Sermon – If I Had a Million Dollars
1 Kings 17:8-16; 1 Timothy 6:6-21
Farmville Presbyterian Church
October 29, 2023
-Finding ourselves with enough in an age of abundance
I have a friend who takes the Timothy reading to heart, at least verse 7 of what I read – you brought nothing with you into the world and you will depart with the same. His decided wish is that when he departs this mortal coil, and his body is placed in his coffin, the only suit he will be wearing is his birthday suit. I really do not know why he is so adamant about this. We did not get into what was behind his request. I didn’t even ask him if he wanted an open casket at his service.
The rest of this passage from Timothy is a famous one for issues of money. That is no surprise. Today is our Commitment Sunday, so it is easy to talk about money as we make decisions and plans for our financial health as a church family for next year. You have probably heard a few sermons on money or wealth in the past: use your resources wisely and be a good steward; resist the love of money – grow to love your neighbor more; wealth can be an idol; everything we have is the Lord’s so use it with God’s care in mind. Those are just a few messages I could bring today, some of which you have heard before, but today I want to talk about the curious notion of having enough.
What is enough? This is one of the hardest questions for people to answer, let alone people in the wealthiest nation the world has ever seen. According to the Federal Reserve’s research, the average net worth of American families topped $1 million for the first time in history last year. That is astounding, but that is also partially because the super-rich are getting richer. Still, 12% of American families are millionaires; 20% of people in their 50s and 60s are millionaires, and a college degree raises that percentage. That is a 42% surge since 2019. You might be scratching your head about that, too. I don’t feel much wealthier since then. When I first came up with my sermon title, I thought a million dollars was worth more. Now, it seems to be normalish for a good number of people.
People of faith, however, have a different set of rules. We have priorities that do not come from our pocketbook or wallet, right? Every Sunday and a few extra times a week even, we might pray to God that we receive our daily bread. If you think about this, this is not the easiest prayer. We are praying for just enough to live on for that day. Who really means for God to give us just barely enough? Back in Jesus’ day, they most assuredly meant enough for the day because they could have been facing food issues that we have a hard time imagining. No grocery stores back then. If crops yields were destroyed, the likelihood of food was tough.
Today, it is different. We might say that “just enough” is good enough, but I’m not so sure we mean that. No one is going to turn down a little bit more. “Just enough” is a starting place. We might need to save up for tomorrow. We might have company. We might get hungry, again, later. This is the American quagmire. We are stuck right there in the middle of knowing we only need enough, but if God wants to give us more, who is going to say no to God? In fact, I am absolutely certain that everyone in this room or online would say with conviction that God has given us all more than we need. We celebrate God’s blessing; we get used to God’s blessing; and we become accustomed to abundance. The idea of just enough can even seem cruel considering how much we have been given, and living on just enough is not enough.
Someone else who has had a hard time with just enough is SBF. In case you do not know who SBF is, that’s Sam Bankman – Fried. He’s on trial right now in New York for making a lot of money, misusing a lot of money, and losing a lot of money, all on the cryptocurrency market. If you have heard of bitcoin, that’s a crypto. He is a fascinating case. Even though he committed financial crimes that look like so many others out there, Sam is very different. First, he lost like 8 billion dollars that was not his. Second, he is very young to be in this spot – 31 years old. At the time of his crimes, he was in his 20s. In fact, he was one of the wealthiest people in the world under 30 with a net worth up in the many billions of dollars. Third, he is an effective altruist or at least claimed to be. That means he was trying to make as much money as possible in order to give away as much as possible to causes doing good things. The idea is that rather than being a doctor in a struggling nation yourself, you can fund lots of other doctors in struggling nations. Do the possible greatest good for the most possible people. But that’s not what happened. He failed miserably through terrible mismanagement. Lots of people lost lots of money because he needed more and more success for his business, and he will most likely be going to prison for a large portion of the rest of his life.
You could argue that he meant well in some respects, but he had no concept of enough. There was always a desire for more. Even in the striving to do good, you can hurt others in the pursuit of more. There has to be something else guiding our actions.
I love the passage from Kings because it is so different. It is eye-catching and challenging and memorable. Elijah needs somewhere to stay where he can find nourishment. This is during a terrible drought, and food and water are scarce. Elijah is not sent to someone who is Jewish but to a gentile. He is not sent to someone who had food stored but to someone who had one last bit of food left. He is not sent to someone who is happy to help but to a family in depression and despair. Nothing about this situation presented a lesson in finding enough in faith, but that is what God provided. While they followed God’s instructions, there was enough.
There are people out there today who are praying for food. At church, we have been getting more calls for help. There are a few agencies around who do provide something, but if the best that a neighbor can do is pray for food, then there is a problem. It should be a priority for all of us that everyone has enough.
It is also a priority to find contentment, and as much as we struggle with this, contentment cannot come with financial success. In Paul writing to Timothy, riches cannot bring contentment, but we so much want that to be the case. Here is where the idea of enough and contentment crash heads. If you are like I am, content seems to require at least a bit more than enough, but that chase never ends. Sam Bankman-Fried is a colossal example. He once said 150 billion was enough for what he wanted to do. Many, many lives have paid the price for his lust for wealth.
While we are mindful of the needs of others and the lack that is in the community for people to just have enough for the day, we must also be mindful of how we care for ourselves in our needs. How much of our energy goes into chasing what God considers a waste and folly and maybe even evil? We all want more of something – more peace, more health, more success, more wealth, more love, more respect, more ability, more whatever. It is also ok to try to find contentment in God’s heart no matter where we are or what we are going through. God absolutely wants us to have enough, even enough to share, but God wants our hearts to be grateful for what we do have and to be able to give God glory for the blessings we do know. The church is planning for next year, but we are also discovering today whether we can be content in God’s grace. Nowhere in Scripture does it say we need to be miserable or to be impoverished. God desires for us all to have enough of what we need. Lottery lines or cheating financers will always remind us that there is a great need not being satisfied. No amount will soothe your soul. No amount will make you faithful. No amount will give you peace. No amount will make you content. Only Jesus can do that, and Jesus is always enough. To God be the glory. Amen.