The S Word # 11

THE THEOLOGY OF MONEY # 11
By Douglas Hambidge

LET ME SHOW YOU SOME PICTURES (Continued)

However a message does go out from this church: Money must not intrude into our spiritual exercise or disturb our liturgy.

Let’s look at yet another congregation. We hear from the pulpit that the parish is in financial trouble, so “Let’s have a bingo!” or “Let’s raffle!”

The unfortunate message here is people will always give if there is a chance they may win something in return.

In numerous congregations there is an annual appeal for money because a budget has been drawn up, debts have to be financed, the minister has to be paid or the drains have to be cleaned. The church needs the money—“If we didn’t need the money we would not be asking you to give.”

So the message is obvious: Giving is directly related to stated financial needs.

Then there is the annual meeting where the report of the Rector or the Treasurer begins, “Well, we seem to have survived yet another year.”
What is wrong with these pictures? They all announce an inadequate theology of money, and until that theology is sorted out, all our stewardship efforts will amount to nothing. So where shall we begin?”

LET’S ANSWER THE QUESTION: “WHAT IS MONEY?”

Money has a sacramental aspect.

Beneath its outward appearance there is a deeply significant spiritual meaning.
Money is me in miniature.

It announces who I am and what priorities are. It expresses what I do with my time and energies between my acts of worship and other spiritual exercises.

At the heart of my worship I need to be given the opportunity to say to God,
This is who I am; this is what I have been with my life since I was last here. This is me in the most complete form and expression that I know. As an outward sign of the offering of myself to you, I offer this tangible expression of myself. I want you to receive it, and in consecrating it make me more and more the kind of person you want me to be. Consecrate me, with myself, to be your person in the world.

I am not giving because the Church needs money. I am not giving because I might win a prize, nor even to gain some tax benefit in the process. I give in this way because I have a need to give, and because merely singing songs and saying prayers is not enough.

Continued next week: “What is money?” in #12