The children’s book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond is about asking for more. In the story, a mouse is given a cookie, which means the mouse wants a glass of milk. And when the mouse gets the glass of milk, he wants a straw. The book continues like this until it ends with the mouse wanting another cookie, which we all know where that leads.
Like the mouse, we all want more. Unlike the mouse, those things we want often boil down to money. Thus, we all love money because it promises to get us what we need. And once we get what we need, we will be content. With enough money, the promise is that we will not be stressed, anxious or worried. Plus, we will have the right things whether toy, clothes, car, home, etc. Even more, we will be able to afford the best health care both proactive and reactive, so life will be enjoyable. These needs money promises to meet could be summed up by something called “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” Abraham Maslow was a psychologist who proposed organizing human needs into five levels: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualization. He suggested with basic needs like food, water and sleep met, a person can then move up the pyramid and ultimately reach their fullest potential. And his work has merit. For example, a person will not be able to discover or comprehend something like E=mc2 without food, water and sleep. But even if someone reaches their highest level of existence, death comes for us all and empties all of us equally.
In the middle of the first century at the time of the Apostle Paul, some pursued godliness as a means to financial gain. In our New Testament reading from 1 Timothy, Paul warns the young Pastor Timothy against using a godly life of reverence for God and the moral trappings of Christianity for means to financial gain. For those who seek to use godliness in this wicked way, Paul wrote, 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. When money becomes the treasure in someone’s heart rather than a tool on loan to us by God to provide for ourselves and others to God’s glory, a person has the dark pit of hell waiting to consume them.
The distance between hell and a hundred dollars temps all of us. All of us who rely on Jesus as our Savior do not have bumper stickers and doormats that say, “I love money.” The devil is far more subtle in his advertising love for money to our sinful nature. Rather than tell us to love money and forget God, the devil lures us with thoughts like “God wants me to have this or that.” And even more subtle are the devil’s attacks because again his temptations may be small like buying a candy bar from the endcap at the store or the relatively inexpensive sponsored advertisement online when we need neither. The lies go far deeper into our hearts and higher on the pyramid hierarchy. We hear whispers along with shouts that a certain level of income is necessary, beyond a want, to give our kids opportunities or to get the healthcare plan for our current or a future situation. And these are not in themselves bad things, but it is the heart that begins to yearn for these. Our hearts that stress, worry, work and give as much money as we can, even money we do not have, so that these things can be in our lives expose our coveting. We become servants to these things hoping they will bring us contentment. We pay for reliability. We have bought into the idea of paying for reliability, so we love money, forget God and in the end face what the wisest man was guided by God to write in our Old Testament reading from Ecclesiastes 5, 15 Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands. The distance between hell and a hundred dollars is far shorter than we realize, and if we are lost to coveting, a strong and wrong desire for things that pushes God out of our lives, we will be left with death and darkness far away from God.
The distance between us and heaven is Jesus. The payment and love to save us from loving, craving and worshiping money for food, water, sleep, security, health, influence, purpose and impact is Jesus. In another of Paul’s letters to the Christians in Rome, we hear who closed the wealth gap for us between dying in sin and darkness and dying forgiven and content in Romans 8, 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We may not have all our wants or even needs met at times in this life, but nothing separates us from God’s love for us. And God proved his love for us with Jesus’ blood shed on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins and his resurrection guaranteeing our justification, our not guilty verdict. Our love for money earns us death, but God provided us with eternal life in heaven as we hear from Romans 6, 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus gave us life. His reliability lasts forever and with him we have contentment.
With God as our greatest love, we find contentment regardless of our situation. Among us as a congregation, in my own life, in our community, country and world, money plays a key role. There is so much going on large scale with tariffs and interest rates affecting global trade, companies and manufacturing, which all trickle down to us. We are affected when we go to buy something from the local grocery, hardware, convenience and online store. And this affects our contentment, which Paul addressed in our New Testament reading from 1 Timothy 6. The verses are about money, but it also is not about money. This section of 1 Timothy 6 warns against covetous greed; it warns against love for something other than God. So, Paul zeroed in on money for good reason. We love money because we want security, power, influence, better health, pleasure, an escape or a destination. Money promises the basics and to get us all the way to the top where we can comfortable. Money lulls us into these false senses of security which was emphasized in our Old Testament reading from Ecclesiastes 5 which exposes our temporary time in this world and leaving it empty handed.
But we are content with Jesus in our lives, and so he teaches us to use our money wisely. In the Gospel reading from Luke 16, Jesus told a parable about a dishonest manager who scrambles to make good relationships with those who owe a debt to his master so that when he is fired, he might be taken care of by them. Jesus wants us to use our money to serve and share with others rather than hoard or hope in it as we read in Luke 16, 8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. God makes us shrewd and wise toward heavenly things. Love for anything else above God does not breed contentment. In fact, someone can be destitute, in prison or have a life filled with loss and be very content while someone who is very wealthy or seems to have everything you could ever want may be worried, anxious and fearful every day. God speaks to us throughout the Old and New Testament about true contentment in him so that we are not lost to this world but faithfully manage whatever God has given to us. With faith and reverence for God, called godliness by Paul, God grows wisdom in us to use whatever he gives us to show him love and gratitude, as we read, 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. We are not looking to take something with us. Instead, we live thankful that God paid the price to take us out of this world to live with him in heaven forever.
In the children’s book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond, a mouse is given a cookie, which means the mouse wants a glass of milk. The book continues with the mouse wanting more until it again wants a cookie. I could read you from all kinds of books about our behavior, or we can read about Jesus. God reminds us that we brought nothing into the world and can take nothing from it. Love for more, which manifests itself in love for money will not solve all and especially not our greatest need. God has bought and paid for our greatest need with Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and resurrection providing us with eternal life in heaven. Regardless of our situation, we invest in treasuring what God has done for us because contentment grows from love for God. Amen.
Gunnar Ledermann, Pastor Divine Peace Church
Gunnar Ledermann
I’m passionate about Rockwall’s vibrant community and actively engage with local non-profits and community organizations, including the Rockwall Chamber of Commerce, the City of Rockwall, and the Downtown Rockwall Association. My background includes a bachelor’s degree in Classical Languages and a master’s degree in divinity. Currently serving as a pastor at Divine Peace Church in Rockwall, I also enjoy spending time with my wife, Marinda, and our five children.
