TheoTrek — A Journey with God in Discipleship
More Than a Passing Interest
Malachi 3:6-12; Luke 12:13-21; 2nd Peter 1:12-21
So much of our lives centers on items of passing interest. Media constantly focuses our attention on the newest edition or latest release in entertainment, technology, and the like. The product development pace makes four year old technology incompatible with newer releases. In this world of change, development, and passing trends, how can we build our lives on something of lasting worth? How can we ground ourselves in something with consistent value?
Malachi’s words cut to the heart for most of the people. They believed they did not have enough resources for tithing, offerings, and meeting their material needs as well. The common wisdom went according to the idea that when there was excess, then one might give God a gift out of one’s surplus. From Malachi’s stand point, it was simply a question of trust. If the people would take their eyes off their perceived plight, they would find God furnishing them with the resources necessary to tithe and still meet their needs. They were too anxious about material issues to bother too much with concerns of faithful giving to God. Malachi considered it theft. They considered it a practical realism. After all, you can’t get much blood out of turnips.
Near the end of our first term as missionaries in Brazil, we moved to Sandy Pass Baptist Church. They had no pastor and were in financial difficulties. The sanctuary roof was sagging from termite damage. Before sitting in the pews, we would brush off the pilled wood castings that had accumulated since the last service. We encouraged the children to refrain from pulling the veneer off the pews and poking their fingers in the termite tunnels. Faced with the ever more pressing need to renovate the facility, the church simply stated their lack of resources. “We need the Americans to come and build us another sanctuary. We don’t have the resources to do it.”
As I preached several sermons on trusting God, some began to change their perspective. In place of the “we can’t” attitude, they began to say, “This sanctuary is a bad witness to the faith we claim. We say we serve a great and powerful God. The state of our sanctuary states that we don’t trust God to meet our needs. It’s time to put our faith in practice and trust God to supply our needs.” They demolished the building without the finances to build another, trusting that God would see them through.
In Jesus’ society, rules of inheritance were well established. The eldest son received two parts of a father’s estate, the others one part apiece. Daughters received a dowry to sustain them in marriage and they expected no more. Along with the eldest’s double portion came responsibility, including provision for the father’s dependants. When Jesus was called to intervene in an inheritance dispute, he refused. More than refusing to intervene in a family squabble, he would not allow issues of greed and self-advancement distract him from higher pursuits.
He answered with a parable concerning a rich man’s greed. The parable is ostensibly about finances, but it concerns much more than money. The man in question structured life around things that seem so all important. His bumper crops would provide him a future, security, and comfort. The plan was to build bigger barns to store his bounty, granting him reassurance and rest. His perspective on life was short-sighted. Like many retirement plans today, he underestimated his life-expectancy. His plans for provision fell short, for they did not reckon with eternity.
Noemir was one of the church leaders who worked in construction. His job was ending and he decided to take time to work on the new sanctuary. He was offered a new job with better pay, but turned it down. Savings were bare. His wife had no income, and the two kids were in school. They prayed and found peace about giving four months to work on the new sanctuary. They didn’t know how they would make ends meet, but they trusted God to provide. Four months became a year and a half, but they did not go hungry. They went without some material blessings, but enjoyed a new expression of trust, faith, and living according to a higher spiritual standard. Peter addressed concerns that Jewish believers were facing in the Diaspora. Cast out into the Greco-Roman world, many were pushed for the first time into close proximity with conflicting cultures, religious ideas, and competing moralities. The comfortable surroundings of how life worked in Palestine had been ripped away as they were driven out of Judea by Roman armies. Believers among the Jews were in just as much turmoil as other Jews. They were pressed to learn how to live amid new cultures, norms, and expectations in a world hostile to their very existence and their monotheistic beliefs.
To these believers experiencing culture shock and the turmoil of exile, Peter recalled the sure foundation of faith in Christ Jesus. Their very real concerns with getting along in their new environment required such assurance. They needed to know that their faith was secure amid the turmoil of life. As they struggled to survive in new environments with drastically different expectations, they needed to know the answers of their faith were still valid and sure. The gospel had been sufficient in Judea, but would it suffice for the conflict of life in the Gentile world? The faith they had claimed with assurance in their homeland now faced new challenges and competing ideologies. This was a new test for their trust in God’s provision and faithfulness.
Noemir is now at the seminary in Porto Alegre. Having experienced God’s provision in spite of the world’s claims and demands, he understood that God’s call on his life was about more than making money, building a comfortable life for his family, and enjoying the world’s materials blessings. He found that faith is about trusting God not only with eternity, but living that trust in the here and now. He placed the passing interests of this world aside in order to rebuild his life around issues of eternal significance. It began with an exercise in faith—trusting God against the odds and proving God faithful.
This is what Malachi was trying to get across. Being the people of God is about trusting God with all of our needs. That includes our material and physical well-being. Like the rich fool and those squabbling over inheritance issues, our concerns with financial security distract us from the important issues of living. Finances are not the central issues of life, regardless of how much interest we may place on them. The security they bring can be wiped off the map by hurricanes, housing bubbles, and crashing stock markets. Are Jesus’ words about finances, anxiety, and trusting God truly worthy of our confidence? As the world screams otherwise, how will we respond to the conflicting claims for our attention?
The gospel of Jesus Christ is not as concerned with finances as we are. It casts financial matters as issues of passing interest and importance. Even so, the gospel looks at our material concerns serve as a gauge of our spiritual health. Are our lives focused on material issues of passing interest and worth, or do our choices, investments, and decisions reflect a vitality of faith? Are we living for comfort in the here and now, or are we investing our lives in issues of eternal consequence?
—©Copyright 2006 Christopher B. Harbin