October Focus

Money Madness

Keeping with tradition October is stewardship month in our parish. We use this time to think about the role of money in our lives, in our relationship with our neighbors, and in our relationship with God. We explore the challenge and the meaning of the tithe as an important spiritual discipline.

Casual thinking about money tends to focus around 1) making it, 2) saving it, 3) spending it. But taking even just a little time to reflect more deeply reveals what a profound and even mysterious influence it has in our lives.

Money has become the central and dominating influence of our culture. Is it possible for an entire society to succumb to a degenerative and debilitating disease of mind and soul? Call it Money Madness.

Money Madness appears everywhere.

It determines the educational focus of many students. Recent decades have seen a devaluation of a liberal arts education. The study of art, literature, history, and philosophy aims at the development of character and wisdom. But, because the development of character and wisdom fails to lead directly to a high paying job, many students, even encouraged by their parents, pursue more technical degrees. One grandmother complained about her grandson's chosen major, "Literature." she said, "Worthless."

It dominates our health care system. Older people can still remember a time when a small town doctor treated neighbors simply because they were sick. The local doctor often served as counselor, confident, and friend. Today before you can see the doctor, the doctor wants to see your insurance card. What was at one time direct and personal care is now often managed by an organization with a bottom line driven by money, rather than human suffering.

It has even reshaped the way people understand, experience, and pursue faith. Books, seminars, workshops, and even programming on your local PBS station link "spiritual health" with financial success.

To deny the life-shaping dominance of money in our culture only sets you up to be victimized by its inexplicable power. Conversely, to name the power of money demystifies its influence and opens you up to the possibility of experiencing a quality of life money cannot buy.

Jesus understood the power of money in the terms of his historic moment. He talked about money as a god, Mammon. Mammon's grip is the fear you have about the material conditions of your life. Jesus said,

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon. Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:24-26)

The challenge of faith in relationship to money is not to condemn it, but to bring it to its proper covenantal role in the purposes of God. Practicing the tithe breaks the power of Mammon and reveals this god to be a mere idol, a creation of the human imagination. The tithe turns your heart toward God, and so also to your neighbor.

Practicing the tithe enables you to experience the simple truth that your needs will be met -- material, relational and spiritual -- without needing all that fuss and worry about money.

Not all college students perceive a university education as merely a road to riches. Many doctors continue to find a way to maintain their focus on human suffering despite a mangled health care system. Mature people of faith easily dismiss the absurdity of spiritual practice as an easy road to wealth.

One spiritual practice, the tithe, defuses and demystifies the power of money. Returning 10% of one's income to support formation of covenant community keeps money in a proper perspective. Money is important. It is not all-important. Money is a necessary part of living a good life. It is not sufficient in and of itself to generate a good life.

The tithe puts people first. It calls to mind God is the ultimate source of all one's blessings, of which money is a minor part. It knocks Mammon off his throne. It calls a community from Money Madness and restores a sensible understanding of life as something found in faithful relationships with others, a quality of life money simply cannot buy.

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