1 Timothy 6:6-19

⁶ Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; ⁷ for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; ⁸ but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. ⁹ But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

¹¹ But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. ¹² Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you ¹⁴ to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ which he will bring about at the right time--he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. ¹⁶ It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

¹⁷ As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸ They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, ¹⁹ thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”  The Lord replied, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

“Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?  Would he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat.  Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.  You may eat and drink when I am finished’?  Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?  So should it be with you.  When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’”

Paul calls on Timothy to pursue faith, being content with the abundant grace and supply of God, to “pursue righteousness, godliness, endurance, faith, love and gentleness,” and to teach the rich in his congregation to do likewise.

There is so much in the Gospels and in Paul’s letters that address things in life that can trip us up as we strive to be people of the Way.  One of those stumbling blocks is when we focus upon obtaining wealth, when wealth becomes our chief objective.  The good fortune of wealth is sometimes obtained through inheritance, the consequence of the good fortune or privilege, and sometimes as a consequence of good hard work.  In this era it can also be a consequence of well placed investment.

The unfortunate fortune of poverty happens in the same way.  Sometimes through the ill fortune of inheritance, through poor investments, the ill fortune of being born into poverty, sometimes through the misfortune of health or other events, sometimes as a result of unforeseen consequence, and sometimes as a consequence of choosing not to be productive.  Poverty is also a consequence of the economic structure.  Obtaining wealth is not just a matter of how hard you work; sometimes it is a matter of how smart you work.

Paul is not addressing wealth as being good or evil, and neither does Jesus.  What Paul is addressing is the stumbling block of wealth when people place it before their pursuit of a life in the Spirit.  Wealth is a stumbling block when we allow it to get in the way of having a spirit of generosity.  Paul reminds Timothy to teach the faithful to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.  Paul teaches that we should be content with the good fortune that we have, and to nourish a spirit of generosity, a generosity that comes out of our life with God.  Paul encourages Timothy and the church to use the gift of good fortune with a generous spirit.  This is a teaching on attitude.

Viktor Frankl, the founder of Cognitive Therapy wrote:

“Everything can be taken from (you) but one thing: To choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way.”

This is the choice we have, the ability to choose what our attitude will be.  Will it be an attitude of generosity and mercy, or an attitude of selfishness driven by fear or greed.  Will it be an attitude that recognizes that we live with an abundance of blessing, or will it be an attitude that sees lack in everything.  It is ours to choose, and our choice will determine how we live our life.

Your mental attitude has an almost unbelievable effect on your powers, both physical and psychological. The British psychiatrist, J. A. Hadfield, gives an illustration of this fact in his booklet, The Psychology of Power.  He writes, “I asked three people to submit themselves to test the effect of mental suggestion on their strength, which was measured by gripping a dynamometer.”  They were to grip the dynamometer with all their strength under three different sets of conditions.  First he tested them under normal conditions.  The average grip was 101 pounds.  Then he tested them after he had hypnotized them, convincing them that they were very weak.  Their average grip this time was only 29 pounds!  In the third test Dr. Hadfield convinced them, under hypnosis that they were very strong.  The average grip jumped to 142 pounds.

Attitude makes all the difference.  When we allow ourselves to recognize all of the blessings that we have...and name it...it will affect the way we approach everything in life.  It’s more than just having a positive or negative attitude.  It indeed starts there.  The real question is whether we are willing to live into the blessing.

Grace, unmerited love, is God’s gift to us.  It is an avenue for reconciliation with God.  Grace is what God has done.  Grace alone is sufficient for reconciliation.  But the choice is yours to make.  Reconciliation cannot be accomplished by God alone.

Will we live with an attitude of generosity and mercy, or an attitude of selfishness driven by fear or greed.  Historically, thanks be to God, the church has chosen to be a community of generosity and mercy, rather than a community of selfishness driven by fear or greed.  We have a long history, going back to the very beginning of the church, where love has guided our actions.

And Paul reminds the church to consider the choice, when he told Timothy to “command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸ They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, ¹⁹ thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.”