Rich in Good Works 1 Timothy 6:17-19 A Sermon Preached by Ernie Thompson Westminster Presbyterian Church Greensboro, NC September 25, 2016 One Great Day of Service Introduction: Video Clip from Rich by Rob Bell 17 As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19 thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life. My children grew up thinking we were poor, even while Elaine and I tried our best to convince them that we were rich. Our challenge was that many of their friends in Wilmington had boats and beach houses and a membership in the country club. And we did not have a boat or a beach house or a membership in the country club. And so it was easy for our children to focus on what they did not have instead of appreciating how much we did have. And our course it s not just our children. All of us have some tendency to focus on what we don t have instead of focusing on what we do have. That was the point of our short video clip this morning.
2 We may not be as rich as our neighbor, or as rich as the celebrities we see on TV. But all of us here this morning, whether we recognize it or not, are rich. Rob Bell says that if we have a roof over our head, and food to eat this afternoon, and clean water to drink, then 92% of the world looks at us and thinks it must be nice to be so rich. Our Scripture lesson is advice for those who are rich in the present age and I think that means all of us. Our lesson gives us two warnings two ways our riches can get us into trouble. And then it talks about a different kind of riches being rich in good work and finding the treasure of a good foundation which allows us to take hold of the life that really is life. 1. Paul says to Timothy, As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches In the musical Fiddler on the Roof, a poor man Reb Tevye dreams of becoming a rich man. He says to God, I know it s no shame to be poor, but it s no great honor either. So what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune. And then he begins to dance and sing about what it would be like, if he was a wealthy man. He says, if I were a rich man, I'd build a big tall house with rooms by the dozen, Right in the middle of the town. I'd fill my yard with chicks and turkeys and geese and ducks For the town to see and hear And each loud "cheep" and "squawk" and "honk" and "quack" would land like a trumpet on the ear, As if to say "Here lives a wealthy man." He says if I was a rich man, The most important men in town would come to fawn on me! They would ask me to advise them, Like a Solomon the Wise. And it won't make one bit of difference if I answer right or wrong. When you're rich, they think you really know!
3 Reb Tevye thinks that if he only had a big house and lots of chickens and ducks and geese that would make him happy and respected. But we all know it doesn t really work that way. A big house is just a big house. And people fawning over you just because you have a big house, is not as much fun as it sounds like it might be. Our lesson warns us that riches can make us haughty or arrogant. We can begin to think that we are somehow better or wiser than those who have less. But the bigger problem is that we can begin to set our hopes on the uncertainty of riches. And so our riches can become a kind of idol - the focus of our hopes and dreams. The problem here is not being rich, but rather the way we think about our riches. In fact our lesson says that God richly provides everything for our enjoyment, and so we can receive with gratitude God s many blessings. But we need to remember the source of those blessings. In the book of Deuteronomy God says to the people as they enter the Promised Land, Do not say to yourself, My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth, But remember the Lord your God, for it is God who gives you the power to get wealth. In his video, Bell asks, Do you believe everything you own is in some way a gift from God? Everything? That s the shift that our Scripture lesson asks us to make, to begin to see everything we own as in some way a gift from God - a gift of God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. When we were in Wilmington for my daughter s wedding a few weeks ago some friends gave us their house for the week. They stayed at their beach house and invited us to use their in town house. It is one of the most beautiful houses in town. It sits on a four acre lot that is manicured like a park. There was room for us to spread out and for all the bridesmaids to come and spend the morning of the wedding there getting ready. We knew the house was a wonderful gift, and so we were deeply grateful for it and we enjoyed being there. Our lesson asks us to think of our own houses in the same way, and to think of everything we own in the same way - that in some sense, everything we own is a gift from God. Bell says, Food - gift. Roof - gift. That breath that you just took - gift.
4 And once we can make that shift, once we recognize that God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment, then it changes the way we live. 2. Then the next part becomes easy. Our lesson says, They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous and ready to share. If we see everything we own as the product only of our hard work, then we'll cling tightly to us. If we set our hope on our riches, then it s hard to be generous and to share. But if we see everything as a gift, given by God who richly provides everything for our enjoyment, then we ll be generous and ready to share. This morning and afternoon we ll have over 300 folks from Westminster spreading out all over our community to do good works. We ll be painting and weeding and sorting and organizing. And the same thing happens week after week, day after day. We don t always concentrate it quite so much, and we don t always do it together. But day after day and week after week we who gather for worship at Westminster and then we go out and live with generosity and a readiness to share. And there is a connection between our worship and our service. We don t just serve out of the goodness of our hearts. We serve because we have experienced God s goodness, and his goodness begins to creep into our lives. The more we focus on God, the more we want to be like God. The more we see his blessings in our lives, the more eager we are to go out and to be a blessing to others. I attended a retreat once where we practiced mindful eating. It was a little strange at first. We ate in silence, and we d been instructed to pay attention to everything. We were told to eat slowly, to notice the color and texture of each thing we put in our mouth, and pay attention to the flavor, to really appreciate every part of the meal, the coolness of the drink, the sweetness of the dessert. I m not sure I could at all my meals that way, but it was a helpful exercise, because there is so much we miss because we are not paying attention. Worship is about paying attention.
5 It s about pausing from the busyness of life to thank God for all that he so richly provides for our enjoyment. It s taking the time to speak to God in our songs, and to listen for God in Scripture and sermon. I think worship also trains us to pay attention to others to pay attention to their pain, to pay attention to their concerns, to pay attention to their cries for justice. Many of us I know are troubled by the protests in Charlotte and other places, and we wonder what we can do. I don t think service projects alone can fix this problem. But paying attention can make a difference, really listening and trying to understand others whose experience is very different from our own. And often our service can open doors for us to listen and understand how we might truly do good not just do good works, but do good, to bring that deep healing to a fractured world that is the promise of Scripture. The more we pay attention to God and to his good gifts, and the more we pay attention to our neighbors, the more generous we become, ready to share, eager and able to do good. 3. And then in our service, in our generosity, in that freedom from arrogance and freedom from anxiety, we discover the life that really is life. In a few weeks we ve got Brian Blount coming to preach for us. Brian is the president of Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond and I think he is one of the best scholars and preachers and leaders in the church today and so I m eager for you to hear him. Brian also has a strange hobby, reading zombie novels. I really didn t know there was such a thing, but apparently there is a whole genre of novels about zombies. Zombies are stuck somewhere between life and death. They are not really alive, but they are not really dead either. They are the walking dead. And Brian argues that this is also the way the Bible describes most of us - we are stuck in this strange place of being partly alive and partly dead. We are he says, the walking dead, living, but not really living. Blount writes,
We are, all of us, even all of us Christians, dead people walking. Does this recognition not help explain why we consume each other and our world the way we do? Does it not help us understand why so often we are so vicious with one another on both individual and communal levels? Does it not explain why we feel so caught off guard when someone does something truly magnanimous and sacrificial on behalf of someone else, particularly when it is someone unknown? We are dead; it should not be surprising that we behave in such deadly ways. 6 That s the bad news. But there is also good news. God sends his son Jesus Christ to fight this power of death. Jesus comes to expose and to defeat the power of death which is at work in the world and at work in our lives, and Jesus comes to give us the life that really is life. Jesus says, Those who believe in me will live, even though they die. And those who live and believe in me will never die. The riches of this present age cannot give life. If we set our hope on the uncertainty of riches, it will not lead only to anxiety and fear and greed. And those are the ways of death. But when we set our hope on God, who richly provides everything for our enjoyment, then we discover the life that really is life. If we think we are poor, then we are not paying attention. If we think we are poor, then we have been misled by the world around us. We have misunderstood what it means to be truly rich. And so our lesson points us to a better way. It tells us to set our hope on God, who richly provides everything for our enjoyment. It tells us to see everything we own as a gift, a gift from the God who loves us and cares for us. It tells us to do good, to be rich in good works, generous and ready to share. And then we will discover the life that really is life.