Luke 22:1-23
“Our Money Story: Remember”
Preached Sunday, October 16, 2022
I recently read the book, “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of the Plants” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. She starts her book with the tale of Skywoman, a Haudenosaunee creation story. Since you are probably not familiar with the story, we are going to watch a one minute video that’s the cliff notes version of the story.
Kimmerer then puts the story of Skywoman and the story of Eve side by side. And this is what she writes:
“On one side of the world were people whose relationship with the living world was shaped by Skywoman, who created a garden for the well-being of all. On the other side was another woman with a garden and a tree. But for tasting its fruit, she was banished from the garden and the gates clanged shut behind her. That mother of men was made to wander in the wilderness and earn her bread from the sweat of her brow, not by filling her mouth with the sweet juicy fruits that bend the branches low. In order to eat, she was instructed to subdue the wilderness into (which) she was cast.
Same species, same earth, different stories. Like Creation stories everywhere, cosmologies are a source of identity and orientation to the world. They tell us who we are. We are inevitably shaped by them no matter how distant they may be from our consciousness. One story leads to the generous embrace of the living world, the other to banishment. One woman is our ancestral gardener, a co-creator of the good green world that would be the home of her descendants. The other was in exile, just passing through an alien world on a rough road to her real home in heaven.
And then they met – the offspring of Skywoman and the children of Eve – and the land around us bears the scars of that meeting, the echoes of our stories. They say that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and I can only imagine the conversation between Eve and Skywoman: ‘Sister, you got the short end of the stick.’”
End quote.
I read this several weeks ago and I have not been able to shake it. And it fits with the start of our new sermon series today, “Our Money Story” because the crux of this sermon series is that stories matter.
Like Skywoman and Eve, stories shape how we view, treat, care for, or mistreat the earth. And in defense of our creation story, I do want to say, there are more generous interpretations of the Christian creation story that form eco-theologies of stewardship and thanksgiving with creation - and yet, it’s not the dominant narrative or understanding.
Stories, and how we understand and tell those stories, matter. It’s why we always say “Remember your baptism.” And we hope and pray that Brendan and all here today will always remember their baptisms - even if they happened before our memory reaches back. Because that’s the power of story. Sometimes the meaning behind it is so much more than the memory. When we say “Remember your baptism” we are not talking about what you wore and how old you were and who the minister was and what the weather was like that day… We are talking about the meaning behind the story. Of adoption into God’s family. Of Grace and forgiveness. Of covenant and community.
And that’s what this sermon series is about - stories. Stories that matter. Stories about money, yes. AND those stories are never just about money and possessions. They are also stories about providence and care, about scarcity and abundance, about fear and trust, about anxiety and generosity…stories about who we are as humans and how we view one another and God.
The stories we tell ourselves, that we tell each other, that we believe…and also the stories we DON’T tell, those we sweep under the rug, those we ignore, those we only selectively remember, those we purposefully forget…they all shape us. They shape our view of the environment, of money, of our theology, of our actions, our whole lives.
And stories about money and possessions often seem to cut through to the heart of the matter - to touch on how we really view the world and our neighbors and our responsibility to them. How we really view God. And how our relationship to God forms…and maybe that’s why they make us so uncomfortable. And for so long, we haven’t talked about Money Stories even though they shape and influence us just as much as creation stories and relationship stories and God stories.
Take the Bible stories we heard today. They are like the stories of Skywoman and Eve, two different stories, yet when taken together, they illuminate one another and show us how these stories have power and shape us.
One, from Exodus, is a story of providence, of care, of literal manna from heaven.
The other, from Luke, is a story of selling a man’s life - the Son of Man’s life - for money. A story of evil and a story of betrayal.
As Christians both of these stories have had staying power in our lives and faiths. Both of these stories shape how we view God and, yes, how we view money. Although, if we take a close look, we might decide that the story of Judas shadows our money stories more - maybe it colors our own stories. Maybe like his story, our money stories are stories of shame. And it shapes how we view money as a thing that is evil or shameful, a thing that can facilitate death and betrayal…and certainly not a thing we talk about in good company.
But neither of those BRIEF summaries of these stories I just gave are the whole story, are they? We heard, if not the full story, fuller versions of the stories when the Scriptures were read this morning.
Our story in Exodus doesn’t start with the miracle of manna and there being enough. It starts with the Israelites complaining in the wilderness, telling themselves a story that has been selectively remembered or conveniently forgotten: that they’d rather be enslaved and have food than be hungry and free.
Perhaps that should give us pause and make us ask: what parts of our stories have we selectively remembered or conveniently forgotten? And have our stories ever followed the same pattern as the Israelites in the desert?
But back to the Israelites, God wanted to help them re-write their stories.
A Sanctified Art commentator says this, “Within this text readers can hear a faith community’s changing narrative of money—moving from one which Walter Brueggemann describes as ‘the endless rat race for sufficiency,’ to that of living with enough. We are called both to individual and collective remembrance of our relationship to God and to reflect on our relationship to money.”
As for Judas, we remember him betraying Jesus for silver - but do we remember what comes right after? The Passover meal…with Judas at the table. Jesus knew that Judas had betrayed him and even still, there was a seat for him at the table - he ate and drank. Jesus gave him the bread and said this is my body. He gave him the cup and said this is my blood.
We don’t often tell ourselves that part of the story - but maybe we should. Maybe it will shape how we view money, betrayal, forgiveness, the sacraments, and room at the table…Maybe it will change our own stories.
During this Stewardship season, this Fall, I’d invite you to consider your money story and your faith story and how the two are intertwined. How the two influence each other - in ways you already know and in ways you might discover.
The devotional book that goes with this sermon series actually starts with guiding you through discerning and writing your own money story. The instructions begin with: “Use the following prompts to discern and record your money story. Throughout this exercise, notice what emotions emerge for you along the way. Take your time. Give yourself grace. Trust that your money story is valuable and redeemable. In completing this writing exercise, we hope you gain clarity, seek healing, and release what has been suppressed or hidden away. Our narratives and beliefs shape our actions. Ultimately, we hope this exercise inspires you to give more faithfully of yourself and your resources to bring forth God’s money story of liberation and healing for all.”
And so I would encourage each of you to take a book home, to follow along with the sermons, and work on discovering and rediscovering, writing and re-writing your money story - and all the stories that matter to us. What’s YOUR story? What do you want your story to be? Where is God re-writing your story?
May we walk this journey together, and may all our stories lead us closer to the heart of God: to love of God and love of neighbor.
Amen.
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