When we are blessed to have more than we need, it is a challenge for our soul. In the Parable of the Barns, the rich man died without ever using the ‘good things’ that God had given to him. What are we doing with all the good things that God has given to us? We always focus on ourselves, but God wants us to think about others more than ourselves. The best way to learn to care about others is to Tithe to the Church. It was the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Church.
My brothers and sisters, in this morning’s gospel, we hear a very poignant and difficult lesson from God. We have another unnamed rich man who was a farmer and his field yielded so many crops. It says that his barns could not contain everything that he harvested. That means he had more than he ever imagined he was going to have. If we were to put it in a more contemporary basis, his bank account was full and the bank couldn’t fit any more money and still he had more. And he thought to himself, “What am I going to do with all this stuff?” He says, “I have more than I need. I can’t even fit it in my barns.” He thinks to himself, “I’ll tear my barns down and build bigger ones. I’ll go buy a bigger bank.” And that night he died. And what good did all of those things do to his soul? And God said, “Whose are they now?” And the answer is, my brothers and sisters, they belong to those whom they have always belonged to: to other people.
You see, the good things that God gives to us is not for our use. It is for us to be a blessing to other people. Even if you remember in the wedding service, the priest blessing the couple asks for God to pour upon them overwhelming wealth. And it says in the prayer so that they can be a blessing to others. Everything we have is for us to help other people. And that’s a very difficult lesson for us to hear in the gospel because we wake up, we go to work, or we go to school preparing to work, and we get our paycheck, it goes in the bank and we immediately begin to think of ourselves. What shall I buy myself? Where shall I go for vacation? All of it focusing on ourselves.
As we know, this month is Stewardship Month. And I wrote a challenging message in the bulletin for you today because people are always asking me, how much should stewardship be? And I want you to consider the answer based on this morning’s gospel. All the good things that God has given to us are for us to do good and to serve God. And so all the way back at the time of Abraham, God established a relationship between us and our money and God. All the way back from Abraham, it has been the law of the people of God to give at least 10% of everything we have to God for the work of His church. That was the standard in the Old Testament, it is the standard in the New Testament and it is the standard in the church. I gave you a quote from 1,700 years ago from St. John Chrysostom suggesting that we give 10% of everything we have to the church.
Now, why do you think God gives us this commandment? It isn’t about the law. It isn’t about the budget of the church. It is about our hearts. You see, my brothers and sisters, God knows how much we struggle with our own ego. God knows that we want to please ourselves. God knows that we want to keep all of the good things to ourselves. This is why He gave us this morning’s gospel lesson. And so He gives us the commandment of 10% to train our hearts so we can learn to think about God and other people before ourselves. You might think, what’s 10%? $1 for every $10. Big deal. Until we want something and then all of a sudden we think we need that dollar. And so we tell to God, “Well, I have to buy this now, and if I have any left over, then I’ll give it.” And again, we don’t know if we have tomorrow. And God is going to say to us, “Those good things, whose are they now?”
This is the challenge, my brothers and sisters, especially as Americans, the wealthiest nation on the face of the earth, our entire world around us revolves around money. We are evaluated based upon our wealth. We are evaluated at work. The better workers we are, the more money we receive. Every time we turn around, we are being compared to money because deep down inside, that’s what we all love. We love money, but God wants us to love Him. And so He’s given us these challenges to separate us from our money so that our hearts can open to other people and that our commitment can be to God and his church and the work that Christ has for us to do. Feeding the poor like our community does, helping those who need help bringing hope to people who walk around in darkness because they have nowhere to turn. This is the work that God has called us to, and it’s always about somebody else, not about us.
So when you consider your stewardship, I want you to think about this morning’s gospel. And I want you to make a commitment to God. Ask God to help you learn to put Him first. And God gives us permission to test Him. In the Old Testament, in the Book of Malachi, God says, “Put the Lord to the test. Bring the full tithe into the storehouses. Bring your 10%,” God says, and then He says, “And see if the Lord doesn’t pour blessings over your head.” So I want you to challenge God this week. I want you to be willing to put God to the test. Put 10% to the church and trust and challenge God that you will have what you need this week.
We may not always have what we want, but it’s not about us. It’s about God and other people. And if we do that and our hearts turn toward the other, and we find ourselves in the situation of this morning’s gospel where we have more than we need and more than we can ever imagine, instead of our hearts worrying about our future, we’ll turn to help other people. And then God will say, “Good and faithful servant” because you cared for others more than you care for yourself. That’s our challenge. And God gives us permission to test Him. Take God up on His offer and test Him this week and see that He won’t make sure that you have enough as you bless other people. Glory to God.
