Rev-Elations October 2007

It is an amazing thing—the money and the church. I hardly ever talk about money, yet you will hear people say, “All the church ever talks about is money!” You can mention it once in a while, and some think they are hearing it every Sunday.

I checked it out. When Jesus was training His first disciples He talked a whole lot more about money than I do. George Buttrick, in his book, The Parables of Jesus, reminds us that of Jesus’ 43 parables recorded in the Gospels, 27 of them (that is 62%) refer to money and possessions. Buttrick continues: “One out of every ten verses in the Gospels deals with money and, while the Bible includes 500 verses on prayer and fewer than 500 verses on faith, more than 2,000 verses address money and what it buys.”

Now why would that be? Why would Jesus spend so much time talking about money and what it buys? Here is my answer. Jesus knew that one thing we’d hold onto and refuse to let go, the one thing we just have to call “mine,” is money. To take hold of life means taking hold of a whole new way of looking at life. When you grab hold of the new life Jesus has in store for you, you let go of everything else. You can not grab hold of His hand if your hands are still clinging to “your” money! Jesus put it this way, “You can not serve both God and Money” (Luke 16:13).

There is more. Once you take hold of the new life Jesus gives you, you still have money, at least I hope so. Some of us have more of it than others. It has always been that way. Only now the money you have is the Lord’s, not your. Now it is not yours to spend at will; it is yours to manage in a way that truly brings God honor. How you spend it—the mortgage, clothes, food, the car(s), the vacation—it all ends up an act of worship, honoring God and bringing Him glory.

What’s more, God expects to be honored first with our money. After all, it is His, and His cause needs to be preeminent in our priorities. The Bible calls this “first fruits” giving, honoring God off the top with a percentage of our income designated ahead of time as a pledge toward His work of making disciples. (See Malachi 3:10; I Corinthians 16:2).

At Maple Heights United Methodist Church, we excel in so many aspects of discipleship-serving, Bible study, caring, outreach, worship and more! When it comes to giving, though, we are, well, average. The national average for giving by members of American churches is 2 ½ % of their household income. That is about our average, too. We have a way to go toward the Biblical goal of a tithe, 10 %.

One of my favorite seasons is autumn. The beauty of tress dressed in their fall colors is awesome. I look out in awe and think; oh, how good and generous is our God. May God help us to give more generously than ever. The motivation? That is easy. We remember the One who became poor that we might be rich (2Corinthians 8-9).

Happy Giving. Rev. Julianne Gebbie, Pastor