Our Money Story --- Restore

 

John 21:1-19          Common English Bible

Later, Jesus himself appeared again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. This is how it happened: Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two other disciples were together. Simon Peter told them, “I’m going fishing.”

They said, “We’ll go with you.” They set out in a boat, but throughout the night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples didn’t realize it was Jesus.

Jesus called to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?”

They answered him, “No.”

He said, “Cast your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”

So they did, and there were so many fish that they couldn’t haul in the net. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard it was the Lord, he wrapped his coat around himself (for he was naked) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they weren’t far from shore, only about one hundred yards.

When they landed, they saw a fire there, with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you’ve just caught.” Simon Peter got up and pulled the net to shore. It was full of large fish, one hundred fifty-three of them. Yet the net hadn’t torn, even with so many fish. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples could bring themselves to ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

When they finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

Simon replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”

Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” Jesus asked a second time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Simon replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”

Jesus said to him, “Take care of my sheep.” He asked a third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was sad that Jesus asked him a third time, “Do you love me?” He replied, “Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.”

Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. I assure you that when you were younger you tied your own belt and walked around wherever you wanted. When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and another will tie your belt and lead you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to show the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. After saying this, Jesus said to Peter, “Follow me.”

 

 

On my second Sunday with you --- almost 5 years ago --- I asked you a rather simple question --- I asked you to show me Jesus --- and what I said was --- what would you show me?  How do you show Jesus to the world?

If there is anything that I have tried to teach you --- it is that your story matters. 

How people see you spend your life

--- spend your words

--- spend your actions (or inactions)

--- how you spend your money

are all pointers toward the Jesus you proclaim.

For the past month we have been talking about Our Money Story --- looking honestly at how we use the resource of money to proclaim the kin-dom of God.

We began by remembering --- remembering that it all belongs to God. 

God is creator of all that there is --- and that God provides to meet our needs. 

But we also remembered that money can be used to betray --- as Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

Then we practiced releasing shame, anxiety, guilt, greed, or anything that keeps us from freedom and wholeness.

We release the elements of our money story that prevent us from fully living into God’s story. 

The freedom from releasing those things that hold us back free us from ourselves --- and liberates others.

Last week we began to reimage our money story.

We began to reimage a world where our social and economic systems provide for and benefit all of God’s children.

And that brings us to today.

The whole purpose of this journey --- of remembering, releasing and reimagining is to help us experience the wholeness that God created us for --- so today we look at our money story and how it can help us restore right relationships with one another.

Those of you have gotten to know me have heard me share the story of Jacob over and over. 

If you have ever visited my blog --- you know the title is Wrestling with God --- because like Jacob --- I have wrestled with God.

Jacob --- whose name means: "to follow, to be behind" because he was the second twin born (behind his brother Esau) but it also means "to supplant, circumvent, assail, overreach" --- which is the story of Jacob’s life.

Jacob, with his mother’s help --- cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright and blessing from their father Isaac.

Because of that --- Jacob is forced to flee the wrath of his older brother.

While living in exile he marries --- and is tricked by his cousin Laban into marrying Laban’s eldest daughter Leah and not the one he loved Rachel. 

Eventually, Jacob --- who has grown very rich decides it is time to return home and confront his elder brother.

On his way to meet his brother --- Jacob wrestles with God --- and wins!

          God blesses Jacob and gives him a new name.

                   No longer will he be the supplanter, but he is now Israel

We are told in Genesis:

“Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it’s Israel (God-Wrestler); you’ve wrestled with God and you’ve come through.”

Jacob/Israel fears encountering his brother, Esau, whom he has deceived --- so he devises a plan to attempt to appease his brother. 

He offers half his riches.

In Genesis 33 we read:

Esau said, “What’s the meaning of this entire group of animals that I met?”

Jacob said, “To ask for my master’s kindness.”

Esau said, “I already have plenty, my brother. Keep what’s yours.”

Jacob said, “No, please, do me the kindness of accepting my gift. Seeing your face is like seeing God’s face, since you’ve accepted me so warmly. Take this present that I’ve brought because God has been generous to me, and I have everything I need.” So Jacob persuaded him, and he took it.

I already have everything thing I need --- God has been generous to me!

We are invited in this story of Jacob and Esau to think about restoration in our own lives.

We cannot earn salvation --- but we are invited to examine our heart’s attitude toward stewardship --- as we as we investigate our own experiences, fears, desires, and passions with money.

Restoration is an act of grace.

Yet I am convinced that good stewardship practices can restore healthy relationships between people, the earth, and God.

Lives are transformed in the giving of gifts to change and repair a broken world.

It is in the act of giving that we often find that we are being reconciled to God.

Our Gospel story continues this theme of restoration. 

This story takes place a week or two after the resurrection.

The disciples have all returned home --- disillusioned, disappointed and no doubt confused about all that they had experienced while Jesus was with them --- and they have gone back to their pre-Jesus lives.

We find several of them back out on the Sea of Galilee --- fishing --- trying to make a living.

But John wants us to know that this had not been a successful fishing trip.

They have been fishing all night long and have caught NOTHING.

A stranger shows up on the beach and suggests that if they just throw their nets on the other side of the boat --- they will catch some fish.

          Not advise most of us want to hear.

But --- for whatever reason --- they decide to give it a try.

And the result was that they were overwhelmed with fish.

But I don’t think the abundance of the catch is the point.

          Jesus is offering a restoration

Remember how we began four weeks ago --- the disciples gathered with Jesus around a table --- remembering stories and dreaming of a new way of life.

          A new economy in which there is enough for everyone.

          A new dream for how we too are to live in community

We end with Jesus and his disciples in virtually the same place:

The disciples once again gathered around a table

          Confused and trying to figure out a way forward.

What I love about this story is that Jesus gives us clear instructions on what we are supposed to do.

“Feed my sheep.”

Because the old way does not work.

It’s not the first time he has told us this.

Do you remember when the crowds had gathered and had been listening to Jesus teaching them and the evening became late.  The disciples come to Jesus and said to him:

“This is an isolated place and it’s getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

But Jesus said to them, “There’s no need to send them away. You give them something to eat.”

YOU --- You “Give them something to eat” --- You “Feed my sheep.”

Jesus is reminding us that the old way no longer works.

He is telling us today that our old money stories no longer work as well.

Sure --- they gave us a foundation. 

But that foundation must be restored

--- it must be made new through God’s economy

And that is the choice that Jesus presents us with

We can live in the old stories, or we can make new ones.

We can find ourselves in fear of the money stories that have taken hold of our lives --- or we can transform them to create them into a new economy --- God’s economy

The good news is Jesus has told us what to do --- we are not left to our own devices.

Jesus says --- let go of the ways we have known       

--- that no longer work

--- and feed the sheep.

Today I invite you to look deeply --- honestly at your money story --- if you haven’t already.

And as you examine your money story to ask God to help you how best you can feed the sheep.

Today we are inviting you to return your faith promise cards.

          These are not a binding pledge

They are an estimates toward the ways that you hope that God will help shape your money story.

Some of you will exceed your expectations and hopes

          Others will still have growth to do

But until we take the step of challenging ourselves and setting a goal

--- we really can’t examine and grow toward God in our money story.

I can give you all the reasons why it is helpful to the church to set this goal

But I would prefer you to look at your relationship with God and seek how it can help that relationship grow by being intentional in your money story.

You can make your estimate by going to our website which I will post in the chat (https://meridianstreet.org/what-if/estimate-of-giving-card/) or by sending your estimate into the office.

It’s your money story --- how does God fit in it?

I asked you to show me Jesus ---

    How does your money story show me Jesus?

Our Money Story: Reimagine

Mark 12:38-44       Common English Bible

As [Jesus] was teaching, he said, “Watch out for the legal experts. They like to walk around in long robes. They want to be greeted with honor in the markets. They long for places of honor in the synagogues and at banquets. They are the ones who cheat widows out of their homes, and to show off they say long prayers. They will be judged most harshly.” 

Jesus sat across from the collection box for the temple treasury and observed how the crowd gave their money. Many rich people were throwing in lots of money. One poor widow came forward and put in two small copper coins worth a penny. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I assure you that this poor widow has put in more than everyone who’s been putting money in the treasury. All of them are giving out of their spare change. But she from her hopeless poverty has given everything she had, even what she needed to live on.”

 

Let me begin with a prayer from Henri Nouwen:

Dear God, 

I so much want to be in control.

I want to be the master of my own destiny.

Still I know that you are saying:

“Let me take you by the hand and lead you.

Accept my love

and trust that where I will bring you,

the deepest desires of your heart will be fulfilled.”

Lord, open my hands to receive your gift of love.

Amen.

Sometimes it is easy for us to forget how radical the biblical story is.

In the Torah, in the book of Leviticus – that rule book that most of us like to ignore --- God gives some powerful commands.

Moses is given instructions from Yahweh on how this newly freed people are to live.

Remember --- God had just delivered them from the Egyptians and slavery.

In these laws, God reimagines a whole new way of life for the children of Israel.

The laws of this new kin-dom are created to ensure that all of God’s children live with justice and equality.

          These laws are radical

God seems to be trying to reorient the Israelite’s money story.

While slaves --- money was used as a tool for self-security while impoverishing others

God is seeking to help them see a new vision ---- one where care is given for all --- where all of God’s children have enough

It is a vision which transforms how we relate to our neighbors and our resources.

The instructions, God shared give practical and specific ways to love our neighbor.

In Leviticus 19 we read that God commands that that farmers are to leave gleanings for the poor.

When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather up every remaining bit of your harvest. Also do not pick your vineyard clean or gather up all the grapes that have fallen there. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant; I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:9-10 CEB) 

And then just a few chapters later we find the most radical commandment of all --- the idea of the year of Jubilee.

The practice of Jubilee is when, in a fifty-year cycle, imbalances within the economic structure are rebalanced.

Where “those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed.”

Debts were to be forgiven --- and property returned to the original owner.

My Jewish Learning describes it this way:

The seventh year, during which the fields were to be left fallow (Leviticus 25:1-7) and debts released (Deuteronomy 15:1-11) [is called in] Hebrew Shemitah (“Release”). The seven years are counted in the cycle of fifty culminating in the Jubilee

In The Jewish Religion: A Companion explains it this way:

[Jubilee is] the institution described in the book of Leviticus (25:8-24) where it is stated that a series of forty-nine years [was] to be counted . . . and every fiftieth year declared a special year during which there was to be no agricultural work; all landed property was to revert to its original owner; and slaves were to be set free. (Leviticus 25:9) 

Just a little aside --- inscribed in our Liberty Bell that is found in Philadelphia are the words from Leviticus 25:10 which describes the Jubilee.

The Liberty Bell has these words: “proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof,” which come from the King James Version of the Bible.

In the context of the Liberty Bell, the word “liberty” is usually understood to refer to our values of freedom and independence.

However, in its original context, the Hebrew word dror (best translated as “release”) refers specifically to economic amnesty to be enacted during a year referred to as the Jubilee—from the Hebrew, yovel, which refers to a ram’s horn trumpet blown to announce the occasion.  (William Gilders: Bible Odyssey)

Jesus picks up on this same radical theme in Mark’s Gospel.

And what is challenging is that most of us hear this story of the “widows mite” very differently than the first hearers would have.

I hope that you noticed that I include the story of the “widow’s mite” in its larger literary context --- this context is pretty much the same in both Luke and Mark’s gospel.

The story of the “widow’s mite” is sandwiched between two challenges that Jesus gives to the Scribes and Pharisees.  The harshness of these sayings can still make us squirm, as I am sure that the earliest hears did.

The story of the destruction of the temple --- which opens the 13 chapter of Mark, is especially damning.

Luke Timothy Johnson at the 4^th Annual Lake Lecture in commenting about Luke’s version of this story said:

Those “noble stones and offerings” that Jesus includes in his summary prediction of the temple’s destruction are, after all, precisely the ancient Jewish equivalent of endowed buildings with memorial plaques praising the benefactions of pious donors, the visible evidence of noble philanthropy. And the ancient scribes with their religious garb and public posturing were not so different from contemporary examples of preachers “swallowing the houses of widows” for their self-aggrandizing projects.

The middle part of our sandwich is especially challenging to understand.

Luke Timothy Johnson continued:

It has a double contrast: between the wealthy and the destitute widow on one hand; between the gifts of the rich given out of their excess and the gift of the widow out of her neediness on the other. The widow is said to have given “more than all the rest,” not because of the size of her gift but because of its more radical character: by donating two of the smallest coins in circulation, she was giving away “all her life (bios),” that is, all that supported her marginal existence. The wealthy could give greater amounts but with less impact on themselves. The measure of giving, it appears, is here less the product than the cost. 

Before the destruction of the temple, [the treasury] was the method used to fulfill the demands of Torah for the collection of alms for those perennially dispossessed in a land-based economy in a patriarchal society, namely widows, orphans, and sojourners.

By giving to the treasury, the rich were fulfilling their responsibilities --- so that the widow did not have to.

The reality is: widows were not required to give to the temple.

Widows and the perennially dispossessed were to be cared for through the safety nets that were created by these gifts --- to keep the dispossessed from falling.

Even in Jesus time --- the systems weren’t working and needed reimagining. 

This widow gives all that she has --- and the system fails her.

How would it change the story --- if we hear it like I believe the earliest followers of Jesus did --- with Jesus telling this story, sandwiched between the others --- to use her act of giving as a way to highlight the corruption of the economic system in power?

What if Jesus tells this story to show us, in contrast, a new — and yet ancient way (harking back to the concept of Jubilee) --- a new/old way of sharing, distributing resources, and caring for each other?

Luke Timothy Johnson continues --- it is a long explanation --- but I think it is important:

In its negative form, the mandate of faith is clear and consistent. Faith forbids all acquisitiveness and greed and envy as intrinsically the expression of idolatry. Therefore, all of Scripture consistently and emphatically forbids stealing and fraud and oppression and perverting of justice and moving of landmarks and withholding of wages and neglecting of widows and orphans and sojourners. 

In contrast, the mandate for the positive sharing of possessions is far more various. It was this side of the issue that most intrigued me. Why so definite on one side yet so vague on the other? One reason could be the notorious difficulty with all positive commandments. Negative commands are easier to spell out and to observe, for they exclude a specific form of behavior but allow all others. Positive commands, because they are open-ended, tend to be difficult both to define and execute. Think of, “Do not kill,” which leaves open all the positive ways of giving life, and then, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which gives rise to anxious perfectionism.

But I think that something more is at work in this case. The vagueness and open-endedness of the mandate “share possessions” is connected directly to the open-ended character of faith in the Living God. God moves ahead of us all in the circumstances of our lives and calls us to respond in those specific and ever-changing circumstances . . .

What this means for the faithful disposition of possessions is, I think, clear. The mandate of faith is, in the most proper sense, to symbolize faith. Faith needs to be embodied in ever-changing ways in response to the call of God. That embodied response in physical action, and specifically the disposition of possessions, is not “symbolic” in some weakened sense of the term, but in its fullest, sacramental, sense: it effects what it signifies. Acquisitiveness, greed, oppression: these all obviously symbolize the response of idolatry. But every open-handed sharing of possessions equally enacts the very essence of faith. It is in this respect that the obediential faith of Jesus, which expressed itself in a complete receptivity to the call of God in every circumstance and in the self-emptying service to his neighbor at every moment, can be seen as the Christological exemplar for the sharing of possessions. As Paul tells the Corinthians when trying to persuade them to join in his great collection of money for the poor in Jerusalem: “You know the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).

Jesus seems to be challenging us to reimagine our gifts of stewardship

He asks:

Can we reimagine systems of charity that have inevitably fail to honor and uplift --- that fail to provide true transformation and liberation?

Can we reimagine how we earn and how we distribute resources as members of our faith community?

Can we, in the words of Luke Timothy Johnson move our giving, spending and acquiring closer to a statement of our faith in Jesus --- while balancing that with the reality of the economic system we live in?

Can we reimagine our giving?

And are we willing to give it a try?

The first step seems to me to be the mandate that we reimagine our neighbor.

We must see our neighbor as a child of God --- regardless of their race, sex or even geographical location.

May God help us to begin to reimagine all that God has blessed and given us.

Let me end with the words of Jose Marti:

“Happiness exists on earth, and it is won through prudent exercise of reason, knowledge of the harmony of the universe, and constant practice of generosity.”

Let us see all the people --- and seek to treat them as the sisters and brothers that they are.

Our Money Story: Remember

Exodus 16:1-18      Common English Bible

The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Sin desert, which is located between Elim and Sinai. They set out on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt. The whole Israelite community complained against Moses and Aaron in the desert. The Israelites said to them, “Oh, how we wish that the Lord had just put us to death while we were still in the land of Egypt. There we could sit by the pots cooking meat and eat our fill of bread. Instead, you’ve brought us out into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I’m going to make bread rain down from the sky for you. The people will go out each day and gather just enough for that day. In this way, I’ll test them to see whether or not they follow my Instruction. On the sixth day, when they measure out what they have collected, it will be twice as much as they collected on other days.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “This evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning you will see the Lord’s glorious presence, because your complaints against the Lord have been heard. Who are we? Why blame us?” Moses continued, “The Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning because the Lord heard the complaints you made against him. Who are we? Your complaints aren’t against us but against the Lord.”

Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole Israelite community, ‘Come near to the Lord, because he’s heard your complaints.’” As Aaron spoke to the whole Israelite community, they turned to look toward the desert, and just then the glorious presence of the Lord appeared in the cloud.

The Lord spoke to Moses, “I’ve heard the complaints of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat. And in the morning you will have your fill of bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”

In the evening a flock of quail flew down and covered the camp. And in the morning there was a layer of dew all around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the desert surface were thin flakes, as thin as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” They didn’t know what it was.

Moses said to them, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Collect as much of it as each of you can eat, one omer per person. You may collect for the number of people in your household.’” The Israelites did as Moses said, some collecting more, some less. But when they measured it out by the omer, the ones who had collected more had nothing left over, and the ones who had collected less had no shortage. Everyone collected just as much as they could eat.

Luke 22:1-23          Common English Bible

The Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is called Passover, was approaching. The chief priests and the legal experts were looking for a way to kill Jesus, because they were afraid of the people. Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, who was one of the Twelve. He went out and discussed with the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard how he could hand Jesus over to them. They were delighted and arranged payment for him. He agreed and began looking for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them—a time when the crowds would be absent.

The Day of Unleavened Bread arrived, when the Passover had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John with this task: “Go and prepare for us to eat the Passover meal.”

They said to him, “Where do you want us to prepare it?”

Jesus replied, “When you go into the city, a man carrying a water jar will meet you. Follow him to the house he enters. Say to the owner of the house, ‘The teacher says to you, “Where is the guestroom where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?” ’ He will show you a large upstairs room, already furnished. Make preparations there.” They went and found everything just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover meal.

When the time came, Jesus took his place at the table, and the apostles joined him. He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. I tell you, I won’t eat it until it is fulfilled in God’s kingdom.” After taking a cup and giving thanks, he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. I tell you that from now on I won’t drink from the fruit of the vine until God’s kingdom has come.” After taking the bread and giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup after the meal and said, “This cup is the new covenant by my blood, which is poured out for you.

“But look! My betrayer is with me; his hand is on this table. The Human One goes just as it has been determined. But how terrible it is for that person who betrays him.” They began to argue among themselves about which of them it could possibly be who would do this.

The last six months have been unlike any of my life.

As you know, since August, I have been working on getting my parents moved out of their home in Arizona, their condo in Illinois and moved to an apartment at the Holmstad in Batavia, IL.

While that process has been extremely challenging and taxing --- the part that has been the most difficult is one that is on-going.

I was made the keeper of the family history.

          A responsibility that I do not take lightly.

I have brought back to Indy about 20 boxes of picture albums and mementos from my parents’ life.

          Nancy uncovered their wedding album on Friday night

I found a picture of my grandmother Marshall when she was a young woman that just exhilarates me.

What I have been doing is REMEMBERING --- and it has been a very spiritual experience

Somewhere I came across this quote --- I have no idea who it originated from, but it speaks to me.

Whenever you hear or read anything of a spiritual nature that moves you or touches your soul, you are not learning something, you are remembering what you have always known.

Remembering can be a powerful salve for the soul

For the next four weeks, Mary and I will be talking about Our Money Story.

My goal is to help us look at what our spoken and unspoken money stories are --- and how those stories have impacted our practice of generosity --- of stewardship.

I get that most of us don’t like talking about money --- and especially don’t like preachers talking about money.

But the topic of money, wealth or possessions is one of the most common topics in the Bible.

          Jesus talked about money more than he talked about faith and prayer.

Like it or not --- money --- our money story --- is spiritual.

As we wrestle --- thinking about God’s money story it is my hope that we will experience it as liberating, inviting and transforming.

I want to invite you to remember, to release, to reimagine, and to restore your money stories so that we can write the one that God is guiding us to live into. 

I want to touch on two biblical stories briefly this morning.  Stories that we are all familiar with --- as we seek to remember that God’s steadfast love endures forever.

The first story is found in Exodus chapter 16 --- it is one of the great stories found in the Hebrew Bible.

The Israelites have fled from Egypt --- having experienced the miracle of the parting of the sea --- they are now in the desert of Sinai and the “Back to Egypt” committee has formed and has started doing what they seem so good at --- complaining.

The whole Israelite community complained against Moses and Aaron in the desert. The Israelites said to them, “Oh, how we wish that the Lord had just put us to death while we were still in the land of Egypt. There we could sit by the pots cooking meat and eat our fill of bread. Instead, you’ve brought us out into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death.”

Do you REMEMBER how God responded to the “Back to Egypt” committee?

Maybe the question we really need to ask is how would we respond to a group of people that we have just rescued from slavery and now are complaining so bitterly that they want to go back?

          I think I might give them a map and say: GO.

But that isn’t what God does ---

“I’ve heard the complaints of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat. And in the morning you will have your fill of bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”

In the evening a flock of quail flew down and covered the camp. And in the morning there was a layer of dew all around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the desert surface were thin flakes, as thin as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” They didn’t know what it was.

Moses said to them, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.

Every day, God provided food for the Israelites.

          Quail and manna

It is one of the meta stories of the Hebrew Bible --- God’s steadfast --- God’s enduring love that will last . . . forever.

But there is more to this story.

On the Sabbath the Israelites are told:

“Collect as much of it as each of you can eat, one omer per person. You may collect for the number of people in your household.’” The Israelites did as Moses said, some collecting more, some less. But when they measured it out by the omer, the ones who had collected more had nothing left over, and the ones who had collected less had no shortage. Everyone collected just as much as they could eat.

. . .

On the sixth day the people collected twice as much food as usual, two omers per person. All the chiefs of the community came and told Moses. He said to them, “This is what the Lord has said, ‘Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. But you can set aside and keep all the leftovers until the next morning.’” So they set the leftovers aside until morning, as Moses had commanded. They didn’t stink or become infested with worms. The next day Moses said, “Eat it today, because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you won’t find it out in the field. Six days you will gather it. But on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be nothing to gather.”

God provides a concept for what “enough” looks like

But not just that --- God also teaches the faith community about Sabbath, a practice that simultaneously provides rest and guards against hoarding. 

God provides if we are willing to work with God.

The story that Clarke read continues this theme of remembering how we use our money and resources.

The familiar Gospel story opens up on the day of preparation for the Passover --- remembering God’s saving act in bring the people out of slavery in Egypt to the promised land.

          Remembering that God’s love is enduring and steadfast.

Yet we find a group of pious religious believers plotting to get rid of this troublemaker Jesus who they perceived was threatening their lifestyles and pocketbooks.

They have cooked up an interesting plot.

They have found the one of the 12 who seemed weak and willing they plied him with a large sum of money to betray Jesus.

Money is used in a destructive act, here at the beginning of this story.

          30 pieces of silver for one little kiss

Far too often we can relate to this.

But this is a story that has both a beginning and an ending, and both are important as we try to understand our money story.

The money story begins with a story of fear and corruption in which money is a key component.

But how does this story end?

          Do you remember?

At a table --- a banquet --- a meal that even Judas is invited too.

A table in which a meal is shared

          Jesus offers wine and bread

                   He offers his life and his love

                             And there is enough for all.

Rachel Held Evans in Searching for Sunday writes about the table:

“The elements and the meal are identified in different ways: the body of Christ, broken; the blood of Christ, shed; the Bread of heaven, the cup of salvation, the mystery of faith, the supper of the Lamb. But in every tradition I know, someone, at some point, says, 'Remember.' Remember how God became one of us? Remember how God ate with us and drank with us, laughed with us and cried with us? Remember how God suffered for us, and died for us, and gave his life for the life of the world? Remember? Remember?”

Jesus’ act in sharing at this table sets him apart --- as he remembers the kin-dom of God that is yet to come.  A kin-dom in which there is enough for all.

          A gift beyond all other gifts --- the gift of his very self.

                    And reminds us that God’s love endures forever.

What parts of our own money story needs to be dusted off and brought to the light.

          What do we need to remember?

I need to remember the generosity of the wonderful folks at the Richfield and New Mt Tabor Churches --- who would put money into my pockets (when I had none) and tell me to go home to be with my dying brother.

          Their generosity --- in my memory --- endures forever

What do you need to remember?

Today we have had the opportunity to remember our baptism

          To remember that God chose us

                   Not because we are special

                             No --- God chose us --- because that is what God does

                                      God chooses all of us!

          So Remember your baptism --- your being chosen

                   By a God who will love you forever

What do you need to remember?

How have we treated the resources we have been gifted with?

Can we remember the lessons from the Bible?

          God provides

          There is enough

          Do not hoard

          Use your resources for good

          Share (because there is enough)

Remember

Remember --- you are loved eternally