A maturing faith Deeper understandings
Considerations on money and other matters By Emlyn A. Ott
R
emember the O’Jays? The pow- erhouse 1970s soul group gave us the hit song “For the Love
of Money.” If you don’t remember it, or wonder if you ever heard it, think Donald Trump. The song now serves as theme music for the real estate mogul’s “Apprentice” TV fran- chise. The repetitive chorus “money, money, money, money, money” is memorable and catchy. Often misinterpreted as a song
that celebrates the accumulation of money, it actually has another mes- sage entirely. “For the Love of Money” is an unadorned warning about the other, more sordid, side of the accu- mulation of wealth. It points out what people wind up doing to gain more of the green stuff: cheat, lie, even steal from their mothers. Songwriters Kenneth Gamble and
Leon Huff gave the O’Jays this strik- ing statement about greed and finan- cial gain. At the time, their song- writing skills earned them quite a lot of “money, money, money, money, money.” Recent religious converts, Gam-
ble and Huff also were reconciling their spiritual beliefs with their life- style. They were curious about mon- ey’s impact on their lives and how it might ultimately change them. The main theme of the song is clear: Don’t let money consume or define you.
The O’Jays and Gamble and
Huff were on to something. What would it be like to be curious about what actually defines us? What do we believe? How do we live like we
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There are layers under anything where money is involved. Money is the flash point.
believe what we say? And how does “money, money, money, money, money” play a role?
Naming the real issues Emotional process theologian and rabbi Edwin Friedman, author of Generation to Generation (Guilford, 2011) and A Failure of Nerve (Sea- bury, 2007), has helped generations of clergy and others deal with leadership challenges. He often reminded his stu- dents: “The issue is never the issue.” How does that translate to money?
There are layers under anything where money is involved. Money is the flash point. Money and stewardship are the focused upon “tip of an iceberg.” What lies beneath the tip of that iceberg? Relationships and the give-and-take between people encompass the larger body of ice that exists under the sur- face of the water. Because you and I associate money and stewardship processes with survival or avoidance of pain, it’s easy for money and stew- ardship to be a focus of heightened fear. To observe what lies underneath the surface might just be the begin- ning of a spiritual awakening.
Poet and humorist Dorothy Parker
once said: “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curios- ity.” There is nothing boring about congregations and congregational life in the 21st century. The ability to observe what happens in communi- ties of faith around money, steward- ship and mission involves allowing our curiosity to emerge. It involves engaging our thinking brains rather than our gut reactions. Curiosity has a motivating power.
Can we be curious about the intensity that surrounds a budget shift or a staff reduction? Any chance we can look at something in our history or the his- tory of the organization that might give a clue about what is happening with me? What would it be like to be curious about my reactions to a bud- get that isn’t supporting something I hold dear or a key mission initiative? Money and stewardship unleash
the power of the automatic, which I sometimes call the “seven ‘f ’s”: fight, flight, freeze, fuse, frenzy, feeding and “ph-armacology.” These auto- matic reactions demonstrate the sur- vival buttons that God installed in us. In the event of a threat, either real or imagined, mobilize. Help me feel bet- ter right now. Prescribe a pill. And do it in a familiar way. Everyone has a favorite reactive style, and it doesn’t usually fall far from the family tree.
Editor’s note: This series is intended to be a public conversation among theolo- gians 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 Michael Cooper-White, president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.), on behalf of the presidents of the eight ELCA seminaries.
©ISTOCK/JASON DOIY
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