It's MY money!

I don't usually do this, but I want to recap the sermon I gave on Sunday. I'm not recapping it because I have any delusions it was a wonderfully delivered sermon. I think the lesson for us is too important to not hear it again. If you heard the sermon then yes I am talking about money...specifically what you do with your money. (Please keep reading)

Before you get all excited this isn't a plea for you to give more money to the church. On the other hand, it is a challenge as to what we do with our money. I want to start off with a quote I heard once from somewhere. I think it was a seminary professor or someone: "Show me a person's checkbook and I'll show you what they love." Apply that to your checkbook. Where does most of the money go? Church, non-profits helping the less fortunate, restaurants, entertainment, kids, house? Now, let's be clear...I'm not saying your church or charitable giving should out pace your mortgage, for some maybe it should, but for the vast majority of us that truly isn't realistic. But, does your giving outpace your shopping or coffee budget? If you were to tally up your giving to church and helping the less fortunate is it a priority or only something that happens if you have some money left over? I guess the question is how important is your faith to you? Money is a huge part of our lives, and it is addressed by Jesus over and over again in the Bible. If the church and our faith life is important, does our checkbook reflect that, or is giving them money just an after thought? Money is a giant part of our lives. To think it isn't part of our faith life is foolish. How we handle and what we do with money is vital to our faith life.

I'll admit to you two things. I am not bragging or wanting to show off. I want to let you know that I am trying to practice what I preach. My wife and I come close to giving 10% of our income back to the church. The second thing I want to let you know is that we could certainly do better, and that we are going to do better. 10% is not a magical number in my book, but it is something Tracy and I have decided to strive for. For some people 1% of their income would be a big sacrifice. What you give is between you and God, but God is calling you do take an honest look and challenge yourself to do better. How long has it been since your giving has gone up?

The Gospel lesson that spurred this sermon topic is the story of the rich young ruler found in Mark. The rich man asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life and after a short conversation Jesus tells him he must sell all of his possessions and come follow Jesus. The young man goes away sad because he cannot, or at least could not right then. Jesus then says it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich person to enter into the kingdom of heaven. I tended to think Jesus was talking about all those rich celebrities and athletes and business moguls, but then I saw some statistics that showed that most, if not all of us, are in at least the top 10% of richest people in the world. Compared to the rest of the world we in America are extremely wealthy. So Jesus is talking to us.

Does this mean if we are considered rich we can't enter heaven? Does it mean that in order to enter heaven we need to sell all of our stuff? Probably not, but Jesus isn't letting us off the hook either. He is challenging us. How we handle God's money is important. Did you catch that? I didn't say how we handle our money, because it isn't ours. Everything we have is God's. We are only caretakers of God's creation. So it isn't MY money, it is God's money. And the question is how are we handling God's money? Does what we do with our money reflect what we state our priorities are in life? Can we say we are a good Christian and spend more on coffee then offering or charitable giving? I don't know...maybe. I think Jesus might challenge us a little. Money is an intensely personal thing. And some might be reading this and get angry that I'd have the audacity to challenge what happens with THEIR money. Two responses: 1) Jesus is doing the challenging not me, and 2) it isn't THEIR money it's God's. There's a reason Jesus talks about money so much in the Gospels...it has an incredible hold on our lives. What does your checkbook say about your priorities in life?

To get shot or not...That is the question.

Stop me if you've heard this bit of information...the Swine (err I mean H1N1) flu virus is around. Jeez, you can't turn on a news cast or read a paper and not hear about someone or someplace dealing with the virus. Although I have noticed that since Omaha schools have started, and there wasn't some mass outbreak, they have backed off a little bit. I guess us little folk in SW Iowa don't matter quite as much! I've also heard that Tri-Center is dealing with the flu too, but so far nothing overly serious. And so here my wife and I sit trying to decide if we're going to get vaccinated against it or not. Being the parents of little Alex we are in the group that should get vaccinated so we don't give it to him, but is the vaccine safe? I suppose it is, but the flu doesn't seem all that worse than the seasonal flu. I guess we're trying to decided what risk is greater, Alex getting the H1N1 from us or Isaac, Tracy and I getting some sort of side effect from the vaccine. I think we're leaning toward vaccination.

All this hoopla has got me thinking about how much we try to protect ourselves from various threats. I've also been thinking that for all of this worry we could all be killed in some sort of accident at any time really. I know that sounds harsh, but honestly it's true. We like to think we have some sort of control over our lives and the world around us, and to some extent we can prevent some things, but I believe we don't have nearly as much control as we'd like to think we have. Sometimes we can take all the right precautions and something bad can still happen. Now I'm not writing this to scare people, all though I'm getting a little nervous, I'm writing this because I've begun to realize that more and more needs to be put into God's hands. The sooner we realize that God being in control is much better than us the sooner we'll be more at peace with life. Realizing that God is with us always should take a burden off our shoulders and allow us more peace of mind. We need to understand that we do what we can, and then let the rest be up to God.

The danger I think is in thinking then that if we do everything "right" that God will somehow protect us from bad things. If we just pray enough, go to church enough, give enough, and live a righteous enough life then God owes it to us to bless us and protect us from all harm. Has anyone lived a life free from suffering? Has anyone lived a life "good" enough to warrant God's love and ultimate protection? You and I both know the answers. We don't have faith in God in order to get what we want or to protect us from suffering. Believing isn't about; "what have you done for me lately God." Our faith is what helps us when the bad times come. Our faith is what helps us to be better human beings. Our faith is what compels us to make this world a better place for all. Our faith cannot be a me first thing.

The book of Job does a good job of reminding us that "perfect" faith (which isn't possible) isn't a guarantee against suffering. If anyone lived a good enough life for God to bless and protect it was Job, but we know what happened to him. Job is a book that reminds us that bad things happen for no apparent reason. God does allow suffering to take place. Job understood that he didn't deserve what what happening to him. He knew he wasn't being punished for some sin. Job's suffering just happened, and we don't' get a good reason except that God allowed it to happen. The story is telling us that everyone experiences difficult times, and that it is our belief in God and God's love for us that helps us get through those tough times. The challenge for us is to quit thinking that God owes us anything...the challenge is to think like we owe God everything!

PS-this seemed like a random stream of consciousness...sorry if it makes no sense I'll do better next week.