Recently following a sermon on money, Sandee emailed me to ask some good questions about money. With her consent I posted her original email as a comment to that sermon. If Sandee is asking these questions, I figured that others are asking them too and that it was worth posting a response to some of her questions.
First, Sandee asks, “When is it okay to enjoy what God has given us?” Great question! There is no hard and fast rule to this question, but one of the Christian practices is celebration. Richard Foster has a great chapter on the “discipline” of celebration in his book Celebration of Discipline. He says, “Celebration is central to all the Spiritual Disciplines. Without a joyful spirit of festivity the Disciplines become dull, death-breathing tools in the hands of modern Pharisees. Every Discipline should be characterized by carefree gaiety and a sense of thanksgiving” (191). I have much room to grow in celebration! It is certainly good and right for Christians to celebrate.
I like to call celebration “killing the fattened calf” in reference to the father of the prodigal son who orders the fattened calf to be prepared for celebration when his prodigal son returns home (Luke 15). There are times when it is appropriate for Christians to pull out all the stops and celebrate extravagantly. Perhaps the father’s decision provides us some guidance on when it is appropriate to celebrate. His prodigal son had a spiritual awakening. He was lost but then he was found! It is good and right for Christians to celebrate these moments of spiritual awakening and rites of passage. The problem with American Christians (Sandee’s question arises out of a sermon in a series on American Idols) is that we tend to celebrate every day. When we actually do get around to intentionally celebrating something, it doesn’t look much different than every other day. I suggest living simply and celebrating extravagantly.
Second, Sandee asks indirectly about when it is appropriate to speak to individuals who are struggling about their personal responsibility in the situation. This is a good question too. It is one I am less certain about than the previous question, but one on which I have several thoughts or hunches. It strikes me that generally speaking Jesus doesn’t offer much instruction to the poor on personal responsibility. “God helps those who help themselves” is not a verse in the Bible even though it is a verse in the landscape of American religious thought. Interestingly enough, Jesus also doesn’t speak much to changing social structures so that they produce more just results for the poor. He seems more interested in creating a community of people entirely different than the culture around him.
On the other hand, Paul speaks very directly to Christians about personal responsibility. He says, “For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living” (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12). It should be noted that Paul is probably speaking to a group of Christians who live together in one or two houses. So he’s speaking to Christians, not the general public, and to Christians living together and sharing in household duties. Proverbs often has a similar message. Proverbs 10:4 says, “A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.”
In stark contrast to Paul and proverbs are the prophets who continually speak against the rich and advocate for the poor. For example Amos says, “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on Mount Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, ‘Bring something to drink!’ The Lord God has sworn by his holiness: The time is surely coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks” (4:1-2). Yikes! This is not unique to the Old Testament. James says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress” (1:27). I would suggest that in general the Bible tends to speak words of comfort to the poor and words of challenge to the rich. This idea for preachers can be summed up in the proverbial saying: “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
Sandee also asks indirectly about the idea of a ceiling on one’s income. I do believe that a ceiling is the principle that most fully expresses the spirit of Christian teaching on money. I take this cue from two places. 
First, from John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. He distilled the essence of the Bible’s teaching on money down into a simple aphorism: make all you can (honestly), save all you can (by living simply), and give all you can (give the rest away). When Wesley died he literally only had a couple of pieces of change in his pocket (although he did own much property that he had bequeathed to the Methodists). Wesley preached often on money and his sermons are well worth reading. Expect to be challenged! Some of them are The Use of Money, On Riches, The Danger of Riches and The Danger of Increasing Riches. Living under a ceiling is a principle that Sarah and I are seeking to live into. It is not always easy to live this way, but we find that we are most happy when we are most fully living into simplicity and generosity.
Second, I take a cue from Jesus’ response to the rich young ruler who asked him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus reiterates the Ten Commandments (or at least the first nine) and expands the tenth about not coveting by saying, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor” (Matthew, 19:21). It strikes me that Jesus says this is the road to perfection. Perfection?! What perfection means is perfect maturity, perfect love. It is a high standard. Are there good steps along the way? Absolutely. But if you want to follow Jesus to the absolute fullest, this is what he says you must do. Can you be a Christian but not to the fullest? Yes. But you’ll be missing out on a lot of other kinds of blessings besides those of money.
It is never my intent to preach or teach using the motivation of guilt or shame. Alas, I am not yet perfect, and I probably do fall into this trap more often than I care to admit. What I hope I would do is lift up the standard to the fullest of following Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to do the rest of the work. Perhaps that will at times convict individuals. If I never preached a sermon that produced conviction (and repentance), then I’m probably not preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At the same time, conviction and the grace to repent are gifts of the Holy Spirit, not something accomplished through guilt and shame. It is my hope that my preaching, teaching, and life would be a means of grace for the power of the Holy Spirit to transform us into the fullness of maturity in Jesus Christ.
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