FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Sermon by Dr. George B. Wirth

 

Commitment Sunday

November 12, 2006

 

THE GOSPEL ON WALL STREET

 

Scripture:  Matthew 25:14-30

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Years ago, the Wall Street Journal ran an article about a man who found a brown paper bag on the sidewalk nearby the Stock Exchange.  Much to his surprise, the bag contained $37.1 million in negotiable certificates, and because he was accompanied by a business colleague, the man didn’t have much choice except to return the money to the rightful owner.

 

A reporter who uncovered the story asked the man if he could do it all over again, “would he feel compelled once more to give $37.1 million back?”  The man thought for a moment, and then replied with tongue in cheek, “Only if I thought it belonged to a very poor person.”

 

The truth is, and this is not tongue in cheek, some people have a hard time letting go of this world’s goods.  They may give something, but they do so reluctantly.  They’d prefer to hold onto the money if they could.

 

I have shown you this cartoon before, picturing a man driving his Rolls Royce toward the entrance of heaven’s gate.  In the back seat are bags of money piled up next to a set of golf clubs, and standing nearby with a surprised look on this face is St. Peter, holding a big book in his hand.  The caption reads: “But you don’t understand.  I’m Harrison R. Bentley III, and I can take it with me!”

 

I

 

There was a woman in real life, as we say, who must have thought that was possible, because that’s the way she lived.  Her name was Hetty Green, but she was known as “the Black Widow of Wall Street.”  When her wealthy father, mother and aunt all died in the late 19th century, Hetty Green inherited one of the great fortunes in America.  As she married another millionaire named Edward Henry Green, he had to sign a statement renouncing any claim to her money, even though he subsequently helped to double her investments in the stock market.  Upon her husband’s death, it was said that Hetty Green had been left the richest woman in the world, and she always wore black when she visited Wall Street.

 

Sad to say, Hetty Green tried to keep it all for herself.  So miserly was she, that when her only son developed a staph infection in his leg, she took him to a public medical clinic for treatment.  When they discovered who she was and asked her to pay for it, she refused and postponed proper care for so long that the boy finally had to have his leg amputated.

 

When Hetty Green died in 1916, shriveled up, bitter and all alone in a small two room apartment, she left behind an estate of $200 million and a legacy of misery – because in spite of everything she had inherited and the vast financial empire she created, none of it brought her happiness and nothing was ever shared or donated to help others.  The Black Widow of Wall Street was a woman of great wealth, but she buried her talents and kept it all for herself.

 

II

 

And that, according to Jesus Christ, was and still is serious and potentially deadly business.  In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, our Lord told a story about a man who went on a journey and left his property and money behind in the hands of three servants, or stewards.  We call this story “The Parable of the Talents” because the master of the estate gave five talents to the first steward, two talents to the second and one talent to the third.  The footnote in our RSV pew Bibles equates one talent to a thousand dollars, so this was a substantial sum in those days, and still is today.

 

Well, you know what happened.  When the master came home, the first steward reported that he had made good investments and doubled the amount, which was also true for the second steward.  And to each of them, the master said “Well done, good and faithful steward!  You have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much.  Enter into the joy of your master.” 

 

But the third steward gave a different “quarterly” report, saying that he was afraid, had buried the talent in the ground and was returning exactly the same amount that he had been given.  The master was angry and called that man “wicked and slothful,” telling him that he should have “invested the money with the bankers…so that I should have received what was my own with interest.”  Then they took the one talent away from that man and cast him out into the wilderness.  And Jesus concluded the story with these difficult words:

 

For to everyone who has, will more be given and they will have abundance.  But from those who have not, even what they have will be taken away.  (Matthew 25:14-30)

 

To tell you the truth, I have never really, completely understood that conclusion.  But if we add just one word to Jesus’ final sentence – “From those who have not shared, even what they have will be taken away” – then the air begins to clear as we hear and understand what Jesus said that day.  In the Gospel of Luke, he said it a slightly different way: To those whom much is given, of them will much be required (Luke 12:48).

 

III

 

In other words, if we, like Hetty Green, receive talents and resources from the Lord, but hoard and keep those gifts for ourselves, we will eventually wind up living in a self-enclosed, self-imposed kind of hell on earth, devoid of the joy of giving and receiving, and cut off from the real fulfillment and meaning of life.

 

C.S. Lewis said the same about love: “There is no safe investment.  To love…is to be vulnerable.  Love anything, and your heart (may)…possibly be broken.  If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give it to no one…wrap it carefully…avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket…of your selfishness.  But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change.  It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”  (From “The Four Loves” by C.S. Lewis, Harcourt Brace, New York, 1960, page 169)

 

But thanks be to God, just the opposite is true from our Christian point of view!  If we make the risk to open our hearts in love, and if we take the risk to invest our talents and share our resources with people in need, then the promise is that as givers, we will be blessed, and in our giving we will receive more than we could ever ask or hope for.

 

Now that’s not the “prosperity gospel” being preached across this nation today, which says that God guarantees we’ll be rich if we tithe to the church, and more recently has embraced the outlandish proposition that Jesus was a wealthy person from the time of His birth when the Wise Men came to Bethlehem with their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh (See Time Magazine cover story, “Does God Want Us To Be Rich?”, September 18, 2006 and the article “Was Jesus Rich?”, from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 22, 2006, pages M1,5).

 

No, we’re not talking here about the heresy of the prosperity gospel.  We’re talking about God’s faithful promise to bless us with the joy of giving (“Enter into the joy of your master!”, Matthew 25), with the sheer delight of living, with the blessing of knowing that we are loved and don’t walk alone, and with resources entrusted to us – not to keep just as our own – but rather to be shared with those who are homeless and hungry, lost and lonely, helpless and often hopeless people of this world who are our neighbors in need.

 

CONCLUSION

 

Never was that more evident than after September 11, 2001, when Trinity
Episcopal Church on Wall Street and many other congregations in that neighborhood, opened their hearts and homes, their pocketbooks and bank accounts, their fellowship halls and sanctuaries, and literally rolled up their sleeves to get out on the street to help the victims of that horrible disaster.

 

It was the gospel in action, The Gospel on Wall Street, and it called for a major investment of time, energy, compassion, love…and money.

 

So it is for this church at the corner of 16th and Peachtree Streets on this Commitment Sunday.  You have heard all the sermons and the moments for mission from this pulpit, you have received the brochure, pledge card and envelope in the mail, you have been asked to pray that the Spirit of the Lord will move in a mighty way to inspire people to give – and now the time has come.

 

Just such a moment came in another church on a similar day, and after the preacher went on and on and on far too long with his sermon about stewardship, a little girl in the front row looked up and said to her mother, “Mommy, if we give him the money now, will he let us go?” 

 

My friends, the answer to that question is “Yes!”, except for this one clarification.  On this day of commitment and dedication, the money is given to the glory of God.  So as we prepare to bring our pledge cards forward during the final hymn, let us remember and never forget the words of the last stanza which we are about to sing:

 

          “With gratitude and humble trust,

We bring our best to you.

Not just to serve your cause,

But share your love with neighbors too.

O God who gave yourself to us

In Jesus Christ Your Son,

Help us to give ourselves today,

Until life’s work is done.”

          (Text written by Frank Von Christierson, 1960)

 

My friends – all that we are, all that we have received are God’s gifts to us.  The way that we live and what we give – that is our response to Him.

 

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.