The Power to Get Wealth -- FPC sermon excerpt

It was about six months ago that I picked out the Scripture lesson Deuteronomy 8:11-20, and decided that my sermon would focus on wealth. I titled this message “The Power to Get Wealth,” and I intended to issue a warning about the danger of prosperity!

I bet you wish you needed that warning today.

Clearly, the turmoil on Wall Street has refocused my reflection. We are all quite a bit less wealthy than we were six months ago, whether our assets are tied up in the stock market or in home ownership. Some of us are finding ourselves out of work, and others are worried about the future of our jobs.

But still, in the middle of this financial crisis, God has a word for us today. In the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, the people of Israel are preparing to enter the Promised Land. They have traveled through the wilderness, and are excited about entering the land described by their leader Moses as “a good land, a land with flowing streams … a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing” (Deuteronomy 8:7-9). They believe that their time of hardship is over, and they are looking forward to a life of prosperity.

I admit that I feel a little envious of the Israelites as they look toward their bright future. I bet you do as well. But what is interesting is that Moses does not say to them, “You’ve suffered long enough. This is the time to eat, drink, and be merry!” No, instead, Moses gives them a warning.

“Take care that you do not forget the LORD your God,” he says, “by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes” (v. 11). Moses knows that prosperity can make people forget — forget the Lord their God, forget God’s commandments, forget to love their neighbors as themselves. According to Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann, there is a spiritual danger in prosperity, and that spiritual danger is amnesia. When times are good, we forget — we forget how much we need God, we forget what God has done for us, and we forget God’s instructions to us to care for one another.

In particular, Moses warns the people about self-sufficiency. “When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold has multiplied, and all that you have has multiplied, then do not exalt yourself” (vv. 12-13). Do you hear that? Do not exalt yourself — do not fool yourself into thinking that you are a self-made success story, someone who is now completely self-sufficient.

“Do not exalt yourself,” says Moses, “forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid waste-land with poisonous snakes and scorpions” (vv. 14-15). Moses reminds the people that God has led them out of captivity, and protected them in precarious times. He knows that prosperous people can forget about how much they need God, and they can be seduced into thinking that they are self-sufficient.

“Do not exalt yourself,” warns Moses. Do not forget “the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” It is important for us, as it was important to the Israelites, to remember the exodus from Egypt, and how our ancestors were liberated from slavery in a foreign land. It is important for us to remember that we are not self-sufficient, but that everything we have comes to us as a gift from a good and generous God. It is important for us to remember the great commandments to “love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might,” as well as to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

You know those love commandments. You’ve heard them from the mouth of Jesus. But did you know that these words were not original to Jesus? He was simply repeating them. They appear first in the Old Testament books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

Moses goes on to say to the people, “Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth.’ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today” (vv. 17-18). Our wealth does not come from our personal power, but instead it comes from the hand of God. God gives us “power to get wealth,” says Moses, and God does this so that he may “confirm his covenant” — so that he may show the world that he is true to his promise to love us and care for us.

The reason we are given wealth, according to Moses, is to show the faithfulness of God. It is not to make us fat or happy or comfortable or superior to our neighbors down the street. It is not to relieve us of worry, or give us multiple houses, or increase our collection of luxury goods. Instead, it is to show the world that God is faithful to his promise to love us and care for us.

That’s a very different perspective on wealth, isn’t it? It’s not about us — instead, it’s about God.

My friend Sam Lloyd, the dean of Washington National Cathedral, has done some very good teaching on wealth and stewardship. He reminds us that we don’t own anything in this life, but instead everything we have is on loan. People often say “you can’t take it with you,” and that’s certainly true. But I like Sam’s observation better: “There are no luggage racks on hearses.”

The turmoil in the financial world in recent weeks has certainly reminded us that we don’t own anything in this life. Our grasp on our wealth is very tenuous, at best, and it can be snatched away from us at any moment. You can’t take it with you from one day to the next, and you certainly can’t take it with you when your time on this earth is over.

There are no luggage racks on hearses.

Dirty Jobs -- FPC sermon excerpt

He has waded through sewers, peeled roadkill, moved houses, castrated horses, and cleaned up monumental septic explosions. He does the kind of jobs that I couldn’t bear to do, although I know how important they are. You might not think that many people would want him in their living room, but in fact they love to see him — 700 times a year.

His name is Mike Rowe, and he’s the star of the cable TV show Dirty Jobs.

Rowe has tried his hand at more than 165 of the dirtiest and most disgusting jobs being done today. He serves slop to pigs, removes bones from fish, hunts plagues of vermin, and sloshes around in sewers — sometimes vomiting on camera. He gets coached by the people who do these jobs for a living, and he gets mocked by them as well. Unlike most reality-TV shows, it is the star of Dirty Jobs who ends up the butt of the jokes.

And a star he is. According to Fast Company magazine (February 2008), Rowe is swarmed by autograph seekers at airports, photographed by camera phones in coffee shops, and surrounded by dirty jobbers everywhere. Said as waitress in South Carolina, as Rowe was signing autographs, “My family owns a sewer business!”

You can be proud of your sewer business when you are in the presence of Mike Rowe.

People absolutely love the guy. Women adore his craggy good looks, and guys admit that they have “man crushes” on this star who is willing to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty. Walking down a street in New York, Rowe got a shout-out from both a cop and the criminal who was handcuffed in his cruiser. Together, they said, “Man, you’re awesome!”

But there is something going on here that goes deeper than good looks and dirty hands. Mike Rowe has real curiosity about challenging jobs, and deep respect for the men and women who do them. The show sends a powerful message, says journalist Ellen McGirt: “There’s dignity in hard work, expertise in unexpected places, and deep satisfaction in tackling and finishing a tough job.”

That’s a message we need to hear today.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Peter walks up to Jesus and says, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus answers, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times” (18:21-22).

Forgiveness. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it. And, according to Jesus, they’ve got to do it again and again and again and again — seventy-seven times. To make matters worse, the word used by Jesus to describe this extravagant forgiveness can also be translated “seventy times seven,” which would end up totaling 490 times.

By comparison, sloshing around in a sewer doesn’t seem so bad.

Jesus is calling us to roll up our sleeves and do some very demanding work. In our justice-oriented world, we have the expectation that insults are going to be followed by apologies and crimes are going to be followed by punishments. But Jesus turns this system upside-down by saying, “Just forgive!” Notice that Jesus doesn’t even expect the sinner to repent or make amends. Forgive them, orders Jesus — “not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times” (v. 22). Maybe 490 times. Point is, your forgiveness should be beyond calculation.

Well … that stinks, doesn’t it? Enduring hundreds of hurts, and then offering hundreds of expressions of forgiveness. Sounds about as pleasant as what Mike Rowe goes through every week — getting seasick in eel boats, attacked by monkeys, and lowered into storm drains.

It’s a dirty job.

Now some of you will object to this open-ended approach to forgiveness, saying that it turns Christians into doormats … that it fails to hold sinners accountable … that it invites abusers to continue their abuse. You’ve got a point, and it’s hard to imagine that Jesus wants us to throw justice completely out the window. But still he says, “Forgive.” Not just seven times, but dozens or even hundreds of times. Jesus is saying that forgiveness is at the heart of life in the church — it creates a distinctively merciful community.