Man, I wish I had Kai Ryssdal here to explain things to me. This scripture is one that I think Kai Ryssdal is more prepared to preach on than I am. Maybe he could make some sense of it.
I know, some of you are wondering, “who the heck is Kai Ryssdal?” Kai Ryssdal is the host of a radio program called Marketplace, which is broadcast daily on NPR. The half-hour program analyzes the world of business and finance. Kai and the Marketplace team of reporters don’t just report the numbers; they analyze them, explain what they mean, and discuss current money trends.
The explanations are helpful for someone like me. I, obviously, did not major in business. I was pretty excited when I discovered the method used on Marketplace for choosing background music. It took me some time, but eventually I realized that when the market is up, the music they play is “I’m in the Money.” When the market is down, they play “Stormy Weather.” And when the market is mixed, you can hear “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got that Swing.”
Anyway, as I say, I’m a person who needs some help when it comes to understanding business and finance. Which is why I wish I had Kai Ryssdal here to explain things to me. I mean, just listen to what happens in this story:
A rich man hears that his finance manager is squandering his money. This surprises the rich man; after all, this manager came highly recommended from his previous employer, the City of Bell. (Yeah, I know, that was a bad joke.) So the rich man calls the manager in and demands that he provide a complete audit of the books.
Oh, and he fires him, too.
Well, the manager goes out and contacts his master’s debtors. One debtor owes a hundred jugs of oil; the manager says, “Well, make it fifty.” Another debtor owes a hundred containers of wheat; the manager says, “Well, make it eighty.” And the master, when he hears what his manager has done, commends him.
To me, this makes no sense. From a business perspective, it just makes no sense. Oh, Kai, help me understand!
The rich man makes a loan. He gets 80 percent of it back. He makes another loan. He only gets 50 percent of it back.
It seems to me that the point of making a loan is to earn a little interest; interest that is charged, so that you receive back a little more than you loaned out. How on earth did the rich man become rich if he happily accepts back 80 or 50 percent of what he loans out? I can’t imagine Marketplace playing “I’m in the Money” in response to news like that.
Well, if I can’t have Kai Ryssdal, maybe I can contact someone at the Argyros School of Business and Economics over at Chapman University, my alma mater. They have some of the world’s best economists over there, including Vernon Smith, a Nobel Prize recipient. In fact, I’m pretty sure that Marketplace has, at times, looked to the economists at Chapman University for answers and explanations. Do you think that perhaps Vernon Smith, or any of the other economic scholars at Chapman, can help me understand the story of the rich man and his manager?
Questions like this were on my mind when I opened up my Bible at the start of my sermon preparation and read this passage. I wondered what Kai Ryssdal would say about it. I wondered how Vernon Smith would explain it. I wondered if they, with all their economic knowledge, could help me understand.
But then I started to realize: this isn’t a story for the host of Marketplace. This isn’t a story for the holder of the George L. Argyros Endowed Chair in Economics and Finance at Chapman University, even if he does have a Nobel Prize. That’s not who this story is for.
This, I realized, is a story for all of us.
It helps to remember that this story is a parable. It’s not meant to be taken literally. The rich man in this story, the master: that’s God. And God, we know, is passionate about freeing people from oppression, releasing people from whatever captivity they find themselves in.
Well, a lot of people are held captive by money. A lot of people are oppressed by the burden of debt. A lot of people believe that money is all they have that’s worth living for.
For a lot of people, joy and sorrow are dependent upon whether they hear “I’m in the Money” or “Stormy Weather” when the market numbers are read.
The rich man, the master – God – is happy when debts are forgiven… To what are you in debt? Well, there’s the obvious: credit cards, mortgages, etc. But there’s also a sort of psychological debt.
The government and the media – including the folks at Marketplace, and even society as a whole – constantly impress upon us the importance of consumer spending. They say that we have an obligation to be consumers, that we have an obligation to spend. And so, even before we spend our money, we feel that it belongs to someone else, that it is owed to someone else, that we have a duty to spend it. The money in your pocket – yeah, it’s yours now, but you really should go out and buy something with it.
To me, that almost seems like a form of debt. Being in debt is a form of slavery. Even if we have no actual financial debt, we still feel an obligation to the clothing manufacturers, appliance manufacturers, car manufacturers, etc.
How many of you feel a special loyalty to one particular brand, to a particular company? Maybe the product isn’t any better than its competitors, or maybe it is, but the loyalty we feel toward that brand is unreasonably strong, to the point where the brand feels like a part of the family, to the point where we find that particular brand comforting, just the name of it; to the point where we proudly wear that company’s logo on our t-shirts and even ink it onto our skin. We willingly mark ourselves as servants of that particular brand.
Well, guess what? You cannot serve two masters. You cannot give your loyalty to both God and Wall Street. You cannot serve God and wealth.
And what is wealth? What is money? I’ve asked that before, and I ask it again, because I believe that it’s so important. In fact, my understanding of money is what made me realize that this story isn’t really a story for Kai Ryssdal or Vernon Smith. My understanding of money is what helped me realize that this story is really about a whole lot more than money, and that it’s for all of us.
What is money? Is it security? Is it power? Is it social acceptance? Is it a symbol of achievement? Is it evil?
Here is how I define money: Money is something we choose to trade our life energy for. We have so many days, so many hours, on this earth. Someone my age has, on average, about 330,000 hours of life energy left before they die. About one-third of that will be spent sleeping. Much of the rest of it, much of the rest of that life energy, will be spent on earning an income. Life energy will be exchanged for money. Money is what we choose to trade our life energy for.
I discovered this definition of money in a book called “Your Money or Your Life,” which was written by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Rubin back when I was still learning my ABCs. Because of it, I now realize that every dollar I spend is equal to a portion of my life energy.
Most people, if asked what’s more important, their money or their life, would answer without hesitation: their life. But this definition shows that money is life; money is what we have exchanged our life energy for.
So when we spend money, we’re spending a portion of our life, our life energy. And if you are going to be spending a portion of your life with every dollar, don’t you want to be sure that you’re spending it on things you believe in, things that correspond with your values? You don’t want to waste your money, your life, on things that do not last, things that do not bring deep satisfaction. You want to spend your life on things that are good. You want your life to be used for things you believe in, things that are important to you.
I think the rich man in the story felt the same way. I think God feels the same way. Reducing debt frees people from captivity. Reducing debts maintains good relationships. Reducing debts restores wholeness and leads to greater equality for all God’s children. And that, in God’s eyes, is something worth spending on. That is a worthy sacrifice of one’s life energy.
With today’s sermon, what I’ve tried to do – as I’m sure you can tell – is introduce our stewardship campaign. And I’ve tried to do it as smoothly and painlessly as possible. I’m sure how well I’ve succeeded.
But everything I’ve said this morning, I believe 100 percent. I believe that our money is more than just money. I believe that our money represents our energy, our labor, our lives. I believe that each one of us truly wants and desires to use our money in ways that reflect what’s most important to us. I believe that we want integrity and wholeness; we want how we spend our money to be consistent with our hopes and dreams.
I believe in the ministry of Bixby Knolls Christian Church. I believe that the ministry we do here transforms lives, bringing wholeness to our members, our community, and even our world. And I believe that there is no better way to live out our hopes, our dreams, our faith, than to commit ourselves to the ministry we share.
Because, after all, when you live according to what you believe in, when how you live is consistent with the values you hold … it feels good. There is a satisfaction in that, a deep down satisfaction that is hard to find. There is joy in that as well. And there is peace.
Praise God for that! Praise God for the blessings that come to us, as we seek to be a blessing to others; as we learn to live wholly and completely for the God we are called to serve.
No comments:
Post a Comment