Money: 5th July 2007: Luke 12 v 13-21: 8am at St. Mary’s: Revd. Julia Boothby


The story if told of a little boy who wanted £100 pounds very badly. He prayed for one week but nothing happened and so he decided to write God a letter asking for the money. When the post office saw the letter addressed to God UK they decided to send it to the prime minister. When the prime minister saw the letter he was so amused and touched that he decided to send the little boy a £5 note thinking that this would seem like a lot of money to the youngster. The boy was delighted with his money and sent a thank you letter to God which read;

“Dear God, thank you very much for sending the money. However, I noticed that you sent it through No. 10 Downing Street and as usual they took most of it!”

Well, I don’t know if that story is true but it can feel as though we spend a lot of our lives either making money, not feeling that we have enough, worrying about it or trying to make more in various ways. Our readings today from the gospel and from Timothy tell us what our godly attitude to money should be, and they make very challenging reading.

If we look at Paul’s advice to Timothy about money I think it can be summed up by v 11…as for you man of God ( shun) flee from all this.  I wonder what you flee from? I flee from bats and frogs, from the ironing and certainly from any ironing that needs doing! But what is Paul recommending that Timothy flee from? If we look back to the previous verses we see that Timothy is to flee from the “senseless and harmful desires that spring from the love of money”…the love of money Timothy is warned is a root of all kinds of evil and he is shun it.

The song tells us that money makes the world go round and we live in a world where that increasingly appears to be true. Everything in the world seems to be based on the principle of money, we judge people by how much they make, the sort of house they live in, the make of car they drive. We all groan about increased prices of fuel and food and wonder if our pension plans will be all that we hoped they would be. I am sure, that like me, it is a rare day when you don’t spend money on something, even if just a newspaper. Money is a fact of life then, something that we cannot ignore, and indeed Paul does not suggest that we should be like ostriches and stick our heads in the sand and not budget or sort out our finances. Nor does Paul teach that money of itself is evil, but the love of it is, bringing ruin and destruction. His advice then is centered around that well known phrase “ we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it.”

That is a wonderful echo of the parable that Jesus told in our gospel reading today. Here we have the rich man who has so much he does not know what to do with it all so he decides that he will build bigger barns and then …and this is the crucial bit I think.. “ I will say to my soul, Soul you have ample goods laid up for many years, relax, eat, drink and be merry”…  And yet that night he dies. What then, asks Jesus, has been the point of his life?

Those words that Jesus puts in the mouth of the rich man…soul, relax, eat, drink and be merry, are surely the key to what is wrong with this man. He has allowed his whole life to be taken over by his money, his goods, his possessions. His very soul is dominated by those senseless and harmful desires that Paul warns Timothy about. This man has no concern for his spiritual life, for what God might be asking of him. He is totally caught up with this world and all that he has, with no thought for his eternal life.

In direct contrast with this Paul is at pains to tell Timothy that he must first and foremost concentrate on pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. He must fight the good fight of faith and take hold of the gift of eternal life that has been offered to him in Jesus. These are the things that are to dominate his life, they, not the gaining of earthly money and treasures, are to be his goal.

And so it seems to me that the question we must ask ourselves is this; are we more dependent on what we have in this life, which we are on God? Is my happiness, my well being, my inner peace dependent on my bank balance or on things being right between myself and God? Am I pursuing a bigger house, a larger car, an exotic holiday, a pay rise…or am I pursuing God with all my heart and mind and soul?

Jesus said this to his disciples

“Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…for where your treasure is there your heart will be also.”

Where is your treasure and mine this morning?