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Sermon: Sunday 20th November 2011
Theme or working
title – Beware of looking at fat cats when God is looking at fat
sheep.
Book club members
will know that celebrating Christ the King at this time appears to
be controversial for some in the church, Tom Knight in particular
whose book, “For all the Saints” (sub title, where do we go when we
die), we are reading at the moment. We will debate the central
message of it at our next review meeting but I will say now that for
me, Tom is addressing an issue that many, if not, most in the pew,
will not be aware of. Mystified? O good, well it’s not too late to
get a book and join us on Dec 5th.
Most of the staff
members attended one of the clergy reader study sessions given on
this occasion by Paula Gooder, a distinguished and well qualified
reader who, by coincidence, was expounding the contents of her
recently published book entitled, “Heaven”.
Both writers in their
own way make the point that we as church do support beliefs and
ideas that are not entirely supported by scripture.
This should come as
no surprise to us because we are all capable of holding a belief or
a preference that is often not evident when measured against our
behaviour.
Drivers will know
what I mean, when we are driving, pedestrians are a nuisance
constantly invading our space, but when we are a pedestrian, it is
the driver in the car who is at fault.
We are all I submit a
little fickle in our thinking, our belief at each point in time
being governed more by our need at the time than our principle over
time.
I like to walk in
open, preferably hilly countryside unspoilt by modern buildings,
noisy roads and wind farms, but I use the motorway to get there and
crave a hot bath and electric heating and lighting when I have
finished for the day.
I piously think I
should buy British made clothes but also object to paying more than
I need for them, so I buy instead the cheaper imports from countries
far away and forget the impact on the environment and the working
conditions of those who toiled to make them so cheaply.
So if this is me and
I am sure I am not alone, how do we view what is happening in the
world, unselfishly, and how should we behave so that we give a
better example to follow than others around us?
One of the placards
seen outside St Paul’s asks the question, “What would Jesus do”? a
question, more easily answered in some circumstances than others.
These particular circumstances are rather broad, they are against
economic inequality, social injustice, corporate greed, influence of
big business and the lobbying power on governments, including I
assume the issue of banks withholding the credit that is deemed
necessary to keep everything going. Our jobs, our businesses and our
welfare system. Some churchmen and politicians have voiced
sympathy with this disparate group but have perhaps forgotten that
it started as an Occupy Wall Street protest and their web site makes
this statement:
This Occupy Wall
Street movement empowers real people to create real change from the
bottom up. We want to see a general assembly in every backyard, on
every street corner because we don't need Wall Street and we don't
need politicians to build a better society.
And 2 extracts from
the statement made by the protesters in London:
We refuse to pay for
the bank’s crisis
We want structural
change towards authentic global equality, (whatever that is).
The world’s resources must go towards caring for people and the
planet, not the military, corporate profits or the rich.
Should we not be
careful in aligning ourselves with such views, where might it lead.
But, back to the what
would Jesus do question.
Would Jesus have done
anything that would help? Emphasis on the word done.
Jesus, if he had an
income at all once he started his ministry years, did not appear to
have large savings to put in a bank to create deposits from which
they could lend. With no large income he did not pay enough taxes to
fund a large welfare budget. He did not have his own home, do a lot
of DIY, take annual holidays, have more than one shirt on his back
or believe in life assurance etc., things that would require
purchases to keep business going and people employed. In other
words, in terms of what he would have done to help the economy of
his day, not a lot.
But what did he SAY,
about money, or bankers. Now you may be forgiven for thinking that
he said nothing about bankers, but you would be wrong. He said this,
included in the parable of the talents:
Matthew 25 – 27
“Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the
bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with
interest”.
I do not think that
anyone would say that Jesus was in favour of bankers based upon this
text. To be fair he had more to say about money.
That it would make
demands on you. - Matthew 6 – 24 familiar to us all, “No one can
serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve
both God and money”.
That it can be a
temptor. Matthew 26 – 9 Judas says “This perfume could have been
sold at a high price and the money given to the poor”.
That it can be used
as a bribe – Judas in his betrayal, the soldiers in their false
witness.
That it can cause sin
– Acts 5 Ananias and Sapphira keeping back part of their sale money.
In the other epistles
references to money do not occur that often but we do get a message
from them:
Hebrews 13-5 “Keep
your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you
have”.
1Peter 5-2 , a
message to the elders, “serving as overseers – not because you must,
but because you are willing, as God wants you to be,; not greedy for
money, but eager to serve...”
1 Cor 16 – 2 Paul
writing about the collection for God’s people, “On the first day of
every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in
keeping with his income...”
And finally, Romans
13 8 “Let no debt remain outstanding..”
All of which in a
random sort of way I suppose leads us to the situation which is
being referred to as the credit crunch; A present day problem that
is being blamed it seems to me on a variety of groups, bankers,
politicians and so on. But unless I have missed a fact or two, did
this whole sorry tale not start because Lehman Brothers a big
American Bank went bust, because it was heavily indebted to 2 very
large American mortgage lenders who went bust. They went bust
because they had been selling mortgages at low but variable interest
rates, without deposit to people who with hind sight they should not
have.
These mortgages were
packaged up and sold on to banks as if they were a no risk asset
with a high rate of return which was fine until interest rates on
the underlying mortgages started to rise and defaults caused the
bubble to burst and we are all still suffering the domino effect as
one financial collapse puts another institution at risk of the
same. This would not have been such a big problem except for
today’s society’s insatiable demand for credit. The present day
emphasis on having everything now and paying for it later. Why be
satisfied with sixpence when you can have ten shillings or more.
Jason Donovan,
currently doing his stuff on strictly, was originally more famous
for his starring role in “Joseph, and his amazing technicolour
dreamcoat”. See Genesis chapter 37 following, or better still buy
the CD, and from a shop, not the internet!
The story tells us
how Joseph helped Pharaoh, king of Egypt to survive a famine by
storing up food in the good years to avoid the pain in the bad
years. What a pity that the world has ignored this message.
I started with the
premise that we are all a little fickle in our actions over our
belief’s and so we will consider some suggestions on a Christian
attitude towards money.
In April this year,
Christianity magazine published an article which included the
following Ten Cash Commandments as follows:
1.
Thou shalt not put
everything on plastic.
2.
Thou shalt practice
Generosity
3.
Thou shalt seek
expert guidance
4.
Thou shalt not leave
your loved ones fighting over the family silver
5.
Thou shalt see what
the Bible has to say about money
6.
Thou shalt not be
taken in by special offers
7.
Thou shalt save
8.
Thou shalt do a
little digging on your bank
9.
Thou shalt set
yourself a lifetime giving target
10.
Thou shalt set a
budget ( and stick to it)
We have already
covered one or two of these via scripture references, but there are
a couple more we should comment on. Please note that these are my
comments based upon the headings, not necessarily the content of the
article itself.
Plastic – We, that is
Bev and I, decided a long time ago not to put anything on plastic
that we cannot pay off in full when the bill comes in. We use
plastic as a convenient means of payment and not a way of borrowing
or buying now that which we should save up for. In my view
Christians should not borrow on plastic. If you have to borrow there
are more responsible ways of doing so. This is a lot easier said
than done if you have already run up a sizeable bill but the article
does offer suggestions and a website for anyone who is interested in
reducing their plastic debt.
Generosity and giving
– I have put these two together. Now this may seem a little too
evangelical for some but there is a strong case for adopting the Old
Testament concept of tithing. That is, to give the first tenth of
what we earn to God. This can be interpreted in many ways but we,
again Bev & I, have for some years adopted the idea of this being a
tenth of income after taxes, i.e. a tenth of what is left in the pay
packet after tax and NI goes to the Lord, and a tenth of income
received as bonus or interest on deposits etc as well.
Now Ray I’m sure
would be very pleased if this meant giving only to the church, but
it is money given to God for his work and although invariably a
large part of it goes to the church not all of it necessarily will.
This was seen as God’s due in OT times so perhaps being generous
would fall outside that tenth and be something extra when needs
arise. Another way of viewing what we have and earn is to say that
it all belongs to God as we do, and that all of what we have is
therefore in his remit to guide us on how to use. But even if you
start by living on only nine tenths of what you earn, you will find
blessing in your ability to respond to the needs around you.
Special Offers – I am
very suspicious of special offers, but we do look for them and
partake of them and I guess from time to time end up with things we
do not really need, or not yet, and sometimes do not use. But, when
this article was written they may not have been aware of the food
bank scheme and I would not want to dissuade you from picking up a
three for two or a BOGOF item if you are going to donate the freebie
to our food bank box at the back of the church.
I started with the
submission that we very often do not have behaviour and belief in
line with each other, that we can believe one thing but do something
contrary to that belief, because it suits us and maybe without even
realising it. We need to be aware of this in our lives and deal
with it if we can. It will help us in dealing with the issues around
us if we step back from the media presentation of them and ask a few
pertinent questions of our own about what the real issues may be,
where they started, are the right people being targeted and are we
in agreement with the values being expressed or sort after.
What does the Bible
say is a better question than what would Jesus do, remembering that
what Jesus both said and did was almost entirely focussed on people
like us and religious rather than political leaders.
We have built our
prosperity, if that is the right word on borrowed money and we have
not put enough in our barns to protect us from famine. We should not
see a credit crunch as a disaster only but an opportunity to put
financial houses in order, I’m referring to our own, not HSBC and
others, and live within our means, being responsible with what we
have in the sight of God and being generous with what we have
towards those to whom God will lead us when we ask him.
We should have an
attitude and strategy to money and debt that is both Bible based and
realistic in this present age, committing sufficient of our own
resources to God’s work so that we respond to his generosity by
being generous ourselves.
Our readings for
today talked of sheep and goats, Ezekiel rather conveniently
referring to fat sheep and lean sheep but alas no mention of fat
cats, and Matthews gospel giving us the account of an end time
separation of those who had heeded the word of God by their actions
and those who had not. For it is not in hearing only that we are
saved.
And talking of being
saved, it would be missing an opportunity not to note that today the
question should never be about what Jesus would do, but about what
he has done; because the ills that we see in our financial world are
not different from those in all aspects of life. We should be
careful of focussing on the log in their eye less we be found to
have one in our own.
If we choose to shop
on the internet and buy goods from tax havens abroad we should not
be surprised when the local store closes and our young people can’t
find work.
What we see all
around us is after all the human condition from which Jesus came to
save us all.
But we should end on
the note of thanksgiving and prayer expressed in Paul’s letter to
the Ephesians and pray for ourselves that God will give us a spirit
of wisdom and revelation so that we may know him better and that by
so doing we will be able to steer our way safely through the times
that lie still ahead of us.
And also that the
eyes of our hearts may be enlightened to know the hope to which God
has called us.
Amen
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