Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City
Sermon – Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 Generosity
September 6, 2015
Last month
I introduced to you two Bible characters from the Old Testament book of
Proverbs. They were Miss Wisdom and Miss
Folly. And if you remember I advised you
to always follow Miss Wisdom for a good life.
Today Miss Wisdom would like to talk with us about the responsibilities
of being rich. And since everyone here
is rich, richly blessed by God, we need to hear this. But first let’s pray.
May the
words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your
sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.
Proverbs 22:1-7
22 A good name is more desirable than great riches;
to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.
to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.
2 Rich and poor have this in common:
The Lord is the Maker of them all.
The Lord is the Maker of them all.
3 The prudent see danger and take refuge,
but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.
but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.
4 Humility is the fear of the Lord;
its wages are riches and honor and life.
its wages are riches and honor and life.
5 In the paths of the wicked are snares and
pitfalls,
but those who would preserve their life stay far from them.
but those who would preserve their life stay far from them.
6 Start children off on the way they should
go,
and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
If we live
in a house, condo, or apartment in or near Ocean City and if we drive a car we
are rich not poor. So, all of us here
today are rich. There are pastors who
will tell you that it is bad to be rich, as if wealth was somehow evil. But the Bible is clear. Wealth is a sign of God’s blessing. You would not be wealthy unless God blesses
you with wealth. God has blessed you
with the ability to think and work. God has given you motivation to work
hard. And God has given you the ability
to make good decisions. All of this is
good. And the reward you get for hard
work and making good decisions is to be blessed by God with income and
wealth. And so your house and car and
boat and retirement accounts are all symbols of God’s blessings upon you.
Conversely
the poor have been cursed. Many of the
poor make bad decisions. They have
children before getting married. They
use drugs. They gamble. They get into debt. And the result is poverty. Poverty is a curse from God.
Of course
there are exceptions to this general rule. There are evil rich people who acquire their
wealth dishonestly. And there are poor
people who make good decisions and yet find themselves, through no fault of
their own, destitute. Because of these
exceptions we cry out to God asking why the evil prosper while the good
perish. We do this because this is not
the way it is supposed to be. Our God is
a God of justice who blesses us and curses us fairly. But sin has corrupted the system and we find
things at odds with God’s intentions.
God wants
things to be set right. So he sent his
son to forgive us. And he provides us
with wisdom so that we may live our lives as God intended. So let’s visit Miss Wisdom and hear what she
can tell us about living wisely with wealth.
Proverbs 22
9Those who are generous are blessed,
for they share their bread with the poor.
So, the
most important thing you can do as people blessed with wealth is to share some
of your wealth with the poor so they will have what they need. And we need to share generously. We already do this in many ways. Many of you brought food for international
students this summer. And you were very
generous supporting the work of CRU.
We
support institutions which care for the poor in our community. The one I am most familiar with is the Samaritan
Shelter in Pocomoke City. Samaritan
Shelter was started by the Presbyterian churches here on the eastern shore of
Maryland including this church. Today it
is supported by many churches. It
provides a warm meal and a safe place to stay to families and individuals who
desperately need it. The Samaritan
Shelter is a central location for information about government services and
employment opportunities. This church
supports the Samaritan Shelter and I hope it continues to do so
generously.
We also
support the Cold Weather Shelter here in Ocean City. From December through March if the wind
chill is 25 degrees or below the shelter opens, provides dinner, breakfast and
a warm place to sleep for men, women and children on a cold night. It is located at the St. Peter’s Lutheran
Retreat Center at 10301 Costal Highway.
Information about this ministry is in your bulletin.
The Cold
Weather Shelter is a program of the Ocean City Crises Coalition. According to our own Mission Study, “Local
churches have joined together with church monies and volunteers to meet the
needs of the homeless and low income residents of Ocean City year round. Soup
kitchens, Thanksgiving dinners, bags of food, clothes, shelter and rent/utility
money are things typically provided. Our church provides funds and volunteers.
The Cold Weather Shelter is housed at the Lutheran Church in North Ocean City.”[i]
I hope that we continue to support
this vital ministry generously.
Now according to Miss Wisdom the
rich have an obligation to share their blessings from God with the poor. And First Presbyterian Church does this. But there are two things we must not do. Let’s return to Miss Wisdom as see what these
are.
8Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,
and the rod of anger will fail.
22Do not rob the poor because they are poor,
or crush the afflicted at the gate;
In other
words we should never take advantage of the poor. We must always treat them fairly. God will judge us if we build up our wealth
by exploiting the poor.
In the
ancient world if a person was unable to support himself he had two options.
First, he could borrow some money.
Today people take advantage of the poor by charging them higher interest
rates. But in ancient times this was not
permitted by God. In God’s economy
people were to generously give a loan to someone who needed it with the full
knowledge that all loans would be canceled every seven years. And so in many cases loans were really gifts
to get people through a bad time.
Second, a poor person could sell himself as a slave. Now slavery sounds terrible to our ears as it
should after what this country did to African American before 1865. But in the ancient world slavery was a very
different. It was more like getting a
job. Everyone was to work the land God
had provided their family. But if
someone was unable to support his family with his land he could sell himself to
his neighbor as a slave to work the neighbor’s field. He would receive, up front, payment for his
expected years of service. And all slave
contracts ended every seven years as slaves became free and worked their own
land with all debts forgiven.
Obviously
we do not have a system in America today where all contacts and loans end every
seven years. Our contracts and loans go
on forever. And therefore we have an
even greater responsibly to care for the poor.
We have the responsibility of generously writing off loans from people
who are unable to pay. And we must
generously pay the workers in our homes and business wages that allow them to
support their families. It is your
responsibility as rich Americans to be generous with the working poor.
Why
should we do all this? Why should we
feed the hungry? Why should we provide
shelter for the homeless? Why should we
deal fairly with the working poor? The
answer to all these questions is because of the God we worship. Let’s go back to Miss Wisdom.
2The rich and
the poor have this in common:
the LORD is the maker
of them all.
23for the LORD pleads their cause
and despoils of life those who despoil them.
And so
the reason we care for the poor is that God created both rich and poor in his
image, and God’s justice requires that we care for all of God creation. There is no difference in God’s eyes between
a rich person and poor person. God
blesses all of us abundantly. But
because evil has caused a misallocation of resources, God requires the rich to
generously care for the poor.
Miss
Wisdom has one more piece of advice for the rich. Let’s hear what she has to say.
1A good name is to be chosen rather than
great riches,
and favor is better than silver or gold.
Brothers
and sisters I must remind you to build up riches in heaven rather that wealth
in banks. Doing good is more important
than making money. Your reputation is
more important than the size of your bank account.
Let me
tell you a story of three men who valued acquiring wealth more than caring for
the poor, Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, and Andrew Fastow, the Chairman,
President and Chief Financial Officer of Enron.
Amassing great wealth was the most important value for each of these
men. They were all richly blessed by God
with good health and the ability to work hard and achieve. But their desire to have more and more wealth
caused them to commit accounting fraud which caused their business and savings
of investors to disappear. They
sacrificed their own reputations for money.
And as a result all three were convicted of fraud. Shortly after his conviction Kenneth Lay
died of a heart attack. Jeffrey Skilling
remains in prison. And Andrew Fastow
completed his sentence and now gives speeches in universities talking to
business students about ethics. The
names Lay, Skilling and Fastow will always be remembered as fools who
sacrificed their good names for great riches.
Don’t be
foolish. Don’t have a reputation as one
who values money more that the people God created. Be wise, be generous with the blessings of
wealth you have received from God. Care
for the physical needs of the poor.
Treat people who borrow from you or work for you compassionately. Always remember that what you have received
are gifts from God. Use these gifts to
bless others.
I would
like to conclude with a story about one of the richest men who lived. His name was Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was a Scottish industrialist in 19th
century America. He built his fortune
with steel and became the richest man the world had even seen. In 1889 Carnegie published an article
entitled Wealth[1]. In the article drew on his Presbyterian
upbringing and said that the wealthy should not leave all their money to their
kids. Carnegie said that leaving great
sums of money to your kids would lead them to folly. Rather he suggested that you leave modest
amounts to your family, sums which will allow them to live comfortably. So what should you do with all the rest? According to Carnegie you should give it
away. And that is exactly what he
did. Carnegie gave away 90% of his
fortune in U.S. Steel to improve our communities with libraries, and put pipe
organs in churches. Carnegie started
Carnegie Mellon University and gave large sums to the Tuskegee Institute for
African American education. And he
established an endowment that continues to work for world peace.
So don’t
be fools hoarding your money and ruining your kid’s lives with too much
inherited wealth. Be wise. Save some for
your retirement and a modest amount for your heirs. Give the rest away feeding the hungry, sheltering
the homeless, and helping people who need your help. And give to your church so that future
generations will receive this wisdom.
Let’s pray.
Father
in heaven, help us to use our wealth for your purposes. Help us to give to others the blessings we
have received from you. Allow us to
discern your will for our money. This we
pray in the name of the one who taught us to care for the poor, our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
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