Earn. Save. Give. Devotional Readings for Home: Wesley's Simple Rules for Money by James A. Harnish | eBook

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Earn. Save. Give. Devotional Readings for Home

By James A. Harnish

Abingdon Press

CHAPTER 1

We Don't Need More Money; We Need Wisdom

Happy are those who find wisdom
and those who gain understanding.
Her profit is better than silver,
and her gain better than gold.
(Proverbs 3:13-14)

The eighteenth century was a time of major social and economic change in England. The economic inequality between the comfortable, affluent aristocracy and the beleaguered, poverty-stricken lower classes was growing larger and more tenuous.

The first Methodists came on the scene with a life-giving proclamation of the gospel that offered hope for transformation in every area of human experience. Some historians say that the Methodist revival saved England from the kind of violent revolution that swept across Western Europe. The personal and spiritual disciplines that John Wesley practiced and taught enabled people in the lower classes to become more responsible, better educated, and more prosperous. Soon Wesley faced the unexpected predicament of Methodist people accumulating wealth, wearing fine clothing, and building more attractive homes and preaching houses.

Wesley responded to this change of economic circumstances in his classic sermon, "The Use of Money." He used the defining word from the Proverbs when he declared that "the right use of money" is "an excellent branch of Christian wisdom." In fact, the word wisdom appears seven times in this sermon. He acknowledged that money was "a subject largely spoken of ... by men of the world; but not sufficiently considered by those whom God hath chosen out of the world."

We could say the same thing about many congregations today in which the only time money is mentioned is during an annual pledge drive to support the church budget. But Wesley's concern in the sermon was not to raise money for the Methodist movement; his purpose was to equip Methodists to manage and use their money in the most faithful and effective ways. In this sermon, he set out the essential themes that he continued to proclaim in multiple sermons that were intended to provide wisdom on both the spiritual and practical aspects of managing money.

From that starting point, Mr. Wesley outlined what he called "three plain rules" on the use of money. They are as simple, clear, and memorable as any of the Old Testament proverbs:

• Gain all you can.

• Save all you can.

• Give all you can.

For this study, we have replaced the word gain with earn, to make Wesley's rules more directly applicable to our times.

"The Use of Money" laid out a description of what it means to live by those rules, and he reaffirmed them in a number of his other sermons. Two-and-a-half centuries later, Wesley's rules continue to provide practical and positive wisdom for discovering a faithful, biblical, and hopeful approach to our financial lives.

-From Earn. Save. Give., by James A. Harnish

1. Ancient and Awesome

Honor the LORD with your wealth
and with the first of all your crops.
Then your barns will be filled with plenty,
and your vats will burst with wine.
(Proverbs 3:9-10)

I was a first-year seminary student almost forty years ago, with only a few weeks of New Testament Greek under my belt, when a professor offered an advanced-level course that sounded intriguing. He intended to examine and explore ancient letters written by ordinary Christians during the era when our faith was illegal. These ancient letters concerned everyday matters such lost cloaks, travel arrangements, complaints about kids, the weather—and money!

I was eager to take the course, but the professor said I would only be accepted if I passed a test showing that I could read as much Greek as students who had mastered a full year's study. The task seemed impossible, but I studied hard, took the test, and passed. Smoke and mirrors? Or maybe prayer really works!

The course was great fun. I learned about ordinary life in the ancient world. One letter that I translated survived only in tattered fragments of papyrus. An early Christian wrote from Rome to Alexandria, Egypt, but not about church. The letter was all about grain and barley shipments, the baking of loaves, and the transport of cloth. It seems likely that the letter writer took part in the vital trade that kept the populations of large cities such as Rome alive, while making an honest profit to support his Christian community.

The addressee of the letter was told "to deliver the money to ... Maximus the Papas, and get a receipt from him. But the profits [from the bread and the cloth] are to be trusted to Theonas. I want to find it in my account when I arrive in Alexandria."

Maximus was the papas (the "pope" or bishop) of Alexandria from A.D. 264 to 282. Theonas would later succeed Maximus in the same office after his death.

Notice that this letter was not about theology, but money. The early church in the Roman Empire was built after the model of the Roman household, which existed for the economic protection and support of all its members. Before most believers became Christians, they would have taken part in their family's craft or business and prayed to the family's god. After baptism, the believers would no longer pray to that god; they would become a new family that prayed together to Jesus.

The point is that from the beginning, Christian churches have served not only as spiritual outposts but also as economic units. Wisdom in earning, saving, and giving money has allowed Christians to look after each other. These activities are part of our roots as the church.

Though some people think of the church's world as separate from the "real" world of finance and economics, the first Christians did not separate financial accountability from their call to be faithful disciples. Neither should we.

Divine Wisdom, Giver of all good things, grant us a share of your wisdom as we seek to witness in all we sing, pray, praise, and spend. Amen.

* * *

2. I Have a Name

"Listen to this! A farmer went out to scatter seed." (Mark 4:3)

The parable of the sower, found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, is no exercise in gardening. When the farmer goes out to his field to sow, it is an act that could mean life or death for his family. Their economic well-being depends on how well he does his job.

In this parable, Jesus tells how the seed falls on various kinds of soil and in some cases fails altogether. However, the parable concludes, "Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold" (Mark 4:8 NRSV).

Jesus went on to explain how the word of God can be planted in different people. In some it will wither and fail, while in others it will bring forth great fruit. Perhaps one reason the parable is so well remembered is that that's what life is like for so many people.

I knew a denominational official who had worked many years in African missions and had returned to America to make films. He watched an African man sowing seeds in a primitive but effective manner, and he asked the man for permission to film him sowing, because it would make a great backdrop for a reading of this Scripture.

The purpose of the film was to encourage greater giving to mission projects, and this graphic illustration of the text did indeed have an effect on giving. It was like the seed that the farmer sowed on good soil, bearing much fruit.

The African man consented to be filmed, but afterward he came up to the filmmaker and asked for a moment of his time. The filmmaker assumed the sower was going to ask for payment, but he didn't. He simply asked, "Don't you want to know my name?"

The story was a reminder to all of us that our economic choices are not just theoretical, numerical, or financial. They are tied to real people with real lives, who have names and who matter to God. Our economic choices include looking for the best bargains to provide for ourselves and our families, but they also must bear witness to our Savior, and they cannot bring harm to others.

We ought to know the names of our brothers and sisters who make our clothes, grow our food, and build our cars, whether five miles away or five thousand. Once someone has a name, we are more likely to make wise choices in the ways we spend our money.

God whose name is I AM, we are together around this great globe and are your servants. As we name you Lord, bless us that we may name each other as brother and sister in one family, one economy, one in love and service. Amen.

* * *

3. Daily Bread

I know the experience of being in need and of having more than enough; I have learned the secret to being content in any and every circumstance, whether full or hungry or whether having plenty or being poor. I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:12-13)

A mashal is a term used in the Book of Proverbs for a saying that is self-evident, that means what it says. In the thirtieth chapter of Proverbs we meet a sage named Agur who uses a mashal to make an important point about wisdom and economics.

Everything about Agur is mysterious. His name and lineage suggest he might be a foreign-born official who had important religious duties in Israel. He is a masterful poet, a perceptive observer of human nature, and he offers a prayer that is striking because it encapsulates the contentment most of us ought to seek in having enough but not too much.

Two things I ask of you;
don't keep them from me before I die:
Fraud and lies—
keep far from me!

Don't give me either poverty or wealth;
give me just the food I need.
Or I'll be full and deny you,
and say, "Who is the Lord?"
Or I'll be poor and steal,
and dishonor my God's name.
(Proverbs 30:7-9)

It's impossible to say if Agur's prayer had any influence on Jesus when he taught the Lord's Prayer to his disciples, but one can make the argument that our daily bread is one of the factors that leads us away from temptation. That's certainly why Agur wisely asks to be delivered from poverty, because otherwise he might dishonor God by stealing. Agur realizes that riches, the other extreme, can also be a trap, because if he is too satisfied he will no longer recognize God as Father. By asking, "Who is the Lord?" he will be dishonoring the holiness of God's name.

Our culture is telling us that having enough is not enough. We need more. The result is that many of us believe we never have enough, even if we achieve more success than we ever dreamed possible. The way of the world is a fraud and a lie. If our choices about money are taken out of the realm of faith and wrestled with only in a worldly setting, we will never find the place Agur points to, neither very rich nor very poor.

Agur's mashal is succinct and memorable. It is wisdom at its best.

Lord God of all days and all seasons, may we never forget you, whether rich or poor, in prosperity or adversity. You are with us always, even unto the end of the age! Amen.

4. Borders Between Rich and Poor

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the
poor...." (Luke 4:18)

The sight of earth from space is so vivid and complex that some of the early astronauts asked for books of paint samples so they would have a vocabulary adequate to describe the colors they saw! But one thing astronauts could not see from space was the Great Wall of China. That's an urban myth. Or is it an orbital myth? The Great Wall cannot be seen from space.

Surprisingly, however, there is something that can be seen clearly from space: the border between rich countries and poor countries. Politics and economics are visible from space. You can see where the money is, and where it ends.

At least that's what former astronaut John Grunsfeld reported. "Wealthy countries are lined in green and then you see the country next door that has no water," he said at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Grunsfeld, who made five space flights and visited the Hubble Space Telescope three times to improve the visibility of things millions of light years away, took time to look down on Earth from his vantage point three hundred miles into space. During the fourteen years when his flights were taken, he saw the gap between rich and poor countries widen. Rich countries became greener. Poor countries grew browner as they became more arid. More forests were cleared. More rivers were dammed. The poor countries had fewer trees. "It's really very disturbing," he said.

When Jesus visited his hometown synagogue, he quoted from Isaiah that he had come to preach good news to the poor. Part of that passage was "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (4:19), a year of debt relief known as the Jubilee. Jesus' teaching was damaging to his popularity.

When we preach the economic wisdom of the New Testament today, our poll numbers go down as well. But when we can look down from space and clearly see the disparity between rich and poor, doesn't it tell us that the wise use of our money includes bridging the economic gap both at home and around the world?

God whose creation, viewed from space, fills us with awe and challenges us to share more, make me an instrument of your peace. Amen.

* * *

5. What If?

But anyone who needs wisdom should ask God, whose very nature is to give to everyone without a second thought, without keeping score. Wisdom will certainly be given to those who ask. (James 1:5)

Have you ever asked yourself, "What would I do if someone gave me a million dollars?" Answers tend to vary, from spending it all madly to saving it for the future, or giving it away to friends, family, and favorite charities, including one's church.

For most of us it's a game. But one day an old man with a trace of a German accent walked into the church office of a Mennonite pastor, took a seat, and asked him, "What would your congregation do if you had access to two million dollars?"

Perhaps something in the old man's bearing told the pastor that this was no theoretical question. The man went on to tell the pastor that he had been a soldier in the German army during World War II, fighting during the terrible winter on the Russian front. He developed typhoid fever and soon was gravely ill. Finally he was nursed back to health by a Russian Mennonite woman who had been forced to work in the German army hospital.

Afterward, at great personal risk to herself and despite the fact that they were enemies in the conflict, the Russian Mennonite woman saved his life by providing papers that sent him home instead of back to the front.

After the war, the man started a new life in America, worked hard, and grew rich. He tried to track down the woman who had helped him, but he was unable to find any trace of her. He decided in her memory to make a gift to a Mennonite congregation in America, and he had selected that pastor's congregation from the phone book.

What did the church do with two million dollars? They formed a committee so the money would be used wisely. They decided to support several different ministries, such as Habitat for Humanity, overseas service projects, grants for youth attending Christian colleges, disaster response programs, and many others. A great deal of thought and wisdom went into the preservation and use of the funds. The challenge to be good stewards led to good plans, so the gift would neither be wasted, as in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), nor buried, as in the parable of the valuable coins (Matthew 25:14-30).

What would you have done? How would your church have handled the gift? Perhaps your congregation already has a procedure for handling large gifts. How many people are involved in the decision-making process? How successful is the procedure? Maybe you don't have a plan at all. Are you assuming you won't get large gifts? Have large gifts in the past been spent, then disappeared?

As a church, prepare for gifts. Think about it. Plan for them.

God of life, whether I'm dealing with amounts great or small, I count on you to direct me in gaining, saving, and giving. Amen.

Week One Activities

Individual

• Pick a page of Proverbs in your Bible at random and highlight any proverbs about money.

• Put a change jar at your school or workplace. Designate a charity for the change you collect.

• Write an acrostic poem for the word wisdom about money.

• Review your pattern of giving. How regular is it?

• Pray the Prayer of Agur. (See the Prayer Pages at the end.)

• Consult a Bible dictionary or the Internet for insights on giving, offerings, and sacrifice in the Bible.

• Look up and read John Wesley's sermon, "The Use of Money."

• Estimate how many books are in your home. How many books do you have about money?

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Earn. Save. Give. Devotional Readings for Home by James A. Harnish. Copyright © 2015 Abingdon Press. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Earn. Save. Give. Devotional Readings for Home: Wesley's Simple Rules for Money

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Earn. Save. Give. Devotional Readings for Home: Wesley's Simple Rules for Money

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