(if you cared...... or do you?)
So—
A couple of comments about this weekends sermon and also the picture over to the right hand side of this blog to keep some attention to what the under pinnings were of this weekends sermon.
Money. There’s one song that just kept ringing in my head this weekend… and no it’s not some worship song…. it’s not some mainstream pop song…. It’s a Nine Inch Nails song.
It goes:
“God money Ill do anything for you.
God money just tell me what you want me to.
God money nail me up against the wall.
God money dont want everything he wants it all.
…
No you cant take it
No you cant take that away from me
Head like a hole.
Black as your soul.
Id rather die than give you control.
Head like a hole.
Black as your soul.
Id rather die than give you control.
Bow down before the one you serve.
Youre going to get what you deserve.“
And now you’re probably why in the hell that came to mind? What I always thought was some clever ruse of Trent Renzor blaming God for money and it’s evil…. in actually looking at what the lyrics are saying— to me at least say that the money is the people’s God and that you’re a lesser person for serving something that you give in to control of. The last bit of it really stings because it’s true in a sense. If you bow to your paycheck… if you bow to your car… your clothes, your investments…. you don’t own them…. they own you. Slavery to a hidden agenda of money.
Getting back to the sermon this weekend; Why is it so hard to talk about money in the church? A couple of reasons.
1) It’s a tough topic of pastors to preach….. No— It’s tough to convience people that they need to be giving money to the Church for the Church to do its job.
2) It does actually pay the pastors at your church!! I know, I know you probably already knew that— but think about if the roles were reversed at your current job. If you had to ask your boss for money, how awkward is that?
3) People feel that they are giving enough for the Church to do what it needs to do. False. In fact most people are giving less than 2%—- yes you read that right, 2% of their total income.
Yes... even Starbucks paid ME money....
I’ll give you a little practical break down. Back when I first started at Starbucks, I made about $500 bucks a month. Multiply that by 12 months and that’s about $6,000 a year on average. Now, if I were to give 2% of my monthly pay to the church that is $10 bucks a month x 12 months, that’s $120 dollars a year.
Now stay with me on this one….
I know there are some out there that God has blessed with truly an abundance— Let’s say that someone makes $100,000 a year. 2% of that is $2,000 dollars a year. If you do the math, the break down is about $8400 a month to live off of… and roughly $4200 dollars a paycheck. If you break that down to giving per pay check… that is $84 dollars a paycheck…. or about $168 bucks a month out of total $8400 dollars a month.
Very, very simple math—- and the problem in how things don’t add up is how can the Church do what it needs to do with $10 bucks a month? Or $168 bucks a month? Now don’t take me wrong, I’m not saying that there are people out there that can only give that— however they are the ones giving up everything to gain everything.
One thing that John didn’t really touch on this weekend that I think is a valuable point is what are your priorities. What has God given you that you value and/or care about? Money is a small aspect of the whole picture, but how you react to it, use it, abuse it, let it control you sends a nice ripple throughout everything else in your life.
At this point you’re probably scratching your head about the title of this blog and also the picture above that I started out with.
So let’s get to it. The Church is us. The body is you. Your time, your money, your possessions, your life— is the body being the Church to the world. So what struck out to me about that picture is those people there are people that are just ordinary people. Nothing special right? Wrong. They are the everyday people that you may run into and what you do…. be it open a door, say thank you or glance a slime is loving in an indecent time where everything we’re told…. is to say “F the world… F the church— F the established practices of what I’ve been told…” Being different is the difference between knowing and thinking you know… how will that unfold in the next 24hrs is up to you.
More later.
