June 25, 2004
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Mammon
Coming back from lunch yesterday, I walked through Alewife office park and marvelled at the imposing gleaming structures. Buildings dedicated to and used by corporations. Future archeologists will dig through layers and conclude:
- Ancient Israelites worshipped YHWH at impressive temples
- Medieval Europe worshipped kings and The Church at impressive castles and cathedrals
- Americans worshipped corporations at impressive office buildings
Corporations are just the societal structural embodiments of money. So in reality we worship money. That got me thinking about the ways we worship money, and what it would be like if we didn’t.
At the Highrock missions service auction last month, I saw a taste of a money-free attitude. Once the bidding got up to around $200 for a service, the rest of the services seemed to go for that much also. It’s as if the spirit of generosity descended on the room, and everyone agreed that $200 was a decent amount to donate for any service. In contrast at a previous service auction I remember hearing people calculate the actual value of an item, and the final bidding rose just a hair past that.
Materialism is one obvious way to worship money: flaunting it to show off to others, or deriving self-value from the market value of one’s possessions. So I’ve heard sermons preached about how we should strive to live on less to give more, etc… But just thinking about money in those terms — less and more — is itself a worship of money. Because the language of Money is figures, arithmetic, plus and minus, less and more. God, on the other hand, seems to enjoy upsetting those scales. Three hundred men rout fifteen thousand. 99 sheep are left behind for finding one. A worker who works an hour is paid the same wage as one working the whole day.
Don’t get me wrong — I love math, and I think God who made the world an ordered mathematical place loves math too. But there’s more to life, especially when it comes to relationships with each other and with God. When we get married and raise kids, we don’t calculate the net worth of the spouse and children. We don’t set allowances on our spouses, calculating to the penny. Instead, what’s ours is theirs, and the family has an equal responsibility with ownership, or rather stewardship of the finances. Likewise, I’m not really comfortable with the idea of tithing an exact 10%. That in itself is a holdover from a Jewish tradition of saving up 10% for a huge annual party. So when I hear the question of whether we should tithe before or after taxes, I have to think that’s not the point. I believe we should spend enough to live a non-distracting lifestyle, save enough for a rainy day, and put the rest of our money to kingdom uses.
That will look different for each person. Some people’s kingdom uses may be to support missionaries, as one new Highrock i-banker is doing. Another might be to help with family finances as an expression of honoring, obedience, or witness. Another might be saving up for future life as an inner-city volunteer. Or maybe building a nest egg for Highrock’s upcoming building fund drive.
Uh-oh, this post is turning out too long and scattered and out-of-control. What I really meant to say is that we worship money in a variety of ways, even though we don’t see it that way. Just because we make a commitment to tithe doesn’t necessarily solve the heart issue of worship, just as a chocolate addict who limits herself to two pieces a day doesn’t love chocolate any less. If the concept of planned financial giving leads us to first count the cost, then we are worshipping money by putting it as a first priority.
- Ancient Israelites worshipped YHWH at impressive temples
Comments (7)
WOW- great post. As someone who knew you a couple years ago, I would never have predicted you’d write this. Its more evidence of the ways God continues to shape you and use you to shape others.
So many good comments in your post. Only correction is that the money saved up for the party was AFTER the inviolable 10% tithe. The total that was to be set aside was about 32%, which included tithe, donations to the poor, and contributing to a huge party which was to anticipate the joy of heaven.
When I was in CA two weeks ago, I met a few commodities traders who formed a corporation, and part of their constitution is to give 20% of profit from every trade to churches and missions, and then 100% of all income over a certain point. They are like rabid dogs trying to make profit, because they see their call from God to be to finance His work. I have never seen finance guys who work so hard and love their work so much. It really inspires me to want to do all I can to advance the kingdom too.
I don’t think I agree with you about math. I think God created it as a necessary earthly evil, and we’ll have no need of it in heaven.
Same with money. Good thoughts – stewardship is something we’re realizing we need to take more seriously.
I was trying to balance my accounts last night and realized that I haven’t saved as much as I’d like. I then proceeded to try to figure out where it all went, and money’s been on the brain.
Thanks for your post! It’s so easy to fall into the trap of being obsessive about hoarding and managing, when really, it’s about giving of what we have been given.
Thought-provoking post. I absolutely agree with the overall point — that focusing too much monetary cost or specific numbers can itself constitute a worship of money.
But I disagree that just using the language of money (“less” and “more”) is a form of money worship — how else can we discuss financial stewardship? I think the idea of not being legalistic (heh, anti-legalistic is your middle name
) is good, but on the other hand, there are also absolutes that can be priced and used as guidelines. e.g. the cost of having a roof over one’s head, the minimum cost of food, etc.
And I think sermons that don’t include concrete examples of expense would probably miss half the audience. A lot of people need concrete numbers in order for the message to hit home, and that doesn’t necessarily make them more or less materialistic than someone who only needs to hear the idea, the way you do [notice the veiled reference to myers-briggs =>].
Wow, B called me anti-legalistic and a strong N in one response! Not that I’ll deny either one…
The problem with absolutes and concrete numbers is that people can fixated on them. As in: it’s ok to drive a Camry but not a Lexus. It’s ok to spend $50/week on food, so I’ll eat rice with soy sauce every day except for one really nice meal a week. You get the idea.
The problem with no absolutes or concrete numbers is that people can just pay lip service to the principles but not live them out. We N’s can be off the mark, too.
What is an N?