible for me to give a portion
of my income to the church.
I made a commitment
to give off the top. To give my money away first, and then figure out what I
had left for myself and not the other way around.
Now, at different
times of my life I’ve been in a position to give more money away than I have at
other times. Right now, I’m single, my children are grown, I make a decent
living, and there’s not much that I need. That hasn’t always been the case, so
I haven’t always been able to give as much away as I can now, but it’s not so
much the amount given as the longing for a generosity of spirit that’s nudged
to give more through the years.
About 25 years ago, I
started to pay attention to the percentage of my giving. In the Bible they talk
about 10% as a faithful response for all that God has given, and I like that as
a goal for myself as a person of faith. I’d never ever really done the math
before and was surprised to learn that I was giving about 6% of my income,
after taxes, to the church.
I didn’t feel good
about that, so I decided to work toward 10%. I would do it by increasing the
percentage of my giving by one percent per year. A couple years some things
came up, and I just couldn’t swing it, so I did a half percent those years.
After 6 years I was at 10%. That was right about when I started using Simply
Giving, so the money is automatically taken from my bank account and it’s money
that I don’t miss.
I’m living within my
means, and my means includes charitable giving.
Then once I reached
10% of my income after taxes, I worked toward 10% before taxes. I decided that
the 10% after taxes would go to the church. The additional money, the
difference between before taxes and after taxes, that 10% would go to other
charities.
One thing that’s new
for me over the past few years is that I’ve become more intentional about the
organizations I give to beyond the church. This time of year, I receive all
kinds of solicitations for money from lots of worthy organizations. I can’t
give to everyone who asks. I need a plan for my giving.
At the beginning of
the year, I consider my options, and I decide who will receive my money that
next year. Sure, something may come up, like Disaster Relief, and I can give to
that over and above what I had planned for the year.
I want to give to
organizations that I know will use my money wisely, and organizations that I
believe in, ones that share my values. I do my homework before I give away the
money God’s entrusted to me. This year my extra giving includes micro-loans for
women entrepreneurs in developing nations, the Vision for the ELCA Fund, the
World Hunger Appeal, ReconcilingWorks, my seminary, ACTC, BRIDGE Maryland,
public radio.
I want to be
intentional in my giving, just as I’m intentional in my spending.
That’s what
stewardship is all about. Being intentional in how I use the gifts God’s given
me so that the way I use those gifts reflects my relationship with the one who’s
given me everything. Giving to God the things that are God’s.
When it comes to
money, that doesn’t only mean stewardship of the money I give away, but it also
means the money I spend on everything else, too. I continually ask, how does
the way I spend my money reflect my relationship with God? This year, I took a
sharpie pen and drew a cross on all my credit cards. That way, every time I use
one, I’m reminded that the way I spend my money isn’t all about me; it’s a
faith statement.
I’ve become more
generous through the years. That doesn’t mean I still don’t struggle sometimes, and
I’m okay with that. God loves a cheerful giver, and that’s certainly true. But
I take comfort in the fact that God loves a grumpy giver, too. The important
thing is that I’m a giver. And God is helping me grow in generosity.
That’s a lot about me
today.
What about you? What’s
your personal history with money? How does the way you deal with money reflect
your personal values, your relationship with God? Are you open to growing in
generosity?
