consequences – Salvaged Faith

Text: Leviticus 26 and Matthew 6: 25-33

It isn’t often that we turn to the book of Leviticus for the primary reading for our reflection. And even more rare that we would turn to such a difficult passage.
This section of Leviticus is known as the Blessings and Curses of the Covenant.
In the verses that precede, it reminds us of what that covenant entails: not making idols, worshiping God alone, keeping the sabbath, and respecting God’s sanctuary.
It lays out what will come to those who faithfully live by God’s decrees and keep the commandments: seasonal rain, abundant harvests, peace in the land, taming of the dangerous beasts and enemies turned away.
And that promise from the beginning of creation… that promise from the first chapter of John’s gospel… that promise from the end of it all in the book of Revelation…
If we are faithful and worship God alone…
If we are faithful and keep the sabbath…
If we are faithful and respect God’s sanctuary…
God will set up residence among us. God will dwell with us.

But.
If we refuse to obey.
If we turn our back on God’s commands.
If we stop paying attention to the way God wants us to live, then it clearly lays out what will happen: disease, crop failures, enemies will pour in, the wild animals will attack, the cities will be destroyed… and it gets worse… but I conveniently skipped those parts because they really aren’t child appropriate.
When the final destruction is brought to the land as a consequence of this sin and disobedience, here is what I find really intriguing…
“With you gone and dispersed in the countries of your enemies, the land, empty of you, will finally get a break and enjoy its Sabbath years. All the time it’s left there empty, the land will get rest, the Sabbaths it never got when you lived there.” (Leviticus 26: 34-35 MSG).

Today, on this Native American Ministries Sunday we are also taking the opportunity to celebrate creation.

This Sunday is an important mission opportunity because of the reality that as United Methodists, our heritage has been one of destruction and removal for these our siblings. In our efforts to spread the good news and expand capitalism and win the west, we forcibly removed Native Americans from the land. This effort is merely one step in acts of repentance and in working to restore and rebuild community where we have destroyed it.

While our modern Western worldview often separates us from the rest of creation, imagining that we are over and above the rest of created beings, Indigenous Peoples of the world, as Randy Woodley puts it:

“understand their relationship with creation as paramount to the abundant life God intends for all humanity. In other words, to be human is to care for creation. If we want to live our lives together in abundance and harmony, and if we want future generations to live their lives together in this way, we must realize we are all on a journey together with Christ to heal our world.” (Woodley, Randy. “The Fullness Thereof” Sojourners. May 2019.)

The pre-modern Israelites were also intimately connected with the land upon which they lived. Following God’s commands included keeping the Sabbath, giving rest to not only one another, but the animals and the earth, too. What other Sanctuary is there to respect for these wandering Israelites than creation itself? To be human, to be made in God’s image, was to steward the planet in God’s name (Genesis 1:28).
When we are faithful and care for one another and the land and worship God by caring for this earth, it is not only we who benefit… but so too the generations to come.
But this chapter in Leviticus also reminds us that when we fail to obey and when we use and abuse one another and the land itself… then the land will spit us out. We are sowing seeds of destruction not only for ourselves, but for generations to come.

On the one hand, we often reject the idea that a disease or disaster that falls upon a child is a direct result of the sins of their parents.
When a blind man was brought before Jesus, he was asked who sinned, the man or his parents, and Jesus turned the question inside out and said that the man was blind in order to show God’s glory (John 9).
But the reality is, there are long term consequences of our decisions in the world today. And as we have treated this earth as a resource to plunder or a convenience for our own sake, rather than a gift to steward, we are witnessing the impact of failing to obey.
I read a study this week that showed a link between an increase in asthma and our tendency to produce male shrubs and trees.
We prefer male plants because they don’t produce fruit and so are often far easier to clean-up in urban areas. But what we did not consider is that male plants produce far more pollen. The flowers on female plants catch and trap that pollen to fertilize the fruits they bear, removing it from the air.
But by intentionally and systematically reducing the number of female trees in our urban areas, we have unintentionally exacerbated a health problem.

All around us, our decisions are having an impact upon our planet.
Glaciers are melting.
Species are becoming more vulnerable and disappearing.
Topsoil is disappearing.
Severe weather is becoming more frequent and disastrous.
As Woodley writes, “Earth is out of balance, and as a result all God’s creation is in peril.”

Where might we turn?
How might we learn once again what it means to be in relationship with the earth?
As we hear Job speak to his friends in our call to worship, we can listen to the earth and the creatures around us.
As Jesus reminds, we should consider the lilies and the birds of the air and how God cares for them.
And we can turn to the wisdom and understanding of people like our Native American siblings who have remained connected to the land and have not forgotten what it means to respect God’s sanctuary.

In fact, as we consider this passage from Leviticus, I am reminded of the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy, the founding document of the oldest democracy on Earth. They included a principle that perhaps would be helpful for us today.
“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”

Think again of those words from Leviticus about the impact of our faithfulness to God: abundance, peace, life for ourselves and future generations…
And hear these words from The Great Binding Law of the Iroquois where they explain this “seventh generation” principle:

The thickness of your skin shall be seven spans — which is to say that you shall be proof against anger, offensive actions and criticism. Your heart shall be filled with peace and good will and your mind filled with a yearning for the welfare of the people of the Confederacy. With endless patience you shall carry out your duty and your firmness shall be tempered with tenderness for your people. Neither anger nor fury shall find lodgement in your mind and all your words and actions shall be marked with calm deliberation. In all of your deliberations in the Confederate Council, in your efforts at law making, in all your official acts, self interest shall be cast into oblivion.

Let me just pause right there… let self interest be cast into oblivion. Doesn’t that sound like Jesus reminding us not to worry about what we will eat or what we will wear? If we think about the future generations and the world around us, our needs will be taken care of, too.

Cast not over your shoulder behind you the warnings of the nephews and nieces should they chide you for any error or wrong you may do, but return to the way of the Great Law which is just and right. Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground — the unborn of the future Nation. (http://7genfoundation.org/7th-generation/)

The love of God has been poured out in the gift of creation.
And it is a gift we are meant to pass down from one generation to the next.
Today, we choose whether we will be faithful to God’s commands and create peace and abundance and life for those who will come after us.
So in every decision you make today and tomorrow and for all your days, keep that question in the back of your mind:
How will this impact my children?
How will this impact my grandchildren?
How will this impact the world seven generations to come?

May we be faithful and love and respect God’s sanctuary – not just for ourselves, but for the generations that follow.

I want to start out this morning with a testimony… and I think it is very important that you understand this is not me preaching about what you should go out tomorrow and do… I am simply sharing what my experience of God was this past year.

That is an important qualification, because I’m going to be talking about money. And talking about money makes a whole lot of us uncomfortable… but it is a part of our daily lives and it is an important part our words from James this morning.

And my testimony is this: For the first time in my life, this year I tithed to the church.

Now, I have always given to the church. But for a long time, I made excuses about how much I should give.

When I was a teenager and had only part time jobs, I might have stuck a dollar or two in the offering plate – whatever pocket change I might have had that day. It was the last of my money… not the best.

When I was in college, I did not attend a church regularly on Sundays, but worshipped on campus Wednesday nights – and no one asked for a financial contribution. No one asked me to give, much less give sacrificially.

As a seminary student and an intern at a church, I was spending more money on school and travel than I was making and piling up debt. I gave my time to the church and occasionally a few bucks as well.

And then I came here. I came to be a pastor and I knew that I could not ask you, in good faith, to give faithfully to the church and to God, if I was not also giving. Having a steady paycheck for the first time in my life, I should have immediately started tithing. But I didn’t. I held back. I looked at my student loans and a bit of debt from college… I looked at how much our cable bill was going to be… I thought about how we wanted to travel a bit… I knew that taxes would take a chunk of my wages… And so I started out small. I gave to the church – but only a small portion.

And then, I became comfortable with that level of financial giving. I knew I was doing God’s ministry in other ways and so I didn’t worry about it.

But one day a year or two ago, I was having a conversation with a friend, a fellow pastor, about the things that we cling to… the things we hold close and refuse to give to God.

I realized in the midst of that conversation that I had never willingly yielded my money to God. There had been times when I had given out of guilt. I have given because it was what I was supposed to do. I have given out of habit as the offering place went around and each person in the pew pulled out a buck and dropped it in. Sound familiar?

But never had I prayerfully thought about what God wanted me to give. Never had I searched my heart to ask what I was willing to yield, what I was willing to joyfully give up in my life for the sake of our Lord and our church.

I started out last year by giving a much larger percentage on a regular basis… and this year, my heart led me to give a full 10% of my income to the church.

I joyfully give that money to God… and I have to tell you – I haven’t missed one cent. I now give to the church first… the money comes out of my paycheck before it ever comes home with me. I give God my first and my best, instead of the change in my pocket – instead of the leftovers from my own spending and desires.

I have been blessed through my giving. No, I don’t have more money in the bank than when I started… but now I am reminded that the things that money buys – cable t.v. and new clothes and name-brand cereal don’t last. What lasts is the kingdom of God. What lasts is the word of God. What lasts is the joy that I have found through letting go… through being willing to yield.

Now… I’m going to put my preacher hat back on.

Because we all have different places in our life where we have been unwilling to yield. It might be money, like me, but it might be an addiction. For others the thing they grasp is their pride. Some of us are unwilling to let go of our schedules or our desires.

Throughout the book of James, we get some harsh truths about what it means to live in Christian community. On Labor Day weekend, we heard about the source of our conflict – pride and a lack of humility. The next week we were reminded that rich and poor are all the same and we need to stop judging and stop loving. Last week, we were dished up some truth about wisdom and speech… and our tendency to ignorance and cynicism.

In each message – we have been asked to let something go. Our pride and the need to “be important”, our status and the desire to “be better”, our knowledge and the need to “be right”, and today we are asked to let go of the material things we cling to and the stuff we seek out. We need to let go of our desire to “be the joneses.”

As we read James… even though I have experienced the joy of willingly yielding and letting God have control of my money – I have to admit that each one of these admonitions still hits close to home for me also. Each of these realities is something that I continue to struggle with, even as I know I am being faithful in some ways.

1) Keeping up with the Joneses kills our souls

James is quite clear in chapter four that our desire to keep up with the ways of the world means that our heart has gone astray from God. Familiar verse from the gospels reminds us– you cannot serve both God and money. And so every time that we choose the things we want over the things of God, we have cheated on our Lord and Savior – we have been unfaithful.

It is hard to accept sometimes, but God cares about what you do and what you have. If our gracious Lord and Savior makes sure that the birds of the air and the flowers of the field are taken care of… then he’s also working to make sure that you have enough – that you have abundant life. But so often, we turn our backs on the life God has given us and want to be someone else and have other things. Verse 5 reads: Doesn’t God long for our faithfulness in the life he has given us?

This life might not be perfect. We might not have everything. But Mother Theresa once said, “grow where you are planted.” Don’t look over the fence at your neighbors and want what they have… gratefully give thanks every day for the gift of life and the wonderful things that are a part of yours. When we humble ourselves before the Lord and give thanks for who we were created to be, God is right there, ready to lift us up.

2) Keeping up with the Joneses is killing other people

James chapter 4 starts with the hard truth that war and conflict comes from our desire to have what we don’t have and our desire to keep what is already ours. As he says in verse two: “You long for something you don’t have, so you commit murder. You are jealous for something you can’t get, so you struggle and fight.”

That reality is lived out on our newspapers and television programs every single day. Bank robberies and drug related shootings. Civil wars in far off countries about the precious resources of those places. Jealous acts of violence enacted towards someone for cheating or stealing a person you loved from your life.

But there is a quiet hidden reality to these verses that we are not always ready to admit to – a truth that needs to be confessed about ourselves. The things that we have in this world – everyday, ordinary things that we buy and use and dispose of… our desire to have those things is killing people, too.

Take my cell phone, for example. This summer, I dropped my phone and cracked the screen. So I upgraded to something new. My husband upgraded at the same time, even though his old phone was just fine. But within these simple devices are resources and minerals that you can’t find everywhere. In fact, the tin inside of these devices that are used to solder the metal parts together is mined mostly in Indonesia and China. I read recently about one province in Indonesia, two little islands where nearly half of the tin for cell phones comes from.

The tin mining industry has devastated these two little islands. The mining is done in shallow pits and these pits cover the island – thousands and thousands of pits dotting the ground. Most of this mining is done by hand, rather than machine and it is not a regulated industry. Small groups of men, often boys, work in these pits and scrape the walls by hand.

The reporter who visited the sites had this to say: “these dangerous pits – the walls literally just collapse and bury people alive. In one week, while I was on BangkaIsland, there were six men and actually a boy, a 15-year-old, who were buried alive in these pit collapses…”

My heart broke when I heard that story… how our demand for smart-phones and tablets has caused an industry to explode without regulation or safety and that people are dying so that I can have 3G. Our relationship with God and our command to love our neighbor means that we need to think carefully about the purchases we make in this world. We need to pray before we buy something. And we need to be informed about the far reaching impact of the things we want.

3) Keeping up with the Joneses doesn’t get us anything but fat and dead

We are often so focused on the things that we want today, that we do not stop to think about the far reaching implications of the stuff we accumulate.

As Brandon and I start to pack up our house, we have tons of things that we do not need and will never use. We are busting at the seams with cheap trinkets and clothes that no longer fit and craft supplies we don’t have time to use. It has been a reminder that we have abundantly blessed… and so we are taking this opportunity to share and donate and repurpose some of what we have been given.

The reality is that the stuff we have will not last forever. And we won’t be alive to enjoy it forever.

As James continues in chapter five, the wealthy get one final harsh warning. In this translation from The Message, I want to invite you to hear these words… remembering that we are each wealthier than 75% of this world:

Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you’ve piled up is judgment.

^4-6All the workers you’ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse

All you’ll to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse.

The old adage says, you can’t take it with you… and its true. Our time here on earth is short and piling on pleasures and wants and desires doesn’t get us anything but a house full of stuff that someone else is going to have to sort through.

James’s advice for us: remember that you are nothing but a mist that vanishes with the sunlight. Remember that you are nothing but grass that withers and a flower that fades. What good is all of the wealth in the world when tomorrow you are gone?

Let’s take a deep breath. Because we can hear these harsh words and they cut straight to our core. We might want to give everything away when we go home because we feel so guilty.

But I need you to hear this.

God does not want your money, if he doesn’t have your heart.

God doesn’t have any use for your stuff, if he can’t have your soul.

God doesn’t care about the things that you own… even if they could be used to help other people… unless you are willing to give him your life.

Let us prayerfully ask about what God wants us to yield. Let us joyfully and freely give – not because we have to, but because we want to. And let us join with Christ in the world along paths “the Joneses” don’t often travel

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