We Will Make The Shekel Great
Sermon
It is said that if everyone started their adult life on an equal footing with £1000 each, some would go on to become millionaires, some would chug along comfortably, some would struggle to make ends meet and some would become poor. It may also be true that those who became millionaires would be venerated, those who were comfortable would be admired, those who struggled would be despised and those who were poor would be so completely disregarded that they would quickly become invisible. It might also be said that every one of those people deserved their fate, whatever it might be, because they all started equal with the same chances.
Perhaps every society throughout the history of humanity has venerated those who become rich. Our own society seems to consider little else and consequently we are bombarded through every branch of the media with advertisements urging us to want more and more, and get-rich-quick schemes like the National Lottery telling us how to to make our dreams of wealth into a reality.
But where money is concerned, we will never be equal. Some have the ability to make money, others don't, just as some are good at sport and others are hopeless, some are good with words or numbers or their hands or their voice, and others have no gift at all in any of those directions. It is not necessarily true that those who work the hardest make the most money. It's more likely to be true that those who have good business sense and lots of other people working for them, make money.
Therefore it is not logical that we should venerate those who make money and despise those who fail to make money, but human beings seem to have done this throughout their history. In the history of the Jews, becoming rich was so highly regarded that it was enshrined within religion and taken to be a sign of God's especial care. Those who were wealthy were considered to be under God's special protection as especially good people, whereas those who were poor were considered to have been rejected by God as sinners.
But even within this strand of thought there was some discomfort. It has always been obvious that not all the rich are good people. Some have become rich by abusing and disregarding the needs of others and for these people, God has harsh words of condemnation.
In today's reading from the book of Amos written some eight centuries before the time of Jesus, God says, "Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, "We will make the measuring standard small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances. The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds."
One of the problems with making money is that it is so tempting to use every means possible to make money grow. And money may grow fastest by trampling on the needy, bringing to ruin the poor, reducing the quantity which can be bought with a certain sum of money and venerating money to the exclusion of all else.
These are some of the temptations involved in making money and they have been around for as long as money has been around. But it is not true to say that all money making falls prey to these temptations. There are Jewish money makers like Marks and Spencer who have always held the highest moral standards and Christian money makers such as Robert Edmiston, who makes his money from car sales and property but has put £63m into his charity, Christian Vision and Sir Cliff Richard who pours much of his energy into charity work and is vice-president of the Tear Fund development agency. But interestingly, of the Sunday Times Rich List of the 1000 richest people in Britain, only three overtly claim to be Christians.
There is nothing at all wrong in making money. Without money, we cannot exist and those who are the poorest in our world are those who subsist with only a few cents in their pockets. We all need to make provision for ourselves and for our futures, if we possibly can. In today's gospel reading Jesus told a story about a steward who made provision for his own future. He made that provision dishonestly, but Jesus didn't tell the story in order to condemn him for his dishonesty. Jesus told the story to commend the steward for his foresight and his astuteness in dealing with people and to highlight the steward's willingness to risk his whole life in following his chosen course of action. The story also highlights God's love and generosity in forgiveness.
In effect, the steward stole from his master. But because the master didn't venerate money but put the needs of his workers higher than his desire for money, he forgave the steward and took him back.
And this is the point that is being made in the book of Amos. Money is fine and good and necessary, but the needs of people must come higher than the desire for money. We are not to seek for money at any cost, but are to seek first that which is good and right. We are not to trample on the needy or bring to ruin the poor of the land. We are not to spend every second we have in selling our goods. We are never to practise deceit in money matters, like fiddling the income tax or the expense account, but are to be faithful in all matters, those visible and those invisible, those great and those small. And we are not to trick the vulnerable in parting with their money for things they don't need.
Although the ethos of our country and of the whole world is to make the shekel great, those who truly worship God are not to follow this path or to get sucked into the prevailing social culture. We are to use the shekel, but not to make the shekel great. Our life is to reveal God's greatness to others and we are to do that, as Jesus taught us, by caring for the poor and needy and striving for equality for all human beings.
Then, when God says, "Surely I will never forget any of their deeds," we need not be afraid.
Perhaps every society throughout the history of humanity has venerated those who become rich. Our own society seems to consider little else and consequently we are bombarded through every branch of the media with advertisements urging us to want more and more, and get-rich-quick schemes like the National Lottery telling us how to to make our dreams of wealth into a reality.
But where money is concerned, we will never be equal. Some have the ability to make money, others don't, just as some are good at sport and others are hopeless, some are good with words or numbers or their hands or their voice, and others have no gift at all in any of those directions. It is not necessarily true that those who work the hardest make the most money. It's more likely to be true that those who have good business sense and lots of other people working for them, make money.
Therefore it is not logical that we should venerate those who make money and despise those who fail to make money, but human beings seem to have done this throughout their history. In the history of the Jews, becoming rich was so highly regarded that it was enshrined within religion and taken to be a sign of God's especial care. Those who were wealthy were considered to be under God's special protection as especially good people, whereas those who were poor were considered to have been rejected by God as sinners.
But even within this strand of thought there was some discomfort. It has always been obvious that not all the rich are good people. Some have become rich by abusing and disregarding the needs of others and for these people, God has harsh words of condemnation.
In today's reading from the book of Amos written some eight centuries before the time of Jesus, God says, "Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, "We will make the measuring standard small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances. The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds."
One of the problems with making money is that it is so tempting to use every means possible to make money grow. And money may grow fastest by trampling on the needy, bringing to ruin the poor, reducing the quantity which can be bought with a certain sum of money and venerating money to the exclusion of all else.
These are some of the temptations involved in making money and they have been around for as long as money has been around. But it is not true to say that all money making falls prey to these temptations. There are Jewish money makers like Marks and Spencer who have always held the highest moral standards and Christian money makers such as Robert Edmiston, who makes his money from car sales and property but has put £63m into his charity, Christian Vision and Sir Cliff Richard who pours much of his energy into charity work and is vice-president of the Tear Fund development agency. But interestingly, of the Sunday Times Rich List of the 1000 richest people in Britain, only three overtly claim to be Christians.
There is nothing at all wrong in making money. Without money, we cannot exist and those who are the poorest in our world are those who subsist with only a few cents in their pockets. We all need to make provision for ourselves and for our futures, if we possibly can. In today's gospel reading Jesus told a story about a steward who made provision for his own future. He made that provision dishonestly, but Jesus didn't tell the story in order to condemn him for his dishonesty. Jesus told the story to commend the steward for his foresight and his astuteness in dealing with people and to highlight the steward's willingness to risk his whole life in following his chosen course of action. The story also highlights God's love and generosity in forgiveness.
In effect, the steward stole from his master. But because the master didn't venerate money but put the needs of his workers higher than his desire for money, he forgave the steward and took him back.
And this is the point that is being made in the book of Amos. Money is fine and good and necessary, but the needs of people must come higher than the desire for money. We are not to seek for money at any cost, but are to seek first that which is good and right. We are not to trample on the needy or bring to ruin the poor of the land. We are not to spend every second we have in selling our goods. We are never to practise deceit in money matters, like fiddling the income tax or the expense account, but are to be faithful in all matters, those visible and those invisible, those great and those small. And we are not to trick the vulnerable in parting with their money for things they don't need.
Although the ethos of our country and of the whole world is to make the shekel great, those who truly worship God are not to follow this path or to get sucked into the prevailing social culture. We are to use the shekel, but not to make the shekel great. Our life is to reveal God's greatness to others and we are to do that, as Jesus taught us, by caring for the poor and needy and striving for equality for all human beings.
Then, when God says, "Surely I will never forget any of their deeds," we need not be afraid.
