Portrait of a Wealthy Life

How would you go about painting the portrait of a wealthy life? Would it be bright and colorful, or monochromatic? Would it portray someone familiar or hold a particular memory? Over the past couple of weeks, we have considered what a wealthy life looks like from the lens of Scripture and your own experiences and memories from former saints of St. Luke.

Together we have sketched out a portrait of a wealthy life as a life that shares and serves. Today we will add to this sketch a life of self-giving.

You see, Paul is writing Timothy and in a very Pauline fashion, is of course calling out false teaching. In this case, Mitchell Reddish says this teaching emphasized “godliness as a means of gain or the practice of faith as a way to financial success.” Hello prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel is the belief that if you just have enough faith, believe the right things or abide by the right laws, then the pathway to financial peace and material wealth will suddenly open up for you. Here we see early signs of what you may know as the prosperity gospel or the premise that if you just believe, you will “live long and prosper.” As if the ABC plan of salvation consisted of A) ascribing to a certain set of B)beliefs so that you can forever and ever live in C) comfort.

But Paul is saying “look, there are riches to be found in the faith, but they don’t look like the riches of the empire.” Your faith doesn’t mean you’ll get ahead in life or a better job or bigger paycheck. Paul tells Timothy to run, escape, to flee from not wealth itself but from the temptations that an unhealthy attachment to wealth can bring. It is less about money on its own but more about what we allow our lives to be set towards and centered upon.

When we seek to have a relationship with money centered upon ourselves instead of Christ, we risk becoming what Eugene Peterson refers to as “some who lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after.” We become cynical in our giving, making snap judgements and imaginative excuses. We conjure up stories rather than cultivate compassion. Our souls start to act like a tightly closed fist instead of an open heart or door.

Paul says we have to set our hopes not on the uncertainty of riches (here today and gone tomorrow), but instead to go after God. And how do we go after God in the meantime? Paul says we are to “do good, be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share. Another translation says “Pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. “ To do this, to live this way, is to grab hold of or take hold of the life that really is life?

I wonder, in an era of AI-generated images and articles, how do we know when we are looking at the real thing and not just a replica? What does it mean to pursue, catch, or grab hold of the life that really is life? First of all, Paul talks about two kinds of life here in this passage: eternal life (which he views as breaking into the present) and real life ( which is a life that seeks to be generous). Both of these are contrasted against a life that seeks money for money’s sake, trapped by senseless and harmful desires. This is what I call the “never enough” mindset.

In Fredrik Backman’s recent novel My Friends, a world-famous artist ends up bequeathing his painting to a young girl named Louisa whom he recognizes a lot of himself in. She doesn’t know the artist or what to do with his painting after he dies. The painting is worth millions, kinda like the Gustav Klimt painting that just sold for 236 million. And so throughout the story, she is learning the story of the artist and trying to decide what to do with the painting.

But in the end, she ends up breaking into the museum at the artist’s hometown to hang the painting on the wall. Her friend asks her “You should sell it and take the money and have fantastic life.” Louisa shakes her head and says “That won’t work. If I see this painting as money, then I’ll see all paintings as money. Then I’ll never be able to paint anything.” When everything is merely a transaction, it is hard to hold on to that which is authentic and real.

When it comes to real life, Paul Tillich says “wealth and power are unreliable objects of faith, for they are fleeting and provide little hope in the face of death. In contrast, generosity and good works affirm real life, because they arise from faith in the ultimate….. Thus the self-giving life is not a negation of life but an affirmation of the eternality of life: by God life was given, is being given, and will be given.”

Stewardship is more than preserving us by keeping our lights on or helping us to survive another year. I don’t want you to give out of obligation or to help ease your spiritual guilt. Rather, I want you to give because you have encountered real life in Christ and want to respond to the life in which you have been given. I hope you consider giving for the first time or giving again or giving more because you are holding on to the life that really is life and want others to experience and know that same life here in Cleveland in and through the ministry of St. Luke. Consider all the places you spend your time, all the areas you lend your presence, all the ways you give your talents, and all the ways you spend your money? How much of that is devoted to an object of faith that is temporary versus life that really is life? If you were to look at my checking account, you might see that Kroger is the object of my faith. You might see Amazon is. If you looked at my screen use report, you might see Netflix as the object of my faith. Frederick Buechner once said “There are people who use up their entire lives making money so they can enjoy the lives they have entirely used up.”

Life that is real, according to Paul, is a life that seeks to be rich in the right things. Scott Hoezee says we are to “be rich in grace. Be rich in mercy. Be rich in forgiveness. Be rich in the Fruit of the Spirit. Because when the day comes when $100 bills and Fortune 500 companies are as worthless as a bag of fallen oak leaves, it will be grace and mercy and forgiveness that will pave the road that leads to an eternal kingdom of shalom. And in that kingdom, grace will be better than gold and mercy sweeter than honey.”

Where are the areas you have sought to be rich in life? When you consider a wealthy life, is there value placed on what matters most?

Wendell Berry says it best in his poem…..

“Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want you to die for profit they will let you know. So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it.

So let’s hold on to the life that is really life, and every day do something for the kingdom of God that may not add up to everyone else but adds up perfectly when calculated by the riches of God’s grace.