November 08, 2026
• Rev. Mindie Moore
I Hate to Admit This Week 2
I Worry About Having Enough
1 Timothy 6:6-10
This is a big week here at St. Luke's Midtown. We've had our baptisms, it's Mosaic Ministry Sunday, and our Ministry fair is happening after services. And this is all happening within our Stewardship series. Which if you're not super familiar with what Stewardship is, it's the time of year, every year, where we intentionally focus on what it means to live a generous life. It all culminates next week with Commitment Sunday, where we will have the chance to make pledges for the year ahead, to say what we plan to give towards what God is doing here at St. Luke's.
Our theme for Stewardship this year is "I Hate to Admit it But..." Where we are looking at some honest confessions about generosity. Last week we talked about the fact that living generously can be complicated and hard to do. Today, we're confronting something that I suspect lives in the back of most of our minds, in some way or shape:
(SLIDE) I worry about having enough.
And that worry begs the question, "what even IS enough?" John D Rockefeller, one of the wealthiest humans in history, was asked a version of this question once in an interview. His answer? "One more dollar."
Initially, I sort of cringe when I hear that. Like, this guy had more money than most of us could even imagine...and he still wanted MORE? But when I think about the reality of our world, especially our world right now, I guess I can understand the sentiment. There are a lot of reasons for ANY of us to be worried about having enough. Some of us are watching things like AI radically reshape the industries we work in, and we wonder if we will continue to have a job. Beyond that, just living in the world is—it costs me $53.21 to fill up my car this week!
And it's probably not just money that we worry about having enough of. It's things like time and resources too. Many of us are busy, we're tired, we're not sure if we can do one more thing.
And the tension that I feel, and my guess is that many of you also experience this, is (SLIDE) what does it look like to live generously when we're not sure we have enough? These are some majorly competing values. We want to take care of ourselves—we SHOULD take care of ourselves—and, at the same time, we want to be people who make an impact on others. We want to be people who are ready and willing to give, and to do that giving with an open and generous heart. But that's not always easy to do, and it's not always so simple to quiet the worries that we carry.
The Scripture that we're reading today helps us as we navigate this tension. And it gives us these two main ideas to grapple with as we do that. The first is to explore our relationship with money in general. And the second is to understand what it means to be content and believe that we will, in fact, have enough.
We've been talking about Paul's letters a lot lately, and here we are again! This one is to a man named Timothy, a leader in the church at Ephesus. Paul is sharing his wisdom of how Timothy can lead in this place...and Ephesus is quite a place. It was the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire, where the temple of Artemis was (one of the wonders of the world), a major trading center, very cosmopolitan and cultured, and the economy there was BOOMING. It was the picture of affluence at that time.
So it makes sense that as Timothy ministers to people in this city, their relationship to money is going to be part of the conversation. It's a key part of their world, and as they try and live like Jesus, it matters that they know how their faith and their resources intersect. How they work, how they spend, how they give, how they accumulate...it all matters as they grow in their faith.
Now, it is in this letter that we get one of the most quoted, and I would say, most taken out of context verses in the Bible. Paul says something here, and maybe it jumped out at you during the Scripture reading, that is a bit jarring and might seem borderline harsh when we first hear it. This is where Paul says, (SLIDE)
The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
And what tends to happen with this verse, is it gets taken to mean that having money is bad. Rich people are the enemy just because they are rich. You can't have an abundance of resources and faithfully follow Jesus, and in fact, maybe we should actively try NOT to have this kind of abundance. I remember once, in my twenties, I went to a big evangelical gathering and this famous Christian author told us that he now believed that the only way to faithfully follow Jesus was to live paycheck to paycheck. He said that having even a little bit more than you absolutely need to survive was not demonstrating a full trust in Jesus.
Practically, I have some big questions and concerns about this viewpoint. I think there's a lot of privilege to unpack there too, when so many people are living paycheck to paycheck, not for a good talking point at a conference, but because life is really hard. And Biblically, I'm not even sure that it's getting to the point Paul is trying to make here. Because if you keep reading, Paul says this: (SLIDE)
17 As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but rather on God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19 thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
Paul doesn't say: they should feel guilty. And Paul doesn't say: they should liquidate all their assets and take a vow of poverty. I think what Paul is most concerned about here is what matters most to us, no matter what our financial position might be. If we're becoming consumed with padding our bank accounts? That might be something to pay attention to on a spiritual level. If we find that we have more than enough but we are holding on to it tighter and tighter, not wanting to use our resources for anything besides our own comfort and desire? That should raise a red flag. If we are willing to let our morals and ethics slide so that we can get ahead...danger!
I think the heart of what Paul is saying here, is that Jesus wants have a bigger vision than a mindset of scarcity, a deeper trust in God over the things that we have, and that doing that sets us free to engage with our world and give to the things that have the ability to make it better. We do this individually AND we get to do them as a community, as the Church! We can do an incredible amount of good together, and it's one of the most powerful things that happens when we gather in this place. It's not just worship. It's not just social. It's about joining with other people to use our resources for good.
One of the holiest kinds of conversations I get to have in my role as a pastor are the conversations when someone comes to me and says, "I have some extra, I would really like to give...can you help me find a place to share what I have?"
A couple of years ago, our worship director, Beck, told me about this really awesome cohort they wanted to participate in. It was a group of mostly UMC worship directors and they would meet for a year to learn theology, administration, and worship leadership. It sounded absolutely perfect...with the small issue that we had not budgeted for this experience at all. It was about $2500 that we had not planned for, and so while I believed that we would find a way, I wasn't quite sure how it was going to happen.
I kid you not, a week later, a congregant came up to me and had one of those conversations with me—they had some extra to give and they wanted to share it. They sort of qualified this conversation by saying, "It's not a huge amount or anything...it's only $2500."
I was stunned by this. What they had to give was exactly what we needed, and because they decided to be generous and do some good...we were able to invest in our staff team in a really powerful way. (SLIDE)
That's just one story I could tell about the generosity of our congregation, and what I notice every single time I hear about one of these gifts, they are given from a place of contentment and gratitude. And that brings us to the other piece of this conversation—cultivating a life that is based on that kind of contentment, where we not only believe that we have enough, but we also live from that belief.
Contentment might seem a bit abstract, so here's how I'm defining it today: (SLIDE)
Contentment: being satisfied with what we have and accepting that what we have is enough.
I'm trying to teach this concept to my son right now. He is an AVID collector of sports cards, and I keep asking him, "Don't you have enough?" And if you look at this photo, my guess is you would agree with his mother and say, "Yes!" (SLIDE)
But Rhys does not agree. And when I ask him this question, he looks at me like I am the most ridiculous person in the world and says something like, "NO. What if I get a pack and I pull an autographed Tyrese Halliburton card with a jersey piece in it?"
Is that possible? I do not know. But I know he is certain that there is something he does not have, that is just beyond his reach and he is CONFIDENT that if he keeps acquiring cards, maybe one day he will get it.
My guess is that a lack of contentment is probably good for cultivating a card collection. But that same lack of contentment when it comes to our resources is not so good for our spiritual lives. We can forget the source of all that we have is God, and we can become anxious or worried. We can forget the reality that all of the money, stuff, even our time...it's temporary. When Paul says to Timothy, "We brought nothing into the world, and we will take nothing out of it," it's the truth, and it hopefully helps puts things into perspective for us. This mindset reminds us that we don't have to cling to our stuff, we don't have to always be on the lookout for the next best thing...instead, we can be aware of what we have, be grateful for it, and put our focus on asking God to work through us with whatever it is that we have.
I recently read an article from the Lake Institute, which is an organization that works with religious institutions and giving. They shared a story from Lana Miller, a pastor at a church in Virginia. She had invited her congregation to participate in what she called an "Abundance Sunday" where they were to bring anything that they had in abundance so they could share with others. Here's what she said:
The morning of the service, people eagerly came into the worship space, carrying plants, flowers, herbs, pottery, paintings, puzzles, candles, fresh vegetables from their gardens (like green beans, peppers of every variety, tomatoes). There was lavender, toys, woodworking, baseball cards, and even a nice pair of mud boots. If you could imagine it, it was there.
I invited the congregation to consider how we might cultivate a gift economy, a spirit of generosity that reflects God’s abundance. Many would suggest that cultivating gratitude is at the heart of this endeavor. When we recognize and appreciate all that we have, we are more ready to share with others.
And so, that morning, I invited everyone to reflect on their abundance and share it as an act of gratitude, a way of creating community and a way to recognize our Creator, the one who continues to give life and longs for us to give life to others.
During the offering, as the gifts kept coming, my eyes widened with the incredible assortment of generosity on display. Everything was given with sheer joy and love. People considered their abundance, not with just material things, but with time, gifts and talents. One person shared how they had an abundance of safety at such a time when so many immigrants and people of color are feeling more and more vulnerable. And they were challenged to consider how to share this kind of abundance.
After the last song, during the benediction, all were invited to enjoy the abundance of God in all that had been offered. At first, people didn’t take me seriously. Really, “come and take something,” I pleaded! I couldn’t imagine that all that had been offered would really find a home, so I was making plans to take things to the local reuse shop the next morning. But, to my delight and surprise, everything found a home! Even the teddy bear my daughter had crocheted with love.
That was a message in and of itself. When we share our abundance, someone always needs it.
I love the image of that congregation showing up like that, and I especially love that idea that when we share our abundance, someone always needs it. When we see what we have, and believe it is enough, it doesn't just give us the warm and fuzzies, but it actually allows us to bless other people. Our gratitude and contentment are things that go way beyond us as individuals. Those things change our communities for the better...just because we show up, with open hands and willing hearts.
I want to tell you one more story before we close today. It's a story about a man at St. Luke's named Jason Darko (SLIDE), who volunteers in the Mosaic ministry. Early in life he was diagnosed with a learning disability. Growing up, church was not a comfortable place. One experience stands out. He was asked to read a scripture verse out loud in the children’s service, but he wasn’t able. The teacher thought he was playing around and got publicly frustrated with him. He was embarrassed and started crying and remembers just wanting to leave.
But church profoundly changed for him on October 3, 2013. He and his wife, Kristin, had joined St. Luke’s. He read in the bulletin that Sunday that volunteers were needed for a “Special Needs Children’s Ministry.” He responded and knew immediately that this was the right place for him to connect.
Grateful for the staff and leaders he worked with over the years, he watched this ministry evolve into what it currently is, our Mosaic Ministry. It became to him a place where people with disabilities can grow and find acceptance, and best of all learn from each other. Volunteering in Mosaic has been healing for Jason’s journey. Each week he feels like he is using his gifts and creating something important.
What does it look like for each of us to use our gifts to create something important? In just a few moments you are going to go out of this room and walk into our Ministry Fair. And I absolutely believe that each and every one of us has something to give. If you walk around to these tables, you WILL find some place to use the gift that you have. And even if you are someone who is maxed out, and you truly have NO extra time, I hope that you will take a moment and learn about a ministry that's here today and commit to praying for it regularly. That's no small thing.
So as we sing our closing song, as we focus on what it means to truly believe that God is enough and has given us enough, I want you to use this time as a time of reflection and prayer. How will you be part of what God is doing in the year ahead? How will you use what you've been given to be part of doing good together?
Let's pray.