Hey guys. I preached today. Believe it or not, I am usually very organized about my sermonizing. I outline, pray, write manuscripts etc. I know that the pulpit may not be a place for my circular thinking. But today's sermon would not be such an animal. I have been wrestling with this one...and the time I had to pull it all together.
So, it was much more extemporaneous than usual. Thus, I have no real manuscript to show you guys. But below is where you can find what I was thinking around. Note: It helps to listen to John Michael Talbot when you read this. I listened to a lot of his stuff while I was musing and the like.
You can find some of my earlier thinking here and here.
The sermon title was Facing our Fears: Financial Insecurity. We have been doing this series during Lent about how we face a variety of fears. It has proven an interesting project. The feedback from today's sermon proves that to me. This is the stuff i played in...
There is no competition in Christ.
What is it that we hunger for when we are poor?
What is it that we thirst for when we are wealthy?
What fear posessed those who followed Moses? Was it simply an anxiety about going hungry? It may have been. But there is something else that happens for us when we are anxious about money...rich or poor. We are anxious about who we are. Am I a guy who drives a red car or am I someone else? It is easy to be anxious about the car. It is easy to be anxious about who I am and hope that a new car will cure that anxiety. But this would be wrong.
Yes, there is anxiety about wealth and providing for ourselves. But so often our identities are wrapped up in what is in our bank accounts. Our identities are wrapped up in what we own. The Israelites were wrapped up in what they would be able to gather. Moses suggesed this is not why God had gifted them with manna. There was going to be enough. Have no fear. You follow the great "I Am." No competition is necessary.
But in our culture we live differently. We live for competition. What we own is who we are. What we accomplish is who we are. Where we are educated is who we are. The Gospel suggests something else.
I am the bread of life. I satiate hunger and thirst says Christ. This is not a verse about how the poor will be fed by Christ so we have no responsibility. It is quite the opposite.
This verse about Bread is about who we are. The issue of our anxiety is about who we are. Who are you? Am I a guy who drives a red car or am I guy who has fed on the bread of Life? Am I a follower of Christ? Where do I place my identity? Who am I? Do I cease being myself if I get a new car? I am to a Follower of Chist. It is who I am. There is no way to be anxious about that. God has fed me with his body and blood. God is the bread of life.
I played in this a bit. I used Ben's quote: Christianity is about the saving of souls and the building of a community of justice -- nothing more and nothing less. You can�t have the one without the other. A person whose soul is �saved,� cannot help but work for justice. A person who truly seeks justice must seek first the healing of his own soul. God puts it all together.
That was too much. Trying to get it to say something about social justice was another sermon and not appropriate to this one.
The above thought were played in on one level or another with a couple of stories thrown in for good measure - for about 20-25 miutes. It was not boring. I kept people laughing and answering questions. I tried to keep them engaged. Being off manuscript means I could wander around and look people in the eye. This is a good thing.
Now, speaking of money in a spiritual way, getting us away from identifying ourselves with our stuff (or lack thereof) or our status/education etc...was a good thing. We are children of God, not money. We need to realize this. Then what Ben says ("A person whose soul is �saved,� cannot help but work for justice.") actually makes more sense. Who we are is not our stuff. Jesus asks us to do specific things with our stuff...but the underlying question of financial insecurity if often identity and not really about making ends meet.
Ah, this is hard. So much was said that was specific to people in the pews.
Anyway, what was interesting was that, in spite of its circular almost groundless nature, people got it and came to me with statements like: "I need to be reminded of that." "I do not think of myself as belonging to Christ." "I do not think of money as not being about me." "Is money an issue for our spirituality?"
This was the most interesting thing for me. I felt I was getting at the most obvious thing. And whether or not that was so, people expressed a desire to hear more like this. Facinating.
Posted by tripp at March 28, 2004 02:04 PMekklesia: the messianic community...it is in this community that we seek to understand our financial framework, yes? it is within this community that we learn that our money is really money for us to help the widow and orphans, yes? tripp, help my understanding in all this. we seek to unite humanity in our radical hospitality and not in radal mega churchness, yes? well, whatever your answers, i enjoyed reading your sermond and thought 3 times about coming to nsbc today, but i just had the hear the sermon preached one more time (and receive eucharis)...ciao!
Posted by: baptistnomad at March 28, 2004 11:13 PMYes.
This is the "social justice" function, yes. But the Ben Campbell quote has a dimension of personal salvation as well. There is a healing of the individual that takes place through the process of salvation/sanctification/theosis. There must be this question: Why are you anxious about money? Are you anxious because you are honestly poor and struggling? OR are you dealing with that American problem of "stuff identification?" Are you that little pickup you drive? Would you be less yourself without it? Would you be more yourself with a larger one? If you feel more or less yourself depending upon your posessions, then you may need to look again. The hunger or thirst you are trying to meet with posessions is to be met with Jesus, the bread of life.
Both issues are about the person. Justice for all is about persons...neighbors and enemies. Healing is about the person...Christ so loved the world.
Posted by: Tripp at March 29, 2004 06:56 AMWhat's the average socioeconomic status of members of the NSBC congregation?
Posted by: Megan at March 29, 2004 10:43 AMInteresting question. I do not know the average. It is not a wealth parish, though there are a handful of wealthy people. It is, I would say, middle class immigrant families, their kids and random young adults from the neighborhood (avg income? 27k?).
Financial insecurities are an issue.
Posted by: Tripp at March 29, 2004 01:31 PMAnd yet, from your notes, it seems like you wanted to dismiss those real insecurities and discuss the relationship between money and Christian identity.
I found it hard to adhere to your notes completely, when my brain was stating quite loudly, "Yeah, but I actually may be eating cat food when I'm 70."
Posted by: Megan at March 30, 2004 08:44 AMYou are absolutely right, which is why, in the sermon and not in the notes (for no apparent reason) I said "There are legitimate concerns." per your catfood example. Christians have responses to this as well. But the identity thing is what we do not talk about very often at NSBC. I bring it up thinking it is old hat and everyone is surprised at the direction I am taking my sermons. It is interesting. I wonder if we are in a new season of preaching.
Posted by: Tripp at March 30, 2004 08:50 AMUm, I'm a Christian. What "response" am I supposed to be having?
Posted by: Megan at March 30, 2004 09:15 AMResponses to poverty?
Posted by: Tripp at March 30, 2004 09:31 AMSorry, I didn't ask my question clearly.
The Matthew text specifies appropriate response to *others'* poverty. I was asking about my own.
The Luke text gives hope, absolutely. But does it absolve a person of his/her responsibility for taking care of him/herself, and ideally, placing him/herself in a position to be generous?
Posted by: Megan at March 30, 2004 11:03 AMAh...that helps.
My point was that we respond to others' poverty in certain ways knowing that there are systems that sometimes cannot be overcome alone. Globalization may be one example. We cannot ignore another person's poverty. Jesus exemplifies this. But what he does is what is interesting...Jesus too is poor. This is what Matthew seems to be all about. Matthew wants us to be poor like Jesus. When we go out to preach, we take little with us. Whatever we do not need, we give away. This leads to the Acts communities that "share all things in common."
It is also the historical truth that the Acts community failed. It was simply too hard to do. Some suggest that this is what monasticism was supposed to emulate. We can suggest that this too was a failure. Heh.
Churches/communities have always strived to give out of their abundance. The "responsibility" piece that you speak of is an interesting one. If Christianity were perfect...or our ways of living it were, more appropriately...then responsibility would be for the other only. You need not be responsible for yourself because someone else is doing that for you. Living for the other is the key. Yeah...happy utopian dreams. I know.
I was in no way suggesting that someone had the responsibility to care forthemselves before others would care for them. I am pretty sure that you are not suggesting this either. The trouble is, the responsibility piece you suggest can get twisted that way. And, it is also true that even the poorest have something to offer. Generosity is a gift from God. God is a God of abundance...the lilies of the field...
Posted by: Tripp at March 30, 2004 03:52 PMI could "be poor like Jesus" more easily if I knew I was going to die at 33. ;)
And that clarifies my question even further: I'm not as concerned with poverty now, as I am with poverty later. Being old, sick, alone, and not able to work or support myself the way I can now.
With no confidence that there will be a community that takes any responsibility for my welfare (thank you George Bush and sundry others), I feel that much more strongly the pressure to put by for later. The specter of poverty in old age is very, verrrry strong.
Do I believe that God provides? Yes. But I don't think the bargain is that we abandon our responsibility for ourselves, now or in the future.
Posted by: Megan at March 30, 2004 04:21 PMWe cannot abandon responsibility, no. But if there were a social system where we were responsible for one another, i.e. the church, then maybe your anxiety would be less. I dunno. Maybe that is poor thinking or wishful thinking. But that is the aspiration of the community...or shoul sbe as far as I am concerned.
Posted by: Tripp at March 30, 2004 06:35 PMI agree that it should be. And I hope that it is, and will be.
Meanwhile, if I'd been sitting in your congregation during the sermon whose notes you shared, I'd hope to hear from you some recognition that financial behavior has more than one possible source. Saving isn't always selfish. Giving isn't always the best way to be generous.
Posted by: Megan at March 31, 2004 07:23 AMThat would make a great followup sermon. I was more concerned with people recognising that there are simply other questions to answer/ask than What Would Jesus Drive or how do I keep up with the Joneses. You know?
This seemed challenging enough for them from the comments I received.
Posted by: Tripp at March 31, 2004 08:02 AMIn a congregation whose average financial situation is as you described it, I'm surprised that the questions you paraphrased are their overriding financial concerns.
Posted by: Megan at March 31, 2004 01:00 PMAs was I. But there you go. It is something worth exploring. The Doug and Carol were equally surprised.
Posted by: Tripp at March 31, 2004 01:32 PMSo if you didn't know already that those were their concerns, why did you build your sermon around that message?
Posted by: Megan at March 31, 2004 01:47 PMSo if you didn't know already that those were their concerns, why did you build your sermon around that message?
Posted by: Megan at March 31, 2004 01:47 PMSo if you didn't already know your congregation's general frame of mind about money, on what grounds did you choose your message? How did you know what ballpark you were playing in, let alone what game?
Posted by: Megan at March 31, 2004 01:48 PM