January 21, 2025
January 21, 2025
Wow, three weeks in a row “Today at Prince of Peace” coming from Pastor Jim!
Either they’re just trying to keep him busy … or, this is a subject really important to him and one he might have some experience based financial faith insights.
It’s the latter. I think the faithful use of money is one of the most critical spiritual issues we face.
[It is always about God. That’s why we want you to read the account of Jesus healing ten lepers, only one of which returns to thank and praise. It’s brief, 8 verses, Luke 17:11-19. I hope you read it, reflect on it, and most of all be blessed by it. By way of thought prod: When Jesus tells the one former leper to “Get up and go your way; your faith has made you well,” do you think he stopped thanking and praising God the rest of his life? Was he rich, or poor? Did he even care compared to his trust in the Lord?]
The hardest part of talking about money in the church is that you think I’m trying to get your money. That’s not true, but it is understandable as that’s how we are conditioned when it comes to money. Get it, keep it, protect it from those who want to take it. That, we conclude against irrefutable evidence, is the how life works. But it’s not.
- You can be rich and void of happiness, relationships, meaning, freedom. Money can be your biggest fear, worry, problem. Your relationship with money can be idolatrous. And imprison you.
- You can be poor and be filled with joy, satisfaction, contentment, power. Money can be a spiritual source of hope, of community, of justice. our relationship with money can be a gift from God and a way to worship God.
- The Beatles beat a warning bell when they sang “Can’t buy me love … everybody tells me so .. no, no, no.” Again, that’s fact.
- What they didn’t say was that you don’t ‘need’ to buy love, because the God of all creation already extravagantly and eternally loves you. There’s nothing you can do, or not do, to make God love you more, or less.
You don’t have to buy love with your time, your talents or your money. You are loved, and by trusting that truth “your faith can make you well.”
A proven strategy, which is dangerously neglected and too rarely modeled for our children, is to recognize God as the giver of every gift. It all belongs to us and God gives because God loves us. Our only response is to say ‘thank you’ to God by sharing with God.
My pastoral focus changed 45 years ago when I learned that asking people to share their money and their lives with God was inviting them into a way of living and loving that would never fail them and pay holy dividends all their lives. My own life changed when we began to trust that gift. So, in my opinion, this whole pledge process is spiritual care, definitely not fund raising, and necessary if we are to be free from the love of money and share God’s love in the world.
I hope you will complete an Estimate of Giving card this week as a faith step in thanking and trusting God in your life and the life of your family. It’s not a contract with the church; it’s a prayerful intention, a desire on your part to put God first and let God protect you from the love of money.
We’re receiving our Estimate of Giving cards at all of our worships this weekend. Bring yours to worship, or if unable to be here please bring or mail it to the church.
God is good and worthy of our thanks and praise.
Pastor Jim