Money Part 1: The Business of Our Lives
An old friend came to visit last week. We were sitting outside in our screenhouse, and the subject of money came up. My friend said, “I love money,” and I immediately thought of the comedian Steve Martin, who said, “I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too.”
Isn’t it wonderful having a scholar for a pastor, a man who can quote Steve Martin and the Three Stooges from memory? This same friend who told me he loved money has been telling me I needed to quote the Bible more, so when he said he loved money, I quoted the Bible, saying, “The love of money is the root of all evil. 1 Timothy 6:10”
I could tell it made him a bit uncomfortable, because he said, “Well, maybe love is the wrong word, but I must admit money does excite me.”
I’ve known my friend since Mrs. Mitchell’s third-grade class, and that struck me as an accurate self-assessment. Money does appear to excite him. Some of us are excited by travel, politics, science, sports, history, or even religion. I’m excited this morning because I’ve never preached a sermon series on money, but here we go, entering the mine field.
I want to assure you that I am not going to put you on a guilt trip, or twist your arm, or otherwise manipulate you. If I haven’t used the fear of a non-existent hell to manipulate you, I’m not going to use money and guilt to manipulate you. What I hope is that you and I think deeply about our relationship with money, its role in our culture, and its power in our lives. And it does have power. It excites us. It motivates us.
I want to begin by saying that money is a tool and should never be anything other than that. When money is anything more than a tool, when it is a measuring stick to quantify someone’s worth and importance, when money is seen an indication of God’s approval, when money is a weapon, that is when money becomes more than a tool and becomes a danger. I also want to dispense with the myth that people with money are intrinsically evil. To be sure, the world’s wealthiest people have lately not been distinguishing themselves. It is hardly admirable when the world’s richest man has cut food assistance to the world’s poorest people. But I get the sense Elon Musk would be morally flawed whether he had lots of money, or little.
But for every wealthy person who has misused money, there are many more people who became wealthy not because they plotted and schemed and took advantage of others, but because they did something useful and good for humanity, it brought them great joy to do it, and they did it well.
I know a man who builds homes. It is all he has ever wanted to do since he was a child and was given a set of Lincoln Logs. He builds excellent houses, charges an honest price, pays careful attention to detail, is readily accessible to his clients, and pays his employees generously. He loves what he does, and after 40 years of doing it five days a week, has become wealthy. His wealth is not a measure of his goodness, but is a consequence of his goodness. He is a genuinely kind, helpful, and generous person. If I need money for a worthy cause, I have only to ask him, and he will respond with open-handed liberality. For him, money is a tool to be used, and nothing more.
Conversely, I know a man who collects tools. Three big barns full of tools of every description and use. Tools for projects he will never undertake. Building tools, plumbing tools, automotive tools, agricultural tools, woodworking tools, metalworking tools. He even has dentistry and medical tools, because you never know. He doesn’t use 1% of his tools, and because he refuses to loan them out, neither does anyone else. He guards them jealously, shines them zealously, admires them continuously, but never uses them or shares them.
There are people who use money the same way. They amass as much of it as they can, without using it or sharing it. They gather it in and hoard it, reveling in its acquisition. For them, money is not a tool, but a measuring stick, a way of gauging and communicating their importance, worth, and standing.
If I were to fill my house with newspapers and magazines and clothing, and stack it to the ceiling, leaving only narrow paths winding through the rooms, people would conclude I had a hoarding disorder, and would urge me to seek therapy for my unhealthy compulsion. But when someone does the same thing with money, when they pile it up in stocks and bonds and safes and banks, when they devote every waking hour to collecting more of it, when they work long hours, neglecting their families and friends, when their life is bereft of beauty and joy because of their insatiable quest for wealth, we esteem that person. We vote them into office, we elevate them as models for living, giving them outsized influence in our nation. We would never say to them what we would say to a common hoarder, “Friend, you have an unhealthy obsession that is crippling your capacity for happiness. Please seek treatment.” Just the opposite, we would befriend them, we would curry their favor, grant them privileges large and small, point them out as a success, and shower them with accolades.
But when we celebrate wealth without conscience, we create toxic communities. Applauding only the accumulation of wealth, but not its wise and generous use, we elevate the few and impoverish the many. What we seek as Friends is the vision of Quaker John Woolman who counseled us, “To Turn all the treasures we possess into the channel of universal love until it becomes the business of our lives.”
Philip Gulley is the author of the popular Harmony series and Unlearning God: How Unbelieving Helped Me Believe.
Discover my books, stories, and more by visiting Books by Philip Gulley
Contact Philip directly at philiphgulley@gmail.com
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However if the hoarder’s pathway was lined with books…
Terrific message, Phil. It spoke to me not only for what you said but also for an experience I had yesterday. During services yesterday, the minister (who is probably about 65 - 70) said he was going to preach a dialogue or dialogical sermon. I was instantly taken back to the 1970s, a decade that stands out mostly because I met and married the woman who still shares my life. The rest of decade was overshadowed with college, low pay, struggling to start a life with my wife while both of us were earning peanuts and things like that. The idea of a dialogical sermon, though, dredged up memories of singing Kum Ba Yah in church, being encouraged to stand in circles, liturgical dance, etc., etc.
The minister asked us to raise our hands and say who we would like to go back in history to meet and to sit and talk with them over coffee and doughnuts. He also said you could name someone who is alive today. Silence descended so abruptly, I could hear the a/c compressors outside and even the ticking of one of the ceiling fans. Most of the congregation, especially my silver-haired compatriots sat on their hands, figuratively or literally. In desperation, the minister asked the children and teens to chime in. Then came suggestions of Superman, a few sports figures, and Taylor Swift.
I wanted to say that I would like to go back in history to meet my great-great grandfather, Andrew, but I was leery of saying that because this particular minister is an historian and would probably have asked me to explain why -- an explanation that would have strained my objections to speaking in public. Your message yesterday, Phil, gives me the perfect opportunity to explain why I would like to go back in history to meet great-great grandfather Andrew.
Born into Quakerism in 1823, Andrew grew up on a farm with a father who was a rarity for New England. Andrew's father was a recorded Quaker minister in NYEM at a time when there were only a very few such people. Andrew left Quakerism in his early 30s, marrying Juliette, the daughter of another prominent Quaker in that area. The marriage took place in a Congregational church. Andrew made a fortune in his life. He and Juliette gave freely of their money while each was still alive and Andrew wrote a will giving trusts to his children and to Juliette. He left instructions for the future of his company. Andrew stipulated in his will that everything other than the trusts, the home he and Juliette had shared and the business that was dealt with separately, was to be given away. Andrew's son administered the estate for more than 20 years so as not to flood the charities, institutions, schools and hospitals of Rhode Island with too much money at once. Juliette's will did much the same with the trust that had been left to her. Their children and grandchildren were left to deal with whatever money was left in the trusts and to make it in this world on their own.
So, first I would want to ask Andrew (and Juliette since they seemed to act as a team throughout their married lives) why they chose to leave the Quakers and move over to the Baptists. Why after nearly 200 years of Quaker history in the family, why after being descended from Quakers who were persecuted by the Massachusetts Bay Colony authorities with whipping, jailing, and transportation to other colonies, did you reject your heritage? Secondly I would want to ask what motivated you to give away so much of your wealth when you were alive and even more of your wealth after you died. I think it was a great thing to do -- share the wealth with those who need it most, but what was the motivation to do so? Juliette's eulogy notes that she and Andrew often contributed anything needed -- clothes, housing, food, furniture, money for education -- by sending those things to individual homes with a note that just said "From a friend" with no other identifying information. Was the use of the term "friend" with a lowercase "f" just a generic use of of the word or was there some unstated reference to the heritage Andrew and Juliette shared?
My family lost any remaining wealth in the Depression in the same waysothers were hurt by that time. My parents, as well as my wife and I, have had to make it on our own, which is fine. I am not upset that Andrew and Juliette gave all their money away. It was theirs to do with as they saw fit and I'm happy they gave it to charities and hospitals and schools rather than waste it on whatever was the equivalent then of televangelists today or a golden-haired man who sells anything with his image or name.
I'm glad Andrew and Juliette gave so freely to others, but couldn't you have left one letter or one diary entry explaining your motivation to do so? Was it based in your Quaker heritage or in the Baptist faith you dove into with such conviction? Oh well, at least you did the right thing. If I ever win a lottery (it would help, of course, if I bought tickets), I would keep just enough to live on and give all the rest away. Why do I need to be rich? Why do I need more wealth than I need for basic life necessities? Why wouldn't I want to share with those in need?