We can simply stay away from some of the things that are bad for us. A person who is addicted to drugs or alcohol will be counseled by those with experience to abstain totally from alcohol: no social drinking, no wine every now and then. Just leave it alone. Never touch it. The same principle applies if the addiction is to gambling or pornography and many other kinds of addiction. Overcoming an addiction is hard work. It takes courage, willpower, the support of others, and the grace of God at a minimum. But, at least you know what you have to do. You have to stay away from whatever it is you are addicted to. We can completely cut ourselves off from some things that are bad for us.
First Timothy proclaims that money is bad for us, or at least that coveting money, loving money, chasing after money is bad for us. If the passage is right, we are in trouble. We cannot get by without money. We don't have the option of living the way an alcoholic must live, never touching the stuff. We need money to survive. Dealing with money is a constant battle for all of us. We have to figure out what money means for our Christian faith.
As many people point out, the passage does not say that money itself is bad for us. The real trouble comes from inside us, in our greed, our lust for money. The way the passage puts it is that "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." This is a well-known phrase from this passage, but some of the other things it says about greed may actually be more interesting and instructive. It says that greed can be a trap and that the eagerness to be rich can cause us to pierce ourselves. A trap limits our freedom and piercing ourselves causes us pain.
We can see the wisdom of this passage in the headlines: the savings and loan crisis of the '80s, the collapse of Enron, the subprime mortgage debacle of a couple of years ago. They all arose out of greed. In order to make big bucks people took risks. Then they tried to cover their mistakes and hoped for the best. In all three cases, things did not work out well. Innocent people were hurt in the wake of the scandals. Taxpayers had to bail out the greedy. Employees lost their pensions. People lost their homes. It has always been the case that we are interconnected. What we do affects not just ourselves but many others. With the global economy, our decisions can have far-reaching consequences. Things can start small, but then the effects ripple through the economy, ruining lives and inflicting pain. When we trap ourselves, we catch other people. When we pierce ourselves, the lance cuts not just our own flesh.
How much more evidence do we need that money alone does not buy wholeness or happiness? We have seen — sometimes more than we want to see — how celebrities with everything still cannot get their lives together. Even though we seem fascinated by the lives of the young starlets, their troubles are sad. Despite the fact that they have all that money can buy, they must have a deep emptiness inside them that their lavish spending and partying cannot fill.
We can easily see the passage's point about the evils of pure greed. Greed can consume us, distort us, and twist our souls around. We have all the evidence we need of that. The question for us may not be about pure greed. The question for us is about our relationship to money. How does our faith affect our money? We must have money. We cannot completely banish it from our lives. We have to deal with money. How do we use our money? In the abstract, it is easy to preach against greed, against craving money. Money problems do not come to us in the abstract. Money problems are quite concrete. A bill that arrives in the mail is quite concrete. The price of gas is very concrete (and rising!).
We have to make certain decisions about money. We can do only three things with our money: spend it, invest it, or give it away. Sometimes the decision is made for us. We don't have the option of investing our money. Our only decision may be which bill to pay and which to hold off for later. Other times we do have a decision to make. What do we do with our money? We do not have time for a lesson in economics, but what Christians should do with their money is not always clear. The church is usually in favor of giving money away, but the other two can be a good way to deal with our money. Spending money creates jobs. Investing money creates capital for business. It seems selfish to spend money on ourselves. It seems selfish to invest money, even for retirement, when children are starving. Yet, economists tell us that consumer spending is good for the economy, and venture capital creates new small businesses. Money is complicated!
Even if we can do only three things with our money, sometimes it is not clear what to do. How much money should Christians have? If we claim that we are spending money to stimulate the economy, how do we know we are not fooling ourselves into indulgence? One way to ask the question is, "How rich is rich?" If we are comfortably middle class, is that rich? Perhaps one way out of the dilemma is to begin to ask ourselves some questions. What is the loving thing to do? How is a particular use of money an act of love for God and neighbor? If we invest in a certain way, if we spend in a certain way, if we give away, how does that act show love? That question can have far-reaching consequences. It affects the house we live in, the car we drive, the clothes we wear, and the mutual funds we choose. Our use of money, in response to what God has done for us, is not just dropping a few bucks in the collection plate and then moving on. How we use our money is a sign of how deep our faith is. We cannot solve every issue about money in this worship service, but if we can ask ourselves how our use of money shows love to God and neighbor, that is a start.
This passage is wise when it teaches us that our attitude toward money can become a trap. It is true that we can feel trapped if we do not have enough money, but we can feel trapped by the pursuit of money. Some people find that more money simply means more stress. Often, the more money a couple has, the more they argue about money. Such arguments show the wisdom of the passage that we pierce ourselves, we inflict our own pain. The more money we have invested, the more we fret when the stock market takes a downturn. Pursuing money can become a kind of trap.
We never completely escape from that trap. As we have said, we have to have money. Nevertheless, the passage offers us some relief. It shows us some ways to think that give us room to move within that trap. The problem with looking at money in a worship service is that we are in such different places. What works to move around in the trap for one person might not work well for another person. If our problem is that we don't have enough money, we experience the trap in one way. If our problem is deciding whether to invest, spend, or give away our money, we experience the trap another way. The advice of 1 Timothy can sound condescending to one person, but be just the right thing to say to someone else.
One of the ways the passage suggests that we move around in the trap is to be content with what we have. That is easier for some to hear than others. Some of us may be genuinely frightened by our financial situation. When 1 Timothy tells us to be content with what we have, it may sound like a slap in the face, as though the author just doesn't understand. Nevertheless, some people, faced with a shortage of money have found that, trusting in God, they can create ways to be content with just the necessities. They can move around inside the trap. Rebecca Frank, a pastor at University ParkUnitedMethodistChurch in Texas, preached a sermon about a time when her life was disrupted. She was forced by circumstances to move into an efficiency apartment, with only the barest of essentials. She said in the sermon that she came to call her home her "sufficiency" apartment. It may not have looked like much to some, but it met her needs. She learned that abundant life is not all about things.
That is the essence of what the passage teaches us. It counsels us to concentrate less on what we have and more on who we are. It says to shun things like greed and to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. It tells us to fight the good fight of the faith. We can pursue those things no matter what our financial situation might be. Those things come from within. Even if we are struggling financially, that struggle cannot keep us from developing righteousness, from seeking a deeper faith, from calling up endurance from inside us, and from loving one another.
Talking about money from the pulpit can end up sounding like scolding or begging. In reality, though, the passage offers us contentment. This isn't the contentment of counting our own money but not caring about the needs of others. For those who have decisions to make about money, this passage offers contentment as well. People who give are happier than those who do not. This passage offers the contentment of living with less, of spending wisely, and of investing in ways that don't trouble our conscience. It is the contentment of trusting God for our needs and not judging ourselves by our possessions. Only a financial advisor should give advice about investing money. This passage tells us that investing in our faith will always pay off. Amen.