Is it a sin to hoard money? Most of us would say no. Saving is responsible, and helping the poor is a nice thing to do when the budget allows. But what the Bible says about generosity is heavier than that, and in this sermon Pastor Brian walks straight into it.It starts with a Saturday trip to Menards and a question from Pastor Brian's son Elias, who is seven. It becomes a bigger one: who is Jesus shaping us to become? This fall, the answer keeps landing on a word we rarely connect to money. Justice.In Isaiah 1:17, God looks at people who are praying, fasting, and worshiping hard and tells them what he actually wants: seek justice, defend the oppressed, take up the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Righteousness and justice sit side by side more than fifty times in the Old Testament. Neglecting the poor is not a missed chance at charity. It is a wrong that needs to be made right.Pastor Brian gives two reasons. First, you do not own your stuff. If you cannot take it with you when you die, you are managing it for an Owner who has said what he values. Second, in Matthew 25, Jesus says feeding the hungry and visiting the prisoner are the evidence that we belong to him, not the way we got in. Then he says something staggering: I was there. To neglect the vulnerable is to withhold from the King himself.This is not a guilt trip or a political speech. God does not love the poor more than the rich. Zacchaeus gave away half, kept his job, and Jesus said salvation had come to his house. Proverbs 13:22 calls it righteous to leave an inheritance for your grandchildren. And work is not the curse. Genesis 2:15 puts Adam to work in the garden before sin ever enters. Toil is the curse, making money for its own sake until you feel empty and cannot name why.In Exodus 16, God rains down manna for people who have nothing and still asks them to gather it every morning. Everyone had enough, and whatever anyone kept until morning rotted. Hoarded money does not stink in your wallet, but it starts to rot somewhere in your life. Deuteronomy 15 goes further. Cancel debts every seventh year. Do not be hardhearted or tightfisted. Do not even think, "the seventh year is near, so why bother." Be openhanded. Who lives like that?People who remember. Deuteronomy 15:15 says, remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. Guilt cannot fuel that kind of generosity. Grace can. Blessed are the poor in spirit, Jesus says in Matthew 5:3, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. If you are middle class in spirit, Pastor Brian warns, you probably will not care much about the poor materially. But if you have been broken over your own spiritual bankruptcy and watched God refill your empty cup, generosity starts to feel natural. And before you get tightfisted with people whose poverty came from their own bad choices, remember why the cross happened at all. We were sinful and unwise too. It ends at the communion table, so we can leave and do likewise.Where has generosity felt hardest for you lately?
