Wisdom and Finance

Proverbs 21:20 Marianne Niesen October 16, 2011

Just one verse today . . . so I decided to share it from several different translations. There may be one that makes more sense to you than another so here they are, Proverbs 21:20:

· There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up. (King James Version)

· Precious treasure remains in the house of the wise, but the fool devours it. (New Revised Standard Version)

· Wise people live in wealth and luxury, but stupid people spend their money as fast as they get it. (Good News Translation)

· The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down. (New International Version)

· Valuables are safe in a wise person's home; fools put it all out for yard sales. (The Message)

The Book of Proverbs in the Bible, as you might expect, is full of – proverbs, defined as ‘wise sayings, often of ancient origin.’ Or, as Miguel de Cervantes defined it “a proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.” (I like that one!) The Biblical Proverbs, part of what is called the ‘wisdom literature’ of the Bible, is designed to equip readers to evaluate situations in their daily lives and then act in accordance with what would have been understood as divine wisdom. Proverbs were pithy guides to a life lived as God would have them live – that is, a life of holiness and goodness. Anyone who chose wrongly would be the opposite of wise – or, foolish. Of course, you don’t have to be a wisdom teacher in ancient Israel to come up with proverbs. Consider these delightful statements of wisdom from a group of first graders. Their teacher gave them the first half of a well known proverb and they filled in the second half with wisdom of their own.

Better to be safe than....................Punch a 5th grader
Strike while the .........................Bug is close
It's always darkest before............... Daylight Savings Time
Never underestimate the power of..........Termites
You can lead a horse to water but........how?
Don't bite the hand that................. looks dirty
No news is................................impossible
A miss is as good as a...................Mr.
The pen is mightier than the..............pigs
Happy the bride who.......................gets all the presents
A penny saved is..........................not much
If at first you don't succeed.............get new batteries
When the blind leadeth the blind..........get out of the way [1]

Proverbial wisdom – whether ancient or new - makes things simple in an effort to clearly differentiate a wise path from a foolish path – or at least a better outcome from a not-so-good one! And first graders do quite well at that, don’t they? Of course, knowing a proverb and heeding it are two very different things!

You know that this is our Stewardship season. This is when we typically here at St. Paul’s talk about finances and giving. So our proverb is about that – about what we do – are called to do - with our ‘precious treasure.’ I chose a proverb because there is perhaps nowhere that we need wisdom more these days than in our financial lives. And while the problems we face may take some time to resolve, the quicker we find some direction, the better we’ll be.

For many of us, this is a particularly difficult financial season. That is why your Stewardship Team wanted to do more than just hand out pledge cards. We chose a Stewardship program designed to help us deal in practical – even proverbial - ways with what is a very real crisis in our country, our community and our personal lives. The question for many of us is - how do we live with financial integrity right now? Are there wise choices – and how do we make them? Is our only option to wait things out? Do we really have no power? Is our financial situation really – and totally – the other guy’s fault? Is our situation totally the fault of George W. Bush? Or Terrorists? Or Liberals? Or Wall Street Bankers? Or Republicans? Or Big Business? Or Barack Obama? Because if all the blame is out there, then there isn’t much we can do but limp along and hope someone figures it out soon. Is there a wise path forward for us? I think there is. I believe there are things we can do to help ourselves financially. I also believe that, for people of faith, which I believe we all are, part of helping ourselves will always include working for the common good as well. We become wise not only by dealing with our own financial security and growth but by sharing what we have and so ensuring our spiritual security and growth as well. Or, to put it another way, to not tend to our financial health is both fiscally and spiritually foolish.

And the first thing I believe we must admit is that while the situation we are in has elements that are uniquely ours - 21st century stuff like hedge funds and the bond market and sub-prime mortgages - the principles that will get us out are not new. In fact, we and others have behaved somewhat foolishly at times and it is by behaving more wisely that we can emerge stronger.

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson - over 200 years ago - who said can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce? And those were the good old days! Or consider these proverbs, words of wisdom, on money by a guy named Benjamin. Benjamin Franklin. Born in 1706. Died in 1790:

“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.”
“Buy what thou hast no need of, and before long thou shalt sell thy necessaries.”
“When you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty.”
“The borrower is a slave to the lender, and the debtor to the creditor.”
“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
“Content(ment) makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.”
“If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.”

When I was working on this sermon, I googled ‘wisdom and finance’ and what emerged besides some of these proverbs was site after site with advice and strategies on financial planning. And, almost all of this 21st century financial planning advice included at least some of Ben Franklin’s principles. We don’t use words like ‘hast’ and ‘thou’ and ‘philosopher’s stone’ any more but this is not new stuff. Who of us has not heard someone tell us to beware of wasting money on small things or advising us to get rid of credit card debt? And who can dispute that the best advice for financial security is to spend less than we earn? By the way, the ‘philosopher’s stone’ that Franklin mentions is a legendary [2] substance said to be capable of turning base metals (lead, for example) into gold or silver. So for Franklin, the solution to having gold and silver was simple. Spend less than you earn.

Here’s the thing. In the end, our relationship to our money is fundamentally a spiritual matter. What I mean by that is that the things we do to survive and thrive, the challenges we face as we seek a secure future, the efforts we go through to provide adequately for our families involve fiscal matters - but those fiscal matters also greatly affect who we are, what we value and what we do with what we have – and that is spiritual stuff. Our relationship to our money and our resources affects our peace of mind – as well as our health and our attitudes. And it affects how we live with each other. That is why it is important to talk about it here, in church, where we come seeking peace, direction, a sense of divine connection, a moral compass. Money is not our god but the Bible makes is it clear that God cares about what our relationship to our money does to us.

It is no mistake that the Bible is full of references to material resources and goods – and instructions on how we relate to them and how we share them. The Bible is full of references to how those who have much must share – sometimes disproportionately – with those who have little. But, fundamentally, what the Bible tells us is that none of this begins with what we do or what we have. It begins with God. Everything in heaven and on earth is God’s and has been shared freely and generously with us, so that we might have life and have it abundantly. The ultimate measure of our character is found not in how much we have but in how we use the gifts we have been given for the common good - building up rather than tearing down, bringing together rather than separating, sharing rather than hoarding. The gifts of life and goods are freely given and are meant to be enjoyed and shared, thus bringing contentment and peace.

And, let’s face it, most of us aren’t very peaceful these days. We’re worried. We’re anxious, agitated, fearful. So how do we live wisely today? How do we appreciate our precious treasure – the things we have – without ‘devouring’ them, as the proverb says? Or being devoured by them, as often happens? How do we save without hoarding? Share without fear? Cultivate generosity in a way that doesn’t produce anxiety?

A guy is driving around the back woods of Montana and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: 'Talking Dog For Sale ' He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard. The guy goes into the backyard and sees a nice looking Labrador retriever sitting there.

'You talk?' he asks.

     'Yep,' the Lab replies.
     After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog talk, he says 'So, what's your story?'
     The Lab looks up and says, 'Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA. In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping.'

'I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running. But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals.' 'I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired.'

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.

'Ten dollars,' the guy says.

'Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?'
'Because he's a liar. He never did any of that stuff.

The basic principle for a contented life in human community begins with appreciating what we have. Until we learn to do that, it will be difficult to break the cycle of wanting more and better and new and bigger. And it really is true that, as Ben Franklin said, contentment makes the poor rich and discontentmakes the rich poor.

When Lyle and I first moved to Helena, we were in the market for a house. Mortgage rates then were at around 9%. We went to a bank to get pre-approved for a loan and we had more or less decided how much we could afford. When we got the approval, it was for a loan payment that was double our estimate. That meant we could look at bigger houses with bigger mortgages. It was tempting. It was kind of hard to settle on buying the house we thought we could afford. After all, the bank’s estimate gave us so many more beautiful options – and they should know, right? In the end, we stayed with plan A but I don’t think it was our will power so much as it was that we had a plan. We had some other debt to pay off and we had a tithe to the church so we decided to stay with the plan rather than the more tempting opportunity. It was clearly the right thing to do in retrospect but it wasn’t really our wisdom in the moment that saved the day. It was having some goals and having a plan.

Friends, that’s the fundamental stewardship message of today’s sermon. Part of being a responsible, wise, and faithful Christian, is appreciating what we have and making a plan for how we use what we have responsibly and faithfully. In the bulletin today, you’ll see an insert entitled My Life and Financial Goals worksheet. Give it a look. Think about it. Talk about it. That’s one of the discussions the people doing the Enough class are engaging. It is what people who take Financial Peace University do. They examine not just how things are (which can be downright scary) but how they want things to be in the future. Then, they take ownership for the decisions they make to get there. We cannot change everything about our financial situation but we can change some things. And I have heard so many folks comment on how much more peace they have in their lives as a result of planning and doing what is in their power to do.

If you look at the Pastor’s Corner, you’ll find six financial planning principles. They are classic, biblically sound and proven. They actually work.

1. Pay your tithe and offering first. That is the biblical principle of giving our first fruits to God. Lyle and I do this. We plan ahead for it. It was part of the goal I told you about earlier. But now, each year, we look at what have and give at least ten percent to the church. We give additional money to other charities but the first fruits come here. And we always have enough. And, by doing it that way, we always begin our giving with an appreciation for what we have.

2. Create a budget and track expenses. You’ll find a budget worksheet on the other side of the goal sheet and it is a very helpful tool.

3. Simplify your lifestyle – that’s so important it is the focus of next week’s sermon.

4. Establish an emergency fund. This is a way of cutting down on our need for credit cards, which for many of us function as an emergency fund. We need to stop that.

5. Pay off credit cards and then, use them only sparingly. There are strategies for this. Check out the little Enough book – even if you aren’t in a class, you can get one and it is easy reading and very helpful. There is an information table in the foyer today with lots of other resources as well.

6. Save. Now, this is different from hoarding. This is saving with a purpose - for emergencies, achieving our goals and retirement. It is not simply mindless accumulation.

You’ll notice that these principles begin with giving and end with saving. They begin with appreciation and generosity and end with security. This is almost counter-intuitive and is a direct contrast to the ‘American way’ which too often begins with accumulating, continues with hoarding and ends with complaining. Anxiety. And maybe sharing some leftovers. The point is that there is another way. In God’s economy, everything begins with generosity and ends with the security of having enough. Enough to live lives of wisdom and grace, of contentment and joy, which is God’s plan for us all.

Friends, as the Chinese proverb reads: The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. There is indeed time to make changes that will matter greatly – to us, to our peace of mind, to our community, to our world. The way of wisdom beckons.

[1] http://www.bouldertherapist.com/html/humor/WordsWisdom/childrenproverbs.html

[2] Wikipedia.