Living a Life of Gratitude and
Contentment
Matthew 6:24-29
November 9, 2014
Mark S. Bollwinkel
Jesus preached about money, wealth and possessions. A lot.
‘No one can serve two masters…. You cannot serve God
and wealth….do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will
drink, or about your body, what you will wear….where your treasure is there
your heart will be also (Mt 6:21)….seek first the Kingdom of God and all things
will be given you (Mt. 6:33)
We don’t like to think of money as a spiritual
matter but it is. Managing money in our
lives is a spiritual challenge.
“We were meant to find our security in God but
we find it in amassing wealth. We were
meant to love people, but instead we compete with them. We were meant to enjoy the simple pleasures
of life but we busy ourselves with pursing money and things. We were meant to be generous and to share
with those in need but we selfishly hoard our resources for ourselves.” (Adam Hamilton, Enough: Discovering Joy
through Simplicity and Generosity, Abingdon, 2009 p. 21)
The spiritual implications of how we
manage money are huge. The number one
cause of marital breakdown and divorce is financial stress (Hamilton, p.
20). One of the primary indicators of
marital success in a cohabitating couple is if they have a joint checking account
prior to the marriage. The ability to
talk about and plan a couple’s financial needs indicates a level of
communication and trust which is a primary foundation of success in a marriage.
We’ll choose to stay in jobs we hate
to pay the bills. We’ll take advantage
of another person in a business transaction in order to make a buck. We’ll ruin our emotional and physical health
with stress over our financial choices.
We’ll spoil our kid’s maturing into self-reliant, self-sufficient adults
by giving them too much and not teaching them the value of “no”.
The spiritual implications of how we manage
money are huge because it is all too easy for money to end up managing us.
Contentment
is no easy thing to find in this life full of both capricious disasters and
bountiful blessings. We’ve all
encountered people along the way who are absolutely miserable in spite of their
wealth, privilege and status. We’ve all
met folk who are at peace in spite of their poverty or suffering: “Contentment
makes poor men rich, but discontentment makes rich men poor.” (Benjamin
Franklin)
Webster defines “contentment” as “ease of mind;
satisfaction”. You can’t buy it, you
can’t steal it, and you can’t fake contentment. But why then to we do often try to do just
that?
Americans spend billions of dollars each year on legal
and illegal drugs to buy a moment of tranquility or bliss. We work ourselves into stress related
diseases pursuing a multi-tasking lifestyle of conspicuous consumption while
pushing our kids to follow the same path.
Jesus says, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for
one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ (Luke 12:15)
Jesus suggests that contentment lies in our relationship
to God.
When we put God first, we put aside
the pride and shame that stops us from asking for help.
When we put God first, we can stand
up to the temptations of a culture designed to equate happiness with
acquisition and learn to nurture the patience of deferred gratification.
When we put God first, loving
relationships become the measure of success. As
Jesus says it’s all about where we are investing our hearts. (Matthew 6:21)
That’s especially true when it comes
to money and the church. Are we putting
our hearts into it?
Most preachers dread the annual
stewardship campaign. We can see the
glazed look that falls over the people’s faces as soon as money is mentioned in
Church. Folk start staring at their
watches wondering how long they have to endure talk in church about money. There is an unspoken assumption that this is
all about getting people to give more money.
I am far more interested in a more difficult challenge. Are we putting our hearts into our financial
support of the church?
In two weeks we will be asking each of us to
dedicate a Commitment Card during our worship services indicating our
intentions to support Church of the Wayfarer’s Operations next year.
The card which most have already received in the
mail or can get here on Sunday the 23rd, will ask us to list our
intention for financially supporting the Operations of Wayfarer next year,
either by listing a dollar amount or a percentage of income goal.
The cards are symbolic of our intentions, simply an
informal measurement of our congregation’s excitement for and commitment to the
direction of our ministry next year. No salesman will call! There are no “pledge police”. No one is going to say you are ‘behind in
your pledge’. We will ask for contact
information on the card to send you a ‘thank you’ and keep you informed of our
progress as a church. What the Finance Committee
needs to know is if they can count on each one of us. We’ll know that by the level of response and
the actual financial giving between now and the end of the year.
If we seek to reach our ministry goals next year, we
are looking at a potential Operating Budget around $ 300,000. Wayfarer is blessed with a number of sources
of income….our Foundation, facility use, wills and bequests….but most of our
ministry is resourced by the contributions from you and me.
We may think of that as a lot of money but not when
we think of the potential to change lives for the better.
People don’t give to budget line items, they give to
people.
What’s the dollar value of a pastor by the bedside
of a dying parishioner or the moment when a grandchild is baptized on a Sunday
morning?
What does it cost to have an entire congregation
praying for you to get better after a surgery or stand by you to support you as
you bury a wife or husband?
From this place we send volunteers out into the
community to serve the homeless and feed the hungry. We offer scholarships to High School Seniors
as they begin their college careers. On
these hallowed grounds we welcome hundreds of visitors each and every day to
tour our sanctuary and the beauty of our gardens where, if even for a moment,
they think of something bigger than themselves in the midst of a vacation or a
day at the beach.
When we dedicate a portion of the wealth entrusted
to our stewardship to the work of God through Church of the Wayfarer we are not
just contributing to a budget, we’re contributing to changed and healing lives.
I performed a small renewal of
wedding vows ceremony here in our Sanctuary a few months ago. Only nine people involved, the couple and
their kids. No fancy flowers, no special
music. The couple had been married here
25 years ago. The husband had survived
an operation for cancer. The couple
wanted to mark his progress by celebrating the power of the love they found in
their marriage. It was simple and
beautiful. When they left the sanctuary
they rushed to ring our steeple bell, as they had 25 years before and as they
had ever since on their occasional visits to Carmel. They left our church beaming, smiling from
ear-to-ear.
What is that worth? Does such a moment of contentment for two
strangers deserve our investment? It
sure does for Bonnie and me.
Church of the Wayfarer needs each
and every person to step up and be counted for financial support, to be
sure. The more we give the more we will
be able to do. But more importantly
regardless of the dollars we plan to give we need to invest our hearts here,
because it makes a positive difference in our lives and the transformation of
the world. Because we are all in this
together.
There is joy to be found in generosity and
contentment. For in the end that is why
God gave us his only son.
Amen.
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