What’s in Your Wallet?
“Riches and honor come from you…”
1 Chronicles 29:12a
I finally did it. I remembered, while I was in a department store a few weeks ago, I really, really needed a new wallet and it took a while to find one. It seems most women these days carry a “clutch,” a small purse or wallet, so who needs a wallet? Or women just carry their smart phone with a little pocket attached for their debit or credit card. So purchasing a new wallet ended up being a reminder I am definitely not a fashion maven, but a fashion dinosaur.
My old wallet was pretty beat up. I really don’t remember when I bought it. I know I had it for more than a decade ago when I left Houston for seminary up on a mountaintop in Tennessee. The wallet was full back then; it had been for years since I was blessed to have a professional career that compensated me with more than I needed. Back then, I liked having reached a point in my life when I didn’t need to pinch pennies and could be generous with individuals and organizations in need. Yet, 10 years ago, I went back on a budget, so I know this wallet has seen me through prosperous times and tight times.
In my last semester, a seminary professor gave a brilliant lecture on the Biblical standard of giving. In 1 Samuel 8:14-17, there is evidence of a royal tithe. Deuteronomy 14:22-23 speaks of an agricultural tithe and, later, in verse 28, there is another agricultural tithe every three years to support those who have no way to support themselves. Later, it appears the tithe morphed into something resembling a tax (Nehemiah 10:35-39). Ultimately, after demonstrating the Biblical evidence was all over the map, the professor stood back and said the reality is that everything we have has been given to us by God. Stewardship is trying to figure out how much of what God has given us we will give in financial support of our church and others.
This lecture has never left me. All I have is God’s; all my hard earned money, all my finely honed job skills, all of me and my time. All I have and all I am is God’s. Am I giving enough?
A rector at another parish with which I worked for a short time was a fine man from Louisiana who could pull out that Cajun accent whenever he needed it. When he first arrived at the church, he proclaimed at one of his first Sunday services with his best Boudreaux voice, “Don’t worry, the church has enough money. The trouble is it’s in your pockets!”
What of God’s are we hoarding in our pockets? Our time? Our talent and gifts? Our financial treasure?
What’s in your wallet?
