The Christian Way - Disease of affluence
Service sheet (pdf)
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our Morning worship from the Bradford North Methodist circuit. I’m Ruth Kerr from Baildon and today our theme is: money. Our preacher will be the Rev. Kerry Tankard, our District Chairman. So, welcome to Kerry. Over the last 7 weeks we have been looking at various challenges in our lives as Christians and how the Bible helps us to cope with them.And all the while, we have this huge challenge of the pandemic to face. Here we are again worshipping in our own homes, separated from one another, confronted each day with the fragility and uncertainty of life. Thank God for Jesus in these dark times. He is always there for us to turn to.
A few verses from Psalm 61:
Hear my cry, o God, listen to my prayer,
From the end of the earth, I call to you, when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I,
For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.
Let me dwell in your tent forever!
Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings!
Prayer
O God of strength and refuge, we thank and praise you for your goodness to us in the past, so like the Psalmist, we come to you now, our strong rock, when all around us is like shifting sand. Help us to worship you this morning, to give you the praise which you deserve and to listen to you speaking to us through your word, to challenge and encourage. AmenI really love the pictures of Hannah Dunnett. She paints with bold blocks of colour and her scenes are filled with verses of Scripture, which reminds me how important it is to take God’s word into every part of my life. For example, there is one picture which depicts a violent storm at sea, with waves crashing on to rocks and the sky dark above. There is a lighthouse standing firm on a strong rock. On the lighthouse are written the words: I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
Hymn
Let’s celebrate the light of Jesus as we sing together Shine, Jesus, shine! Lord, the light of your love is shining; in the midst of the darkness shining. Number 59 in Singing the Faith.
Prayers
“Lord, I come to your awesome presence, from the shadows into your radiance”. Let us now come before God in a time of prayer. At the end of each section, I will say: Jesus, we look to your light and your love. Do join me in these words, if you would like to. Jesus, we look to your light and your love.Lord of light and love, our generous God, we thank you for all your blessings to us. Thank you for the beauty of the world you have created; thank you for sustaining your world and providing all we need, day by day. Thank you for the abundance of material comforts which we enjoy. Thank you for each other and for the technology to enable us to keep in touch. Thank you for bringing us into your family, for sending Jesus into the world to win back humankind, to pay the price of our going astray and to give us new life in him. Please help us not to take all these gifts for granted.
Jesus, we look to your light and your love.
Lord of mercy and grace, we are sorry that we so often go our own way and turn our backs on you; we are too quick to speak and express our opinion and too slow to listen; we so often hurt one another and the fragile environment we live in, sometimes wilfully but more often, unintentionally because we put our own needs first and just don’t think. Please forgive us – forgive our selfishness and greed - as we have just sung: search me, try me, consume all my darkness - . Lord, please help us to become more like Jesus.
Lord of mercy and grace, we are sorry that we so often go our own way and turn our backs on you; we are too quick to speak and express our opinion and too slow to listen; we so often hurt one another and the fragile environment we live in, sometimes wilfully but more often, unintentionally because we put our own needs first and just don’t think. Please forgive us – forgive our selfishness and greed - as we have just sung: search me, try me, consume all my darkness - . Lord, please help us to become more like Jesus.
Jesus, we look to your light and your love.
God of compassion, we pray for the world. We pray for all those who are suffering as a result of the pandemic; to those who are sick and those who have been bereaved, please bring your healing and comfort; to those who are worried about their employment, and those who have lost jobs, please bring hope and reassurance; to children and parents trying to learn and work at home, please bring patience, perseverance and motivation. And for those, Lord, who are trying to care for the sick and solve the problems, those in Government, we pray for stamina, for wisdom and good communication. And Lord, as we thank you for the vaccines, we pray for a fair and efficient distribution.
God of compassion, we pray for the world. We pray for all those who are suffering as a result of the pandemic; to those who are sick and those who have been bereaved, please bring your healing and comfort; to those who are worried about their employment, and those who have lost jobs, please bring hope and reassurance; to children and parents trying to learn and work at home, please bring patience, perseverance and motivation. And for those, Lord, who are trying to care for the sick and solve the problems, those in Government, we pray for stamina, for wisdom and good communication. And Lord, as we thank you for the vaccines, we pray for a fair and efficient distribution.
Jesus, we look to your light and your love.
Loving God, we pray for your Church in every land. Keep its Leaders faithful and strong, give courage and protection where there is persecution. Please help us all to reflect Jesus to a needy world and show us what lessons we must learn from the pandemic.
Loving God, we pray for your Church in every land. Keep its Leaders faithful and strong, give courage and protection where there is persecution. Please help us all to reflect Jesus to a needy world and show us what lessons we must learn from the pandemic.
Jesus, we look to your light and your love.
Finally a few moments of quiet prayer, as we lift to you, Lord, those who are particularly in need and on our hearts this morning.
Finally a few moments of quiet prayer, as we lift to you, Lord, those who are particularly in need and on our hearts this morning.
Jesus, we look to your light and your love.
We ask all these prayers in Jesus name, Amen
In Christian circles, I wonder which experiences has been ours? I wonder, have you heard people talking about how they have had 1,2,3 of their holidays cancelled? When you have, has it been accompanied by them then saying, “we decided to give the money we saved to charity?
While I had no holidays planned, I am one of those who has been fortunate to have a reduced expenditure, while my income has been unaffected. I have needed to remind myself that I am fortunate, and I have rightly challenged myself to think, how out of my being fortunate can I be generous to others?
I don’t want to suggest that any of the choices we make around our money, saved or otherwise, are simple. They’re not, but equally they are not often as generous to others as they could be.
Does Jesus help us in this?
What we encounter here in the gospel of Luke is a rather familiar pattern between someone and Jesus.
Jesus is asked to “tell my brother”! Often people want to enlist Jesus to their side and invite him to make their point for them. On this occasion Jesus is being asked, “tell my brother to split the inheritance with me . . .” This seems a reasonable request – it seems to fair, but Jesus doesn’t attend to that, instead he shifts the dynamic away from the judgement of one to a warning to all, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
It could be easy for me to stand here and say you shouldn’t spend money on this or that. It would seem easy, but I have one son who works in hospitality and another who is a joiner. I need people to spend money on certain things, in order to keep them in work. They are dependent on people wanting something, and that creates a dilemma for me. I could also say, you need to go shopping in large city centres because there are pension funds dependent on the rent of those places to pay people when they retire. It is all so complex, and we need to avoid naivety in our consideration of the text and the context.
What we are told to do, by Jesus, is take care and beware of greed. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Hmm. Greed, an excessive or extreme desire, a disproportionate one even.
How many of us exceed what we need, or should reasonably desire, and become slaves of greed? Clearly, none of us, we are all too good for that. But are we?
John Wesley did have quite a bit to say on money and its use. He did not see money as a problem – what he saw as the issue was when we distorted our relationship with it. Money can serve holy purposes, be assured of that, but equally it can serve anything but what is good. The writer of 1 Timothy tells us not that money is the root of all evil, but the love of it is. Where money is loved and possessions serve greed, then all begins to go awry.
I want to share a couple of observations of John Wesley with you. First though, let me remind you that there was a prime minister in the 1970s and early 80s who liked to misquote Wesley.
“Gain all you can” – “save all you can” was what this prime minister quoted. She was guilty of forgetting the important and crucial 3rd point – “give all you can”!
Wesley: "... What way, then, (I ask again) can we take, that our money may not sink us to the nethermost hell? There is one way, and there is no other under heaven. If those who 'gain all they can,' and 'save all they can,' will likewise 'give all they can;' then, the more they gain, the more they will grow in grace, and the more treasure they will lay up in heaven."
If our motivation is only ever self-serving, then our heart is not holy. If we work only for ourselves and our own pocket, then we lose sight of the generosity of God. Our stores on earth will do nothing to serve the holy purposes of God. How do we genuinely look at our disposable income and see it as something over which God has authority? As one priest was minded to comment – “show me you bank statement and I will tell you what you believe in”. I wonder, as Christian people, how open would we be with each other. Who here would think twice before showing their sister or brother in Christ their bank statement? If we have something to hide, then what does that say about the Christian way we are walking?
John Wesley lamented, “... the Methodists in every place grow diligent and frugal; consequently they increase in goods. Hence, they proportionately increase in pride, in anger, in the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life. So, although the form of religion remains, the spirit is swiftly vanishing away.”
If we lose sight of the gospel character, which is to live out of thankfulness and be generous, then we keep for ourselves, build up stores on earth, and don’t live as God for others.
So rather than ask Jesus to make a point for me or for you, I ask again: Who here would think twice before showing their sister or brother in Christ their bank statement? If we have something to hide, then what does that say about the Christian way we are walking?
I leave that with you to reflect upon.
Teach us how to be content with the things we need, to seek first the Kingdom of God, reaching out to those who lack the basic necessities. Enable us to be those who build their lives on the rock, by obeying your commands, and help us to reflect the light of Jesus and bring glory to your name.
Amen
Let us say the prayer that Jesus taught us: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name….
Make me conscious of your presence every day in all I do; by your Spirit’s gracious prompting may I learn to walk with you. “Show me how to stand for justice”, new words to a familiar tune. 713 in Singing the Faith.
We ask all these prayers in Jesus name, Amen
Hymn
Our next hymn, Charles Wesley’s, O for a heart to praise my God, has the line “ a heart in every thought renewed”, and this is surely our prayer, as we turn to hear God’s word and seek to apply it to our lives. Singing the Faith, 507.Readings
Sermon - Rev Kerry Tankard.
Have you noticed the different economic experiences people are having in lockdown? As I prepared this sermon I heard on the news about the growing rate of unemployment, the news of the impending job losses from Debenhams, at Hays travel shops, from other retailers. I heard of the expectation that once furlough finally ends there will be another wave of job losses, as the inevitable has only been postponed. We have heard of the anxiety of parents on low or limited incomes who feared how they could afford to feed their children at home, and thanks to a footballer and public pressure they at least got food deliveries. We could talk of older people on fixed incomes who have needed to find extra money to have food delivered, to save them from the risk of shopping. But alongside these we have people who have been able to save money on travel to work, from holidays cancelled, and from other costs linked with a social lifestyle.In Christian circles, I wonder which experiences has been ours? I wonder, have you heard people talking about how they have had 1,2,3 of their holidays cancelled? When you have, has it been accompanied by them then saying, “we decided to give the money we saved to charity?
While I had no holidays planned, I am one of those who has been fortunate to have a reduced expenditure, while my income has been unaffected. I have needed to remind myself that I am fortunate, and I have rightly challenged myself to think, how out of my being fortunate can I be generous to others?
I don’t want to suggest that any of the choices we make around our money, saved or otherwise, are simple. They’re not, but equally they are not often as generous to others as they could be.
Does Jesus help us in this?
What we encounter here in the gospel of Luke is a rather familiar pattern between someone and Jesus.
Jesus is asked to “tell my brother”! Often people want to enlist Jesus to their side and invite him to make their point for them. On this occasion Jesus is being asked, “tell my brother to split the inheritance with me . . .” This seems a reasonable request – it seems to fair, but Jesus doesn’t attend to that, instead he shifts the dynamic away from the judgement of one to a warning to all, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
It could be easy for me to stand here and say you shouldn’t spend money on this or that. It would seem easy, but I have one son who works in hospitality and another who is a joiner. I need people to spend money on certain things, in order to keep them in work. They are dependent on people wanting something, and that creates a dilemma for me. I could also say, you need to go shopping in large city centres because there are pension funds dependent on the rent of those places to pay people when they retire. It is all so complex, and we need to avoid naivety in our consideration of the text and the context.
What we are told to do, by Jesus, is take care and beware of greed. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Hmm. Greed, an excessive or extreme desire, a disproportionate one even.
How many of us exceed what we need, or should reasonably desire, and become slaves of greed? Clearly, none of us, we are all too good for that. But are we?
John Wesley did have quite a bit to say on money and its use. He did not see money as a problem – what he saw as the issue was when we distorted our relationship with it. Money can serve holy purposes, be assured of that, but equally it can serve anything but what is good. The writer of 1 Timothy tells us not that money is the root of all evil, but the love of it is. Where money is loved and possessions serve greed, then all begins to go awry.
I want to share a couple of observations of John Wesley with you. First though, let me remind you that there was a prime minister in the 1970s and early 80s who liked to misquote Wesley.
“Gain all you can” – “save all you can” was what this prime minister quoted. She was guilty of forgetting the important and crucial 3rd point – “give all you can”!
Wesley: "... What way, then, (I ask again) can we take, that our money may not sink us to the nethermost hell? There is one way, and there is no other under heaven. If those who 'gain all they can,' and 'save all they can,' will likewise 'give all they can;' then, the more they gain, the more they will grow in grace, and the more treasure they will lay up in heaven."
If our motivation is only ever self-serving, then our heart is not holy. If we work only for ourselves and our own pocket, then we lose sight of the generosity of God. Our stores on earth will do nothing to serve the holy purposes of God. How do we genuinely look at our disposable income and see it as something over which God has authority? As one priest was minded to comment – “show me you bank statement and I will tell you what you believe in”. I wonder, as Christian people, how open would we be with each other. Who here would think twice before showing their sister or brother in Christ their bank statement? If we have something to hide, then what does that say about the Christian way we are walking?
John Wesley lamented, “... the Methodists in every place grow diligent and frugal; consequently they increase in goods. Hence, they proportionately increase in pride, in anger, in the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life. So, although the form of religion remains, the spirit is swiftly vanishing away.”
If we lose sight of the gospel character, which is to live out of thankfulness and be generous, then we keep for ourselves, build up stores on earth, and don’t live as God for others.
So rather than ask Jesus to make a point for me or for you, I ask again: Who here would think twice before showing their sister or brother in Christ their bank statement? If we have something to hide, then what does that say about the Christian way we are walking?
I leave that with you to reflect upon.
Prayer
Our loving God, you have spoken powerfully to us about what you expect from us, the responsibility you have given us. We have thanked you for the abundance of your gifts to us and we have sought your forgiveness for our greed. Please help us to hold our money and possessions lightly and to be ready to give to those in need, in accordance with your will.Teach us how to be content with the things we need, to seek first the Kingdom of God, reaching out to those who lack the basic necessities. Enable us to be those who build their lives on the rock, by obeying your commands, and help us to reflect the light of Jesus and bring glory to your name.
Amen
Let us say the prayer that Jesus taught us: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name….
Hymn
The last few lines of our final hymn are a prayer:Make me conscious of your presence every day in all I do; by your Spirit’s gracious prompting may I learn to walk with you. “Show me how to stand for justice”, new words to a familiar tune. 713 in Singing the Faith.
Blessing
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, now and always, Amen
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