Weekly Thought
Article from Doncaster Church of Christ’s
weekly newsletter ‘Inside Out’
27th May 2013
Russell Croxford
What goes through your mind when the church starts talking about money? Do you welcome it? Do you
tune out? Do you feel that we should keep quiet about such a topic - or speak out often and openly
about it?
Over the next couple of Sundays we are focusing on the subject of giving and will be referring to our
church’s ‘giving program’. So I guess we are talking about money and it’s something we do around this
time every year.
But do we need such a regular focus on it? Jesus apparently felt the need to mention it regularly. Of all
the topics he spoke on, money was the top of the list! There are more references in the gospels to Jesus
teaching on issues related to money than any other single issue - by a long way.
So if we go by our Lord’s example, we may feel better about raising the topic of money in church. But if
we really listen to what Jesus is saying, he was talking about far more than just money. In our reading
today for example, Jesus makes the often quoted statement: “For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also” (Matt 6:21) He’s making the undeniable link between ‘treasure’ and ‘heart’ and it’s
our heart that he’s most interested in. He concerned first and foremost about our loyalty, devotion and
commitment to God. Our ‘heart’ is another word for our faith, or our spiritual health. That’s what really
matters. Our ‘treasure’ is not the main thing….but our attitude towards it, and our use of it certainly say
a lot about our faith. Thus the link between treasure and heart. Our attitude to money points to our
faith.
You probably need no convincing about this. We should be generous if we are followers of Jesus! But
why a ‘giving program’? At a very basic level our church needs money to achieve what God calls us to do,
so we must talk about the ‘mechanics’ of doing this as effectively as possible. But it’s more than just
mechanics. Our giving program aims to be a reminder of the importance of giving to God’s work. As
already mentioned, giving reflects our faith. In today’s reading Jesus says, “You can’t serve both God and
money” (v24). ‘Serving money’ leads to an attachment to it, which potentially gets in the way of our
relationship with God and can affect our generosity.
There is another reason why we should give to God’s work, and that’s because it build’s his church - not
just today’s church but the future church - age to age! Each of us as part of the ‘body of Christ’ have our
bit to contribute to building that body. Along with our time, talents and energies we have been blessed
with resources (our money and other things) which blesses and enriches God’s church and therefore his
Kingdom!
Doncaster Church of
Christ
2 Short Street Doncaster VIC 3108
T: 61 3 9848 1546 F: 61 3 9848 1861