“Earn. Save. Give: Save All You Can” Proverbs 13:11

Saving. I remember the first bank account that I ever had - it was a savings account with a passbook. You took your money to the bank with your little green passbook - you put the money in and it was saved to spend another day. 

But I also learned about saving in my kindergarten Sunday School class. When it was your birthday, you were given as many pennies as you were old to put into a beautiful piggy bank. I never knew what happened to those pennies, even as I continued the tradition years later as the assistant Sunday School teacher, but it taught us important lessons around money - specifically around saving money and that what you were given wasn’t yours to keep.

Unfortunately, we don’t talk about savings very much today in terms of money, and as little as we talk about it, we do it even less. America runs on a buy now, pay later philosophy. In fact, we tend to spend more than we earn on this credit-heavy strategy, which often leads to financial burden. This the opposite of what Wesley encouraged when he stated that after you earn all you can we are to save all we can.

The truth is saving is difficult. Its something we like the idea of, having something for the future, but its hard to put into practice. We are much better at spending than saving. But in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew we find this beautiful passage where Jesus is instructing those around him to think about their treasure and think about where it is. Let’s take a moment - what comes to your mind when you think of the word treasure? For a lot of folks it money. Maybe even gold coins spilling out of an open chest. Or maybe it a heirloom that has been passed down from one generation to the next. Or the inheritance that you have received or are hoping to pass on to your kids and grandkids. Jesus tells us to not hoard that type of treasure here on earth, but instead to put our treasure in heaven. 

Okay, but that’s easier said then done. What does heavenly treasure look like? I believe its the fruit of how we are stewards of what God has blessed us with. Wesley said that “we are to be faithful stewards of our souls, our bodies, our speech, our hands and feet, our talent, our time, and our money.” That’s a lot of resources that God has trusted us with. How are we using our words to share the good news of Jesus? How are we using our hands and feet to serve others? What does our time say about where our priorities are? What can we do with our talents to proclaim the Kingdom of God? And how are we using our money to bless Gods name?

In the Gospel of Luke (chapter 12) we find a parable about a foolish man who has a large crop one year. So large that he doesn’t know what to do with it. After some thought he deiced that he was going to tear down his barns to build bigger ones for himself for his crop. When you read or hear the story you cannot help but be struck by how in control the man feels. This is his big crop. His big win. He thought that he was responsible for his own good fortune and therefore he could do with it whatever he pleases.

However, this is not what we believe as Christians. At the heart of Wesley’s Biblical understanding about money is the belief that none of it really belongs to us at all. Instead, we are called to be good stewards of what God has placed in our hands.

When I was in first grade there was a stuffed animal that was passed from one person to the next over the weekends during the school year. I’m sure there was a lesson to be learned about responsibility. But what I remembered is that even though you may have had a lot of stuffed animals of your own at home, there was something special about this one, because you were being trusted to care for it. 

Friends, we are being asked to care for a lot more then a stuffed animal. But in order to truly care for what has been entrusted to us, we need to get our mindset straight. What we earn from the job that God has given us the talents to perform is not first and foremost ours, but Gods. Everything we do with those earnings - from how we save to how we spend - should be done with God in mind. 

But how can we make that mental and spiritual shift around money? First, we need to take time to examine where our money is going. This is more than a list of the checks you write or the transactions that come out of your bank account, but actually seeing on paper, how you spend the money that is earned. 

Next, we need to come up with a plan. A plan to save and a plan to spend. I love the piece of scripture from Proverbs we shared together this morning - riches gotten quickly will dwindle, but those who acquire them gradually become wealthy. I cannot tell you how many people have told me what they would do if they hit the lottery or find the next get-rich quick scheme. We love the idea of getting rich as quick as possible. But Proverbs says thats not where our focus should be - because that type of wealth is temporary. Quickly received and quickly spent. Instead, we need to focus on what is lasting and have a plan to get there.

There is a wonderful story of Osceola McCarty. Osceola was born in 1908 and only finished her elementary education. After that she started ironing shirts for folks in the neighborhood and putting a little bit aside in a savings account. For 74 years she washed and ironed clothes. Then one day she presented $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi to start a scholarship fund. She never was able to go to school, but she wanted that for others. Folks were shocked. They asked her how in the world she was able to save that much money and this was her response: “It wasn’t hard. I didn’t buy things that I didn’t need… the Lord helped me and he will help you too.”

One of my favorite novels is a Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which takes place in the early 1900s. It tells the story of the Nolans, who are seeking a better life for themselves. One of the things that Mrs. Nolan is encouraged to do by her mother is to save money by nailing a tin can to the floor of her closet wherever they live. Only every time it seems like they are making progress, something comes up where they need to break into the can and start over again. Mrs. Nolan realized the struggle to live into the future with the present pressing in. 

Changing the future is what Mrs. Nolan wants so much for her children, but often the present caused her to lose sight of the future. Saving like Oscola this takes a farsighted view - choosing to say that how we use and save money now can have an impact on the future. Another way to frame saving is to ask the question, how will what I leave behind bear witness to my Christian faith?

Because that’s truly what this is all about, friends. When scripture talks about money, and especially when Jesus talks about money it is most often connected to the state of our soul. The place where we have the abundant life rooted in proclaiming the Kingdom of God with all we are and all we have. There is a lot of talk about the good life in society now - a good life that often comes from accumulating things. But think back to that passage from Matthew - where your treasure is your heart will be also. We need to stop letting our earthly treasures and temporal definition of the good life define us. Instead, Christ is calling us to seek out the abundant life - rooted in God’s love and proclaiming God’s truth and grace. Brothers and sisters, how can we save all we can so that the message of Jesus Christ is seen through us, even when we are gone from this earth, because we have been faithful stewards of all that which was entrusted to us.