Deeper understandings Money and generosity
Columns to focus on giving from Lutheran theological, biblical perspective Editor’s note: This series is intended
to be a public conversation among teach- ing theologians of the ELCA on various themes of our faith and the challenging issues of our day. It invites readers to engage in dialogue by posting comments online at the end of each article at www.
thelutheran.org. The series is edited by Philip D.W.
Krey, president of the Lutheran Theologi- cal Seminary at Philadelphia, on behalf of the presidents of the eight ELCA seminaries.
By Philip D.W. Krey A
s my editing for this series draws to a close, given that I am retiring, the essays in “Deeper
understandings” over the next months will address perhaps one of the most challenging topics we have yet consid- ered: money and generosity. For some time the church, the
courts and society in general have worked rigorously on the issue of human sexuality, with the church, in particular, addressing the biblical and theological issues that pertain. This generated great controversy because we weren’t adept at talking theologically about sex and sexual
Author bio: Krey is president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.
identity. But we are learning to be more comfortable as we work faith- fully together with the Scriptures, our confessions and our rich theological tradition. We have been less willing to dis-
cuss the role of money in the church and culture. Like sexuality it has been considered a topic for private conver- sation. Both are good gifts of God, given us in creation, and both can become destructive idols. As we discovered in our discus-
sion about human sexuality, our reti- cence to talk about things publicly and in the church may have nega- tive consequences for our neighbors. Our fear of members’ responses to sermons or presentations on money makes it hard to speak publicly from a Lutheran theological and biblical perspective. But the Bible and our catechism
contain more passages and refer- ences to the abundant gifts we have received from God and our stew- ardship of them than references to sexuality. Many of Jesus’ parables and teachings were about money, yet in the average congregation the only time one hears anything about money is during the annual steward- ship emphasis, if there is one. There is more to stewardship and
generosity than money. We know this. But it’s easier to talk about time and talents (though we don’t do those as well as we ought either). So we have asked this column’s writers over the next few months to focus on a theol- ogy of giving money to the mission of Christ’s church from a Lutheran theological and biblical perspective. We have many resources in our
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www.thelutheran.org
tradition to have regular healthy con- versations and deliberations about what we should do with the financial resources that God has given us out of pure goodness. God gives, and we give freely out of thankfulness. Consider the fourth petition in
the Lord’s Prayer and Martin Luther’s explanation in the Small Catechism of “Give us today our daily bread.”
Bread for good and evil “What does this mean? In fact, God gives daily bread without our prayer, even to all evil people, but we ask in this prayer that God cause us to rec- ognize what our daily bread is and to receive it with thanksgiving” (Evan- gelical Lutheran Worship, 1163). What does “daily bread” mean?
“Everything included in the necessi- ties and nourishment for our bodies, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, farm, fields, livestock, money, property, an upright spouse, upright children, upright members of the household, upright and faithful rul- ers, good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like” (ELW, 1164). One could also respond to God’s
goodness and mercy by living out Luther’s explanation of the first article of the creed, thanking, prais- ing, serving and obeying God (ELW, 1162). I was taught from childhood to
budget so I could give one-tenth of what I received right off the top in thanksgiving to the church. In good Lutheran fashion the expectation was in no way legalistic but a gift of Chris- tian joyful freedom.
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