Luke 12:32-40

Lots of you folks have been taking little trips here and there, vacations, family celebrations, enjoying the fall. So then you know how it is. You come in from vacation. Everything is dirty. Why are there always more dirty clothes after a vacation than when you stay at home for the same length of time? I don’t know about you, but when I hit the house after a trip, I head for the washing machine. Suddenly everything seems to needs to be cleansed, even the things we took that we never wore.

A few years ago, we had just come back from vacation and were washing the vacation clothes. Oran put in the last load, including the things we had traveled in. In a little while he came into the bedroom where I was putting away the first loads of clothes. In his hand was a wet mess, which he spread out over the bed. There were wet credit cards, soggy family pictures, damp receipts and drippy dollars. You guessed it; his billfold was in the pocket of the pants he had been wearing and it got washed with the rest. Some, especially criminal justice types, may say he had laundered money. We preacher types would say that the billfold was baptized by immersion, thoroughly cleansed, washed spotless.

Some of you know the story of a young farmer who was recently converted and was going to be baptized, clothes and all down in the local river. Just before he stepped into the river, his wife stepped up, “Here, let me hold your billfold so it won’t get wet.”

“No,” he said. “I want my money baptized, too”

He was right of course. Unless our billfolds and our wallets are baptized, we have not been fully converted.

Our spiritual health and that of our congregation is expressed in our billfolds, our checkbooks and our on-line banking printouts. Those credit card statements that come at the end of the year totally how much you spent for entertainment, eating out, gasoline; do your spending prioritites surprise you? Do you find your restaurant bills have totaled more than your charitable giving? Do you give more to Starbucks than to God?

We have been in the midst of a Faith Promise Campaign. Today we make our Faith Promise pledges. I hope you have been giving prayerful consideration of how you will respond to God’s abundant grace to you.

It is often said that Christians don’t want to talk about money in the church and will avoid stewardship sermons. I’ve heard my share of complaints. Let me tell you, if you are uneasy about sermons on the use of your money and possessions and time and talents, then there is one preacher you would not want to hear.

He was the one who said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these things will be added to you.” You know the one. He was the one who reminded us that God clothes the lilies of the field far better than any department stores clothe us. He was the one who told us to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven where moths won’t eat holes in them and rust won’t corrode them and they would not become obsolete, flood-soaked or hail dented. He was the one who called the man “fool” who being so concerned about his financial health that he built bigger barns to house more and more stuff while ignoring his spiritual health. He was the one who said, “For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” He was the one who preached, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” And he was the one who told us “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

There is nothing wishy washy about Jesus and nothing wishy washy about his messages about money. He said to us, “Where your money is, that is what you have faith in. That is what you love. That is what you trust.”

I’m telling you, if you don’t like to hear a lot of talk about money - about money and your soul - then I’d advise you - don’t hang around Jesus. Every time you turn around he is talking about money. I guess he does that because people ask him about it.

The rich young ruler asked “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus knew that the one thing that was holding him back was his love of money. He says, “Sell your possessions and give to charity.” Zacchaeus talked with him about money. People came asking if they should pay taxes to Caesar. People ask because we know that our money and possessions are topics of the soul. Jesus talked about money and to dodge the subject is to proclaim an incomplete gospel.

In fact, the truth we don’t like to admit in spiritual settings is that money has power. Why is it then that when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping? Because shopping can give you a sense of power, purchasing power, seductive power. Consider how money has seduced so many into unbearable debt, cheating, stealing, embezzling or acts of violence. The power of money.

Where your treasure is there will your heart be also. If our billfolds and wallets were baptized first, then our hearts would follow. Jesus knew that truth about us. Oh, Jesus knows us, knows us too well. We like to think that if we are able to capture people’s hearts with the gospel, then the resources of their lives, time, talents, treasures will follow.

But did you notice the curious thing here? Not our treasure follows where our heart is, where our passions are. But rather, our heart seems to follow our treasures. That is what Jesus said. He is an utter realist.

For several months I served with a Presbyterian pastor in Dallas. I was ministering to Asian refugees in his congregation. He was a curmudgeon kind of a guy with a huge pot belly, a deep gravely voice, and an intense dedication to ministry. He had an incredible way of getting people to give money for the work of the Lord. I was always hesitant about that. He could tell. “Charlotte” he’d tell me, No it was more like “Charlotte,” (deep voice, jowls shaking) I believe that God wants me to reach deep down in these folks pockets and help them let go of what is God’s.” Let go of what’s God’s. And he did to. I saw a stewardship statement that read, “Stewardship is digging out tightly held dollars and flinging them around the world with God’s love.”

Spiritually healthy people let go of what is God’s, give of their resources and grow in generosity.

Spiritually healthy congregations do the same. Take this church for example; you help support North Dallas Shared Ministries, Family Gateway, Our Church’s Wider Mission, 5 for 5 UCC special offerings, South Central Conference, a mission trip to Gulfport Miss, and yet this church does not tithe its operating budget. It has zeroes in its mission line items of the operating budget. When the budget got tight, what did you cut? Mission giving. That happens in our household budgets as well. When your household budget gets tight, what often get’s cut? Today is a good day to look again at our spiritual health as Christians and as a congregation.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that this stewardship sermon is not about the church’s need for your money. This stewardship sermon is about your need to give - time, talent and money, knowing that where your treasure is, that’s where your heart will reside. And where do you want your heart living?

We are baptized into Christ. Baptism tells us who we are and whose we are. When we are graced with baptismal waters, we acknowledge that we are God’s and belong to God forever. If we baptize our billfolds, our day timers, our Blackberries, our calendars, we acknowledge they too are God’s and we are simply stewards. Is your wallet wet?

Sermon preached by Dr. Charlotte D. Nabors
Central Congregational Church, Dallas, Texas
November 11, 2007