Archive for August, 2009

“My own Jesus–what You ask it is beyond me–I can hardly understand half of the things You want–I am unworthy–I am sinful–I am weak. Go Jesus and find a more worthy soul, a more generous one.

“You have become My Spouse for My Love–you have come to India for Me. The thirst you had for souls brought you so far. Are you afraid now to take one more step for your Spouse–for Me–for souls? Is your generosity grown cold? Am I second to you? You did not die for souls–that is why you don’t care what happens to them. Your heart was never drowned in sorrow as was My mother’s. We both gave our all for souls–and you? You are afraid, that you will lose your vocation–you will become a secular–you will be wanting in perseverance. No–your vocation is to love and suffer and save souls and by taking the step you will fulfill My Heart’s desire for you. You will dress in simple Indian clothes or rather like My mother dressed–simple and poor. Your present habit is holy because it is My symbol. Your sarie will become holy because it will be My symbol.

Give me light. Send me Thy own Spirit–which will teach me Thy own Will–which will give me strength to do the things that are pleasing to Thee. Jesus, my Jesus, don’t let me be deceived. If it is You who want this, give proof of it. if not let it leave my soul. I trust you blindly–will you let my soul be lost? I am so afraid Jesus. I am so terribly afraid–let me not be deceived–I am so afraid. This fear shows me how much I love myself. I am afraid of the suffering that will come–through leading the Indian life–clothing like them, eating like them, sleeping like them–living with them and never having anything my way. How much comfort has taken possession of my heart.”

Mother Teresa in Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta. Edited and with Commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C. (New York: Doubleday, 2007) 96-97.

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“First, if wealth is an inherent good Christians should try to gain it. If some of us succeed more than the majority, our understanding of it as God’s gift for all will lead us to want to share with the needy, particularly those who are largely victims of circumstances outside their control.

Second, if wealth is seductive, giving away some of our surplus is a good strategy for resisting the temptation to overvalue it.

Third, if stewardship is a sign of a redeemed life, then Christians will, by their new natures, want to give. Over time, compassionate and generous use of their resources will become an integral part of their Christian lives.

Fourth, if certain extremes of wealth and poverty are inherently intolerable, those of us with excess income (i.e. most readers of this book!) will work hard to help at least a few of the desperately needy in our world.

Fifth, if holistic salvation represents the ultimate good God wants all to receive, then our charitable giving should be directed to individuals, churches, or organizations who minister holistically, caring for people’s bodies as well as their souls, addressing their physical as well as their spiritual circumstances.”

Craig L. Blomberg in Neither Poverty Nor Riches: A Biblical Theology of Material Possessions (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999) 247.

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“We are, in short, a deeply religious people. As a nation of believers, we would expect our religious commitments to have a decisive impact on our economic behavior. But we are also passionately committed to the almighty dollar. We devote the bulk of our waking hours to earning it and much of the rest of our time to finding ways to spend it. In our more candid moments, we admit to being thoroughly materialistic (while deploring this trait in our children). We believe in the proverbial bottom line, shoulder greater and greater personal economic obligations, and fret about how to pay our bills…Jesus warned his followers of the impossibility of serving God and mammon. Are those who claim to be his followers today, then, defying this warning by trying to be spiritual and yet being unwilling to detach from material pursuits? Or perhaps we have found a way to get beyond these ancient tensions living in material abundance and yet keeping our eyes fixed steadfastly on the sacred. Perhaps American religion even encourages us in some subtle way to amass worldly riches. Or perhaps our faith has become so narrowly defined that it seldom pricks our conscience when pocketbook issues are at stake.”

Robert Wuthnow in God and Mammon in America (New York, MacMillan, 1994) 2-3.

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“If our hearts are entirely given to God, it is clear that we cannot serve two masters; it is simply impossible–at any rate all the time we are following Christ. It would of course be tempting to show how far we had advanced in the Christian life by endeavouring to serve two masters and giving each his due, both God and Mammon. Why should we not be happy children of the world just because we are the children of God? After all, do we not rejoice in his good gifts, and do we not receive our treasures as a blessing from him? No, God and the world, God and its goods are incompatible, because the world and its goods make a bid for our hearts, and only when they have one them do they become what they really are. That is how they thrive, and that is why they are incompatible with allegiance to God. Our hearts have room for only one all-embracing devotion, and we can only cleave to one Lord. Every competitor to that devotion must be hated. As Jesus says, there is no alternative–either we love God or we hate him. We are confronted by an “either-or”; either we love God, or we love earthly goods.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship (New York: MacMillan, 1963) 195-196.

No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Luke 16:13

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Over the next six days (August 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17) set aside time to read and meditate on 1 Timothy. Read one chapter per day over and over. Contemplate on how Christians are to relate to their riches in the household of God and journal regarding the implications for your life. Here are a few verses from 1 Timothy and some commentary to launch your lectio divina.

Tell the rich in this world not to be arrogant and not to put their hope upon the uncertainty of wealth, but rather upon God who supplies us with all things richly for our enjoyment. Tell them to do good work, to be wealthy in noble deeds, to be generous in giving, to be sharers of possessions, thereby storing up for themselves a noble foundation for the future, so they can lay hold of real life. 1 Timothy 6:17-19

[Commentary] “…the way in which humans dispose of their possessions is itself intimately connected to their self-disposition before God. Paul had in the previous section [1 Tim 6:2b-10] stressed the potential for possessions to deceive and entrap humans. Now he turns to their positive potential. Paul wants the rich to hope not in the uncertainty of riches, but in God, “who supplies us with all things richly for our enjoyment” (6:17). Two things should be noted in this remarkable statement.

The first is the understanding of God as richly beneficient in every respect (ta panta) “to us.” This affirmation of God’s generosity and unstinting giving of gifts resembles the characterization of God in James 1:5 as the one who “gives to all generously and without grudging.” Part of the proper perception of material possessions, therefore, is that they are all gifts from God. They have no power separate from God and can offer no life or security on their own. Like us, they are simply creatures. If we pursue them as the source of life, we destroy them and ourselves. But if we see them as gifts from God, they they become an occasion for thanksgiving.

This brings us to the second part of the statement: God has given us all things richly, “for our enjoyment” (apolausis). Paul here recognizes the inherent goodness in all things that God gives through creation. We are reminded of the strong view of creation that runs through this letter, found, above all, in the declaration that God created things “to be received with thanksgiving” and that nothing created by God as good was to be rejected, but was to be received with thanksgiving (4:3-4). Although Paul will immediately turn to the fruitful use to which possessions can be put–thus shading apolausis in the direction of “fruit” or “benefit”–it is well to pause and appreciate one of the few places in the New Testament that approves of simple pleasure taken in things.

…within Paul’s theological understanding of creation, freedom is seen as the capacity to give away possessions to others with no diminishment to the self. Paul could scarcely be more emphatic in his desire that the rich use their possessions just in this way. He uses four separate and roughly equivalent terms in 6:18 to express the same point: they are to “do good work” (agatheorgein), “be wealthy in noble deeds” (ploutein en ergois kalois), “be generous in giving” (eumetadotous), and “be sharers of possessions” (koinonikous). This emphasis takes on particular force coming at the end of a letter which has dealt with the problems of misused wealth. The riches that God has given humans are not for their ostentatious display (2:9-10) or their selfish hoarding (5:4, 8), but are to be used for the common good.

When Paul states the motivation for such sharing of possessions, we glimpse again his sense of possessions as expressing human relationship with God. Sharing wealth will be “storing up for themselves” (6:19). The statement makes sense only within a transcendental, relational framework: God honors those who give away their possessions to others with still greater wealth in God’s own presence. The notion is one that is found frequently in Jewish and early Christian literature: possessions shared in this life lead to spiritual riches in the life to come. Thus the mixed metaphor of “storing up treasure” and “laying a foundation.” Doing good deeds now is the basis for the future reward. The reward, however, is not material, but a share in God’s own life, “so that they can lay hold of real life” (6:19).”

Luke Timothy Johnson in The First and Second Letters to Timothy The Anchor Bible Commentary (New York: Doubleday) 314-315.

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“When we encourage people to give generously–and when they respond to the needs God lays on their hearts–we have helped them choose God’s priorities over their own. And that’s discipleship. This is especially true when the gifts are sacrificial.”

Whitney Kuniholm in The Ministry of Fundraising (Washington, D.C.: Prison Fellowship Ministries) 30.

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“I have worked with wealthy clients for years. Through their lives and experiences I have observed that although money can be a great tool, it never determines the level of joy or satisfaction in a person’s life. Used properly, money can facilitate some great experiences. Used improperly, it can be devastating. But the fact is that true joy and happiness are there for the taking no matter whether you have much money or little. The proper alignment of God’s purpose in your life with your relationships and resources brings ultimate fulfillment.”

Alan Gotthardt in The Eternity Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Investing Your Money for Ultimate Results (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 2003) 160.

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“It is well known that the Apostle Paul organized a collection from the Greek churches of Achaia and Macedonia for the benefit of the impoverished churches of Judea. It may seem extraordinary that he should have devoted so much space in his letters to this mundane matter, referring to it in Romans 15, 1 Corinthians 16, and II Corinthians 8-9. But Paul did not see it as a mundane matter. On the contrary, he saw it as relating to the grace of God, the cross of Christ and the unity of the Spirit. In fact, it is very moving to grasp this combination of profound Trinitarian theology and practical common sense.

Moreover Christian giving is an extremely important topic on the contemporary church’s agenda, for I doubt if there is a single Christian enterprise in the world that is not currently hindered and hampered by a lack of funds.

In II Corinthians 8 and 9, the apostle develops ten principles of Christian giving.

Christian giving…
is an expression of the grace of God (8:1-6)
can be a charisma, that is a gift of the Spirit (8:7)
is inspired by the cross of Christ (8:8-9)
should be proportionate to our wealth (8;10-12)
contributes to equality (8:13-15)
should be carefully supervised (8:16-24)
can be stimulated by [the generosity of others] (9:1-5)
resembles a harvest (9:6-11a)
has symbolic significance
promotes thanksgiving to God (9:11b-15).

It is truly amazing that so much is involved in what may seem to be a straightforward transfer of money. On the one hand, the doctrine of the Trinity is involved–the grace of God, the cross of Christ and the unity of the Holy Spirit. On the other, we see the practical wisdom of an apostle of Christ.

I hope that this study of these chapters will help to raise our giving to a higher level and will persuade us to give more thoughtfully, more systematically and more sacrificially. I for one (having already ‘preached this sermon’ to myself before ‘preaching’ it to you) have already reviewed and raised my giving. I venture to hope that you may do likewise.”

John R.W. Stott in Stott on Stewardship: Ten Principles of Christian Giving (Chattanooga, TN: Generous Giving, 2003).

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“Now it is true that it is only a step from the philanthropy and the heroic patriotism here described to a genuine sense of Christian stewardship but it is a most vital step and one that is generally taken with great difficulty, for Christian stewardship is based not upon a kindly and half Christian purpose to be generous with what belongs to me, but on a purpose to administer for God the things that belong to God and entrusted for the present into my keeping as his steward. In other words, there can be no Christian stewardship that does not recognize God as the sovereign owner of the shop, the mill and the farm and the money in the bank–for “the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof (Psalm 24:1).”

We have not linked the stewardship of property with the consecration of the stewardship of life. A widespread revival of the teachings of Christian stewardship will not only insure an adequate support of the cause of Christ, but will bring about a deepening of the spiritual life of the church as its principal result. This is what Horace Bushnell meant in his oft repeated but never trite prophecy, “One more revival, only one more is needed; the revival of Christian stewardship, the consecration of the money power to God. When that revival comes, the kingdom of God will come in a day.”

Ralph Cushman in The New Christian: Studies in Christian Stewardship (New York: Centenary Conservation Committee – Methodist Episcopal Church, 1919) 39, 132.

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“Poverty, chastity and obedience—the renunciation of the world, the flesh and the ego–are the basis not only of all religious life but of all human life. Detachment is the universal law. You cannot enjoy anything until you have learned to be detached from it. It is not the drunkard who enjoys wine, or the glutton who enjoys food, or the sensualist who enjoys love.”

Bede Griffiths in Return to the Centre (London: Collins, 1976) 93.

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