Delivered at UUP by Jan Ogren on April 15, 2007

Happy "tax day." I haven’t seen the statistics yet - but I wonder if April 15 may now have more significance to more Americans than last Sunday: Easter did. I have certainly heard more people talking about, preparing for and worrying about tax day -- than I heard people mentioning Easter. Now that could be because I’m a Unitarian Universalist -- still it raises some questions for me.

The whole subject of money generates so many issues and feelings for people -- that I should warn you - this service will contain explicit content concerning money.

As a psychotherapist I used to find that sex was the difficult subject people would tentatively talk about. But I think money is the most unmentionable, forbidden subject now. And in many ways it is similar to sex -- growing up you know there’s this thing called money that adults focus on -- but people don’t talk too directly about it -- it’s something -- once you are old enough - you are just supposed to know how to do it -- how to get enough of it, what to do with credit cards, checkbooks. And if you mess up there could be so much shame attached to it - a therapist might be the only safe person to talk to. Try imagining a casual, fun evening with friends where you ask each other: how much did you make last year? What’s the balance on your credit card? How large are your savings? Hard to imagine? It is for me and I talk about money a lot.

I was here two weeks ago when Cilla Raughly, our UU district executive, talked about money. I applauded her courage in actually using figures and sharing about her journey with money and tithing.

Standing here talking about money -- isn’t easy. There are so many taboos surrounding it and I’m not a financial expert to give you advice -- and why am I talking about money in a religious service anyway? Shouldn’t I be talking about God? If this was a different faith I would be preaching on the benefits of making God central in your life. If we went back a hundred, two hundred years in our own UU traditions I would be extolling you to focus your work and daily practice on God. To make God the currency of exchange between you and other people. To think about God often and consider how much God you have in your life right now.

But obviously this is a Unitarian Universalist congregation, and we respect all different beliefs so I’m not going to try to sell you on the benefits of God. But - if only there was something else that could take the place of God in our lives today. Something already existing in our culture that we think of daily, devote time and attention to. Something that defines our interactions with others and is a pervasive presence throughout our world. It would have to be something valued highly, that had the ability to have abstract concepts attached to it like personal worth and self-esteem, yet also something that was concrete and tangible.

Is there anything in our lives today that takes that role?

How about this? (hold up 5$ bill?).

I’m going to explore with you today the idea of money as God. Then I’m going to give you three opportunities to experience your personal relationship to money. Followed by some suggestions on how to further explore your relationship with money.

You might be thinking - after I hinted at how much money has taken the role of God in our culture -- that I am now going to reveal the evils of money and beseech you turn away from it and find a more spiritual center in your life.

But I’m not going to do that. For two reasons, one: it’s been done before: there are many talks about de-emphasizing the role of money in our lives. And secondly - you might call it being lazy - I prefer to think of it as being practical: money is such an all encompassing factor in everyone’s life today that to decrease its impact seems overwhelming and impossible.

What I want to propose is changing the God of money from being one of the old Gods to being one of the new Gods. Or you could think of it as changing Money from a God to a Goddess or from a controlling/critical force to a creative/joyful one.

Think of the old Gods: Thor on the mountaintop, Zeus with his thunderbolts, Yahweh of the Old Testament, they were gods that could evoke fear. They demanded sacrifice, insisted on total devotion and obedience and they were very, very judgmental. You might already be seeing the correlations with money. So many fears center on money. Do I have enough? what if I lose my job? have I saved enough for retirement? I remember the fears of my mother-in-law as she journeyed toward death. The savings she had worked hard to amass all her life were enough to buy her comfort and care, but instead the fears dominated and by the time she was actually dying she was too afraid to pay 10 dollars to have her lawn mowed or to turn on the air conditioner during a heat wave in southern California. She ended up leaving a sizable amount of money that it saddened us to inherit. Money never created the promised security it was supposed to for her -- instead right to the end it was the judgmental god always demanding more and creating a hell on earth through fear and insecurity. Money is like an old God demanding sacrifice: insisting on long work hours, missing our children’s adventures if it interferes with our productivity. A friend of ours was counseled at work for missing two days when his daughter broke her leg. Think about money as the God of self-worth, self esteem. And if you lose god’s/money’s favor -- then you fall from grace and social status. -- just ask anyone who’s filed bankruptcy, lost a job, a house, made a decision that cost their family a lot of money - how do they value themselves now? How does society value them?

I could go on with examples -- but I hope you have a sense of what I mean by Money as one of the old judgmental Gods.

Now, I want to talk about the new Gods.

Many people have changed their concepts of God. Especially Unitarian Universalists. You may have been raised with one of the old gods but if you still use that word most likely it refers to an all embracing, supportive, loving God: encouraging family connections and promoting a healthy life style. You may have gone so far away from the old gods that you don’t even use the word god -- you may refer to life force, creator, human understanding or use no words at all. For the sake of this journey I’m going to use the term "new god" to refer to all that is supportive and creative -- so that I can contrast this concept with the old god of vengeance and judgment.

Before we explore Money as a new God I want to offer you three experiences to hopefully feel the affect money has in your life right now.

Imagine your friends tell you about a wonderful event. It could be music, theater, sports make it believable to you -- something you would enjoy. It’s so appealing you spend a lot of money to get tickets for it. Again, make this as real as possible for you. What would be an expensive price: 10$? 100$? 50$? You have these expensive tickets for an event you are anticipating with great excitement. The day comes and you aren’t feeling very well. You have a scratchy throat and are feeling kind of queasy. Also it’s storming: rains and winds are making the road conditions dangerous. -- would you go to the event? How would you decide?

Now imagine the exact same exciting event. Only this time it’s free. You spent no money on tickets - It is the night of the event, you are not feeling well and it’s raining. Would you go?

These sceneries came from a research study on money and values. They found that the largest determiner of a person’s decision was not their health or safety but the amount of money they spent on the tickets.

What came up for me was a concern about "wasting" money. Even when there is no chance to return the tickets for cash -- how much I had paid still affected how much I valued the tickets. That’s the god like quality of money - to maintain its abstract assessment of worth, even after the actual money is gone.

Take a breath, let that scene go and imagine it’s a family or friend’s birthday or the holidays -something that would cause you to get a gift for him or her. In the past you know he/she has spent about 50$ on a gift for you. You’re in a store and see the perfect gift for them, but it’s only 2$. Would you get this gift? Would you feel compelled to get something else worth 48$ to balance it out? If the $2 gift was on a fantastic sale and was regularly worth 50$ how would that change things? or imagine this person had only given you a gift worth 10$ how would that affect what you gave to them? And how would you feel if you learned they gave someone else a gift worth 100$ after only giving you a $10 one?

Thinking through these different scenarios -- how does the monetary amount of the gifts influence the amount of love/caring you feel for this person? And how much do you believe they care and value you?

For the third experience -- you don’t have to imagine anything -- because I brought some props with me. I’m going to use this candle. Lighting a candle or chalice is a traditional way we enter a sacred space. I want to use it to help us transform money from the old judgmental god to the new loving, healthy god. But before I light it how much do you think this candle is worth? If I put this 1$ price tag in front of the candle how do you feel about my lighting it? how about with this 5$ sign? 50$? - you might have to imagine a more elegant candle for 50$ or else you could get distracted by thinking I was a fool to spend so much money on this candle. -- bringing up another example of the judgemental nature of money.

Actually the price was 5$. Have your feelings about the candle and the significance of lighting it changed as the price changed? I assume you feel okay about my lighting a 5$ candle to create a sacred space for healthy money consciousness? (light candle)

Now I am going directly to the source -- this five dollar bill -- which it what the candle was valued at. (move money close to candle) Are your reactions any different from my lighting a 5$ candle to imaging my lighting a 5$ bill directly?

Often people react strongly to the idea of burning money -- even calling it sacrilegious -- which I find an interesting choice of words. So how has this piece of paper -- taken on such tremendous representational power? Maybe there was a powerful wizard long ago named Agatha. But from what I’ve read it was a gradual evolution. Originally currency was shells, gold, silver, necklaces, things that had inherent wealth themselves. Then gold merchants in Europe started giving people paper receipts for the gold they were holding for them. People started trading these paper receipts and the concept of money was developed. Money points at wealth. But it isn’t the wealth itself.

There’s an old saying: don’t mistake the finger pointing at the moon for the moon. Another way to say it is -- the map is not the territory. On a map -- you have a representation of the streets, parks and highways but you can’t see the houses, nor hear the birds sing, nor smell the lavender. -- the map helps us get to where we want to go but it is not the actual territory. The finger pointing at the moon shows us where to look -- but it is not the moon. In fact, if the finger becomes the object of attention it can become stationary while the moon continues to move across the sky. By focusing on the finger we tend to forget the moon and soon the finger will no longer even be pointing in the direction of the moon.

This is the same with money. As we focus on money it can become an object unto itself and we lose track of the new god of creativity that money is actually pointing to.

There is a magical quality to money: Transformational magic. Which if you have read Harry Potter is very great magic indeed. Money transforms my hours working as a psychotherapist into food - into shelter. People can send me a transformative gift of money for my birthday and I can turn it into clothes or a show or any experience I want. Amazing -- if you think of it -- the power to transform the action of my work into things. I can make my life force tangible so that I can trade it for other people’s life forces.

Now that we have explored money as one of the old gods and hopefully you have had opportunities to explore some of your own feelings about money, then we come to the question: how can we turn money into one of the new gods: a loving, supportive, universal transformative concept?

As a Unitarian Universalist congregation you already have a place where this new God exists. In fact every UU congregation’s budget has a place where money transforms directly into spirit. That is the fair share line in the budget. Fair share is the amount of money each congregation sends to our national Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) in Boston and to our Pacific Central District (PCD) based on the number of members. Now some of you know what the money actually turns into --in terms of programs, workshops, and resources. But for most people and I would assume for guests today your connection is primarily here: the local congregation and you don’t have a clear picture of where the fair share money goes and how it is used.

You might think I am now going to educate you on the benefits of the services you actually receive from UUA and PCD for your fair share dollars. But I’m not going to do that. I’m going to take advantage of the fact that many of you don’t know the particulars of what happens to the fair share money you send in. Money is too often viewed only as the old god of payment, and worth. But when money acts as the new god it has the magical power of creation.

Fair share allows congregations to go beyond paying for specific things -- like buildings, staff salaries, coffee and cookies to being agents of creation. Fair share literally creates Unitarian Universalism. I would propose that even more than the UUA and PCD need to receive fair share dues, congregations need to give them. Because it is too easy to see money as buying things and then it can return to being the god of worth and value. But fair share speaks of vision, spirit and faith. I would go so far as to assert that paying fair share is what makes this group different than a club or social action group, more than a supportive community. You create this congregation as a Unitarian Universalist religious group by that line in your budget.

So if we start really thinking of Money as a spiritual currency then the offering is a magical time. An actual transformation is occurring where money, that is personal work energy is creating a spiritual community in this place and beyond to a district and a national liberal religious presence in the world.

I would suggest viewing the offering ritual here every Sunday as a second period for meditation. As the basket is passed - think of it not as paying -- for something. But as an opportunity to create. and to share that creation with others -- to share with guests which is why for first time visitors I invite you to pass the basket and be our guests. So it is clear the basket is not about paying for this service like you would pay for a concert or lecture. The offering is truly an offering of creative personal energy.

I focused on fair share because it is a good of example of how to go beyond the paying for/getting worth from mentality associated with money. Another suggestion is to expand this concept of new god energy to every opportunity you use money. Whenever you eat in restaurants, buy groceries, go to events, pay for services - imagine yourself giving people pieces of the new god -- a friendly, loving type of god. Money is the center of our interactions with so many people. And it is certainly the focus of our "work" so see if you can bring it in as a magical creator rather than a strict judge.

Other traditions already invoke the new god aspect of money. For Muslims there is a prayer for receiving and offering money. May Allah bless you, your family and your wealth -- I could imagine something like: in gratitude I offer you my life force, the store owner would then reply: I receive your life force in thankfulness . Some Native American tribes will sprinkle money with corn meal or will include a feather or leaf with the actual leaves of money. I have a butterfly sticker on my credit card to remind me of its transformational nature.

Money is magic -- it allows me riches beyond the silver coins - it allows me to trade life force energy anywhere on this planet with anyone -- and it allows us all to create -- and helps us to realize our dreams and visions.

Now I’m going to give you a chance to practice one of my suggestions. As the offering basket is passed think of it as a basket of creation.

With this offering
I call on the new god of money
To help free us of judgments,
To be accepting of ourselves and others.
Open to the possibilities of creation,
And mindful of the gifts given and received