Did you know the word “prodigal” means “one who wastes money”?  I always assumed prodigal meant wayward, not wasteful!  The younger son in our parable today has many flaws, including being reckless with his money.  He “squandered his property in dissolute living.”  How would you like to have that written on your tombstone?

The truth is, we all have a little prodigal in us.  If we were to take an objective view of our spending, what percentage of our income do we spend on things that are really lasting?  Immediate gratification is the human condition. The temptation for impulse spending is constant!  Even as I was writing this sermon, I found myself wanting to get take-out for dinner instead of making the chicken stir fry I had planned.  If I hadn’t been working on this sermon, we would have ordered hoagies.  But I felt guilty doing that while trying to write a sermon about our spending in ways that “seek first the kingdom of God.”  So I made the stir fry, and even found a couple fortune cookies in the pantry to have for dessert.  Guess what my fortune said?  “Beware of little expenses.  Small leaks will sink great ships.”  Do you think God was trying to tell me something???

It used to be all I had to do to avoid buying too much was to stay home and not go to stores.  But do you know what I discovered recently?  I can buy things with two clicks on my cell phone!  If I use my phone to do online shopping, all I have to do is click the right hand button on the side of my phone, and voila!  The credit card I added to my Apple Wallet gets charged, and my purchase goes through instantly!  It’s scary how easy it is to spend money!

So yes, I am here to tell you that there is a little prodigal in each of us, some of us more than others, and this is an area where God might be calling us to grow in faithfulness.  Last week I preached a three point sermon, something I almost never do, but they were good points!  Point #1:  what we do with our money matters to God.  Point #2:  it is not our job to judge whether someone else is honoring God with their possessions and wealth.  And point #3:  God is inviting us to discover joy through simplicity and generosity.  Thankfully, frugality is not the biblical standard.  Stewardship is!  What does it mean to be good stewards?

Well, again, I’ve got three points.  Important point #1:  Stewardship is based on the idea that everything belongs to God.  This is our Father’s world!  We may work hard for our income, I know I do.  But I can only take credit for my effort.  I cannot take credit for the talents I was born with, or the opportunities provided to me because I live in this country, or the opportunities that came because I was born into a family that valued education and supported me in lots of ways, or the decades of economic stability that has made earning a living possible.  The sower scatters the seeds, but the fruitfulness is out of his or her control.  In the same way, we all do our best to earn a living, and hopefully we get rewarded for our efforts.  But stewardship goes to a deeper truth:  that all we have comes through God’s gracious action in the world.  Good stewards are humble and recognize that without divine providence, they would not even be able to draw breath, let alone earn money.

Since we are dependent on God to earn income, it makes sense that we would consider God as we decide how to spend our income.  Which brings me to important point #2:  Good stewards direct the flow of their resources so they can be used to make the greatest impact for God.  Every dollar we spend on something frivolous is a dollar we didn’t spend on something lasting.  Again, frugality is not our goal.  Good stewardship is.  It would be a valuable spiritual exercise for each of us to do an audit of our spending.  I hear that PECO will come to your house and do an energy audit, and show you where you’re wasting energy—where you’ve got leaks that let in the cold air, where you can use more insulation, where you can replace old appliances for more efficient ones, that kind of thing.  What if each of us did a spending audit?  What would we find?  Where are we wasting money, where can we be more efficient, where can we add some insulation so our money doesn’t go out the window but instead can be used for something meaningful?  If we identify the ways our expenses are draining us, we can make different decisions and redirect those resources to something that will be a true blessing.

Which brings me to important point #3: Good stewardship helps to redeem our broken world.  When we get our financial priorities in order, our marriages get better, our family life is better, our communities are better, and the world gets better!  The prodigal son in our scripture lesson today sought first his own pleasure and comfort, didn’t he?  But we are called to care not first and foremost about delighting ourselves.  We are called first and foremost to care about delighting God.

Jesus taught, “No one can serve two masters.  For a slave will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and wealth.”  (Matthew 9:24) Jesus wants us to be freed from our worries about this life, and our love of riches, so we can be like seeds sown on good soil that bear fruit.  Jesus wants us to make God’s kingdom our top priority.  Instead of letting small expenses sink our ship, Jesus wants to get us all rowing in the same direction, using all of our resources to bring about healing, justice, and abundant life for all.

Which is why I think tithing is so important.  Tithing is an Old Testament practice that began with Abraham and became a law by the time of Moses.  In other words, this is part of our spiritual legacy going way, way back!  The Hebrew people were commanded to bring one-tenth of their harvest as an offering to God.  Before spending on themselves, they were to honor God with a tenth of all of their income.  As Christians, we are no longer under the authority of the Mosaic law.  Now we are under the authority of Christ.  Jesus never commands us to give one-tenth.  Instead, he commands us to give our all!  Many Christians find the idea of the tithe, giving the first 10% of income to God, to be an important spiritual discipline.

When I say many Christians, I include myself in that.  My husband Phil and I have been married for 34 years and have tried our whole married life to tithe on our after tax income.  Adam Hamilton reports that he and his wife also give 10% of their after tax income to the church.  He has also spoken openly about this, and as part of the Enough curriculum, he made available a sermon clip where he used ten applies to demonstrate tithing.  Here are his words:

Now when it comes to this idea of tithing it’s…a challenging idea for many of us.  I mean, it’s a stretch, especially when you first start becoming a Christian and you’re having those impulses, that war that’s going on inside you between fear and the desire for pleasure.  Give a tenth?  You’ve got to be kidding.  Now David Slagle, who’s a pastor in Atlanta, had a wonderful, graphic way [to illustrate] how God sees this.  And so I wanted to share that with you.  God sees it—sort of your wealth and your income—like these ten applies that I have before me.  And God says nine of these apples are yours.  Use them to take care of your family, to clothe yourselves.  Use them for food and for shelter and set some of them aside for retirement and give some away to your friends and some are designed to be use for the poor and for pleasure and for trips and vacations.

You’ve got nine of these apples.  But the Lord says, “One of them is mine.  And it’s meant to be used, first of all, as a way for you to express your praise and your love for me—your obedience and devotion.  But then I’m going to use it to accomplish my purposes in the world.”

But here’s what happens with many of us.  Many of us find—because the society is pulling us in so many directions—that nine applies aren’t enough anymore.  I mean, they really aren’t.  How can we do all the fun stuff and the cool stuff and the stuff we need to do and pay the bills and everything on just nine apples?  And so we think, ‘Well the Lord’s not going to mind if we take just a little bit.”  (Slices a piece of the tenth apple and eats it.) You know, there’s that trip that we’ve been wanting to take.  And it’s really important and it’s a special trip.  And we’re just going to take just a little bit of the Lord’s apple.  He’ll understand.  (Slices a piece of the tenth apple and eats it.)  And then it’s Christmastime and we didn’t set anything aside for all these Christmas presents.  And we need people to know, and it’s kind of giving.  It’s not to God, but it’s to other people.  It’s to our children and others and so [God will] understand.  We’ll take a little more of God’s apple.

And start thinking about retirement.  It’s coming up sooner than you think.  And you know, I need to be setting aside more for retirement.  But I can’t stop spending from these nine apples.  (Slices a piece of apple and eats it.)  I’ve got to take that from somewhere else.  And I need them for medical emergencies because we didn’t set aside an emergency fund in our savings account.  And it’s time to get a new car.  And then there’s that big screen right before the Super Bowl we’ve been thinking about getting—and the new house.  You know, our old house doesn’t really satisfy us anymore and so there’s that.  And pretty soon there’s not much left—I mean, from the Lord’s apple.  Waiting a minute.  Hold on.  (Looks at apple with almost all of the fruit removed, and puts it on the altar.)  And then we say, “Well, Lord, this is your part.  I’m going to give that to you.”

That is a pretty powerful illustration!  Meant to be graphic and I suppose humorous, but it’s reality for many people of faith.  The pressures and distractions and the temptations consume our resources.  By the time we get around to giving to God, there is not much left.  Again, as Christians, we are not bound by the Mosaic law.  We are not obligated to give 10% of our income in order to be in God’s good graces.  But we’re back to that question again:  how much is enough?  What does God expect from us today regarding a tithe?

I think it comes down to intentions.  What do you want your life to be all about?  The prodigal son wanted his life to be all about pleasure.  But we know we are called to a purpose much greater than that.  We have included in the bulletin a worksheet from the Enough resources to help you think about your purpose and the intentions you want to set for your finances.  We have also included information about Christian financial organizations (such as Crown Financial Ministries at www.crown.org, author Dave Ramsey at www.ramseysolutions.com, and the Abingdon Press series Saving Grace at www.abingdonpress.com/saving-grace/).  There are all kinds of tools for budgeting, credit counseling, and helping people deal with financial stressors, as well as helping people make God a priority with their money, available online and in print.  If you’re struggling with finances, you don’t struggle alone!

The key is to put first things first.  Pay your tithe, whatever percentage of your income that is, pay your tithe first. Seek first God’s kingdom, and let the other things fall into place after that.  There are so many temptations to spend money!  But we can move from prodigal to prodigy by putting God first in our budgets.  Remember, frugality isn’t our goal.  This isn’t a punishment but a blessing!  Good stewardship is based on the idea that everything belongs to God. Good stewards direct the flow of their resources so they can be used to make the greatest impact for God.    Good stewardship helps to redeem our broken world.   Amen.