“GIVE IT ALL AWAY OR GIVE IT ALL UP TO GOD”

ACTS 16:13-23

13  On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there.

14  A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.

15  When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home." And she prevailed upon us.

16  One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling.

17  While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, "These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation."

18  She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And it came out that very hour.

19  But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.

20  When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, "These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews

21  and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe."

22  The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods.

23  After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely.

There’s a saying that I learned many years ago.  The saying goes like this: Money is like manure.  Spread it around and it will do a lot of good.  Pile it high and the only thing it will do is stink.

That’s the thing about money.  Money can do a lot of good, but it can also bring the worst out in people.  All you have to do is pick up a newspaper and look at the headlines.  How about the financial advisor in Boston who apparently stole $20 million dollars over the past 25 years from about 250 investors?  According to the Boston Globe, he took the money from “saving accounts, 401(k) plans, inheritances, court settlements, home sales, college tuition funds, scholarship programs (and) life insurance payments.”  (May 13, 2007) How about the pharmacist out in Kansas City who’s going to be spending 30 years in jail because he watered down the chemotherapy drugs that he sold to cancer patients?  How about HMO out in California that is going to donate $500,000 to a charitable foundation?  Now the HMO isn’t making that donation out of the goodness of its heart.  The HMO is making the donation because of the unorthodox way it chose to discharge some of its patients. It seems that Kaiser Permanente, the country’s largest HMO discharged more than 50 mentally ill and homeless patients by putting them in a taxi cab. They then had the taxi cab drop them off on the crime infested streets near a local mission. They got caught when one a dazed and confused patient was found wandering the streets wearing nothing but a hospital gown and slippers.  (CNN May 14) 

Money can do strange things to people.  That includes everyday people too like you and me.  Take the preacher for example who got a visit one day from a little old lady.  The little old lady was distraught over the death of her beloved cat.  The cat’s name was Homer.  The preacher did his best to comfort the little old lady but drew the line when she asked him to perform a funeral for the cat.  “I’m very sorry,” he said, “but I’ve been a Baptist preacher for over 30 years and I would never do a funeral for a cat.”  He then suggested that she try the Congregational minister down the street.  “All right,” the little old lady sighed. “I hope he’ll do it.  Then she added “You know, I was thinking about giving $100,000 to the church that did Homer’s funeral.”  At that point the preacher felt really bad.  So, he gently put his hand on the little old lady’s shoulder.  “My dear woman,” he said.  “Why didn’t you tell me Homer was a Baptist cat in the first place?”

When you come right down to it people haven’t changed much since the Apostle Paul was doing his thing preaching and proclaiming the Good News.  All you have to do is look at the men who owned that slave girl.  Actually, using her would be a better way of putting it.   The slave girl had the ability to predict the future and because of that ability her owners were making a lot of money off of her.  All of that changed though when the Apostle Paul ordered the demon to come out of her. 

For the first time in her life the slave girl was free of that demon. Instead of being glad though her owners got mad.  Paul’s good deed was taking money out of their pockets.  So, they started to spread rumors about him and eventually managed to get him arrested and thrown into jail.

Money can do strange things to people.  Maybe that’s why the #1 thing that Jesus talked about was money and material wealth.  In fact, did you know that out of the 38 parables that Jesus told 16 of them talk about the dangers of money and material wealth?  Did you know that one out of every 10 verses in the gospels talks about the dangers of money and material wealth?  Jesus talked about money and material wealth a lot because he knew that if you’re not careful it can lead you away from God.

I saw that in my first church.  I started out as an associate pastor in a large church in Maine  that served the most affluent community in the state.  While I was there I saw many very successful men and women.  I saw many very wealthy men and women.  Unfortunately, I also saw many of these men and women sacrifice their children on the altar of success without even realizing it.   They had expensive cars and exquisite jewelry and expansive homes and they spared no expense when it came to giving their children the best of everything.  So, their children had everything they wanted but not what they really needed.  Because of that I saw many of their sons and daughters try to fill the emptiness in their lives with a lot of drinking and drugs. Sometimes I wonder if the same thing is happening here in North Reading. 

Money can do strange things to people.  It can completely ruin your moral compass.  Instead of loving people and using things you end up loving things and using people.

Living the good life becomes more important than living a life that is good.

Material things become more important than spiritual things.

Over the years I’ve seen money and material wealth ruin many people’s lives.  So, maybe the thing to do is get rid of it; all of it.  Take your check book out start writing checks to charities that really need the money.  Call Good Will up and have them come and take all the stuff that you don’t really need.  Downsize your house and your car and all your other possessions.

If that sounds a little too drastic you’ll be glad to hear that there is another way.  You can do what Lydia did. Now take a good look at Lydia because she could be one of your neighbors right here in North Reading. She could be someone you see every day at work.  She could even be you. 

You see, Lydia was a wealthy businesswoman who sold purple cloth.  That purple cloth is what made Lydia wealthy.  Back then the dye for the color purple was made from a pigment from a shell fish that could only be found in a few places along the coast of Greece and Turkey.  Because the dye was so rare and expensive only kings and queens and very important people could afford to wear anything that was purple. 

So Lydia was a wealthy woman but look what she did with her wealth.  She used it to help the Paul preach and proclaim the Good News.  Shortly after she was baptized Lydia said to Paul, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.”  Lydia made that offer because she wanted to help Paul spread the Good News.  Lydia also made that offer because he knew that she needed the Lord in her life. Lydia knew that the more you have in your life the more you need to have the Lord in your life.

It’s always important to have the Lord in your life or course.  It’s even more important though when it comes to money and material wealth.  When you have the Lord in your life it helps you keep you moral compass working the way it should.  It helps you remember to love people and use things.  It helps you to remember that living a life that’s good is more important than living the good life. It help you remember that spiritual things are more important that material things.

Just ask Clifford Turner.  Clifford Turner lives in Cambridge and a couple of years ago he won the biggest Mass Millions jackpot in state history.  He won a little over $50 million.  Now Clifford Turner is a construction worker and he could have quit his job and gone off to live the good life.  Instead he decided to use the money to set up charities to fight AIDS.  He also used his money to keep kids out of gangs by promoting sports and art opportunities for inner city children.  Shortly after he won the lottery Turner said,  “I just have to do the right thing with the money because that money didn’t just come out of the blue.  It came from a reason.” Now as soon as you talk about something being given to you for a reason you’re bring the Lord into your life.  Turner went on to say, “All my life I’ve watched my mother…give so much back to the community and I was brought up to believe that money like that doesn’t really belong to you.  You don’t need much in life to live.”

There’s nothing wrong with having a lot of money and material things.  You just have to remember that the more you have in your life, the more you really need to have the Lord in your life.  Of course, if you’d prefer, you could just give it all away.  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

May 20, 2007