2002.11.10. A Christian and Money (2) - Rev. Young Jin Cho

Is it truly mine?

Genesis 1:26-31

John Wesley who started the Methodist Church movement was a man who truly lived a life of repentance when it comes to his money wallet. One day, one of the Wesley pastors came on a horse ride and most urgently told John Wesley, "Pastor, there is a big crisis! Your house was on fire and was burnt down to ashes." After listening to the pastor and poring over the news for a moment, John Wesley replied, "It is my Lord's house that was burnt down to ashes, not mine. I am therefore released from one less responsibility."

Starting last week, I have started a series of sermons under the titled called "A Christian and Money." It is not true that the issues involving the materialistic wealth and money are just limited to the boundaries of our earthly concerns and have no relation to our faith. As faithful followers of our God, we also need to show and confess our faith by the repentance of our wallets. If our life were born-again because we accepted Jesus Christ, we also need to repent our wallets to be born-again. Our born-again life also needs to be reflected in our checkbooks. To live such a changed life, the first thing we need is the conversion of our concept, the conversion of our perception.

My brothers and sisters, living a Christian life is not fulfilled by coming to the church once or twice a week to pray and worship. Becoming a Christian means we carry on affairs with understanding, believing, and living our lives with a new vision and a fresh perspective. If we believed in Jesus, we must change our view of life and our understanding of death. We also need to change our understandings of what the success and the happiness mean. Such new understandings can be applied to our valuables and possessions. My brothers and sisters, how should our Christians perceive money? What sort of the conversion in our perception should be necessary when it comes to money and possessions.

I.

In short, we must understand that whatever the valuables and the possessions we have are not ours, but God's. We must regard ourselves as managers or stewards of our earthly belongings, and not as the owners. Without such conversion in our perception, we will never be able to understand what it means to be the righteous stewards and holy keepers. We cannot lead our lives in such a way.

This morning, we read together the scripture from Genesis, Chapter 1. Today's scripture tells us that God created man on the sixth day. God created us to be different from our creatures. God created man in his own image. Here, although one could interpret the phrase "God's image" in many different ways, the traditional interpretation of the Protestant is on the aspect of relationships, that it refers to the beings who can have relationship with God. We are the beings who are capable of sharing the fellowship with God. We are created with the capacity to have fellowship with God. God respects our own characters and that we have a unique presence and standing in God's eyes.

With that, God gave us assignments. God blessed Adam and Eve, and told them to be fruitful and increase in number, prosper, and fill the earth. Furthermore, God assigned them to conquer the world, and rule over the fishes in the sea and the birds in the sky. From the very beginning of the time, we were bestowed with the responsibilities of the stewards and managers to manage the world. We have the responsibilities to supervise and well manage the world. This was the God's plan when he created us (1:26), and also this was his command after he created us.

My brothers and sisters, if we had created everything in the world, we could say we are the masters. However, the truth is that this earth, this world was already here in existence before the time we were born. Therefore, the Bible says that God, who created everything on this earth, is the master of this world and everything in it, and he is the master of our history. Psalm 24:1 sings : "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it;" In addition, 50:10-12 also declares that every animal of the forest is His, and the cattle on a thousand hills, every birds and the creatures of the field are His..

The master of all the creations on the earth is God. We are merely the stewards and managers who rule and manage every creation on the earth that are created by God. Our lives are already determined and assigned to manage, and thus we are the beings who live with the responsibility of the stewardship. Even though we purchased the land and the houses, we are only the stewards of them for our lifetime. Even though we made fortune and prospered in business, we do not own them. We are just the stewards for them.

II.

Today's message from the Bible, that everything that we possess now does not belong to us but to God, and that we are not the owners but just the stewards, may appear as a challenge to you. You may say it is nonsensical. How can you say that it is not mine when I worked so hard for my money? How come it is God's when I worked so hard to accumulate my fortune? How can you say that it is not mine when I sacrificed everything to build up my business? These are obvious questions that we may ask ourselves. You do not need to pretend that you believe just because I am preaching about it when in fact, you disbelieve. But you must seriously wrestle with these questions. My brothers and sisters, if you do not really believe, then do your valuables and possessions really belong to you? Are you really the true owner of those valuables and possessions?

(1) First, let us take a look at the origin of our life and being. Does your life belong to you? Do you possess your life? Please raise hands those who think they made their own choice to be born in this particular juncture at this particular place. Nobody can control his birth. We receive life without any regards to our will or wishes. Of course, the relation between your mother and father plays a significant role in this. However, is it not true that even our parents do not have a total control over this? If the parents had the total control, would there be any child who is not so intelligent? Shouldn't every parent have a daughter as pretty as a Miss Universe? Why is it you have only daughters when you have been wishing so long for a son? Why is it that you only have sons while you have been waiting so long for a daughter instead? Life comes to us regardless of our will or wishes.

So is the death. Why does the death rudely visit us without a hint when we want to live so desperately? Why does the death suddenly come and snatch away our loved ones leaving sorrow to those who remain. As the life comes to us regardless of our will, so does the death. Thus, life is living on and within a given time. Even this life is not mine. It is just given. We are not the masters of our life but live only as the stewards of the life.

If our being is given, at the end, the possessions seemingly belonging to a given life cannot be ours. We can never be the owners of the earthly possessions. And that is why the Bible tells us that we are not the masters but just the stewards of things. God put us in charge of the earthly possessions while we live and we are merely the stewards and the keepers of them.

(2) Secondly, the reason the possessions are not ours is that not all of us can have the money just by wanting. If I earned because I wanted, you could say it is yours. However, the money is not given to everybody who wishes for. If one can possess everything he or she wishes for, who would not be rich in this world?

It breaks my heart to see people who work so hard but fail to become rich. Very often times, it makes me think that this world, or maybe God, is too unfair. Once I heard somebody saying, "Those who chase the money cannot make a lot of money. Instead, the money chases those who makes a big money." While having my doubts as to the truth in this story, I think that it is a fact that people in general do not make as much money as they want to. Moreover, who wants to fail doing his or her business? Everyone starts business with a wish of being successful, but the reality is that not everyone who wishes for a success becomes successful. If I can make money as I wish, perhaps then I may claim it as my money. However, the fact that this is not the case makes us consider it carefully.

Therefore, the Bible tells us that the earthly possessions are not ours. It tells us that they belong to God and we are just the managers who manage them. It is because we cannot make them as much as we wish for. It is because we cannot possess them as much as we want to.

(3) There is the third reason that why the earthly possessions are not ours. Maybe some of you may have different opinions as to the last reasoning that one cannot possess as much as one wish for. You may say that the real reason that one cannot make a lot of money is not because God did not entrusted it with him or her, but rather because that person did not have the ability to make a lot of money, or maybe that person was not ready to have a financial success, or maybe that person did not know the right formula for success, or because of many other reasons. You may also say that it is because not everyone has a gift of making money and not because God did not give to that person. You may say that therefore because I earned it, the money is mine.

However, even in such contentions, there is a point to consider. My brothers and sisters, where do you get the ability to make such money? Were you born with it because you wanted it? Did you somehow found it and brought it with you when you came to this world? Even the ability is given by God. The origin of your ability to make money and to make the right decisions is not yours. They are given by God. According to Deuteronomy 8:11, Moses had forewarned the Israelites before moving into the land of Canaan "Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and silver gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery…You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." But remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. (New translation version)"

Because it is not my ability but the God's given ability. Because God gave us the ability to make money, we could make money. Because it is not I who earned but God who gave me the ability to earn, the money is not mine. We are just the managers who manage our possessions. The true master is God who gave us that ability.

(4) There is the fourth reason that why the earthly possessions are not ours. That is because we cannot keep our possessions forever. Because we possess and manage our possessions only during our lifetime, they can never be ours forever.

My brothers and sisters, the earthly possessions by which we accumulate with such labor, are they ours? No. When the death comes, we must leave all behind. When our life ends, so do our possessions. It does not matter whether you like it or not. It does not matter whether you want it or not. When I leave this world, someone else will take over my possessions. Where are all the glittering gold-crowns that were buried with the dead? Does the dead still wear them? We all know too well that they are now somewhere in the museum.

We all know too well about a parable of a foolish rich man from gospel Mark. Speaking in a contemporary sense, there was a man who became very rich by his success from his IT business, which afforded him to build a big house, accumulate a lot of money, and then to be ready to retire to enjoy the rest of his life. This was when God asked him. If I came and took back your soul tonight, to whom do all of your possessions would belong? Unless had he had a will to bequest all of his possessions in an orderly fashion, would you not think that a substantial portion of his possessions would have been returned to a governmental authority?

There is a story from the Talmud that I often speak of to you. One day, there was a man who was unexpectedly ordered to come to the kingdom. As surprised as he was, he asked his best friend to go to the kingdom together. The friend however adamantly refused to go at all. When the man asked his second best friend to go to the kingdom together, the friend told the man that he would accompany him only up to the front gate of the kingdom. So out of desperation, when the man asked his third friend, who was a just acquaintance, to go to the kingdom together, the friend readily agreed to accompany him into the kingdom. Who are these three friends? The first best friend represents your possessions. When you die, your possessions can never go with you. The second best friend who was willing to accompany the man only up to the front gate of the kingdom represents the members of his family. Because when you die, they can follow you only up to your burial. The third friend who was a just an acquaintance represents good deeds in life. You can bring your good deeds in life before God even after your death.

You cannot possess your fortune forever. Therefore, it is not ours. God has temporarily entrusted it upon us for a period of our lives. Therefore, we are not the masters of the possessions just the stewards. The true master is God.

III.

The Bible testifies without a doubt that the earthly possessions are not ours but God's, which the master of the things is God and we are just the stewards. If you truly found a new life in Christ, you should also have a new perspective about the earthly possessions. You have to born-again. You must believe that they are not yours but God's. You must be able to confess that I am a steward and the true master is God. When John Wesley said that it was not his house but the Lord's house that was burnt down to ashes, clearly he said that out of his awareness of the stewardship. Christians must experience the conversion of perception and the change in thinking.

However, my brothers and sisters, What if our Christians' conversion of perception remains just within the conversion of perception itself? Is that good enough? No. This conversion of perception must also be appeared in our wallets. It must also be confessed through in checkbooks. Because everything is God's, through our confession in recognition of God as being the true owner of our possessions, we have been practicing our faith through offering of one-tenth of our earnings as tithe to God. This had been practiced by the people of God in the Old Testimony, and also through out the church's history. Next week, I will talk about the issues involving tithe in more detail.

I will conclude my today's sermon with an introduction of a story I read in a small booklet published by the Department of the United Methodist Disciple Training.

A long, long time ago, once upon a time, there was a man who was the poorest of the poor, and one day, God gave him 10 apples.

God said,
eat the first set of 3 apples with joy,
use the second set of 3 apples to buy your house so you can be sheltered from the sun, the snow, and the rain,
use the next set of 3 apples to buy yourself some clothes,
and use the last apple to thank God for his gift of the other 9 apples to him.

So, he ate the first set of 3 apples with a great joy.
And he bought a house with the proceeds from selling the second set of 3 apples.
And he got himself some clothes with the proceeds from selling the third set of 3 apples.

Then after when he saw the tenth and last apple,
it looked much bigger and tastier than the other 9 apples.
In his heart, he knew that he was told to use this last apple to thank God and therefore he should return the apples to God,
he could not resist the temptation of the last apples
because it looked much bigger and tastier than the other 9 apples.

Finally, he told himself, "Since all the apples in this whole world belongs to God, I do not think one will make any difference..."
With this thought in his mind, he ate the last apples without any hesitation.
However, since he needs to thank God with something,
he left God with the skinny core of the apples he just ate.
God gave us in abundance to eat, wear and live without a want,
and on top of that, he gave us an extra to use it to thank him.

Will you offer the biggest and most tasty looking apple to God to thank him?
Or will you eat it all and leave God with the skinny core of the apple?
The choice is entirely yours. (Anonymous)

The earthly Possessions! Are they really mine? Is it O.K. to consider them as mine and go on with my life? Am I born-again with respect to my values regarding the earthly possessions? Do I have the sense of conversion of perception that God is the true master of the earthly possessions and I am just a steward? Do I live a life of confession that makes my perception and faith to make the offering of tithe? Or, do you still believe that the earthly possessions are mine, offering God only the skinny core of the apples?