The eCrozier

I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love. – Lennon & McCartney

This fall churches will enter into the non-liturgical season of stewardship. It has more to do with the  fact our annual budgets are set to the calendar year than it has to do with  anything deeply theological. Whether we have a season of stewardship or not, we  do need to have regular, open conversations about money, our faith, and the Church. And maybe more importantly, we need some truth-speaking with one another in the Church about our individual relationship to money. Unfortunately, much of that truth-speaking wrongly uses Biblical teaching to try to induce guilt in church members “to give more.”

The Bible, of course, says  a lot about money. From the Old Testament teaching on a tithe of the first fruits to Jesus challenging listeners to keep their focus on the real treasure in their lives, the Bible recognizes the importance of money while also exposing it as a potential false god. After all, it is not “money,” but “the love of money,” that “is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). Jesus  does not employ guilt as a motive around money. He merely points out  continuously how humans wrongly conclude that acquiring more money or more  possessions will somehow make them happier or make their life better.

What Jesus and the Bible have taught us about money has been confirmed by empirical research again and again. Neuroscientist David Linden in his book, The Compass of Pleasure, showed how we actually receive more pleasurable brain activity from exercising generosity than we do exercising greed. And more recently, researchers in the Journal of Consumer Psychology have concluded that the relationship between more money bringing more happiness is surprisingly weak. They write: “Most people don’t know the basic scientific facts about happiness—it should not be surprising when wealthy people who know nothing about happiness end up with lives that aren’t that much happier than anyone else’s. Money is an opportunity for happiness, but it is an opportunity that people routinely squander because the things they think will make them happy often don’t.”

Sounds like Jesus, doesn’t it?

So, what does the research show about getting more happiness for our money? The researchers suggest that we’re likely to get more happiness by using our money to:

• Benefit others rather than ourselves
• Pay closer attention to the happiness of others
• Buy experiences with others rather than buy material goods for ourselves.

So, scientific research and the Bible conclude the same thing about the relationship between money and happiness. When we use our money for the benefit, happiness, and experience of others, we get more happiness. In the words of that wonderful Episcopalian, Bobby McFerrin: “Don’t worry, be happy!”

+Scott

Neuroscientist David Linden in his new book, The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good, describes and then explains how the pleasure centers in the brain function and are activated by internal and external stimuli. In a recent interview, he spoke particularly about how the brain’s pleasure center is activated by generous behavior toward others. Under scrutiny the brain’s pleasure center lights up when a person exercises generosity. So, it is not just sex, drugs, and rock & roll that activate our pleasure circuits. It seems virtuous behavior can as well.

Linden refers to a very interesting experiment that was done at the University of Oregon a while back. The researchers hooked their test subjects up to brain monitoring devices and then they gave them real money. Once the money was in their online bank account, the researchers told those in the study that they had a choice: they could give a financial donation to a particular local food bank or they could keep the money for themselves. And it was all set up anonymously with computers so even the researchers would not know what a particular individual test subject chose to do. That meant that no one would ever know what a particular person in the study chose, and if they chose to give a donation to the food bank, then it would not be connected to them personally. In other words, they would get no outside affirmation or credit for their charitable choice.

The researchers were quite surprised by the results. They discovered that a majority of the people in the study chose to give to the local food bank and that when they did so the pleasure center in their brain lit up. Linden remarked how crucial it was that this was all done anonymously. After all, we are social beings, and so one real motivation we might have to give generously is for others to think we are virtuous and care about hungry people. The researchers already knew from previous studies that having others think we are generous people activates the pleasure circuitry in our brains. In this study, however, that was removed as a possibility.

So, a majority of the people in the study gave money to help others rather than keep it for themselves and this, neurologically speaking, gave them great pleasure. This should open up a whole new way of approaching the regular financial support of the Church’s mission. While it is true that “God loves a cheerful1 giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7), it seems that our brains love for us to be generous as well. I think we need to convey this scientific truth to our people. Giving generously to support the mission of the Church is not only a spiritually healthy practice. It is also good for the neurological function of our brains. It opens up our pleasure circuitry. And it is a whole lot safer than vodka, gambling, or fatty foods.

+Scott

——————————————————————————–

[1] Actually the Greek word here is ‘ilaros, from which we get our English word “hilarious.” I would say then that most of our modern translations do not do justice to what St Paul was after here. He was not telling us that God loves merely “cheerful” givers. According to St Paul, God loves folks who are laughing for hard when they give that it doesn’t even hurt.

There is an item up for auction right now on eBay. According to its creator it is a work of art. The item is a black eight-inch, acrylic cube. Inside the cube, there is a small computer with an ethernet cable protruding from the back. If people want to bid on this item, they need to comply with certain conditions (if they were to win the bidding): When they receive possession of this work of art, they must immediately hook it up to the internet, at which time it will quickly put itself back up for auction on eBay. I believe I heard the first winning bidder won with a bid of $6500. He will receive the item in the mail shortly, hook it up to the internet, and at some point in the future, send it to next winning bidder above $6500.

This object of art is titled (and I swear I am not making this up): A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter. The creator of this item, Caleb Larsen, will get a 15% cut every time the piece is sold for a higher price than the first successful bid. Larsen said this about his creation: A lot of artwork in the last 10 years was being bought on speculation as investments. This work undermines its ability to be purchased as an investment. This work could be owned for as little as a week or as long as forever, but there’s always the possibility that somebody could buy it from you.

I don’t know what Caleb Larsen was thinking when he created A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter. Maybe the name gives us an inkling of his intentions? Nevertheless, what Larsen has done reminds us that we can never really own anything forever, whether that is a work of art or anything else. That is good theology. My hunch is Larsen did not have good theology in mind when he conceived his creation, but it does seem to have been his intention to slaughter the idea of the permanent ownership of anything.

We Christians have held that truth for 2000 years. At best, we are only stewards of what we currently possess. St Paul conveyed this when he wrote to the Corinthians about the Gospel proclaimed to them. He wrote: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6).” When I sit in our conference room at Diocesan House and see the pictures of the previous bishops of the Diocese of Georgia on the surrounding walls, I am reminded that I do not own the office of Bishop. I am just the current interim steward.

It is September. Soon all our congregations will move toward conversations about stewardship and giving for the future mission of the church.  We would all do well to remember our calling as stewards, and not possessors, of the church and her Gospel. For just a little while (in the history of God’s time), we are called to bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus. We do not own this Gospel any more than we own God. That truth should engender in us a profound humility and then show itself forth in an equally profound generosity.

+Scott