Of the Same Mind
Philippians 2:1-13
I don’t know about you, but money has been on my mind lately. I am sure it was the $85 billion bailout of insurance giant AIG and the $700 billion proposed bailout and the more than $13 million in severance planned for the CEO of Washington Mutual. Or it could be that all of this money talk has gotten to me a bit. You see, I have always been a tad weird about money. Maybe some of you have noticed. I have always been weird about money- at least that is what the people who love me contend. I was the kid who actually saved birthday and Christmas money. And for years, I carried around a small tablet that I would use to document each expense, including a 25-cent gumball. Apparently, I have a bit of a reputation as a tight wad. The day of my wedding my friend Shauna told a story about a time in college when my car was about to run out of gas. As was customary for me, I drove a bit of a distance for the cheapest gas around. My car sputtered to empty as we pulled in and I paid a homeless man a few dollars to help push my car to the pump. As Shauna reports with a smiling smirk, that was more than the difference in price if I had stopped to fill up at the nearest station. I have always been a saver and for most things and it is difficult for me to spend my money. But while I have prided myself on being thrifty, a few years ago I realized how my money weirdness was holding me hostage. I was anxious before going out to eat, especially if it was a group who had a record of splitting the bill. I was so intent on holding onto my money, so I could ensure that I would never go without. But what I didn’t understand was how much of a hold my money had on me. With all of my worrying, I was living exactly the life that I was trying to avoid. I wanted so badly to not have to worry about money, that worrying about money was all that I could do.
Most of us have some kind of money quirk. Whether it is holding onto to it too tightly or letting it go too frivolously or failing to share it fully or living as if we have more than we do. It seems as if most of us live with some kind of money baggage. And for many of us in this country, these past months and weeks have been occasions for the chickens to come home and roost. Our money baggage has landed right on the steps of our front door. And the thing about money is that it connects each and every one of us. These past weeks have been laden with moments where we are forced to remember how inextricably linked we really are. The decisions made by few lead to consequences borne by all of us. This financial crisis is one of those instances in American history where we are reminded that whether we like it or not we are bound together.
I have found myself wishing that this was not an election year because then maybe we could have some real conversations about the culture that led us to this moment of financial devastation. I have found myself yearning for an opportunity to sit down and get real about what went wrong and how those most vulnerable will be affected. I have found myself longing for a genuine accounting for what is really going on. And I have found myself turning to Jesus words. Perhaps it is not a surprise to you that Jesus talked about money more than anything else, well at least he spoke about money as much as he spoke about the Kingdom of Heaven. And even though he was a bit confusing about other things, when it came to money, he was quite clear. In the Gospel of Luke, we read, "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." That is pretty clear isn’t it? If your life is centered on money, God cannot offer abundant life. You can’t do both.
You might think that this is some kind of mushy religious economics. When things are going well, it is easy for us to dismiss these words as abstract altruisms, but at this moment in our shared story as Christians, I believe these words, that this axiom should be at the center of all of our financial decision-making.
This is a moment where faith and finances can no longer be separated. Our money loving habits have led us to buy stuff we don’t need and to live lives that were never ours in the first place. Stuff can never get us closer to God anyway. Jesus warned us that we cannot serve two masters and we have tried anyway. We have worshiped at the altar of credit. And credit is empty, it satisfies us for just a moment and then leaves us aching, it leaves us wondering what it was we were looking for in the first place. Credit is literally an invitation to live a life that is built on lies. And lives of this kind leave no place for God.
I am not foolish enough to think that our housing crisis and our banking crisis and the tragic state in which our economy sits can be reduced to a few simple explanations. But it would do us some good, to take a moment and assess where it is our hearts are rooted. Who is that we worship knowing that there is only room for one master? These past weeks have shown yet again, that human beings if left to our own principles will always fall short. As Matt Maher wrote, “Faith solely in the economy of man is continually being proven by history to be a failing proposition. Outside of a continued awareness and abiding in that which transcends human imperfection, we are embarking on a journey to a world defined by acquisition, power, fear, and accusation; rather than a world of love, service and peace.” We cannot have lives centered on money, and abundant life with God. They are simply mutually exclusive.
Our scripture for today, says with telling and steadfast truth, “If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”
It seems to me that this financial crisis is a crisis of hearts. It is easy to blame overpaid CEOs and predatory lenders and eager Americans wanting a piece of the American dream, but I believe it is a systemic problem. We cannot have lives centered on money, and have abundant life with God. We must choose where our allegiances lay.
For those of us who seek to know God through Jesus our Christ, we seek to be of the same mind as Christ. We seek to root our hearts in nothing other than God. And with all of the financial turmoil these past months and weeks something amazing has happened here. You might have missed it, but our little church has pushed on into the financial black. We are not exactly sure how or why it has happened now, but with so much of the financial system falling apart we are ahead for the year. I have heard some of us say that it won’t last, that we shouldn’t count on it, that we don’t know what is ahead. But friends, I believe it is no coincidence. I believe to the core of my being that God is in the business of offering each heart who wants it, the best kind of life there is. If we invest in God, God will take care of us. God wants to offer us abundant life, it is a life rooted in people, filled with experiences grounded in joy and a life overflowing with love. It seems to me that we are of the same mind in this place. We believe that the Gospel is true. The Gospel is Good News and that is if we invest in God, we have nothing to fear. May it continue to be so in each of us. Amen.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/matt_maher/2008/09/accountability_and_stewardship.html