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Money Blog Archives
Money Blog posts insightful comments on the latest international news that render us taken-aback in the domain of the money facet of life. Money-Blog: Money-Talks News Money talks as church learns from parable: December 21, 2007 by HELEN O'NEILL
CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio — The Rev. Hamilton Coe Throckmorton shivered with anticipation as he gazed at the loot — wads of $50 bills piled high beside boxes of crayons in a Sunday school classroom. It was a balmy Friday evening in September. From several floors below, faint melodies drifted up — the choir practicing for Sunday service. Throckmorton smiled in satisfaction as he stashed the money in a safe. Forty-thousand dollars in all. That Sunday, the 52-year-old minister donned his creamy white robes, swept to the pulpit and read from the Gospel of Matthew. "And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his ability." Then he explained the parable of the talents, which tells of the rich master who entrusts three servants with a sum of money — "talents" — and instructs them to go forth and do good. The master lavishes praise on the two servants who double their money. Like the master, Throckmorton would entrust each adult with a sum of money — in this case, $50. Church members had seven weeks to find ways to double their money, the proceeds to go toward church missions. Money Blog: Money Talks News (Continued)
"Live the parable of the talents!" Throckmorton exhorted, as assistants handed out hundreds of red envelopes stuffed with crisp $50 bills and stunned church members did quick mental calculations, wondering where all the money had come from. There are about 1,700 in the congregation, though not everyone attends each week. The cash, Throckmorton explained, was loaned by several anonymous donors. In her regular pew at the back of the church, where she has listened to sermons for 40 years, 73-year-old Barbara Gates gasped. What kind of kooky nonsense is this, she thought. "Sheer madness," retired accountant Wayne Albers, 85, said to his wife, Marnie, who hushed him as he whispered loudly. "Why can't the church just collect money the old-fashioned way?" Money Blog: Money Talks News (Continued) Parable comes to life Throckmorton is warm, engaging and approachable, as comfortable talking about the Cleveland Indians baseball team as he is discussing Scripture. At the Federated Church, he is known simply as Hamilton. But as church members spilled into the late summer sunshine that morning to ponder their skills and their souls, there were many who thought: Hamilton is really pushing us this time. Barbara Gates raised $450 crafting pendants from beads and sea glass — pieces she had casually made for her grandchildren over the years. Kathie Biggin created fanciful little red-nosed Rudolph pins and sold them for $2.50. And 87-year-old Bob Burrows rediscovered old carpentry skills and began selling wooden bird-feeders. Money Blog: Money Talks News (Continued)
But it wasn't the money; everyone said so. It was something else, something far less tangible but yet so very real. For seven weeks, an almost magical sense of excitement and energy and camaraderie infused the red-brick church on Bell Street, spilling over into homes and hearts as the parable of the talents came alive. Talents began multiplying at such a rate that the church held a bazaar after services on two consecutive Sundays for people to display — and sell — their wares. "Anyone can open their wallet and give cash," Kris Tesar said. "This was just an extraordinary process of exploration and discovery and of challenging ourselves. It became bigger than any one of us or than any individual talent." Money Blog: Money Talks News (Continued) Money keeps growing The deadline to return the money was Sunday, Oct. 28. Nervously, some church council members suggested posting plain clothes security guards at services that day. But Throckmorton would have none of it. He insisted that the spirit of the challenge, which had already inspired so much good will, would carry them safely through. And it did. A week later he delivered the joyful news: They had more than doubled the amount distributed. The initial take was $38,195 over the loan, but the amount is still growing. Some people didn't make the deadline, or extended it in order to finish their projects. Money Blog: Money Talks News (Continued)
The final sum will be divided equally among three charities: One-third will go to a school library in South Africa where the church is involved in an AIDS mission; one-third will go to micro-loan organizations that provide seed money for small businesses in developing countries; one-third will help the Interfaith Hospitality Network's programs for homeless women in Cleveland. Throckmorton is asked all the time if the talent challenge will become an annual event, but he is doubtful. It was a special time and a special idea, he says, and he is not sure it could be re-created or relived. Yet in a very real sense, it lives on. Church members who never knew one another have become friends. And orders for applesauce, flip-flops and Rudolph pins are still rolling in for Christmas. Money Blog Comment: It's only once in a while as a celebration that money talks so gently, otherwise the language money speaks isn't a very sweet one. In fact it is our lust for doubling our money only that turns our life a hell on earth. The concept of ownership as such is at fault in all this mishap slapped at our face direct. Money blog questions: Why should I own anything on earth after all? Let me use it when I need it like I use the water of the river. And then let it go back to the nature or to the public pool administering its circulation like it is done with the books in a library. Money Blog Comment: Money Talks News (Continued)
How big a cost saving and how economical a resource management will such a system result in! We shall no more have to exploit nature as bad as we are doing it today. In fact; for us to mend our ways, nature has created an emergency in front of us in the name of IMPENDING Global Warming threatening life with IMMINENT extinction. We have no alternative but to listen to the coming voice of death attentively. Or else we are going to go dead even before our sons and daughters turn young! Money blog got its answer and now looks up to you! We don't have much time left at our behest.
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