Interesting sermon a couple of weeks ago. Talking about letting God be God of your finances.
Matthew 6:19-24
19 “Do not gather together for yourself riches of this earth. They will be eaten by bugs and become rusted. Men can break in and steal them. 20 Gather together riches in heaven where they will not be eaten by bugs or become rusted. Men cannot break in and steal them. 21 For wherever your riches are, your heart will be there also. 22 The eye is the light of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 If your eye is bad, your whole body will be dark. If the light in you is dark, how dark it will be! 24 No one can have two bosses. He will hate the one and love the other. Or he will listen to the one and work against the other. You cannot have both God and riches as your boss at the same time.
The pastor was saying how the word ‘good’ in the original aramaic has same root/meaning as ‘generous’ and the word ‘bad’ is ‘selfish’. Put that in Jesus’ context about gathering riches…. sheds a whole new ‘light’ on the subject. *wink
It is an interesting concept of God’s economy vs. the earth’s economy. In this world, there is a scarcity of resources. There is a finite amount of money, of food, of resources, time, of a specific product being sold at the stores. Think Black Friday. There’s only a select number of any of the deals, and if you’re not up and in line at 3 am, you’re out of luck. And how do people act on Black Friday? We turn into animals, clawing and fighting our way – selfishly – to make sure we get just what we ‘need.’ A very ‘selfish’ eye indeed.
Contrast that with God’s economy. Unlimited resources, unlimited love and mercy, unlimited forgiveness and acceptance. Almost to the point of being unfathomable by us who live in this scarcity-driven world. Just look at Solomon, or the Israelites in the desert living off manna, or Jesus with the bits of fish and bread. And what do we see? Generosity, sacrificial love an actions, the ultimate unselfishness. There is plenty to go around, so there is no need to fear running out, no need to hoard or fight or take for yourself what another might have.
Even time – the ultimate scarcity of our world – is unlimited to God. Jesus overcame death itself. He has always been in existence and will always continue to exist. And we, as believers in Jesus’ sacrifice, get to share (without limit) in that eternity. We have no need to fear and hoard our time on earth. Look at the martyrs. They did not play it safe, and hoard their minutes and days, prolonging their lives. They were able to give up the rest of their lives on this earth to the glory of God. Why? (partially) because they knew that their time was not limited – they have the rest of eternity with God to look forward to. so what’s the need to hoard the minutes and seconds here on earth?
Some food for thought for me to chew on as I consider how I act – whether I’m reacting to the world’s economy, or to God’s economy. and how I’ve switched now that I have a duaghter to care for in addition to myself. Even when I’m being ‘unselfish’ in caring for my daughter, in some ways, I’m being more ‘selfish’ in hoarding resources, out of fear that I’ll run out and Emily will have to do without. It takes faith to trust my life in God and God’s economy. It takes a whole new level of faith to entrust my daughter’s life to His economy as well.
