The Love of Money...

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We’ve heard that meme from Paul (1 Timothy 6:10): the love of money is the root of all evil. We may all tend to believe that this applies to rich people who can easily build bigger barns (or bigger offshore bank accounts) to hold on to what they already have.

Frederick Buechner once shared a devotion about money in which he said: “perhaps it is easier for a rich person to go through the eye of a needle than to get into the kingdom of heaven partly because the wealthy are so busy trying to make money and hang onto it that they are so out of touch with reality that they can’t see the kingdom of heaven as a place worth getting into.”

But are there other ways that we can allow the love of money to get in our way? Not having enough money can be just as much of a hindrance to entering the Kingdom of God as having too much! That may sound ludicrous but hear me out.

I thought about this as I began to hear more and more stories of people helping people with whatever they had during the rescue and recovery phase of the deadly floods that recently devastated our neighbors to the west (even though Kerr County was likely hardest hit in several ways, Burnett, Travis, Kendall, Williamson, and Tom Green counties were also affected, including deaths).

With hospitality being July’s main topic and money being one of the main topics of August, what do we leave undone (we sin by what we have done and what we leave undone) because the tempter sends our minds straight to the question ‘do we have enough money?’

This likely is on my mind considering the number of posts on social media about people helping those in the Hill Country with very little money, and for some who have lost everything in the flood. Here are just a few examples: An SEC football player had all the initials of all of the girls from Camp Mystic who died on his tie; the Mexican Search and Rescue teams who volunteered their time; a young man who showed up every day volunteering to help DPS with traffic control; sausage and kolaches for a Czech search and rescue team by the Czech community in Texas; and the many locals who welcomed, fed, housed, washed clothing, etc... of those who came to help.

As my friend, colleague, and former internship supervisor Bill Uetricht wrote on a recent post: the material gifts matter “but what really matters is the hospitality of the heart, an openness to be captured by something bigger than all the distractions and the anxieties, something that provides meaning, something that gives direction, something that links you to other people, something that helps you deal with that which unsettles everything-death.

“Money follows mission!“ 15 years ago, I heard this phrase from, at the time, Assistant to the Bishop Kerry Nelson. It’s likely he heard it from someone else but I have shared it as often as I can. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these other things will be added unto you...another way to phrase that. His is shorter and easier to remember.

So, whether we have lots or not much at all, love of money can keep us from entering the Kingdom of God, the place where God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control (not, other-control). These do not cost us any money and, according to Paul, there is no law against these things. They never run out! Share them often!

Pastor Glenn