Sermon Tone Analysis

[Greeting of the Church]

Let’s start with a prayer.

Eternal Father, who has spoken in various times and in various ways to Your people in the past, but in these last days in Your Son, the incarnate Word, we pray that You will open the mouth of Your servant to proclaim that Word in the power of the Spirit.

And we pray that this same Spirit will open the hearts of its hearers here assembled to receive Your holy gospel and write on their hearts Your holy law, even as You have promised.

All of this, gracious Father, we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

My question for us this morning is: who am I, as a Seventh-Day adventist, and how can my identity in Christ be reflected in how I handle my money?

Max Israel Munk, was a Jewish Adventist living in Germany.

In 1933 he resigns from his church membership in order to spare his congregation from trouble.

You see, when you are a part of a hated minority, you pick up things that the rest of us normally don’t.

While most church members were still trying to figure out what to make of their nation’s new leader, Adolf Hitler, Monk already figured by his speeches that there would be a time where just being a Jew could be a dangerous thing to his fellow church members, so he concluded that the most responsible thing he could do was to resign from his membership to protect his church.

Monk spent some time in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, until he was released in 1938.

After that, his conference tried to get him out of Germany and find him a job, but that task proved to be impossible.

Finally, the Conference president told Munk that he could no longer have any contact with the church, and church members were likewise told not to have any contact with Mr. Monk anymore.

Don’t go visit this guy, don’t write to him.

Stay away from him.

At one point during the war, Munk’s daughter wrote to the leader of the church’s welfare program, asking if there were any other jewish adventist that needed help.

The church leader cynically replied to her:

"I have not counted them yet."

As if he was too busy to get around for these requests for aid.

As if he was afraid to open these letters.

So Max Israel Munk and his family were on their own.

Before I tell you how this story ends, let me first invite you to open the Bible with me in Matthew 19:16-21.

16 And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?”

17 And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good?

There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

18 Then he *said to Him, “Which ones?”

And Jesus said, “You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness;

19 Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

20 The young man *said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?”

21 Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

22 But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.

23 And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

24 “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

A young, wealthy and influential man came before Jesus to ask a deep, meaningful existential question.

One question that no doubt was afflicting his soul, depriving him of his sleep.

“What must I do to be saved?”.

But before Jesus could respond to his inquirer, He needed first to ask another question, one that would ensure that the rich young ruler knew exactly to whom he was talking.

“Why do you call me good?

Said Jesus.

There’s only one who is Good, which is God”.

By his silence, the young leader of Israel acknowledged that He recognised in Jesus the authority of the divine Messiah.

It was the only begotten Son of God that would speak directly into his inquiry.

"You know the commandments, do them and you will live."

“But I have been doing this for a long time!

Yet there’s something still missing… Tell me Lord, What is it?

And Jesus says: If you want to find the ultimate answer to your question, go first and leave your wealth to the poor.

Then, come and follow me, and this emptiness you now have will be filled by my presence.

With these surprising and sharp words, Jesus pointed out that the riches in this man’s life were an obstacle between himself and the God that he longed for.

Now, before I proceed, it is important to clarify that Jesus’ request to the rich young ruler is not a commandment to everyone.

Remember, the young ruler asked: What else do “I" need to do?

In his specific case, to get rid of the idolatry of money, Jesus commanded him as he did.

But throughout his first passage on this planet, Jesus met with other wealthy men, and to those the instructions were different.

For instance, to Nicodemus, to whom money was not an idol, Jesus said: you must be born again.

And you ask me: how do you know that to Nicodemus money was not an idol?

Because after the death and resurrection of Jesus, Nicodemus spent all his wealth in supporting the early church to be established in Jerusalem (you can read more about it in the book Acts of the Apostles, page 105).

But this is the point of this story: to the Rich Young Ruler of this story, money was an idol.

It stood between himself and God’s will, and the love of riches prevailed.

Why did that happen?

Jesus helps us to understand that with following passage:

Matthew 6:24

24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and bwealth [other translations: Mammon].

In this passage, Jesus personified wealth as if it were a god, because it indeed has God-like qualities.

I struggled to understand how that could be until I reflected back in my experience as an investment banker.

I mean, if you ask anyone if they worship money, most people would say: “no”.

However, where I worked, people were willing to sacrifice the bulk of their time, their health and even their family in order to earn their dollars.

“When I get my bonus, I’ll take my wife and kids to an expensive ski resort in Europe for two weeks”, told me one of my colleagues, who complained to me that since he started working for that bank, he started to lie to his wife so that he could work more, and that now he only saw his kids growing up in the horizontal, as by the time he came home most evenings they were already asleep.

Another of my colleagues, the next day after becoming a father, was back to the office the following day and continued working from 8am until 11pm - no breaks.

Another friend of mine became rather despondent because a peer of his earned a $10,000 more than himself for the whole year and that made him angry because it was a statement about his identity: he was not the best, he was not the top performer in the eyes of his managers.

My riches will take care of me.

My money will buy me good health.

My treasure tells me how much is my worth.

It gives me security.

It buys me peace.

It tells me who I am.

Are these statements sounding a bit odd to your ears?

That’s because they should.

Money - or Mammon, often receives the credit for things can only be given by God alone.

And this is why Jesus said that, to many, money can become like a god.

So the question now is: How do I shield myself from this form of idolatry?

What can I do with my money that will reflect my identity of a son / daughter of God? How can I worship God with my money, as opposed to worship Money as my god?

While there’s a lot that can be said in this space, I’ll focus today on just one - and the most important - spiritual practice.

It’s called Tithe.

Let’s read it about it together.

Leviticus 27:30

‘Thus all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.

31 ‘If, therefore, a man wishes to redeem part of his tithe, he shall add to it one-fifth of it.

32 ‘For every tenth part of herd or flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord.

In the times of the Old Testament, God commanded that a tenth, or 10% of all the produce, vegetables, grains as well as animals, belong to God.

They needed to be taken to the Temple in Jerusalem, and from there it would be used to support the work of the temple workers and priests.

It’s a simple concept.

10% is holy - or set aside, for the Lord.

Why, you might ask, does God need our money?

Certainly not.

Let’s read it in Psalms 50:10-12

10 “For every beast of the forest is Mine,

The cattle on a thousand hills.

11 “I know every bird of the mountains,

And everything that moves in the field is Mine.

12 “If I were hungry I would not tell you,