Sermon Tone Analysis
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Bare Essentials
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Most of us, if not all of us, want to live comfortably.
But how much is enough?
Nas-red-din, a storyteller and character in the folklore of the Muslim world, was born in what is now Turkey in the early
13th century and quickly developed a strong reputation as a quick wit and a man not to be fooled with.
He was
loved by the common people for putting rich people in their place, and for his humor and trickery, but mostly
for poking holes in pompous windbags.
One of the stories told about Nasreddin concerns a beggar.
This poor
fellow was given a piece of bread, but no butter, jam, or gravy to put on it.
Hoping to get something to go with
his bread, he went to a nearby inn and asked for a handout.
The innkeeper turned him away with nothing, but the beggar sneaked into the kitchen where he saw a
large pot of soup cooking over the fire.
He held his piece of bread over the steaming pot, hoping to thus capture
a bit of flavor from the good-smelling vapor.
Suddenly, the innkeeper seized him by the arm and accused him
of stealing soup.
“I took no soup,” said the beggar.
“I was only smelling the vapor.”
“Then you must pay for
the smell,” answered the innkeeper.
The poor beggar had no money, so the angry innkeeper dragged him before
the magistrate.
So Nasreddin heard the innkeeper’s complaint and the beggar’s explanation.
“So, you demand payment for the smell of your soup?” summarized the Nasreddin after the hearing.
“Yes!” insisted the innkeeper.
“Then I myself will pay you,” he said, “and I will pay for the smell of your soup
- with the sound of money.”
Nasreddin drew two coins from his pocket, clicked them together loudly, put them
back into his pocket, and sent the beggar and the innkeeper each on his own way.
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,” writes the apostle.
What else but the love of
money can explain why the greedy shopkeeper would want to charge a poor beggar for the smell of his broth!
In verse 7 Paul recalls the words of Job, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I
return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
Paul
writes, “We brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it.”
Put another way: There is no
trailer hitch on a hearse.
2
All this is true.
But we can’t live without money, can we?
After all, we need a paycheck, or some kind
of income.
We need to put food on our tables.
No argument.
We came into the world empty-handed, and we
shall leave life empty-handed, but we can’t survive empty-handed in the interim.
We need to cultivate the skills
necessary to survive.
Men in agrarian societies were taught at a young age to hunt, use an axe, fish, farm or
yoke a pair of oxen.
Women learned to skin the hides, erect shelters, cook the food, gather herbs, bring in a
harvest and bear another generation of workers.
As urban life emerged, shopkeepers, cobblers, tinsmiths, artisans, bookkeepers, autocrats, politicians,
writers, philosophers and others practiced their trades.
Clearly, some professions were more lucrative than
others.
As this was happening, spiritual leaders, including the apostle Paul, realized that the need to earn a
living was fraught with potential problems:
If one was too wealthy, others might covet your possessions and even steal what they could.
Envy might cause some souls to work harder than necessary.
Those who were employers might prefer to see their employees starve rather than give them a decent
wage.
Careers are sometimes judged based on the earnings they provide, when they ought to be evaluated in
terms of the service they offer.
A teacher, one could argue, has more intrinsic value to society than a
football player, yet who gets more on the open market.
Most would agree that some professions are simply wrong: prostitutes, drug pushers, jewel thieves,
crooks, etc.
No reasonable person would consider these activities as bona fide “professions.”
Today’s Scripture narrows the discussion to money, specifically the acquisition of money,
the benefits of money, and the dangers of avarice or greediness.
Paul reminds us that Christians are not just a
peculiar multitude of citizens who value spirituality, worship, and practice a high ethics; they also need to earn a
paycheck.
Spirituality is other-worldly.
Earning a living is very worldly, and to do it successfully, one must be
ambitious, work hard, train and develop one’s skills, but do so without sacrificing moral and ethical values.
Not everyone can do this.
Why?
The love of money gets in the way.
People like this cannot be content
with “food and clothing” but rather are vulnerable to the temptation to acquire more than they need.
The Bible
says that “there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment.”
So, the questions are: “What are the
bare essentials?
With how little can we be content?”
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Money talks.
True.
And it usually says, “Goodbye.”
Writer, preacher, novelist and public theologian
Frederick Buechner noted, “The more you think about [money], the less you understand it.
The paper it’s
printed on isn’t worth a red cent.
There was a time you could take it to the bank and get gold or silver for it, but
all you’d get now is a blank stare.
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