Listening to the radio this morning, I heard about Britney Spears releasing photos of herself unretouched and pre-airbrushed. I did a sermon on this several months ago in the American Idols series, so I thought this was worth checking out. I like the 
take that Jezebel has on these photos. They point out that she’s still got great lighting (photography is all about lighting), and aren’t quite ready to call her “brave” like some other new agencies, but I also think that this kind of disclosure is helpful, especially for young girls and women to further realize how airbrushed the “ideal” image of a woman is in our culture. It probably doesn’t hurt men to realize this either. Our expectations as men are after all a big part of the problem.
Unretouched Britney
American Idols – Pleasure – Next Steps
Here are the next steps from Mark’s sermon on pleasure. Share a story in the comments section.
1) Examine your food use and consumption
2) Reduce water use in your home
3) Go outside and enjoy nature for 30 minutes
4) Other
American Idols – Songs about Pleasure
Song Suggestions for Pleasure:
Can’t You Smell That Smell by Lynard Skynard
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper
Margaritaville
Bonnie & Clyde by Jay-Z
It’s My Life by Bon Jovi
Theme song to Chocolate’
Bad Bad Girlfriend
Dr. Feel Good
The song that Varuka Sault sings in the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Candy Everybody Wants
Footloose by Kenny Loggins
Red Necks Yacht Club
Rock Star
Mountain O’ Things by Tracy Chapman
Workin’ for the Weekend by Loverboy
Pina’ colatta song
American Idols – Sex
American Idols – Sex
Genesis 39:1-10
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
March 21, 2010
Let’s talk about sex, baby.
Let’s talk about you and me.
Let’s talk about all the good things
and the bad things that may be.
Let’s talk about sex.
So goes Salt-n-Pepa’s 1991 hit, Let’s Talk about Sex. So goes today’s sermon: sex. We’re continuing in a series on American Idols, the things we tend to worship as a culture. Certainly somewhere near the top of that list is sex. Our culture is certainly teaching us what it thinks about sex. You don’t have to look very hard to find that message. Today I’d like to look at a biblical ideal of sex. What does the Bible teach about sex? Let’s begin with the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife and then reflect also about the story of Adam and Eve.
Genesis 39:1-10 (NLT)
1 Now when Joseph arrived in Egypt with the Ishmaelite traders, he was purchased by Potiphar, a member of the personal staff of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Potiphar was the captain of the palace guard.
2 The LORD was with Joseph and blessed him greatly as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. 3 Potiphar noticed this and realized that the LORD was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. 4 So Joseph naturally became quite a favorite with him. Potiphar soon put Joseph in charge of his entire household and entrusted him with all his business dealings. 5 From the day Joseph was put in charge, the LORD began to bless Potiphar for Joseph’s sake. All his household affairs began to run smoothly, and his crops and livestock flourished. 6 So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn’t have a worry in the world, except to decide what he wanted to eat!
Now Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man. 7 And about this time, Potiphar’s wife began to desire him and invited him to sleep with her. 8 But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told her, “my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. 9 No one here has more authority than I do! He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I ever do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.”
10 She kept putting pressure on him day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible.
This is God’s story for us today. Thank you, God!
I’d like to look at four things that the Bible teaches sex was intended for: marriage, multiplying, companionship, and pleasure. The order is significant. The most important are toward the beginning. The least important is at the end. Let’s begin with marriage.
Marriage
Here we find that Joseph is unwilling to have sex with Potiphar’s wife because she is married to Potiphar. While she is trying to seduce him, he says, “No one here has more authority than I do! [My master] has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife” (Genesis 39:9a, NLT). If we go back to the very beginning of Genesis we see the reason for this. We are told that after Eve is made for Adam, he shouts for joy at the sight of her and that “this explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one” (Genesis 2:24, NLT). United into one. That’s code language for sex. This union is something that lasts a lifetime and so it should only be done with a lifetime commitment of marriage.
We generally see in most of the songs in our culture a disregard for this notion of sex being a life-long union. Nelly Furtado and Timbaland sings a song called Promiscuous Girl. This song is definitely an American idol. One part goes like this:
T: How you doin’ young lady
The feeling that you’re givin
really drives me crazy
You don’t have to play about the joke
I was lost with the words first time that we spoke
N: If you looking for a girl
that’ll treat you right
If you lookin’ for her
in the day time with the light
T: You might be the type
if I play my cards right
I’ll find out by the end of the night
N: You expect me to just let you hit it
But will you still respect me
if you git it
T: All I can do is try, gimme one chance
What’s the problem
I don’t see no ring on your hand
T: I be the first to admit it,
I’m curious about you,
you seem so innocent
N: You wanna get in my world,
get lost in it
Boy I’m tired of running,
lets walk for a minute
Chorus-
T: Promiscuous girl
Wherever you are
I’m all alone
And it’s you that I want
N: Promiscuous boy
You already know
That I’m all yours
What you waiting for?
This song clearly glorifies a kind of sexuality that doesn’t require a life-long commitment of marriage. If he plays his cards right, sex might come before the end of the night.
Perhaps a more “righteous” song that highlights sex in the context of a life-long commitment of marriage is Faith Hill and Tim McGraw’s Let’s Make Love. The song goes like this:
Baby I’ve been drifting away
Dreaming all day
Of holding you
Touching you
The only thing I want to do
Is be with you
As close to you
As I can be
Let’s make love
All night long
Until all our strength is gone…
The key part of this song that I think tips it toward the “righteous” side of things is knowing that it is a duet between Faith and Tim who are married to one another. So when Faith sings “let’s make love” she’s singing it to her husband. Sex is intended for a life-long commitment of marriage.
Multiplying
Jumping back to the story of Adam and Eve we find that after God creates humans, “God blessed them and told them, ‘Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it’” (Genesis 1:28, NLT). Marriage and sex are intended as an invitation to live into being made in the image of a creator God. We are to create too! Sex is one of the ways that we create life. Sex is intended for multiplying.
An interesting song that idolizes sex that does not have an intent of creation is Mya’s Late. She sings to her boyfriend:
Why you cryin’ it aint yours
I didn’t do it alone (I ain’t do it alone)
Give it two more days
For I hit the convenience store
I’m talking about (Talkin’ bout)
Rite Aid, CVS (Oh, yeah)
You can pick the place
I hope I’m just
Late
It shoulda came by now
So I’m tryn a figure out
Late
What the hell you did
To me when you took a dip
Late
I’m overdue
What are we gonna do
I know my body
And it’s drivin’ me crazy
I’m never late
American idol? Absolutely. In this song, the possibility of sex producing a child is seen as a serious inconvenience. Our culture worships sex that does not create children. This is considered “safe” sex while sex that has the possibility of creating children is considered “unsafe” sex.
Madonna’s Papa Don’t Preach gives a different perspective. It is ironic for me to lift this song up as teaching a kind of biblical value about sex because when it came out it was considered quite controversial from both sides of the spectrum. Madonna sings to her father after finding out that she is pregnant:
He says that he’s going to marry me
We can raise a little family
Maybe we’ll be all right
It’s a sacrifice
But my friends keep telling me
to give it up
Saying I’m too young,
I ought to live it up
What I need right now
is some good advice, please
Papa don’t preach,
I’m in trouble deep
Papa don’t preach,
I’ve been losing sleep
But I made up my mind,
I’m keeping my baby, oh
I’m gonna keep my baby, mmm…
While the pregnancy isn’t ideal, Madonna’s resolve to keep the baby suggests that she understands that sex is about creation and that a baby is ultimately a blessing.
Certainly at this point one might be asking, if sex is intended for multiplying, how are we to understand those who suffer from infertility? This is a good question and one that really deserves an entire sermon to explore fully, but for now let me say that once sin entered the world, it affected all things including creation itself and our bodies too. The physical side of our nature is fallen and broken too. It doesn’t always work the way it was intended to work.
Lawyers have a saying that might provide some guidance at this point: hard cases make bad law. In other words, infertility is rooted in the falleness of the physical world and creates hard cases for those who suffer from it, but sex is still intended ultimately for creating.
Companionship
Sex was also created for companionship. The union that sex creates between two people binds them as companions in a way that no other act does. In the story of Adam and Eve we read that after God had created Adam but had not yet created Eve, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him” (Genesis 2:18, NLT). Marriage is intended for companionship and sex is part of what makes that happen.
A very conflicted song by Rilo Kiley that shows how sex fulfills a desire for companionship but speaks about it outside of the life-long commitment of marriage is Portions for Foxes. Jenny Lewis sings to her bad news boyfriend:
I know I’m alone
if I’m with or without you
but just bein’ around you
offers me another form of relief
When the loneliness
leads to bad dreams
and the bad dreams lead me
to callin’ you
and I call you and say “C’MERE!”
And it’s bad news
Baby I’m bad news
I’m just bad news, bad news, bad news
She’s feeling lonely so she calls up her boyfriend and her best sexy voice yells, “C’MERE!” But she recognizes that the whole thing is bad news because she knows that she’s alone with or without him. The short-term gain is quickly lost because the companionship doesn’t have at its foundation a life-long commitment of marriage. The song ends with Lewis singing:
That you’re bad news
Baby you’re bad news
and you’re bad news
Baby you’re bad news
and you’re bad news
I don’t care I like you
and you’re bad news
I don’t care I like you
I like you
All the way to the end she’s conflicted about the relationship, but she lands on “I don’t care I like, I like you.” I do think the song is quite complex and intended to be somewhat sarcastic about the end result. I think it’s intended to make the listener question whether the end decision is a good one. So while this song is in my opinion an American Idol, it is also a “righteous” song. I think you can see it at the very beginning when Lewis sings:
There’s blood in my mouth
’cause I’ve been biting my tongue all week
I keep on talkin’ trash
but I never say anything
And the talkin’ leads to touchin’
and the touchin’ leads to sex
and then there is no mystery left
And It’s bad news
Baby I’m bad news
I’m just bad news, bad news, bad news
She acknowledges that the sex ultimately takes the mystery out of the relationship. Sex without marriage has this kind of effect. Mystery drives sexuality until it has found it. Then there is no mystery left and little motivation and depth for the companionship of sex. So I call Portions for Foxes a song that is both an American Idol and a righteous song. I think it’s one of those rare songs worth pondering over and over again and you hear something new every time you listen to it. Sex is intended for companionship, but companionship within the life-long commitment of marriage.
Pleasure
We come to the last intention for sex: pleasure. It is as I said at the beginning the least important of the four intentions, but it is probably what is considered most important in our culture’s idolization of sex. It would seem that Christians in ages past have attempted to remove all the pleasure from sex. This seems incredible to me given what the Bible teaches about sex and pleasure. Going back to Adam and Eve, we see that Adam reacts quite excitedly when he first sees Eve. He says, “At last! She is part of my own flesh and bone! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of a man” (Genesis 2:23, NLT). At last! Adam finds pleasure in Eve.
Our culture idolizes sex as pleasure. I’d like to go back to that Faith Hill song, Let’s Make Love, and take a second look. She sings in the chorus:
Let’s make love
All night long
Until all our strength is gone…
All night long? Does anybody really make love all night long? The Flight of the Concords are probably more realistic when Jemaine Clement sings, “Two minutes in heaven are better than one minute in heaven.” But we have images from movies of sensual sex lasting all night long. This expectation of sex is totally unrealistic for almost anyone and especially for the long-haul that a life-long commitment of marriage is. In this sense Faith Hill’s Let’s Make Love is an American idol.
A song that strikes a more realistic chord about pleasure in sex is John Mayer’s Your Body is a Wonderland. Mayer sings:
One mile to every inch of
Your skin like porcelain
One pair of candy lips and
Your bubblegum tongue
And if you want love
We’ll make it
Swim in a deep sea
Of blankets
Take all your big plans
And break ’em
This is bound to be awhile
Your body is a wonderland
Your body is a wonder
(I’ll use my hands)
Your body is a wonderland
Maybe you’re thinking right now, “OK. Maybe sex was intended for pleasure, but isn’t Mayer just a little too explicit for Christians?” Have you ever read the Song of Solomon? This book in the Bible makes Mayer look tame. It is about a conversation between a young married couple. The young man says:
6 “Oh, how delightful you are, my beloved; how pleasant for utter delight! 7 You are tall and slim like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters of dates. 8 I said, ‘I will climb up into the palm tree and take hold of its branches.’ Now may your breasts be like grape clusters, and the scent of your breath like apples. 9 May your kisses be as exciting as the best wine, smooth and sweet, flowing gently over lips and teeth (Song of Solomon 7:6-9, NLT).
Then the woman replies:
10 I am my lover’s, the one he desires. 11 Come, my love, let us go out into the fields and spend the night among the wildflowers. 12 Let us get up early and go out to the vineyards. Let us see whether the vines have budded, whether the blossoms have opened, and whether the pomegranates are in flower. And there I will give you my love. 13 There the mandrakes give forth their fragrance, and the rarest fruits are at our doors, the new as well as old, for I have stored them up for you, my lover (Song of Solomon 7:6-9, NLT).
Certainly sex was intended for pleasure, but our culture puts pleasure as of first importance while the Bible tends to see marriage, multiplying, and companionship as more important. Over the lifetime commitment of marriage, sex takes on a kind of pleasure that is more like prayer than it is like porn. It is a kind of ritual pleasure that sometimes is ecstatic but other times is not rote but not “all night long” either.
Sex is intended for marriage, for multiplying, for companionship, and for pleasure.
Going back to the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, we can see that sex also includes God. Sound strange? Listen to how Joseph responds to Potiphar’s wife: “How could I ever do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God” (Genesis 39:9b, NLT). Sex isn’t just about you and the person you’re having sex with. God is involved too. Like all sin, sexual sin isn’t just breaking relationship with another person, you’re breaking relationship with God. Likewise, righteous sex builds righteous relationships with your spouse and with God.
One last note on sex. There is another way we tend to idolize sex in our culture. We make sexual sin out to be the worst of sins. Sin is sin. Notice the company sexual sin takes when Paul lists it in his letter to the Corinthians: “What I meant was that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a Christian yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Don’t even eat with such people” (1 Corinthians 5:11, NLT). Sex is mixed right in there with sins like greed which we rarely take the time to ponder in our culture. So we idolize sex in our culture not just by going against these four intentions, but by turning sexual sin into sin that is worse than other sins. Sin is sin. God can forgive you of it all and transform you more into the person God has called you to become. Thank God for that!
Next Steps
Share your next step story in the comments below:
1. If you’re married: Practice Sabbath Sex (The rabbis suggested that Sabbath was a good time to have sex).
2. If you’re single or dating: (Re)commit yourself to saving sex for marriage.
3. Invite someone to Easter (Use one of our cards, share on Facebook, etc.).
4. Other.
More Thoughts on Money
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.
American Idols – Songs About Sex
During this series on American Idols, we’ve invited everyone to suggest songs about the theme for the week for us to vote on. Below (in no particular order) are the songs that were suggested this past Sunday for next Sunday’s theme, sex. We asked people to submit song suggestions that were not obviously positive or negative. We were looking for songs that were in the gray area to make the voting a little more complicated. Songs with one or more asterisk showed up one or more times. Come this Sunday and see which song(s) we’ve picked. Then vote!
I’m Too Sexy*
Sex Baby by George Michael
I Want Your Sex by George Michael
Oh You Sex Thing
Sex Me
Bad to the Bone
If You Think I’m Sexy
What’s Love Got to do With it by Tina Turner*
I Wanna Sex You Up by Color me Badd
Your Body is a Wonderland by John Mayer
Hot Legs by Rod Steward
Bringing Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake
Wait For Me by Christian woman artist
I’ll Make Love to You
If You Think I ‘m Sexy by Rod Stewart*
Sex Is a Weapon by Pat Benatar
Nicki by Prince
Love Gun by KISS
Animal by Nickleback
Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard
Let’s put the X in Sex by KISS
Right Na Na Na by Akon
My Humps by Gwen Stephanie
Make Love in the Club by Usher
Thong Song by Sisco
Afternoon Delight*
Business Time by Flight of the Concords*
Lets Get It On by Barry White
Anything by Madonna
Voulex-vous coucher avec moi?
American Idols – Money
American Idols – Money
Genesis 12:1-9
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
March 14, 2010
[Note to reader: This is a manuscript and not a transcript. While I prepare a manuscript, I don’t preach from it. All the major points are here, but there are bound to be some small differences from the sermon as it was preached live. Also, expect some “bonus” material that wasn’t in the live sermon.]
Peace, Friends!
What would you do if we gave you a million dollars this morning? Seriously. What would you do with it? Based on the songs you suggested last week that have to do with money, here’s what they would do with it. Calloway says, “I want money, lots and lots of money, I wanna be rich.” Abba says, “If I got me a wealthy man, I wouldn’t have to work at all, I’d fool around and have a ball.” Pink Floyd would buy a “New car, caviar, four star daydream, Think I’ll buy me a football team.” Lil’ Wayne & Birdman would buy “Lamborghini’s, and them Bentley’s on the V set, Louie lens iced up with them black diamonds, Cartier, Ferrari, the new spider.” Marilyn Monroe would be happy with diamonds because, “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” What would you do with a million dollars?
Well, we don’t have a million dollars to hand out this morning, but on the bottom of five chairs is taped some cash. $20 to be exact. Who’s got the $20 under their chair? We’ll come back to that later.
It may seem far fetched to think about what you’d do with all that money but several years ago Sarah and I took out some life insurance and had the very morbid conversation of what we would want to have done with it if we both died. Now we don’t have a million dollars of life insurance on us, but it was a very interesting conversation nonetheless. What would you do with a million dollars?
Today we’re continuing a series looking at American idols, those things our culture tends to worship. Money is a big one. We spend a lot of our time trying to get more money. Money grabs our imagination and our attention. Americans worship money.
Let’s take a look at a story in Genesis about being blessed. It’s the story of Abraham, although at the time he’s called Abram. God calls Abram to do something and promises to bless him. Let’s see what happens.
Genesis 12:1-9 (NLT)
1 Then the LORD told Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will cause you to become the father of a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and I will make you a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram departed as the LORD had instructed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth — his livestock and all the people who had joined his household at Haran — and finally arrived in Canaan. 6 Traveling through Canaan, they came to a place near Shechem and set up camp beside the oak at Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites.
7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I am going to give this land to your offspring.” And Abram built an altar there to commemorate the LORD’s visit.
8 After that, Abram traveled southward and set up camp in the hill country between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar and worshiped the LORD. 9 Then Abram traveled south by stages toward the Negev.
This is God’s story for us today. Thank you, God.
God’s call to Abram is a call away from. It is three-fold: your country, your relatives, your father’s house. Abram is called to leave all three. God’s blessing then is also three-fold. God is going to make Abram a great nation, will bless him (with wealth), and make his name great (i.e. fame). Sounds pretty good so far. But what is all this blessing for? Here’s the point. God will bless Abram so that he will be “a blessing to others” and so that “all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” God’s blessing is always a blessing that is meant not be hoarded but to be given away. To be shared. To bless others. An American idol is always kept to oneself. Worshiping God is always an act of giving oneself away.
This story is perhaps one of the most pivotal in all the Bible. There is more here than we could imagine to unpack in one message. What I want to focus on today is how we are called to use our money, our wealth, as a blessing to others.
The first way that we are called to bless others with our money is through a tithe. This idea of a tithe shows up in two places in Genesis. The first is in the story of Abram and Melchizedek, the priest of the LORD. We looked at that story several weeks ago in a sermon on being single. I pointed the tithe part of the story out, but did not go into it in that message. Today we’re there. We read that “Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered [from rescuing Lot]” (Genesis 14:20, NLT). Then later we read that Jacob sets up a memorial pillar to worship God and says, “I will give God a tenth of everything he gives me” (Genesis 28:22).
What strikes me most about both of these passages is that God doesn’t command Abram or Jacob to do this. They do it out of a spontaneous motivation of joy and thanksgiving. I like this because I’m not sure that tithing is ever really a command for Christians. It is something we do out of a deep joy for the abundance of God’s blessings upon us.
My mom taught me this principle of tithing when I was a young child. She set us up with a weekly allowance of ten dimes. Then she prepared envelopes for us to put some of the dimes in. I don’t remember what all the envelopes were for, but I remember two of them: the savings envelope (I think we put one dime in that envelope) and the tithing envelope, where we put one of our dimes (one tenth). (Parents, teach this to your children at a young age.)
My mom was also teaching me something about some of the basic questions people have about tithing. Do you tithe on your net income or your gross income? To put it in other words, before or after taxes? What did my mom teach me? Before taxes. I tithed on my “gross” weekly allowance.
Again we can look to Genesis for some direction. In the story of Cain and Abel we read that “Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering” (Genesis 4:4, NRSV). Abel brought the “firstlings of his flock.” It was the best that he had to give.
Why the “firstlings”? Why gross income? Why before taxes? Because it is out of joy that we give back to God. Joy knows only abundance. Joy doesn’t count beans. Joy blesses abundantly. God is worthy of being praised and worshiped joyfully and abundantly.
Another question that is often raised about tithing is whether you should give your tithe entirely to the church or to other charities. My mom taught me that the tithe went to church. I would take that dime, one-tenth of my allowance, and put it in the offering plate every Sunday. I think this is a commendable practice, but I also am not sure that we are commanded to do so. Tithing in the Bible was often a way of providing a kind of social security to the poor in the community. It was the ancient version of caring for the least of these. It was also used to support the worship of God at the temple, in the synagogue, and later in the local church by providing for the leader of the church so that the leader could focus more time and energy on ministry.
To answer this question more fully, let’s take a look at how the giving of our church actually works. Right now our giving is very healthy. We as a church are receiving what we need to cover the basics of our life together. Recently, we are even beginning to build a small amount of cushion week by week.
So where does this giving come from? We have 130 households that gave to SCC in 2009. The median household income in Lansing in 2008 was $38,101/year. Let’s take that number as our average household income for SCC. This means that on average if everyone in our church tithed, they’d be giving joyfully back to God $3,810/year. Let’s do a little math here. 130 households times $3,810 = $495,300. That’s a lot of money! In 2009 those 130 households gave $253,914. That’s about half of what an average tithe would be for our church. Let’s break that down even further. Of our income:
3% (4 households) give 20%
5% (6 households, including the previous 4) give 30%
10% (13 households, including the previous 6) give 50%
20% (26 households, including the previous 13) give 70%.
So 26 households gave about 70% of our total income of $253,914. These numbers don’t actually take into account tithing. This is just raw giving. For example, Sarah and I tithe but we’re not in those 49 households.
So what’s the bottom line here? The bottom line is that I as your pastor, the one who is responsible in many ways for your spiritual growth, would be delighted if everyone tithed. I would be delighted if everyone tithed and gave some of that to the church and some away to other charities, but I’d be even more delighted if we lived even more fully into the spirit of what I think the Bible teaches about money: we’re blessed to be a blessing. That means that we all would give even more than 10% of our money away, and then we wouldn’t have to ask this question about whether to give it all to the church or not. We’d give 10% to the church and another 10%+ to other charities.
Giving more than a tithe is founded in the Christian discipline, habit, or practice of simplicity. Richard Foster says, “The tithe simply is not a sufficiently radical concept to embody the carefree unconcern for possessions that marks life in the Kingdom of God. Jesus Christ is Lord of all our goods, not just ten percent” (Freedom of Simplicity, 50). This is living into a different kind of spirit than one that asks about percentages and keeps track of every dollar. It’s a practice of abundance. There is more than enough for everyone. We live into the freedom of having enough and what a freedom that is!
So now it may seem that I have set an impossible ideal before you. Many of you are struggling to even imagine giving 10% of your income away, let alone more. How do you do it? How do you live simply so that you can give away more? How do you live into your blessings in such a way that you can bless all the people of the earth?
This is a question of what you get used to. Our culture tends toward us moving up in our tastes and our spending habits. Let me give you an example from my own life. I love cheese. When we lived in Durham we would shop at Whole Foods because we think buying organic is important for caring for our creation. One of my favorite parts of Whole Foods was the cheese department. Oh, what a cheese department. It was heaven on earth. You could go back and see all these imported organic cheeses. You could ask them to cut off a slice for you so you could try it before buying it. I loved that part. I would try at least three cheeses before buying one. I got used to really good cheese. This really good cheese came with a price tag. $10/pound. $12/pound. $16/pound. $22/pound. I haven’t yet found a cheese department like this in Lansing, but the other day I went to Kroger and decided to get the best blue cheese they had. It was $7/pound. You know what, I didn’t like it. I had gotten used to what $14/pound imported organic blue cheese tastes like. In some ways, I had lost the freedom of having enough. I read this week that “artisinal cheese is one of the fastest growing segments of the $59 billion gourmet food industry, with cheese and dairy expected to see double-digit growth through 2012, according to consumer research firm Packaged Facts” (Empty Tomb). Apparently more and more people are having the same experience I am. We like fancier and fancier cheese which means we’re spending more and more on cheese.
What we get used to in our culture is an ever increasing standard of living that tends upward rather than downward, but I’ve seen examples of it working the other way. There was this great PBS show on several years ago called Frontier House. They took three families and plopped them down in the wilderness of Montana and gave them frontier-age tools and training and followed how they managed it all. It was fascinating. Before the families went out on the frontier, they also interviewed them in their modern settings so you could see what the change was like. When they interviewed one young boy, his attention was fully focused on his computer games. He wouldn’t even look at the camera. It was like he was drugged or something. When he first went to the “frontier” he complained constantly about not having any toys, especially his video games, but after several months, his attitude had changed. His birthday came around and his family had made him a hand-carved wooden chess set. He loved that chess set. What he had gotten used to changed in the downward direction. Unfortunately, when he went back to modern society, he ended up back in front of the TV playing video games. Transformation and salvation is never static. You can lose it.
Maybe another way to think about moving our tastes in a downward direction that is closer to home for all of us is remembering what it was like to get our first mortgage. I remember when Sarah and I first bought our house in Petoskey. It stretched our imagination (and our budget) to pay that monthly mortgage, but over time we got used to it. We changed the rest of our lifestyle so that it wasn’t hard at all. Now it feels like nothing to pay each month.
When you live simply to dethrone the idol of money in your life, it becomes easier and easier to give a tithe and more! Living simply means being able to bless others with the blessings we have been given.
So what are some options, some steps into this kind of living? Maybe you’re drowning in debt so much that you don’t even have enough to pay for the basics of life. A first step is to get rid of that debt and one of the best ways to get rid of debt is to follow the principles of Financial Peace University. We offer an FPU class every year. We’ve currently got one going. If you can’t wait till next year, you can always pick up Dave Ramsey’s book and read it on your own. Then live those financial principles and get out of debt.
A second step could be giving something, anything, regularly. Make a commitment to give $1/week or $10/week or $20/week. Make a commitment to give something and stick to it. If you’re already there, then a next step for you would be to increase that giving by 1%. If you’re giving 5% of your income, plan on giving 6% this year.
A fourth step would be to go cold turkey and tithe. Make it happen. Give 10% of your income. Drop an expense or two that you know you don’t need (even though you’ve always wanted it), and give 10%. Many of you can do this if you change around some of the priorities in your life.
A last step is for those of you who are already giving 10%. Give more! Give more to the church. Give more to charities in Lansing, Michigan, the United States, and the world. Give generously. Live a simple life. Live radically different than those who are making the same amount as you are. Live in a smaller house. Drive a basic car. Eat simple food. Wear simple clothes. God has blessed you with the ability to make money. Now bless others through it. Make all you can (in honest ways). Save all you can by living simply. Then give the rest away!
God blesses not so that you can keep it all yourself. That’s an American Idol. God blesses so that you can be a blessing to others and to the entire world. As you bless SCC with your giving, we too will continue to bless Lansing, Michigan, our nation, and our world.
Next Steps (Share your stories in the comments section)
1. Begin tithing or take a step toward it (10% of your gross income or increase your giving by 1 to 2% each year)
2. Cut something out (i.e. bring a sack lunch to work, buy less new clothing, buy something used, etc.)
3. Give something away (i.e. find a way to bless someone with something, money or things, this week)
4. Other
American Idols – Songs about Money
During this series on American Idols, we’ve invited everyone to suggest songs about the theme for the week for us to vote on. Below (in no particular order) are the songs that were suggested this past Sunday for next Sunday’s theme, money. We asked people to submit song suggestions that were not obviously positive or negative. We were looking for songs that were in the gray area to make the voting a little more complicated. Songs with one or more asterisk showed up one or more times. Come this Sunday and see which song(s) we’ve picked. Then vote!
Listen to the Money Talk by AC/DC*
Big Money by Rush*
Money for Nothing by Dire Straits*****
Rockstar*
Live Your Life by Rhiana
Money by Serj Tanjkin
I Wanna Be Rich
Money, Money, Money by Abba********
Money by Pink Floyd******
If I Had a Million Dollars by Bare Naked Ladies***
CREAM by Wu Tang Clan
Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems by Notorious BIG
Luxurious by Gwen Stefani
Baby I’ve Got Your Money by ODB
Rockin the Suburbs by Ben Folds Five
Money by Nylons?
I Want Lots and Lots of Money
Material Girl by Madonna
Money by The Beatles
Money to Blow by lil’ Wayne
The Gambler by Kenny Rogers
Money, Money, Money by the O’Jays
Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend
It’s All About the Benjamins
For the Love of Money by Bulletboys
Head Like a Hole by Nine Inch Nails
American Idols – Security
American Idols – Security
Genesis 11:1-9
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
March 7, 2010
[Note to reader: This is a manuscript and not a transcript. While I prepare a manuscript, I don’t preach from it. All the major points are here, but there are bound to be some small differences from the sermon as it was preached live. Also, expect some “bonus” material that wasn’t in the live sermon.]
[Standing behind a “bulletproof” Plexiglass shield with security guards on either side]
Do not be afraid, Friends!
You may be wondering why I’m standing behind this Plexiglass barrier. Well, the reason is simple. My security. There has been an increase in church shootings, and I thought it best for your pastor to be safe on Sunday morning. I am sure you will understand. It is better for us all if your pastor is safe. So, let us continue with the message…
Today’s story comes from Genesis 11. It is the story of the Tower of Babel. Hear God’s story for us today:
Genesis 11:1-9
1 At one time the whole world spoke a single language and used the same words. 2 As the people migrated eastward, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there. 3 They began to talk about construction projects. “Come,” they said, “let’s make great piles of burnt brick and collect natural asphalt to use as mortar. 4 Let’s build a great city with a tower that reaches to the skies — a monument to our greatness! This will bring us together and keep us from scattering all over the world.” 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 “Look!” he said. “If they can accomplish this when they have just begun to take advantage of their common language and political unity, just think of what they will do later. Nothing will be impossible for them! 7 Come, let’s go down and give them different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.” 8 In that way, the LORD scattered them all over the earth; and that ended the building of the city. 9 That is why the city was called Babel, because it was there that the LORD confused the people by giving them many languages, thus scattering them across the earth.
This is God’s story for us today. Thank you, God.
Why was it wrong to build the tower? I’d like to focus on verse four to explore an answer to this question. Let’s read it in the NRSV: “Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth’” (Genesis 11:4). Here I think we find the crux of the matter. The focus of their motivation to build the tower is for security, particularly security for themselves. The problem here is that security focuses on oneself. Security rests in a desire to stay with what is familiar and to associate with people who are the same as we are. In the end, that focus on oneself creates a barrier between you and the people you are trying to protect yourself against.
[Coming out from behind the Plexiglass barrier…] Ah. Isn’t that better? Yes. You see, when I try to build a security for myself, I put a barrier between you and me. Security has the tendency to do that. To separate.
We also see in this same verse the root cause of this desire for security of oneself: fear. We read that they were afraid of being “scattered abroad.” They wanted to consolidate their power so that their fears would not come to pass. In doing so, they were actually defying God’s command to both Adam and Eve and Noah: “Now you must have many children and repopulate the earth. Yes, multiply and fill the earth!” (Genesis 9:7, NLT). The irony of this story is that their fears ended up coming to pass! Proverbs has a saying for this: “The fears of the wicked will all come true; so will the hopes of the godly” (10:24, NLT).
In contrast, those who seek after God by following Jesus are called to live not by fear, but by faith. The command “do not be afraid” shows up over sixty times throughout the Bible. The most famous of these is the angels in Luke who announce at Jesus’ birth, “Don’t be afraid!…I bring you good news of great joy for everyone!” (2:10, NLT). It seems that people are regularly afraid (not too far from our own experience), or God’s call tends to cause fear. Either way, we are called not to act upon that fear but to act upon faith. Live by faith, not fear.
On the day when my call to be a pastor really crystallized, I went home and wrote down in my prayer journal all the things I was afraid of. Here are some of them I wrote down that day:
- I fear going to school and ending up more confused. (Well, I didn’t end up more confused, but I did gain a healthy sense of the limit of my knowledge and understanding.)
- I fear I’ll end up in a traditional church. (Um…that certainly didn’t happen, did it? Actually something even better happened. I came away from seminary willing to serve in whatever church I was appointed.)
- I fear being bored with worship. (Worship certainly isn’t boring at SCC!)
- I fear all the interruptions in my life by being a servant. (Ah. I’m finding those “interruptions” really are often times the ministry itself.)
- I fear not fitting in to this Methodist mold. (I grew to love my church.)
- I fear getting cynical by being stuck in a system that I don’t like and can’t change. (I actually came to find a great sense of freedom in the system of our church.)
- I fear the uncertainty I feel in this call, and that I might not be called. (You make the call on that one. Am I called to be a pastor? I think God knew what God was doing.)
- I fear telling everyone and then changing my mind later. (Didn’t happen.)
- I fear not having the financial resources to make all this happen. (We ended up with only about $5000 in debt and two master’s degrees. We also were able to hold on to our house in Petoskey. Money is a tool, not an end.)
It’s an amazing experience for me to read over that list today. There certainly are some things (not many) that I haven’t shared that I still fear, but here this huge list of things that I did fear has almost totally evaporated. I don’t fear any of these any more. Writing this list and reflecting upon it later, helps me face the things I fear today and act out of faith rather than out of that fear.
What are some ways that we want to stay in our safe secure places of familiarity and sameness? I’d like to look at this internationally, nationally, locally, and in our own church.
First, internationally. We tend to have a built in defense mechanism when we are traveling in a foreign country. We are hyper vigilant about our safety. I had many different experiences while traveling in the Middle East for three weeks while in seminary. Every night after our touring and learning, I tried to find an internet café to blog about the day’s events. While we were in Damascus, Syria, I left the hotel looking for an internet café. I didn’t speak the language, but I saw a mobile phone business that had advertising in both English and Arabic. So I went in and asked for directions. They were very friendly and even wrote down the directions in both English and Arabic. I left the store and headed down the crowded street. I soon had no idea where I was at. I saw a policeman, and showed him the directions. He smiled and motioned for me to follow him. He walked me down the street to the intersection I needed to find and pointed me in the right direction. I walked down that street, but I wasn’t seeing anything that looked like an internet café. I went into a restaurant and showed them my piece of paper with the directions on it. The host called a cook up to the front, and the cook motioned for me to follow him. We walked across the street, down an alley (yes, down an alley and it was dark!), and there at the end of the alley in bright lights was a sign that read in English “Internet Café”! The man smiled and went back to his restaurant. All this hospitality happened in a country whose government was labeled as one of the Axis of Evil!
Then there was the time I got lost in Aman, Jordan walking back to the hotel at night. The only people out were guards who looked like teenagers wearing fatigues and carrying machine guns. I had no choice. I showed him the key card with my hotel name on it, and he pointed me in the right direction. When I got to a fork in the road, I looked back and he was waving me the right with a big smile. Was I afraid? A little, but my experience was extremely positive.
Another time Sarah and I were in France and we got invited to join a couple for lunch back at their apartment. Were we being scammed? Were we about to get jumped as dumb American tourists? We weren’t sure, but we decided the opportunity was too good to pass, and we accepted the offer of hospitality. We went back to their apartment and they treated us to lunch. It was a wonderful time! Not every foreigner is out to get you.
Second, nationally. In 2011 our national budget is $3.8 trillion (New York Times). Of that President Obama is asking congress for $708.8 billion for defense (New York Times). That’s about 19% or 1/5 of the budget. According to one source, “The 2009 U.S. military budget is almost as much as the rest of the world’s defense spending combined and is over nine times larger than the military budget of China.” Another website points out that much of our current debt is from past wars. If you add that into our spending on defense the cost goes up to as much as 54% of our current budget! The numbers can probably be argued back and forth, but the overall point is, we Americans spend a lot of money on security. If money is an indicator of what we worship, then Americans definitely worship security and defense. Something seems wrong here. I don’t know what the answer to this problem is. I’m not a politician, but something is definitely wrong.
Third, let’s look more locally. I think one of the prime ways that we act out of fear rather than faith is by building friendships only with people who live in neighborhoods that are similar to ours ethnically and socioeconomically. Why is this the case? What fear lays behind this act of security? I need to bring up a significant fear that I think hinders many of us, especially women, from doing so and that is the fear of being raped. Perhaps this shows up when one thinks about tutoring in an urban school, delivering a food box to a family’s home, or volunteering at a city boys and girls club. According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network) one in six women and one in thirty-three men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime, and 73% of sexual assaults are perpetrated by a non-stranger, someone the victim knows. In other words, the likelihood of being sexually assaulted by a complete stranger is much smaller than being sexually assaulted on a date. This is not a sermon about sexual assault, but I do want to touch on it briefly.
In their book, The Female Fear: The Social Cost of Rape, Margaret T. Gordon, dean of the graduate school of public affairs at the University of Washington, and Stephanie Riger, director of the women’s studies program and professor of psychology at University of Illinois-Chicago, say, “Until society and the major institutions in this country are willing to take responsibility for female fear and do whatever is necessary to reduce both rape and the burden of fear of rape on women, it would be unwise to advocate that women completely stop being afraid…Although fear appears disproportionate to the actual risks women face as measured by victimization and reported crime data, women’s fear is proportionate to their own estimates of their own risks. The rates do not give an individual woman any comfort with respect to her own chances of being attacked…Whatever the causes of rape and other violence against women, a major effect of these crimes on even nonvictims is self-imposed restrictions. Men are more frequent victims of every violent crime except rape yet they do not react by restricting their behavior, suggesting that something more than crime is implicated…It seems that crime against women, whatever the motivation of the individual criminal, has the cumulative effect of reinforcing social norms about appropriate behavior for women” (118ff, emphasis original).
I would hope that SCC would be a community of healing for the painful and debilitating fear caused by sexually assault. This would come through small groups, support groups, prayer, spiritual friendships, worship, communion, service, and more. At the same time, I would hope that SCC would also be a community that acts out of faith rather than fear. There are many things we could be afraid of that we don’t act on. As Scott Bader-Saye says in his book, Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear, “According to the Center for Disease Control, the top three causes of death in the United States in 2002 were, in order, heart disease, cancer, and stroke [Actually, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the top cause of death is birth!]. Yet these are not what we are afraid of, at least not in the same way we are afraid of terrorism, pedophiles, road rage, school shootings, plane wrecks, risky strangers, monster moms, killer bees, serial killers, new addictions…, and a host of new medical and psychological conditions (such as mad cow disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and super viruses such as West Nile, SARS, bird flue, and Ebola)” (15).
Perhaps a personal example is in order. Sarah and I love backpacking. Whenever we talk to non-backpackers, one of the first things that comes up is bears. Our friends and family want to know how we can hike while bears are around. Aren’t these predators stalking us on the trails? The reality is that the likelihood of being mauled by a bear is tiny (Backpacker Magazine). You are much more likely to die driving to the park than you are to get mauled by a bear. And once you’re in the park, you’re more likely to fall off a cliff, be struck by lightening, or die of hypothermia than you are to get mauled by a bear. Fear isn’t rational is it? We’re still much more afraid of being mauled by a predator. We don’t even think twice about driving to the park. So while the fear of bears does lead Sarah and me to take precautions, it doesn’t stop us from enjoying God’s creation. We are called to live by faith, not fear.
Lastly, our very own church. How do we act out of fear rather than faith when we come together? Here are some ways I think we do that. We join small groups with people who are like us rather than try a small group that is made of different kinds of people. We also join small groups based around what we’re interested in learning. What if you joined a small group that would stretch your interests?
On Sunday morning we are tempted to talk to people who we know rather than branch out and talk to people we don’t know. Here’s a basic way to introduce yourself to someone you don’t know: “Hi, I’m Tom. I don’t think I know your name” or “Hi, I’m Tom. I know we’ve met, but I’m afraid I’ve forgotten your name.” Then use their name immediately. “So John, are you from around here?”
What about the places where we serve? I think we are again tempted to serve in places and ministries that are familiar and comfortable. If I had followed this way of living, I wouldn’t be here today as your pastor. I’d still be on staff at another church doing what was comfortable and familiar.
Friends, we are called to live not be fear but by faith. What is God calling you to today that you are afraid of?
Do not be afraid!
Prayer (BCP – 8th Sunday after Epiphany):
Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who cares for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Next Steps (share your experience with these next steps in the comments section):
1. List your fears and share the list with someone.
2. Conquer a fear by take a step of faith in a new direction.
3. Look up the “Don’t be afraid” passages in the Bible.
4. Other…
American Idols – Songs about Security/Power/Fear
During this series on American Idols, we’ve invited everyone to suggest songs about the theme for the week for us to vote on. Below (in no particular order) are the songs that were suggested this past Sunday for next Sunday’s theme, security. We asked people to submit song suggestions that were not obviously positive or negative. We were looking for songs that were in the gray area to make the voting a little more complicated. Songs with one or more asterisk showed up one or more times. Come this Sunday and see which song(s) we’ve picked. Then vote!
In a New York Minute by Don Henley
Gratitude by Nichole Nordemann
Forgiven by Sanctus Rea
Amazing Grace
Money
Private Eyes by Hall & Oates
How Sweet It Is by James Taylor
We Are The World
Viva La Vida by Coldplay
I’d Like To Teach the World to Sing
Power of Love by Huey Lewis
I Depend On Me
Don’t You Call My Name by Gilian Welseh
Homeward Bound by Simon & Garfunkel
Rock Star by Nickleback
Big Pimpin’ by Jay-Z
Fight the Power by Public Enemy
Daddy’s Hands*
Money, Money, Money
Desire by U2
I’ve got a Hand For You by Hootie & the Blowfish
Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbalm*
Workin’ for a Livin’
Sweet Child of Mine by Guns & Roses
Mother by Pink Floyd
Gunner’s Dream by Pink Floyd
All Along the Watch Tower by Bob Dylan
Count on Me by DePautt
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