November 11, 2007:  RETURN OF PROSPERITY
Haggai 1:15b-2:9; Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21
Eileen Parfrey  ---  Springwater Presbyterian Church

           
            Wouldn’t Haggai make a great stewardship text?  “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts.”  At least you know where you stand, like that pastor who claims we get off light with “only” a 10% tithe, since we get to keep 90%.  But tithing isn’t what Haggai is oracle-ing about.  Israel’s homeland has been re-populated by Babylon with other conquered nations, so when they return from exile after Babylon’s defeat to take up residence again, Babylon’s place-holders are understandably miffed.  Given that, Israel is wise to be concerned with national security. Haggai had just asked, “What is your protection?” and God’s answer is, “Put me at the top of your priorities.”  The people are trying to reconcile the realities of this tatty town with what their grandparents had said about its glories, and God says, “You think this is good?  You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”  They’re trying to hold off the neighbors’ hostilities and God promises, “All abundance is mine, so you will be safe.”

            Abundance!?  As the end of the world as we know it looms, do we trust God’s checkbook, or do we consult the American Red Cross website for emergency preparedness?  Folks in Southern Californians keep the car packed with a five-day food and water supply, photocopies of important documents, treasured photos and mementos, and a change of clothing.  In the 50s and 60s, security was a backyard bomb shelter.  In the 70s, college radicals acquired items to barter when the revolution came.  When children came, security was a 3-month bank reserve.  Today, security is good insurance coverage for flood, wildfire, and earthquake.  There will come a time when security is a network of friends ready with casseroles, respite care, and rides to chemotherapy treatments.

            In Haggai’s day, “security” to the guy-on-the-street was a strong city wall and a snug place for their little ones at night.  Let the politicians argue about whether the building materials ought to go to the Temple or the wall.  Homeland Security wants a wall to keep out looters.  The God Squad wants a glorious Temple to represent God’s protection.  Then, as if it’s going to resolve anything, some prophet yaps, “You can’t accomplish security.”  But this is Haggai’s logic:  since we live by God’s abundance, security isn’t the point; gratitude is.  See how easily that slides into stewardship?  Our response to blessing is gratitude; we show that gratitude with generosity.

            This is the time of year when preachers put aside congregational discomfort about money talk in worship.  As Garrison Keillor says, we’d rather talk about sex than about money.  We prove his point every time I go to a presbytery meeting.  But it’s ironic, since scripture has more to say about money than it does about sex.  Jesus talks more about money than about his crucifixion and his return combined, and look at how earth-shaking those two events are!  In stories of his ministry, a change in heart (conversion) is always reflected by a change in giving.  Remember Zaccheus?  The sign of his repentance was giving away half his resources—and then making restitution for what he extorted from others.  Speaking as we were of spiritual practices, the word “pray” appears in the Bible 371 times, “love” appears 714 times, and “give” 2,172 times.  Since generosity is so central to faith, money talk is faith talk. 

            The reason Haggai says that riches belong to God is because, when we are attached to money, we are de-tached from the riches of God.  It’s not that God wants us to give up access to and possession of money, it’s the danger of trusting money (our resources) instead of God.  Since it’s God’s, anyhow, put money in perspective.  The best perspective is the attitude of gratitude.
 
            For years, Rick has been trying to get me to preach like Lloyd Ogilvie, he of the richly resonant voice.  Lloyd Ogilvie’s money talk was about the attitude of gratitude.  Like a stethoscope, he said, money monitors the health of our spiritual heart.  “Money talks,” he says.  “Sometimes its message is about the false security we’ve placed in it. But it can also say that we’ve decided not to miss the blessing of blessing others.”  That means, giving.  There are actually three kinds of giving:  grudge giving (oh, all right), duty giving (I gotta), and thanks-giving (I get to!), and I would say that thanks-giving is a truer reflection of our real state of affairs. 

            Here’s a story from the internet to help us see our real state of affairs.  It’s about a female humpback whale that got caught up and tangled in crab traps and fishing lines in San Francisco bay.  She looked like Houdini, swathed in a cocoon of hundreds of pounds of gear from head to tail.  She was being strangled by fishing lines, and she couldn’t stay afloat or breathe, and she didn’t have Houdini’s magic tricks to escape.  A fisherman spotted her and radioed an environmental group for help.  When the rescuers arrived, they knew they had to get in the water with her and cut the ropes if they wanted to save her.  Risky business.  Whales are wild animals, huge ones at that.  She could destroy those puny humans with a flick of her fluke as they swam around her, cutting at the ropes with curved knives.  When she was finally cut loose, amazingly enough, she didn’t bolt to freedom.  She stopped to swim an exuberant joy dance and to thank each diver individually.  The attitude of gratitude, whale-scale.  Without intervention, her situation was hopeless, and she knew she’d been rescued.  She had to express her joy and gratitude. 

            If you haven’t been bailed out of hopeless entanglements, maybe an attitude of gratitude won’t come naturally to you.  But if you have been, as your pastor, I’ve gotta point out the necessity of gratitude and generosity as a spiritual practice.  As an act of worship.  The Sunday morning offering plate is not about paying bills.  It is a joy dance, a way of saying thanks.  It is a statement about who you think you are in relation to God. 
           
            Herb Miller says there are really two faith conversions.  In the first we say, “I accept Jesus Christ.”  We acknowledge the fishing lines and crab traps that interfere with our ability to stay afloat.  We accept the work of the diver, who came right into the water with us, cutting us free, rescuing us.  In the second conversion we say, “I commit to using the gifts God gave me to work with.”  This is our joy dance, our thanks for the rescue.  In giving we are connected to God, as connected as that whale to the divers who touched her and received her nudging thanks.  In generosity we acknowledge that it is indeed only by God’s abundance that we live. 

            There’s nothing as hopeful as a dog, especially around dinner time, but I’ve just got to believe that whale experienced something like hope as part of her rescue.  It sure seems like it, from her expressions of joy and gratitude.  Maybe I think that, because I keep seeing myself as that whale, entangled and weighed down with a lifetime of junk.  The annoyances that build up to anger, the hurts I cannot let go, the pains I treasure, the sense of discouragement, my inability to forgive.  Paralyzed.  Stuck.  As that hopeless mess is cut away, God’s promise reverberates, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.  The silver is mine, and the gold is mine.”  I love that!  The abundance is God’s, and we can count on that.  The abundance of God accomplishes our security.  We are free, therefore to dance our joy and gratitude.  Let us be the generous people of God, because we get to.