Reimagine

Our Money Story, a sermon series for Stewardship from A Sanctified Art, week 3 of 4, preached Nov 17, 2024

Context

Our sermon series this November is called “Our Money Story.” We all have a story, and often, we try to tell our story without talking about the money. But behind every big life event… wedding, birth, home, vacation, sickness, even death… the money behind those events helps us see and share who we are, what we believe.

What if we would talk about the money part of our stories with more transparency and vulnerability? What if we could listen for what money says about us… as individuals, a family, a church, or a nation? What would we learn about our story?

Jesus talked about money more than almost anything. And thanks to a group called Sanctified Art, we are using some wonderful liturgies, texts, and quotes to help us reveal the story our money is telling. Two weeks ago, we remembered Judas and the religious leaders used money to sell our Jesus, and the disciples used money to prepare the Passover table. Last week, Caitlan helped us see how money can show us what we covet, and she challenged us to release, to want only a life free of things, and close to God.

QUOTE of the Day

Today, to get us warmed up, let’s group up in 2s and 3s and discuss a quote from someone smart in the faith. Today’s quote is…

 “For the Israelites, then, and for us today, the Sabbath is a call to remember the work of God in our lives, to resist the spirit of consumption, and to reimagine our community with eyes of justice, equality, and thankfulness.”

—Kerr, Amanda. “Sabbath: Resist, Remember, Reimagine.” Sermon, First Christian Church, Greensboro, NC. November 6, 2016.

Is that how you’ve thought of Sabbath, as a call to remember God, and a day to resist, and a reimagining of just and grateful community? Ready, Go!

Great! For anyone wishing to share, in person or online, what did you come up with?

Before we read scripture and preach, let’s pray…

Prayer for Illumination

"Holy God, we want to see what you see, but we stumble through roadblocks of bias and narrow perspective, fear and limited information. We are too small to imagine the type of love and beauty you can sow. So in this moment, we ask you to clear the roadblocks keeping us from you. Blow the dust out of our ears. Thaw the frozen parts of our hearts. And, as you do, breathe fresh air into our lungs and fill our minds with endless possibilities. We want to reimagine this life we’re living. Amen? Amen."

Jesus is at, near, in the Temple. He’s responded to a curious scribe about which is the greatest commandment, and then preached on the relationship between God’s messiah and King David. Then, Jesus says this…

Scripture               Mark 12:38-44

38 As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces 39 and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 40 They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

41 He sat down opposite the offering boxes and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, barely worth a penny. 43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44 For all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

This too is the word of God for the people of God… (Thanks be to God)

Sermon                

It’s really hard to tell what Jesus is saying here, or then to figure out what I should say to us today, something from this story of Jesus long ago that might connect with us now, and help us live our lives better and make this world better. It’s always the challenge. I want to teach what the Bible really said, and then let it point us all toward what that might mean for today, if we believe it. But today, this text, I found it really hard.

In the Wednesday morning study with some of y’all, we wondered, Okay, so Jesus was warning about the Scribes. So who are the scribes today?  The scribes back then were leaders in religion who LIKED being important, respected, and having influence over the people. They like wearing fancy religious clothes to get peoples’ attention and make it obvious they are important.  Beware religious leaders who LIKE being treated as a celebrity.  Beware of religious leaders who LIKE getting special perks, honors, treatment, and the spotlight. 

·      Remember, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, how they embezzled funds from their ministry into their personal accounts for luxuries.

·      Or TV Preacher Kenneth Copeland with a 6 million dollar, 18,000 square foot home in Texas.

·      Or TV evangelist Creflo Dollar who teaches the more you give (to him) the more you’ll get from God, and wears the highest priced suits, watches, and shoes money can buy.

·      Or Preacher William Curtis’ black Bentley SUV which is worth twice as much as the median home value in his church’s neighborhood.

·      Or Joyce Meyer, whose ministry pays for all five of her mansions, homes for all her grown children, and there’s a $23,000 toilet somewhere in all of that.

Maybe that’s what Jesus would say today. Beware the televangelists. But I wonder, what are we supposed to do about that, the way some Scribes preach not to build Kingdom of God but to build their own wealth?

Or maybe today, what if we focus on how to be a better disciple of Jesus by imagining what it must have been like to be his disciple in those days. Now, some people say Jesus was all love and peace, but when you read Mark, it’s not like Jesus was Mr. Positive or anything.  He kept talking about his own death.  He kept speaking in cryptic riddles… “The first will be last, and the last will be first.”  He set crazy high standards.  “Anyone who leaves their house or family for my sake and for the gospel will receive a hundred fold.” Jesus was a bit of a trouble-maker, a boat-rocker. He had just flipped the tables of the money changers in the temple courtyard, and he keeps on confronting the chief priests, and Pharisees, and scribes, the most respected religious leaders. And his teachings were not easy. Jesus is teaching new things, oppostie to what had been repeated to the people.  The disciples back then, trying to follow Jesus, had to unlearn and re-understand and keep up. They must have been scared, and confused, and exhausted.  Jesus was challenging the norms of their religious and national and cultural traditions.

So to be better disciples today, we’d have to ask… What are the norms and traditions we hold that Jesus would challenge? What have we learned, believed about religion, Bible, faith, church, Christianity, and hold onto in the name of God, that Jesus would challenge and change?

Sometimes, when I’m not sure what to preach, I wonder, what do I hear Jesus preaching to me? To let you into my head and heart for a minute, there are many days in this calling as one of the Pastors of the Presbyterian Church of Chestertown, where I wonder if I am good enough, a good enough religious leader. There are moments when I’m not sure what Jesus would say to me. 

I am in a long robe. I don’t particularly like wearing it.  I didn’t buy it.  It was gifted to me by some folks in my last church because they knew my first robe was an old hand me down, and they wanted me to have a nicer one.  This robe is a symbol that sets me apart, but I put it on last minute, and take it off quickly most Sundays, and constantly pray that I be set apart only as a representative of God’s presence or word or hands and feet in service, not for privilege or power.

I don’t expect to be greeted as anything special just because I’m a pastor.  Sometimes, I like to going out of town, because there, I’m just a person. When I meet people, I pray they will not ask me what I do, not yet, that they will get to know something else about me before they figure out I’m a pastor and everything changes. Sometimes, people will ask what they are supposed to call me, Pastor Joel, or Reverend Tolbert, or Father, and I tell them, Joel is fine. Whatever respect I get, I hope it’s because my life and words have integrity, not because of my title.

I have known what it feels like to be greeted or spoken about without much respect, and that is painful. When it happens, its usually someone inside the church, because I’m not pastoring, leading, teaching the way they think I should, the way their last pastor did, or the way their favorite pastor did, or the way they’ve always believed but in a new way that feels true to me and Jesus. That’s when I’m greeted with disrespect, and no, I don’t like that very much.

I definitely don’t look for the chief seats at banquets.  In fact, I get in trouble for that with Jill, cause I won’t get in a banquet line early.  I tend to wander around the room chatting with people, waiting for the line to die down, and making sure everyone else gets enough.

As for prayers, I’m grateful when others pray instead of me, something from their heart that lets us hear their way of talking honestly to God. And yeah, I get in trouble for prayers sometimes… if that they are perceived as too long, meaning if worship runs past 1030… or sometimes, a prayer of mine isn’t what someone wanted, or they think my language, my style of prayer is appropriate for a pastor. But I don’t pray for the sake of appearance. When I pray, I try to invite y’all into my honest relationship with God, and to hold y’all and our world before God.

As for devouring widows’ houses, God I hope not. I’m trying to get this community to come together and finally launch a 12-moth homeless shelter. And I celebrate when I get to sit with widows or widowers, elderly couples in their houses. I don’t assume I have to right to insert myself into anyone’s home, but I love to GO when I’m invited. I’ve offered to visit many folks, sent note cards or emails or voicemails fishing for invitations. And I’ve gotten in trouble for not visiting soon enough or often enough, even though I wasn’t invited. If you or someone you know in or around this church thinks a pastor should have visited, or should visit soon, please invite us. Caitlan or I go to every invitation, but we don’t impose ourselves. Just ask. One of us will come and be honored to be with you. Please, don’t clean up or do anything special. And we won’t devour your house.

But what to say, to connect all these pieces to one another, and to all of us today. Maybe, that’s why Jesus draws their attention to the widow and her pennies. What is the temple? What should religious people and leaders do there? Why would people with resources share some there? Why would desperate people come there? Jesus knows the temple should be a place where the radical Kingdom of God shines another option for community into this world. But so far, he’s found preachers who demand offerings to maintain their lifestyle, not to make sure everyone is cared for. He’s noticed some who give plenty out of their abundance, and do so so things will keep going like they were before. That’s not what temple, or religion, or offering are meant to be about.

Then he notices the widow, who puts in her two coins. She still believes. She believes the Temple, church, is a place where care and support will happen for those in greatest need. She still believes everyone here has something to give and no one is better or worse than anyone else just because of what they give. She still shows up, and sings with passion, and puts in her two pennies with pride and hope, because she still believes not in church, not in preacher, not even in scripture, but in God and God’s great kingdom that is coming, and is here, and is meant to be tasted when they are together like this.

To the religious leaders, I bet they scoffed at those two pennies when they counted up the offering. To the bigger donors, I imagine they laughed under their breath when they heard those two tiny pieces fall in. They had lost the plot. They had forgotten why we gather, why we worship, why we offer. But she hadn’t. And Jesus used the money to reimainge the story of what church is meant to be. May Jesus look upon this religious leader, these religious people, this church, and our offerings, and see the same as he saw in her.

To God be all glory and honor, now and forever more, Amen? Amen.

Prayer to Dedicate

"Jesus of Nazareth,

In scripture we hear of a woman who gave her last coin away.

You pointed her out, but you did not say, “Go and do likewise.”

So we cannot help but wonder—did you point her out to ask,

“Why does this one have so little when others have so much?”

Did you point her out to help us see the injustice that led to her suffering?

Maybe.

So today, for her, and for you, and for every person who cannot afford to give to God

And put food on the table, we offer our gifts.

We pray that you would use them for your good.

Right what is wrong.

Balance the systems of injustice.

Use these gifts to build the world that we can only imagine

But you can bring forth.

In hope we pray,

Amen."

Charge

Benediction

Now blessing, laughter, and loving be yours, and may the love of a great God who names you and holds you as the earth turns and the flowers grow be with you this day, this night, this moment, and forever more. Amen? Amen.