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Time is money - rather, Money is Time by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy
"What is it you don't like about the rich?" she persisted. "Other than the fact that money is all they think about and that they have the attention span of a gnat, I haven't seen that it has any very direct connection with character." "Money can buy you freedom," countered Marissa "To do what - spend it? Earn more of it? Go on a cruise? Play golf? Retire? Buy a new house, a new car? How much of anything do you need? But you can always use more money, right? If a man ate so much at every meal he become ill, everyone would call him a glutton; if he drank every day until he passed out, we'd call him a drunk; but if he acquires more wealth than he'll ever be able to use, we call him - what? Smart, successful, a born genius, and someone everyone else could take a lesson from, but we don't anymore call him greedy." (from Legacy by D. W. Buffa) Most of us received mixed messages about money when we were growing up. For some of us, money was an occasion of shame in our lives. For others, it was a thing of secrets. I have shared with some of you my own experience of money as a child of parents who had a conflicted relationship with money. When my parents, who were retired, decided to move to Southern California to be closer to their only child and thus only grandchild, they sold their home in the east and made an offer on a modest condo in the city of Pasadena. The realtor quoted my father the asking price and reported that the seller was very motivated as he had opened escrow on another property. My dad proceeded to make an offer some $50,000 less than the asking price. The realtor suggested that this was an inappropriate offer and that the seller would be insulted and that he needed to offer more. My dad replied: "This is the amount I'm willing to spend, if he doesn't want it, that's fine - we'll move on!" With bewilderment, the agent submitted the offer - which was (you guessed it) accepted. In applying for a mortgage loan, my mother and father had to give the banker their income information. My father asked me to leave the room and when I refused, he had my mother write her pension and social security information down on a slip of paper and he likewise did the same - separately! My father, as a retired government worker, earned less than my mother who was a retired teacher - but he was determined that I not know how much less. Finally, with a quiet voice from this rather private and proud gentleman of 80, he said to the banker: "You know, I may not live long enough to pay this off!" The banker replied: "Sir, we don't expect you to…" What are the family messages that I grew up with about money? As a man who came to age in the Great Depression, my father did not believe in credit or owing anyone anything. He did not own a credit card, believed in either saving for what he wanted or going without (a concept foreign to the boomer generation) and that money was a reflector of worth (a man earning less than his wife was an occasion of shame). These "cultural messages" were formed in him by his times and circumstances. His formation stories are not my own - I just inherited the shame. Theologians tell us that a goodly number of the stories Jesus told were about money and possessions. Some of them, like the parable of the rich young man (Luke 18:18-27) seem to condemn wealth. Others, like the story of the woman with the precious oil (Matthew 26:6-13) seem to condone it. What we can say about Jesus with confidence is that unlike the institution he founded, the Church, Jesus was unafraid to speak directly about these things knowing full well that if he could not save us from our attachment to money and the anxiety it produces, he could never hope to save our souls. You will not be surprised to know that I have been reluctant to ask my son what messages he's learned about money from me (denial is everything). His godmother tells me that he is a "born Buddhist" in that he seems not to care (or worry) a great deal about money and seems to be greatly satisfied with what he has. I'm not sure he got that message from his parents. I know he got quite a different message from his life in this church and particularly his missionary trips to Mexico with Corazon. He seems to know that, as the title above suggests, that "money is time" when he reflects that when he buys something (e.g. a $40 basketball jersey), he had to give up irreparably precious hours of his life and energy and vitality to pay for it (in his case, at $10/hour, about 4 hours not accounting for taxes and withholding.) Beginning Sept. 19, Joyce Stickney will moderate a 6 week course during the 10 a.m. educational hour, looking at the issues surrounding money. The text we'll be using is: The Energy of Money: A Spiritual Guide to Financial and Personal Fulfillment by Maria Nemeth. The point of it all is to more honestly reflect on the power of money in our lives and to begin to seek salvation from it. (The word, "salvation," means: "spiritual rescue from sin and death, redemption.") Our task as Christians is to seek wholeness and freedom from the destructive messages our culture has taught us about money (especially those which suggest that our income - whatever it may or may not be - reflects on our self worth and value as persons.) "(The Industrial Revolution,) like all revolutions, promised a better life for all Americans. And it delivered - but only as long as people really needed more material possessions…At some point in the last 40 years, though, conditions began to change. For many people, material possessions went from fulfilling needs to enhancing comforts to facilitating luxury - and even beyond to excess…The planet itself began showing signs of nearing its capacity to handle the results of our economic growth and consumerism- water shortages, topsoil loss, global warming, ozone holes, species extinction, natural resource degradation and depletion, air pollution and trash buildup are all signs that our survival is in question…In addition, we've seen that our dependence on oil can lead to international conflict. Even though we "won" the Industrial Revolution, the spoils of war are looking more and more spoiled. This is especially true for us as individuals…Once upon a time "earning a living" was the means to an end. The means was "earning"; the end was "living." Over time, our relationship with money - earning it, spending it, investing it, owning it, protecting it, worrying about it - has taken over the major part of our lives… When we are not taking our identity from our jobs, we are identified as "consumers." According to the dictionary, to consume is to "destroy, squander, use up."...We are spending so much of our precious time earning in order to spend that we don't have the time to examine our priorities." (from Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin) The authors of the book quoted from above provocatively conclude: "There's a difference between "making a living" and making a life. Jesus came that we might have life and have it more "abundantly" (John 10:10). The spiritual task is to understand what that means. Jesus' most provocative teaching about money was found in the story about the roman coin. (Matthew 22:15-22) What does it mean to "render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's"? In 2000 years, we're still trying to figure that out. This class seeks to gather some greater clarity around these questions and at least to help us move forward in the spiritual journey around these things. Naturally, no one will be asked to reveal more than they are comfortable revealing (that's one of our anxieties, isn't it?) - but we will all come away, we pray, bearing less shame. Sign up on the patio to let us know you are coming. Books will be available in the Bookstore in September.
Copyright © 2004 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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