11/15/53

Scripture: Matthew 6: 14-24

Text: Matthew 6: 19-21

During World War II many folk put small amounts of savings into US government savings stamps which, when accumulated, could be turned into Defense Bonds. Many more purchased defense bonds directly and regularly. We are still invited and urged to buy US Savings bonds on a regular plan. That is an investment that seems as solid as our national government itself.

We suppose that an investment may be made (1) in order to secure a reasonable return in interest from the work that the money so saved can earn. Or perhaps we make an investment (2) simply to save some of our resources for a possible rainy day. Or we invest in some enterprise, hoping that it will grow so successfully as to (3) add to, or even multiply our capital.

There is another (4) kind of investment that we can make that is for the sheer satisfaction of seeing something of great good accomplished. There are people who invest money, and sometimes time and many kinds of thoughtfulness, in the education of some young person who seems to have promise of great usefulness to the world. The only return for the money one puts into that kind of investment is in the satisfaction of seeing the young man or woman make a good constructive thing of living. There is a satisfying sense in which we can take that kind of investment with us wherever we go and clear into the great beyond after this mortal life.

Fifteen years ago, a play was running on Broadway in New York City -- and soon in many other communities -- written by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, entitled, “You Can’t Take It With You.” A cast of seniors in Lincoln High School put on a performance of that play here in Wisconsin Rapids a couple of years ago. You probably recall that the story is a rollicking comedy with a serious note running through it. A “family” of more or less irresponsible folk, not all related by ties of blood, lived together in a common apartment in New York, each doing just as he or she wanted to do with no desire to have the others conform. One taught ballet dancing, and another tried to learn ballet; one played the xylophone and another made fireworks; one wrote fiction and another cooked when she felt like it. Things went along in a way quite satisfactory for all, until the attractive daughter fell in love with the son of a wealthy family whose business was on Wall Street.

A ludicrous and revealing encounter between the two families came when the wealthy and fashionable Kirbys came to dinner at the Vanderhofs’. Only the son of the Kirbys had deliberately mixed the dates of the invitation. So the Kirbys arrived a day early, finding the Vanderhof household in the wildest and happiest kind of confusion, and blissfully unaware that they were to expect company that evening -- until the company arrived! In their very informal way, the Vanderhofs asked the visitors to stay, and sent out for some very plebeian food. Before the meal could be prepared, Mr. Kirby was felled to the floor by the Russian ballet teacher who was demonstrating a wrestling hold. The great financier’s dignity having been grossly affronted, he and his wife left without dinner, but they could not persuade their son to go with them.

When Mr. Kirby returned the next night to try to retrieve his son, old Grandpa Vanderhof told him that Tony was “too nice a boy to wake up 24 years from now with nothing in his life but stocks and bonds.” Mr. Kirby protested that he was happy in his work, though admittedly he was sometimes nervous, and he had no intention of giving up the business he had spent a lifetime building up. But Grandpa was not convinced. “What’s it got you?” he asked. “Same kind of mail every morning, same kind of desk, same kind of meetings, same dinners at night, same indigestion --- you must have wanted more than that when you started out. We haven’t got too much time, you know, any of us.” Well, old Grandpa Vanderhof has a point in his way of thinking. You dig and sweat and toil and compete and invest and protect you investments, and scheme and accumulate. But eventually you leave this mortal existence and you can’t take any of it with you.

You may be able to pass on property to your children, but even that is a gamble what with inheritance laws and taxes and the possibility of some foolish moves or unforeseen needs. And even if the children do inherit some of one’s goods, that still doesn’t settle the question as to how much good it may do them --- whether it will contribute to, or corrode their characters. At any rate, in Grandpa Vanderhof’s philosophy, you just can’t take it with you.

Well, can you?

Jesus said: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But,” said He, “lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves do not break through and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” [Matthew 6: 19-21]. Does that sound like dreamy idealism? It will bear careful examination.

One form of saving in the time of Jesus, was to buy and save oriental rugs, fabrics, clothing --- and to store them. Reference to moths and thieves were not idle meanings to those who heard Jesus speak. Anyone knew that that form of investment, whether prices rose or not, was fraught with danger from moths, or thieves or other loss or deterioration. “But,” he recommended, “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” No moths, no rust, no thieves can get at your savings there. Did Jesus mean the accumulation of some kind of merits for life after death? Could he have meant an actual credit of some kind that would carry its advantage beyond mortal life?

Isn’t it far more likely that he was referring to the realm of real goodness, of genuine happiness and satisfaction that is known to us fully as much here and now as in the hereafter? The most genuine joy is not in what can be locked in a vault, or computed and recorded in a ledger, but in the building of good life wherever one has the opportunity to do so -- not at some future time but here and now.

Mr. Kirby’s philosophy concerning wealth seems to be save it, make it grow if possible, but hang on to it. Grandpa Vanderhof’s philosophy is spend it. You’ll be dead after a while, and you can’t take it with you. Jesus seems to say not so much “save it” or “spend it” as “invest it.” Put it into that which has a future of good.

If one believes that investment in the bonds of our government is a safe, conservative investment, how much more exciting can be an investment in the kingdom of God! The church -- for all of its shortcomings measured by the unworthiness of us, its members, is still the advocate, and promoter of good far in advance of the investment firms of our financial experience. The dividends are paid in human personalities irradiated with something divine -- the most priceless commodity in all the world.

In the church, we invest not only our substance, but ourselves. And we can take this kind of investment with us wherever we go, in our hearts and in the lives of countless others who are touched in some way by the church. Something of ourselves reaches out into the lives of others, and to the glory of God, and goes right on without end.

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This is the season when we give thought to the financial support of the work of our church. A representative committee prepared a suggested budget which was presented to our church business meeting on November 5th, where it was discussed, changed here and there, studied and adopted as the tentative budget for 1954.

Copies of that budget were mailed to your homes by the finance committee this past week, and I trust you have had time to study them a bit further. I hope you visualize not only financial figures, but what they mean in terms of Christian service; the Christian training of our children and ourselves in the church school, the ministry of the word, of pastoral service, of comfort and of consecration; the ministry of music; the sharing of denominational responsibility; the sharing of the gospel of Good News with others near and far in Our Christian World Mission; the maintenance of the housing we need for these services. You know that we propose to maintain our mission giving at the present level; that we expect to complete our quota for the denomination’s Building Loan Fund which revolves to help get new church buildings started in new and fast-growing communities; that the trustees feel we must start a fund for a new manse, since they have some doubts of putting further substantial sums into the present residence. You know that there is needed about a 25% increase in pledged giving to meet this ambitious budget. And I trust you know that each item represents a need and a vision of useful service.

With your giving you can maintain a place of worship; the means of significant worship itself; you can carry the gospel to many, many places beyond our own limits. You can lay up treasure where it will be invested in the happy growth of your own spirit and the hopeful future of countless other lives.

(1) Why should we give? Because giving is a part of God’s plan for the growth and usefulness of our spirits. Giving is the one sure way to possess splendid meaning for part of our substance. The life that God shares with us through Christ and His church, is shared with others.

(2) How shall we give?

Worthily

Regularly

Proportionately

Joyfully

Let what we decide to give come in for the work of this church just as regularly as we receive living ourselves. We encourage weekly giving because we believe in that regularity. We commend the practice of giving as a joy. Don’t “give ‘til it hurts,” give ‘til you feel good about it.

(3) How much shall we give?

Each one will answer that question for himself or herself. Answer it yourself -- prayerfully, thoughtfully, generously, as a good steward, a good administrator of all that God entrusts to you, as a good investor with a vision. The so-called “tithe” is not a legal requirement, but I’ve known some awfully happy folk who give at least a tenth of their net receivings -- possibly half of that for their church, and half for other charitable sharing.

Whatever the proportion of your means you decide you can give and wish to share, let the gift to your church be made gladly, faithfully, and with vision.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, November 15, 1953. (Loyalty Sunday).