Motivated by Joy
Zeph 3: 14-20
(after reading the scripture)
That’s nice isn’t it?
Just a couple of random little details on verse 17: 17The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing 18as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it.
In Hebrew, the word that is translated ‘exult’ literally means shine… so God is shining, beaming as God sings over Israel… and perhaps even more vivid an image, ‘rejoice’ comes from a Hebrew word that means spin or twirl… so God is glad that God is spinning with delight. Honestly that hasn’t got anything to do with the sermon… but I just enjoyed imaging God singing and shining and spinning with delight over ‘His’ children Israel… and by extension, all of us here…
What struck me about this reading is the lectionary decision-makers, those who chose this particular reading, skipped over the first two chapters of Zephaniah and I don’t think we get the full force of God’s delight unless we look at the first two chapters.
Perhaps this is why:
Zephaniah 1:
2I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth, says the Lord. 3I will sweep away humans and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. I will make the wicked stumble. I will cut off humanity from the face of the earth, says the Lord.
And then
14The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter, the warrior cries aloud there. 15That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, 16a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. 17I will bring such distress upon people that they shall walk like the blind; because they have sinned against the Lord, their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.
You can see why this is skipped over this right? How do we make sense of this? Chapters 1 &2 all about God’s wrath… and this abrupt shift at the end of chapter 3 where God spins with Joy.
I started thinking about Joy. How could Zephaniah be so confident both in God’s wrath and in God’s joy? What does joy mean? Is it pleasure, is it happiness?
Pleasure to me suggests an instant gratification. Instant gratification makes me think of chocolate. Nothing makes me feel good, like chocolate. You ask my wife. No matter how long, tiring, or stressful my day has been, all that goes away with a Hershey Bar, a big jar of Peanut Butter and a tall glass of milk. Now I’m not trying to preach against pleasure, although a life lived in pursuit of pleasure alone becomes a pretty empty and meaningless life. One is never satisfied or at peace, because some new experience, some new pleasure has to be found the instant after the last pleasure is experience.
Happiness is different. Happiness is an emotion that last longer. But even happiness doesn’t last forever, and often happiness is connected, like pleasure to immediate circumstance and the things, or the people that surround us.
I do think that our society is overly focused on both pleasure and happiness. The advertising message that we are bombarded with on television and radio promise us pleasure and happiness with every new thing that we buy; a TV, cell-phone, video games, car, etc. etc. Again, I’m not preaching against happiness… I’m just saying that the way our culture defines happiness isn’t that different from pleasure… and when we focus simply or solely on these pleasure and/or happiness, I think we find ourselves wandering away from the path that leads to God.
Zephaniah’s warnings, as far as I can tell, come because he feels that Israel, having returned from exile to their homeland, are seeking pleasure and happiness, instead of pursuing joy. Zephaniah is upset because he see’s Israel dressing like ‘foreigners’ worshiping their gods, treating the poor with disdain. In other words, they are seeking the quick and easy comfort of other gods, other cultural practices, and of material gain and wealth. And what Zephaniah wants them to focus on is joy.
Joy operates on a different level because joy, biblically, according to Zephaniah, is a gift of God. God is faithful, compassionate, and aware of ‘His’ people. God’s people experience joy when they are faithful, compassion and aware of others and God… which may not be easy, and which may not offer instant pleasure. Sometimes remaining faithful requires sacrifice and creates a sting. Joy isn’t measured, according to Zephaniah, in the immediate moment. Joy accumulated over time, it is a goal, not an instant pleasure or an emotion. It is the peace that comes when one has focused faithfully on one’s faithful relationship to God. When one can look back over time and know that no matter what the distraction, regardless of the temptations or the hardships, one has remained faithful to God and God’s people. Joy is an imaginative event, in which, we choose our actions and behaviors, not based on immediate circumstances, but upon a vision of who God has created us to be. That may not be easy or simple here and now, and it may call for sacrifice immediately… but we sacrifice now for a gain in the future, which is to know, to joyfully acknowledge that we were faithful, and nothing could persuade us, or control us, or sway us from faithfulness to God’s way.
I’m not sure I’m making this clear enough so let me share personally, if you don’t mind.
This past week there was a bit of a dust-up in my family…. Not immediate and not my wife’s side… I’m not going to embarrass anyone sitting here. This was my side. Some extended family members on my side, said some unkind things about relatives whom I care about and I’ve been very upset. It may sound silly since I rarely get home and see extended family. But I have been really upset about this. And my first response is to cut those folks off; no phone calls, no emails, no visits. If you want to act that way, I’m not going to deal with you. You are cut off, dead to me.
That is me. But I’ve been thinking about Zephaniah too, for this sermon. And I couldn’t square my natural reaction to this with what Zephaniah is saying. Joy comes from being faithful to God. Being faithful to God requires me to be patient and kind and loving and forgiving… and doesn’t give me excuses not to be. You see what I mean? Faithfulness isn’t always easy… sometimes it really stings.
And I started thinking about the future. One day, Berean will be remembering me, like you do Rev. Hall now. Do I want you to say; Pastor Darin was really nice as long as you didn’t cross him. But once you got on his bad side, you stayed there forever. No, I don’t want that. I don’t my boys to remember their father, one day, as holding grudges and cutting people off when they were human? No, I want them to remember me, as I said, as kind and forgiving. Being patient and forgiving right now, will not bring me pleasure. What would bring me pleasure would be calling that certain someone on the phone and telling them just what I think of them. Being loving and kind, won’t necessarily make me happy right now. Cutting them off and never speaking to them again, would make me happy. But these things won’t bring me joy. What will bring me joy is knowing, one day, that no one and nothing could dissuade me from my faithfulness to God, which taught me how to be merciful and loving. Does that make sense.
And I’ve been surprised at how even now, I find joy in the midst of this personal struggle and the anger and pain of it. I feel joy that I have resources to draw on that keep me from spreading anger and hurt, and that help me to create peace, even when Im not feeling peaceful.
If we just read Zephaniah 3, without chapters 1 and 2, Joy seems so easy. And Joy is not easy in Zephaniah. It requires something of us. It costs us something. But it also promises us something. It promises us a clear path through difficult, stressful times. It doesn’t promise us immediate pleasure, but it does promise us a sure guidance and a steady course when the world around is us confusing and our own feelings are muddled. Joy becomes a North Star to guide us in our darkness. That is why Zephaniah begins with wrath. To give us the surprising gift of joy in every circumstance… so that joy is something we can carry within ourselves, no matter what happens around us. To give us a gift of God’s presence that lasts, so that we can stop pursuing empty pleasure endlessly and find security in the Joy that only God’s faithfulness can bring.
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Sunday, December 13, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Learning to Forgive
What does forgiveness mean? And What Doesn’t it mean.
A couple of weeks ago, as I was walking my son to school he asked me what I was going to preach about on Sunday. I told him I had a couple in the ole hopper… one on music and singing and the other on forgiveness… I was thinking about and researching both. Didn’t you just preach on forgiveness? He asked. Yeah, your right son, I probably did preach on it not that long ago.Why do you spend so much time preaching on Forgiveness he asked? Well… good question… how do I answer it?
Because, I said to him, forgiveness is one of the hardest of the Christian practices to learn… its really hard to forgive when we have been hurt. BUT… forgiveness is not only what we do, forgiveness is who we are… If we follow Christ, we are forgiving people, even when it is hard and even when it is risky.
Forgiveness is tough to talk about because it is so risky. To commit ourselves to forgiving is to, in essence, commit ourselves to the risk of being hurt. I don’t mean to be a downer… but I think that is where the bible pushes us. Forgiveness as a self-help practice that will make us feel better is a bit of a mis-representation of forgiveness as jesus taught it and lived it. I have been guilty of this misrepresentation myself. Its just that its awfully hard to talk about forgiveness is one shot because there are so many facets to forgiveness. I think forgiveness can give us peace and make us feel better, sometimes. Other times it is just soul-wrenching gutsy work that hurts.
I think that preachers offer too much wiggle room about forgiveness, me included and I want to address that over the next couple of weeks… but first, I do want to offer you some wiggle room.
There are some situations, extreme, but real and prevalent, I’m afraid where forgiveness has to be very specifically defined. Forgiveness is the promise that anyone can return to the love of God, no matter what their past holds. And this is troubling because we, who have been hurt, feel violated by the idea that someone who has hurt us, may, in fact, be loved by God too. Specifically I am thinking about someone who has been emotionally, physically or sexually abused. If I forgive the abuser, am I not opening myself up to the risk of being hurt again? While basically the idea of forgiveness, as we will see, is that nothing can separate us from the love of God… sometimes we do need to have boundaries so that we will not be hurt again. Forgiveness of someone who has hurt us physically or sexually does not require us, in my opinion, to make ourselves available for more abuse. Forgiveness in this case would not be a return to relationship. While I think Jesus did want our forgiveness to be riskier than we would like… I don’t think Jesus, who spent his lifetime freeing people from abuse, to stay in these specific kinds of abuse for the sake of ‘forgiveness.’ In these cases I think that forgiveness would be more ‘Zen’ and that sounds funny, because we are Christians not Buddhists. I mean, forgiveness would mean that we do not wish harm on the person who has abused us. Now… I do not mean that we do not wish justice, or consequences. I am not saying that the police should not be notified or the legal system availed. We can forgive and still call the police… we should, in these cases call the police, get authorities and the legal system involved. But instead of wishing the abuser pain or suffering, (even thought they deserve it) forgiving them would mean wishing that some day, some how, they too would come to know that God loves them… does that make sense? It doesn’t mean keeping quiet or not getting the authorities involved or not pressing charges. It does mean that in our own hearts, we begin a process, and it is a gradual process I am sure, where we do not harbor angry or vengeful thoughts. Notice too, that I said process. Anger and vengful thoughts would be a normal part of the healing process, to be guided by therapists and pastor and perhaps one or two loving friends. So I’m not saying its wrong to feel angry or vengeful. I’m saying that we accept them as natural, without guilt or shame, and then, under proper guidance, move toward a place of peace, over time, patiently with ourselves… does that make sense?
Now, to get back to the risk of forgiveness…. Lets read a story… Luke 15;11-32
So, I gotta tell ya; my first reaction is that I want to shake the father. I mean, I get it. Its his boy, his little boy. But still I wanna shake this guy because he’s opening himself up to so much more hurt. I can see this turning into oh, I don’t know… can I borrow some money, and then some more money. I can see this turning into, can I borrow the car, and then the car getting, oh, I don’t know, run into a ditch. I can see the son rifling through the old man’s wallet for cash, or stealing his credit cards for the cash advance. I can see parties at hotels with all sorts of new friends and drugs and booze.
And then the son returning with an, I’m sorry dad, I really am. I’ll do better this time. Can you see it too? I can imagine it, because I’ve seen it. And you’ve witnessed it too, no doubt.
Which reminds me of two things; a movie and real life experience.
At my first church in providence I did a lot of work trying to convince the members that we should be doing something to help the many homeless people who hung around our neighborhood and sought shelter on at our front door. So, I’ve been working at this and working at this and finally they invite someone from the street in after church for something to eat. Well, she promptly starts shoving the ladies purses in a trash bag when she thinks no one was looking. Do you hear what I am saying… you open yourself up and this is the thanks you get right?
In the movie ‘the Wrestler’ Micky Rourke plays washed up professional wrestler Randy the Ram. We meet him on the down-hill slide. His body is breaking down from all the injuries and drug and alcohol abuse, and no matter how many steroids and pain-killers he takes, he can’t perform at the level he once did. He can’t get a job because the only thing on his resume is ‘Professional Wrestler’. And he is alone. The plot to the story is his efforts at a comeback, in the wrestling ring and with his daughter, who is now a young adult, living on her own. He was never much of a father, he left when she was young. He never did pay much attention, missed birthdays and dances and proms and graduations. The list promises made and broken would stretch from west coast to east coast and back. But he tries, one last time to create a relationship with her. She throws him out at first, but he persists and in a particularly poignant scene tearfully asks for another chance.
How many of us have been on the receiving end of that… just one more chance?
And I found myself both rooting for Randy the Ram to get his second chance, and wanting to warn his daughter, don’t do it, it’ll only hurt in the end.
So they make a date for that weekend, a dinner date.
Does randy make the date or not?
Your right, he doesn’t .
That is what I see happening with the prodigal son. And that is why I want to shake the father and tell him to wake up, cuz I’ve been on the receiving… giving second chances only to be disappointed. And every time you open yourself up, every time to put yourself out there and hand your heart to someone, and they screw it all up… well, its like there is a little bit less of your heart, you know?
But the story of the Prodigal Son isn’t really a family drama is it?
Who is the prodigal son? Well, he is a symbol of the least and the lost of Israel. The lepers and tax-collectors, prostitutes and brigands, the diseased and impoverished and all those considered expendable, unimportant, a liability, a danger. As Jesus tells this story… this is who jesus has in mind as he describes the prodigal son.
Who is the father? The father is God.
When we think of God, Jesus wants us to have this image. A distinguished gentlemen, who seeing his bedraggled son skulking back home, hikes up his robes and runs with abandon and no concern for how it will look, to embrace his this ragged, dirty, skinny kid and then take him home and feed him up.
It’s really nothing new.
‘The Lord, the Lord,
a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
7keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,*
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
yet by no means clearing the guilty,
but visiting the iniquity of the parents
upon the children
and the children’s children,
to the third and the fourth generation.’ Ex 34:6-7
Even though God removes Adam and Eve from the Garden, what does he send them with?
Even though Cain kills Abel and he too much be sent away… what does God send him with?
The mercy of God is a constant theme in the Hebrew Scriptures
After Israel makes itself a golden calf to worship… this is God’s reaction…
9The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. 10Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.’
11 But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, ‘O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12Why should the Egyptians say, “It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth”? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.” ’ 14And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
And what makes Jonah so upset with God? The fact that he forgives the Ninevites…
Perhaps the most beautiful of all verses in the Bible describes God’s tender heart for Israel when they have failed
Hosea 11:1-4
When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
2The more I* called them,
the more they went from me;*
they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
and offering incense to idols.
3Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them up in my* arms;
but they did not know that I healed them.
4I led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.
I was to them like those
who lift infants to their cheeks.*
I bent down to them and fed them.
Which brings me to what I think is at the heart of learning to forgive, and is most often forgotten. Forgiveness ultimately is about God, not you are me. We forgive, not because it always feels good, or because it is a safe and effective method, but because God forgives, is abounding in mercy… and if by following Christ we hope to be drawn closer to God, we will also be drawn closer to forgiveness… because that just is who God is… that just is what God does.
The bad news about forgiveness is that it doesn’t guarantee success. It will not always keep us safe, sometimes it will hurt. The bad news about forgiveness is what Jesus is teaching us about forgiveness in the story of the prodigal son, which is that it isn’t about us or them, the hurting or the hurtful… its about God… To forgive we have to train our hearts and minds to not be guided and directed by our past experiences and the natural way we protect ourselves from pain by keeping others at arms length. To forgive we have to also train ourselves to choose our actions and reactions not based on how others act, but solely on how God acts. And the bad news as Jonah experienced it… as the great song-writer penned it, is that ‘there’s a wideness in God’s mercy…’
But perhaps that is also the good news.
Because as often as I have been on the receiving end of the disappointment of forgiving and being disappointed… I have also been given a second chance when I didn’t deserve it… and I’ve experienced the freedom that this brings… when someone looks at me not as I am or how I have been, but how I just might be… gives me the strength the drive, the courage to change, to grow, to improve.
The bad news of the prodigal son is the God doesn’t always give us what we deserve, but instead, what we need, which is the gift of grace that sees us as what we still just might be. The good news of forgiveness is that we can be freed to see ourselves as God sees us, full of potential, a blossom waiting flower.
There are two sides to forgiveness: giving and receiving. Although at first sight giving seems to be harder, it often appears that we are not able to offer forgiveness to others because we have not been able to fully receive it. Only as people who have accepted forgiveness can we find the inner freedom to give it.
Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey
A couple of weeks ago, as I was walking my son to school he asked me what I was going to preach about on Sunday. I told him I had a couple in the ole hopper… one on music and singing and the other on forgiveness… I was thinking about and researching both. Didn’t you just preach on forgiveness? He asked. Yeah, your right son, I probably did preach on it not that long ago.Why do you spend so much time preaching on Forgiveness he asked? Well… good question… how do I answer it?
Because, I said to him, forgiveness is one of the hardest of the Christian practices to learn… its really hard to forgive when we have been hurt. BUT… forgiveness is not only what we do, forgiveness is who we are… If we follow Christ, we are forgiving people, even when it is hard and even when it is risky.
Forgiveness is tough to talk about because it is so risky. To commit ourselves to forgiving is to, in essence, commit ourselves to the risk of being hurt. I don’t mean to be a downer… but I think that is where the bible pushes us. Forgiveness as a self-help practice that will make us feel better is a bit of a mis-representation of forgiveness as jesus taught it and lived it. I have been guilty of this misrepresentation myself. Its just that its awfully hard to talk about forgiveness is one shot because there are so many facets to forgiveness. I think forgiveness can give us peace and make us feel better, sometimes. Other times it is just soul-wrenching gutsy work that hurts.
I think that preachers offer too much wiggle room about forgiveness, me included and I want to address that over the next couple of weeks… but first, I do want to offer you some wiggle room.
There are some situations, extreme, but real and prevalent, I’m afraid where forgiveness has to be very specifically defined. Forgiveness is the promise that anyone can return to the love of God, no matter what their past holds. And this is troubling because we, who have been hurt, feel violated by the idea that someone who has hurt us, may, in fact, be loved by God too. Specifically I am thinking about someone who has been emotionally, physically or sexually abused. If I forgive the abuser, am I not opening myself up to the risk of being hurt again? While basically the idea of forgiveness, as we will see, is that nothing can separate us from the love of God… sometimes we do need to have boundaries so that we will not be hurt again. Forgiveness of someone who has hurt us physically or sexually does not require us, in my opinion, to make ourselves available for more abuse. Forgiveness in this case would not be a return to relationship. While I think Jesus did want our forgiveness to be riskier than we would like… I don’t think Jesus, who spent his lifetime freeing people from abuse, to stay in these specific kinds of abuse for the sake of ‘forgiveness.’ In these cases I think that forgiveness would be more ‘Zen’ and that sounds funny, because we are Christians not Buddhists. I mean, forgiveness would mean that we do not wish harm on the person who has abused us. Now… I do not mean that we do not wish justice, or consequences. I am not saying that the police should not be notified or the legal system availed. We can forgive and still call the police… we should, in these cases call the police, get authorities and the legal system involved. But instead of wishing the abuser pain or suffering, (even thought they deserve it) forgiving them would mean wishing that some day, some how, they too would come to know that God loves them… does that make sense? It doesn’t mean keeping quiet or not getting the authorities involved or not pressing charges. It does mean that in our own hearts, we begin a process, and it is a gradual process I am sure, where we do not harbor angry or vengeful thoughts. Notice too, that I said process. Anger and vengful thoughts would be a normal part of the healing process, to be guided by therapists and pastor and perhaps one or two loving friends. So I’m not saying its wrong to feel angry or vengeful. I’m saying that we accept them as natural, without guilt or shame, and then, under proper guidance, move toward a place of peace, over time, patiently with ourselves… does that make sense?
Now, to get back to the risk of forgiveness…. Lets read a story… Luke 15;11-32
So, I gotta tell ya; my first reaction is that I want to shake the father. I mean, I get it. Its his boy, his little boy. But still I wanna shake this guy because he’s opening himself up to so much more hurt. I can see this turning into oh, I don’t know… can I borrow some money, and then some more money. I can see this turning into, can I borrow the car, and then the car getting, oh, I don’t know, run into a ditch. I can see the son rifling through the old man’s wallet for cash, or stealing his credit cards for the cash advance. I can see parties at hotels with all sorts of new friends and drugs and booze.
And then the son returning with an, I’m sorry dad, I really am. I’ll do better this time. Can you see it too? I can imagine it, because I’ve seen it. And you’ve witnessed it too, no doubt.
Which reminds me of two things; a movie and real life experience.
At my first church in providence I did a lot of work trying to convince the members that we should be doing something to help the many homeless people who hung around our neighborhood and sought shelter on at our front door. So, I’ve been working at this and working at this and finally they invite someone from the street in after church for something to eat. Well, she promptly starts shoving the ladies purses in a trash bag when she thinks no one was looking. Do you hear what I am saying… you open yourself up and this is the thanks you get right?
In the movie ‘the Wrestler’ Micky Rourke plays washed up professional wrestler Randy the Ram. We meet him on the down-hill slide. His body is breaking down from all the injuries and drug and alcohol abuse, and no matter how many steroids and pain-killers he takes, he can’t perform at the level he once did. He can’t get a job because the only thing on his resume is ‘Professional Wrestler’. And he is alone. The plot to the story is his efforts at a comeback, in the wrestling ring and with his daughter, who is now a young adult, living on her own. He was never much of a father, he left when she was young. He never did pay much attention, missed birthdays and dances and proms and graduations. The list promises made and broken would stretch from west coast to east coast and back. But he tries, one last time to create a relationship with her. She throws him out at first, but he persists and in a particularly poignant scene tearfully asks for another chance.
How many of us have been on the receiving end of that… just one more chance?
And I found myself both rooting for Randy the Ram to get his second chance, and wanting to warn his daughter, don’t do it, it’ll only hurt in the end.
So they make a date for that weekend, a dinner date.
Does randy make the date or not?
Your right, he doesn’t .
That is what I see happening with the prodigal son. And that is why I want to shake the father and tell him to wake up, cuz I’ve been on the receiving… giving second chances only to be disappointed. And every time you open yourself up, every time to put yourself out there and hand your heart to someone, and they screw it all up… well, its like there is a little bit less of your heart, you know?
But the story of the Prodigal Son isn’t really a family drama is it?
Who is the prodigal son? Well, he is a symbol of the least and the lost of Israel. The lepers and tax-collectors, prostitutes and brigands, the diseased and impoverished and all those considered expendable, unimportant, a liability, a danger. As Jesus tells this story… this is who jesus has in mind as he describes the prodigal son.
Who is the father? The father is God.
When we think of God, Jesus wants us to have this image. A distinguished gentlemen, who seeing his bedraggled son skulking back home, hikes up his robes and runs with abandon and no concern for how it will look, to embrace his this ragged, dirty, skinny kid and then take him home and feed him up.
It’s really nothing new.
‘The Lord, the Lord,
a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
7keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,*
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
yet by no means clearing the guilty,
but visiting the iniquity of the parents
upon the children
and the children’s children,
to the third and the fourth generation.’ Ex 34:6-7
Even though God removes Adam and Eve from the Garden, what does he send them with?
Even though Cain kills Abel and he too much be sent away… what does God send him with?
The mercy of God is a constant theme in the Hebrew Scriptures
After Israel makes itself a golden calf to worship… this is God’s reaction…
9The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. 10Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.’
11 But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, ‘O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12Why should the Egyptians say, “It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth”? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.” ’ 14And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
And what makes Jonah so upset with God? The fact that he forgives the Ninevites…
Perhaps the most beautiful of all verses in the Bible describes God’s tender heart for Israel when they have failed
Hosea 11:1-4
When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
2The more I* called them,
the more they went from me;*
they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
and offering incense to idols.
3Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them up in my* arms;
but they did not know that I healed them.
4I led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.
I was to them like those
who lift infants to their cheeks.*
I bent down to them and fed them.
Which brings me to what I think is at the heart of learning to forgive, and is most often forgotten. Forgiveness ultimately is about God, not you are me. We forgive, not because it always feels good, or because it is a safe and effective method, but because God forgives, is abounding in mercy… and if by following Christ we hope to be drawn closer to God, we will also be drawn closer to forgiveness… because that just is who God is… that just is what God does.
The bad news about forgiveness is that it doesn’t guarantee success. It will not always keep us safe, sometimes it will hurt. The bad news about forgiveness is what Jesus is teaching us about forgiveness in the story of the prodigal son, which is that it isn’t about us or them, the hurting or the hurtful… its about God… To forgive we have to train our hearts and minds to not be guided and directed by our past experiences and the natural way we protect ourselves from pain by keeping others at arms length. To forgive we have to also train ourselves to choose our actions and reactions not based on how others act, but solely on how God acts. And the bad news as Jonah experienced it… as the great song-writer penned it, is that ‘there’s a wideness in God’s mercy…’
But perhaps that is also the good news.
Because as often as I have been on the receiving end of the disappointment of forgiving and being disappointed… I have also been given a second chance when I didn’t deserve it… and I’ve experienced the freedom that this brings… when someone looks at me not as I am or how I have been, but how I just might be… gives me the strength the drive, the courage to change, to grow, to improve.
The bad news of the prodigal son is the God doesn’t always give us what we deserve, but instead, what we need, which is the gift of grace that sees us as what we still just might be. The good news of forgiveness is that we can be freed to see ourselves as God sees us, full of potential, a blossom waiting flower.
There are two sides to forgiveness: giving and receiving. Although at first sight giving seems to be harder, it often appears that we are not able to offer forgiveness to others because we have not been able to fully receive it. Only as people who have accepted forgiveness can we find the inner freedom to give it.
Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Christian Practices: conversation in conflict
Mt 18:12-17
12 "What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.
These are the stories we like don’t we. The ‘Blessed-are-the-poor-in-spirit’ stories. Many of us connect with them somehow. Blessed are the people who get laid off at 50, blessed are the single mom’s struggling to pay the rent, blessed are those crushed in credit card debt, blessed are those been to re-hab… over and over again, blessed are the high school drop outs, blessed are those called loser, failure, unfit… There is something comforting about knowing you are in the presence of people who will find a new name for you, a new way of describing you, that doesn’t call to mind past failures and present struggles, but future victories. Find that one place on earth where you are valued and valuable. And there is something inspiring about being THAT community… that group of people who in the name of Jesus, find the worth in those whom the world calls unworthy, who remember the forgotten and love those whom other’s ignore and judge.
This is what I enjoyed the most about the beginning our Visioning Process, which still continues. We started the process with people stories and we heard so many stories about ‘I felt unloved, but here I was loved. I didn’t feel like I had anything to offer, but here I feel important and valuable. I was looking for a family, and I found a family here. ‘
Gathered around Jesus, as he preached this sermon, we know it as the sermon on the Mount, were hundreds of outcasts, the expendables, these were the little ones he referred to… who suddenly heard that the kingdom of heaven was for them, that the God who created the Universe chose them to reveal his love and his power. Suddenly they were no longer the left-over or the left-out… suddenly, Jesus proclaimed… they were vital to God’s purpose and plan, an integral part of Jesus ministry in the world.
But just as we were feeling SOOOOO GOOOOOOD
Comes an IF, Walter Brueggeman coined this phrase ‘the Earth-Shattering If’
He was talking about an IF in Deuteronomy but I think it applies here.
15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
This is an earth-shattering if because it pulls us out visions and dreams and parables of lost sheep and the comfort of theory, back into the everyday reality of living a shared life together in community.
Recently Isaac started taking drum lessons. You see we have this game we play at home, the boys and I. We put on a CD or a Live DVD of one of our favorite bands and jump around and play rock band…air guitars, air bass, air drums. Isaac loves air drums. He flails his arms and kicks his feet and has a great time. THEN he started taking drum lessons… learning the basics of reading music and breaking down the rhythm of a song. He had to stop flailing and kicking and start practicing the basics, One and Two and Three and Four, One e and a, Two e and a, Three e and a, Four e and a….
I give him credit, he did it, and he even practiced… but the practice was much different than dreaming about being a rock star and playing air band with dad and brother.
It is to this place, the difference between dreaming and doing, Theory and practice, that Jesus’ word, IF, takes us to. And it takes us to the very heart of our peace-making mission in the world. As radical as it is to welcome and accept others who have a past of writing bad checks or cheating on their wife or loosing job after job… it is even more radical to forgive them when their human failures affect us directly. If your brother sins AGAINST YOU …
Our witness of peacemaking, the very core of our witness to the watching world of the love of God starts when we sin against one another… when we hurt one another, disappoint one another, fail one another. The gathering of lost sheep, rejected sheep, begins in this moment, it begins in that fearful moment of direct conversation.
Its hard for me to even decide where to start because there is just so much to talk about in just this one sentence.
Jesus doesn’t command the person who is wrong, who has sinned to apologize… His command is toward the one wronged, the one hurt, the one sinned against is given the command to go and repair what they didn’t even break.
What do you think? Why would jesus want the process of conversation in the midst of conflict to start this way?
The second aspect of this sentence that I think challenges us is the phrase ‘just between the two of you.’
We don’t do that well do we? We call someone else who is not involved and talk it all over on the phone. We have conversations at coffee hour or in the parking lot with those not involved. Why? Why do we do this?
Because its natural that is why. When we feel hurt or wronged we do not want to be alone in that feeling so we go to someone else so that we don’t have to be alone. As a matter of fact, when you think about the first part of today’s reading, being alone, being the lost sheep is baaaad. Seriously, we see ourselves as those who comfort the hurt and the lonely and the rejected and so our first instinct is to what? To listen, to sympathize, to support.
Now jesus isn’t trying to short circuit that process of supporting one another when we are hurting. BUT. What can also happen when we are hurt is that we can try to gather support… when we are hurt we can want to hurt back and bring others along so that the hurt we give back is greater than what we received. We may not like the terms gossip… or revenge… but these phenomena do happen. We experience them at work, perhaps within our extended families, in the various group we belong to in the community, the school improvement team or business association or what have you.
Why does Jesus push us to go, at least at first, to the individual who has wronged us? To preserve their dignity. So that we do not become a community where there is gossip and whispering and rumor mongering.
And this leads to the third piece of this sentence that is SOOOO different from the world. What is the end result of this Christian conversation process? ‘You have won your brother or sister over. What is the end result? Not punishment but repair. Reconciliation.
What has Christ told us about the lost sheep? That God’s will is that they not be left alone, but sought after and brought back… God’s will is that they are won. The person who has hurt us is the lost sheep who needs to be found and rescued.
Do I really need to say what is so different about the conversation that Christ is teaching us? The end result is healing and a continuation of the relationship.
So let’s just make sure we are all tracking this... Jesus is telling us that the great mission of seeking the lost sheep begins here, at home, in the church, among our brothers and sisters. That the process is a conversation that the hurt or the wronged person begins, initiates. That this conversation is one on one. And does not involve others at the start. And that the end result is not vengeance… it is not making sure that they get their’s… it is winning the person who has hurt us back… So that the body of Christ, the community of faith maintains its full integrity, so that the relationship can move forward.
Now what if we are not heard, or there is no reconciliation what happens?
16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.'
This is important, but it does not change the values that Jesus has infused our conversational process with. We are still working for the dignity of the one who has been wronged, while preserving the dignity of the person in the wrong, by limiting the number to whom we speak. And the end result is still reconciliation. The one or two others bring an objective opinion to this impasse. The one or two other’s ensure that each party, sinner and sinned against get to speak their piece appropriately and are heard and understood by the other. The one or two others may judge that the accused sinner, has not sinned. This may be a difference of opinion with no one clear solution or answer, so The one or two others seek to find peace that both parties can move forward together, with.
Now if peace cannot be created at this point we hear…
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church ; and if he refuses to listen even to the church , treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
Jesus is probably imagining a smaller church than even we have. I think we could honor this third part of the process by going to the deaconate and not airing an interpersonal problem before eighty or ninety folks. But the point here is that there are three steps in which a dispute, through open and honest dialogue is reshaped into peace and reconciliation.
The greater point is that there is a specific process for dealing with controversy or conflict in the church… conversation, dialogue and there is a particular shape, a Christian way of having a conversation that Jesus is teaching us, so that we will teach it to the world.
12 "What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.
These are the stories we like don’t we. The ‘Blessed-are-the-poor-in-spirit’ stories. Many of us connect with them somehow. Blessed are the people who get laid off at 50, blessed are the single mom’s struggling to pay the rent, blessed are those crushed in credit card debt, blessed are those been to re-hab… over and over again, blessed are the high school drop outs, blessed are those called loser, failure, unfit… There is something comforting about knowing you are in the presence of people who will find a new name for you, a new way of describing you, that doesn’t call to mind past failures and present struggles, but future victories. Find that one place on earth where you are valued and valuable. And there is something inspiring about being THAT community… that group of people who in the name of Jesus, find the worth in those whom the world calls unworthy, who remember the forgotten and love those whom other’s ignore and judge.
This is what I enjoyed the most about the beginning our Visioning Process, which still continues. We started the process with people stories and we heard so many stories about ‘I felt unloved, but here I was loved. I didn’t feel like I had anything to offer, but here I feel important and valuable. I was looking for a family, and I found a family here. ‘
Gathered around Jesus, as he preached this sermon, we know it as the sermon on the Mount, were hundreds of outcasts, the expendables, these were the little ones he referred to… who suddenly heard that the kingdom of heaven was for them, that the God who created the Universe chose them to reveal his love and his power. Suddenly they were no longer the left-over or the left-out… suddenly, Jesus proclaimed… they were vital to God’s purpose and plan, an integral part of Jesus ministry in the world.
But just as we were feeling SOOOOO GOOOOOOD
Comes an IF, Walter Brueggeman coined this phrase ‘the Earth-Shattering If’
He was talking about an IF in Deuteronomy but I think it applies here.
15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
This is an earth-shattering if because it pulls us out visions and dreams and parables of lost sheep and the comfort of theory, back into the everyday reality of living a shared life together in community.
Recently Isaac started taking drum lessons. You see we have this game we play at home, the boys and I. We put on a CD or a Live DVD of one of our favorite bands and jump around and play rock band…air guitars, air bass, air drums. Isaac loves air drums. He flails his arms and kicks his feet and has a great time. THEN he started taking drum lessons… learning the basics of reading music and breaking down the rhythm of a song. He had to stop flailing and kicking and start practicing the basics, One and Two and Three and Four, One e and a, Two e and a, Three e and a, Four e and a….
I give him credit, he did it, and he even practiced… but the practice was much different than dreaming about being a rock star and playing air band with dad and brother.
It is to this place, the difference between dreaming and doing, Theory and practice, that Jesus’ word, IF, takes us to. And it takes us to the very heart of our peace-making mission in the world. As radical as it is to welcome and accept others who have a past of writing bad checks or cheating on their wife or loosing job after job… it is even more radical to forgive them when their human failures affect us directly. If your brother sins AGAINST YOU …
Our witness of peacemaking, the very core of our witness to the watching world of the love of God starts when we sin against one another… when we hurt one another, disappoint one another, fail one another. The gathering of lost sheep, rejected sheep, begins in this moment, it begins in that fearful moment of direct conversation.
Its hard for me to even decide where to start because there is just so much to talk about in just this one sentence.
Jesus doesn’t command the person who is wrong, who has sinned to apologize… His command is toward the one wronged, the one hurt, the one sinned against is given the command to go and repair what they didn’t even break.
What do you think? Why would jesus want the process of conversation in the midst of conflict to start this way?
The second aspect of this sentence that I think challenges us is the phrase ‘just between the two of you.’
We don’t do that well do we? We call someone else who is not involved and talk it all over on the phone. We have conversations at coffee hour or in the parking lot with those not involved. Why? Why do we do this?
Because its natural that is why. When we feel hurt or wronged we do not want to be alone in that feeling so we go to someone else so that we don’t have to be alone. As a matter of fact, when you think about the first part of today’s reading, being alone, being the lost sheep is baaaad. Seriously, we see ourselves as those who comfort the hurt and the lonely and the rejected and so our first instinct is to what? To listen, to sympathize, to support.
Now jesus isn’t trying to short circuit that process of supporting one another when we are hurting. BUT. What can also happen when we are hurt is that we can try to gather support… when we are hurt we can want to hurt back and bring others along so that the hurt we give back is greater than what we received. We may not like the terms gossip… or revenge… but these phenomena do happen. We experience them at work, perhaps within our extended families, in the various group we belong to in the community, the school improvement team or business association or what have you.
Why does Jesus push us to go, at least at first, to the individual who has wronged us? To preserve their dignity. So that we do not become a community where there is gossip and whispering and rumor mongering.
And this leads to the third piece of this sentence that is SOOOO different from the world. What is the end result of this Christian conversation process? ‘You have won your brother or sister over. What is the end result? Not punishment but repair. Reconciliation.
What has Christ told us about the lost sheep? That God’s will is that they not be left alone, but sought after and brought back… God’s will is that they are won. The person who has hurt us is the lost sheep who needs to be found and rescued.
Do I really need to say what is so different about the conversation that Christ is teaching us? The end result is healing and a continuation of the relationship.
So let’s just make sure we are all tracking this... Jesus is telling us that the great mission of seeking the lost sheep begins here, at home, in the church, among our brothers and sisters. That the process is a conversation that the hurt or the wronged person begins, initiates. That this conversation is one on one. And does not involve others at the start. And that the end result is not vengeance… it is not making sure that they get their’s… it is winning the person who has hurt us back… So that the body of Christ, the community of faith maintains its full integrity, so that the relationship can move forward.
Now what if we are not heard, or there is no reconciliation what happens?
16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.'
This is important, but it does not change the values that Jesus has infused our conversational process with. We are still working for the dignity of the one who has been wronged, while preserving the dignity of the person in the wrong, by limiting the number to whom we speak. And the end result is still reconciliation. The one or two others bring an objective opinion to this impasse. The one or two other’s ensure that each party, sinner and sinned against get to speak their piece appropriately and are heard and understood by the other. The one or two others may judge that the accused sinner, has not sinned. This may be a difference of opinion with no one clear solution or answer, so The one or two others seek to find peace that both parties can move forward together, with.
Now if peace cannot be created at this point we hear…
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church ; and if he refuses to listen even to the church , treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
Jesus is probably imagining a smaller church than even we have. I think we could honor this third part of the process by going to the deaconate and not airing an interpersonal problem before eighty or ninety folks. But the point here is that there are three steps in which a dispute, through open and honest dialogue is reshaped into peace and reconciliation.
The greater point is that there is a specific process for dealing with controversy or conflict in the church… conversation, dialogue and there is a particular shape, a Christian way of having a conversation that Jesus is teaching us, so that we will teach it to the world.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Practice of Confession
Couple of things before reading the sermon. I didn't type the end... I just went with that last thought and connected confession with peacemaking. I got the idea for this sermon from a Rob Bell sermon on confession, but if you listen to his sermon, mine is VERY different. Still his did inspire this. Finally, I mention my friend Jonathan Malone, who helped with some history and theology. Thanks Malone.
Intro:
There has been a lot of apologizing in the news this past week. Taylor Swift, who is apparently a country music singer, won an award for a music video. A Rap star named Kanye West interrupted her acceptance speech to give the audience a lecture about how Taylor Swift didn’t deserve the award as much as Beyonce did. Afterword… he had to issue an apology. Serena Williams a tennis pro challenged John McEnroe when a line judge made a bad call… she verbally accosted the line judge in with a barrage of obscenities and threats, which eventually cost her the match. She had to apologize twice. (I’ll come back to that). A football player () had to apologize for having custom cleats made that challenged his team’s owner to pay him for money… he already make 9 million dollars and he feels he is getting cheated. And he had to apologize.
The interesting thing about these apologies is that most of them weren’t apologies. Kanye Apologized to Taylor Swift, but in his apology basically defended what he did by saying he was ‘keeping it real’… which is to say that he was just being honest… and so he apologized if anyone was hurt by it. That is how the football player apologized too. I’m sorry if anyone was offended. Now notice those apologies. I’m sorry if anyone was offended is not actually admitting that you have done something wrong. It isn’t taking responsibility for your actions. Its basically saying that the one’s offended are at fault.
The interesting thing about Serena Williams is that her first apology didn’t sound sincere so she issued another apology which sounded more sincere. I read one sports-writers opinion of this and basically he said that it didn’t really matter if Serena was sorry or not… she just needed to sound apologetic. It didn’t really matter is she meant her apology.
At issue here is honesty and integrity. We live in an age where both seem not only lacking, but it apparently doesn’t seem to matter to people that it is. One president tells the nation there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq… which were never found… the claim never substantiated. And to be fair the previous president wanted to quibble about the meaning of the word is… remember that famous phrase.. it depends on what your definition of is, is.
Which got me to thinking about practice of the early church… a practice that we as Baptist’s don’t think of as a part of our heritage… but I want to suggest that we need to revisit it… just because the culture around us… the culture in which we raise children and grandchildren sets such a low standard for honesty and integrity. That practice is confession.
Turn with me to 1 John 1
Jn 1:8-10; 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
The Greek word translated confess is homologeo or exomologeo homou means at the same time… logos… word or say… to say or speak …homologeo… so speak at the same time. One translator suggests To be in harmony.
Just to add another perspective Hebrew word for confess is Yahdah… meaning to throw or cast away…
But to get the full effect of what the writer of 1 John is trying to say we have to read the verses that come before what we just read.
1 Jn 1:1-8
1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We Write this to make our joy complete.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Now, you tell me… what does the first phrase of I John 1… That which was from the beginning… remind you of? It should remind you of the beginning of the gospel of John… which is… In the beginning was the word… and that in turn reminds you of? Genesis 1… In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
In just a few words… just one word in greek really arche… beginning… the writer of first John has taken the story of our human failings and frailty… our sin and connected it to a cosmic story… the story of God creating all things.
This is amazing stuff. Sin is such a difficult word because it carries such baggage doesn’t it. Often it is religious baggage… listening to preachers who attack and berate and judge from the pulpit… No wonder we avoid talking about it… thinking about it… facing it. It can be so painful to remember how isolated we felt, perhaps as kids , when the priest or preacher started condemning and warning and frightening us with sin and hell and punishment and God’s anger.
Notice what is happening in 1 John 1 though that is really quite amazingly different. There is honesty first…6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. Ok, so the writer is warning us to be honest with ourselves. And that alone can be a challenge right? The time to honestly stop and take a good look at ourselves is difficult to come by… and if we are carrying baggage then to honestly look can hurt…7 But…the writer pens for us… if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Fellowship in Greek is koinonia and it means at its very root sharing….
But the writer of 1 John isn’t talking about sin and confession through scare tactics, judgment, self-righteousness or threats… He is telling us to remember creation. Remember In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
1 John isn’t inviting us to a horror show of guilt and shame… but to be a part, a participant in this creative act. Whatever failures, mistakes, poor decisions, unhealthy habits… all summed in sin…whatever that sin is that is the formless, empty, deep, darkness that we are avoiding… we can confess… we can honestly admit… because honestly admitting sin leads to a new creation… in us.
Confession, according to 1 John 1 is meant to be a creative, life-affirming and confident act that frees us from the emptiness and darkness of sin and frees us to live into a full life freed from guilt and regret.
Now, lets look at another scripture where confession is mentioned.
Jas 5:15-16
15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
Where the writer of 1 John talks to us about the benefits of confessing to God our sins… so that we can be freed from darkness and emptiness, toward a new creation… James is a bit more challenging.
Confess your sins to each other, he says
Now, I was raised to believe that confession was all well and good, but that confession to priest or pastor was not necessary or appropriate for Baptists. That was a catholic thing…
I asked my friend Jonathan about confession and he told me something that was shocking. Some Baptist churches in the 1700’s, including the Swansea church, practiced confession. Now individual’s did not come to the preacher to confess. They held a Wednesday night meeting and confessions would be made before the group that had gathered… they would listen, discern, and pray.
Now, before you completely shut the whole idea out of your head…just follow me for a minute.
Remember that in 1 John we had the word fellowship… koinonia in greek… which means sharing. In James why does the writer, James say we should confess to one another? Healing.
Sin is isolation. In Genesis 1 before the Fall, Adam and Eve and Yahweh walk together in the garden. Adam and Eve eat the fruit and then they hide… they are isolated from God. Sin is a separation from God and from one another. And sin is isolating. When we are struggling with sin… we can feel like we are the only one, like no one will understand, that people will think poorly of us, not like or love us anymore… and so we avoid it. What James is urging us to realize is that the best way to deal with the isolation of sin… is to be a community that uses confession so that we can support one another. The church hearing the confession isn’t meant to judge, to banish, to gossip, to punish… but to listen and pray and offer support. I think that what James has in mind is a bit like a twelve step program and meeting… a place where we can confess that we are addicted to whatever… and the people listening do not judge or condone… but understand and offer support.
James idea of church is not that this is meant to be a social club for those who already have it all figured out… but that it would be a family in which the burden of our failings and mistakes wouldn’t have to be carried alone any longer. This isn’t meant to be a social club for those who have it all figured out and straightened out… but a place to come with our brokenness to find support… to find mentors who have had similar struggles… to be isolated no longer.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together suggests that confession should be a regular part of the church’s life. He doesn’t suggest that we start admitting things to the whole church… but that we create partnerships… one on one relationships… where we can seek guidance and support with our struggles.
Jesus himself in Mt 18:15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
Notice that although confession isn’t mentioned specifically… what is described is confession. And the end result is not vengeance, anger, punishment… but reconciliation. And it just needs to be between two people who have experienced an event that caused isolation and break in their relationship.
I do think that as Baptists we can reclaim the practice of confession, not to a group, perhaps not even as Bonhoeffer suggested a regular practice with a partner… but just in those instances where we have wronged another… to start confession there. The tough part… but important part.. is that the wronged person… being confessed too… becomes the prayer partner… the supportive mentor…
1 John 1: fellowship comes from koinonia –sharer
James 5; the point of confession for James is healing… sin need no longer be isolating… through confession we are no longer alone or ashamed of our failings because we have the unconditional love and support of our sister and brothers in Christ. Confession leads to intimacy, community, confidence…
Confession is a part of the foundation of peacemaking
Intro:
There has been a lot of apologizing in the news this past week. Taylor Swift, who is apparently a country music singer, won an award for a music video. A Rap star named Kanye West interrupted her acceptance speech to give the audience a lecture about how Taylor Swift didn’t deserve the award as much as Beyonce did. Afterword… he had to issue an apology. Serena Williams a tennis pro challenged John McEnroe when a line judge made a bad call… she verbally accosted the line judge in with a barrage of obscenities and threats, which eventually cost her the match. She had to apologize twice. (I’ll come back to that). A football player () had to apologize for having custom cleats made that challenged his team’s owner to pay him for money… he already make 9 million dollars and he feels he is getting cheated. And he had to apologize.
The interesting thing about these apologies is that most of them weren’t apologies. Kanye Apologized to Taylor Swift, but in his apology basically defended what he did by saying he was ‘keeping it real’… which is to say that he was just being honest… and so he apologized if anyone was hurt by it. That is how the football player apologized too. I’m sorry if anyone was offended. Now notice those apologies. I’m sorry if anyone was offended is not actually admitting that you have done something wrong. It isn’t taking responsibility for your actions. Its basically saying that the one’s offended are at fault.
The interesting thing about Serena Williams is that her first apology didn’t sound sincere so she issued another apology which sounded more sincere. I read one sports-writers opinion of this and basically he said that it didn’t really matter if Serena was sorry or not… she just needed to sound apologetic. It didn’t really matter is she meant her apology.
At issue here is honesty and integrity. We live in an age where both seem not only lacking, but it apparently doesn’t seem to matter to people that it is. One president tells the nation there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq… which were never found… the claim never substantiated. And to be fair the previous president wanted to quibble about the meaning of the word is… remember that famous phrase.. it depends on what your definition of is, is.
Which got me to thinking about practice of the early church… a practice that we as Baptist’s don’t think of as a part of our heritage… but I want to suggest that we need to revisit it… just because the culture around us… the culture in which we raise children and grandchildren sets such a low standard for honesty and integrity. That practice is confession.
Turn with me to 1 John 1
Jn 1:8-10; 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
The Greek word translated confess is homologeo or exomologeo homou means at the same time… logos… word or say… to say or speak …homologeo… so speak at the same time. One translator suggests To be in harmony.
Just to add another perspective Hebrew word for confess is Yahdah… meaning to throw or cast away…
But to get the full effect of what the writer of 1 John is trying to say we have to read the verses that come before what we just read.
1 Jn 1:1-8
1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We Write this to make our joy complete.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Now, you tell me… what does the first phrase of I John 1… That which was from the beginning… remind you of? It should remind you of the beginning of the gospel of John… which is… In the beginning was the word… and that in turn reminds you of? Genesis 1… In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
In just a few words… just one word in greek really arche… beginning… the writer of first John has taken the story of our human failings and frailty… our sin and connected it to a cosmic story… the story of God creating all things.
This is amazing stuff. Sin is such a difficult word because it carries such baggage doesn’t it. Often it is religious baggage… listening to preachers who attack and berate and judge from the pulpit… No wonder we avoid talking about it… thinking about it… facing it. It can be so painful to remember how isolated we felt, perhaps as kids , when the priest or preacher started condemning and warning and frightening us with sin and hell and punishment and God’s anger.
Notice what is happening in 1 John 1 though that is really quite amazingly different. There is honesty first…6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. Ok, so the writer is warning us to be honest with ourselves. And that alone can be a challenge right? The time to honestly stop and take a good look at ourselves is difficult to come by… and if we are carrying baggage then to honestly look can hurt…7 But…the writer pens for us… if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Fellowship in Greek is koinonia and it means at its very root sharing….
But the writer of 1 John isn’t talking about sin and confession through scare tactics, judgment, self-righteousness or threats… He is telling us to remember creation. Remember In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
1 John isn’t inviting us to a horror show of guilt and shame… but to be a part, a participant in this creative act. Whatever failures, mistakes, poor decisions, unhealthy habits… all summed in sin…whatever that sin is that is the formless, empty, deep, darkness that we are avoiding… we can confess… we can honestly admit… because honestly admitting sin leads to a new creation… in us.
Confession, according to 1 John 1 is meant to be a creative, life-affirming and confident act that frees us from the emptiness and darkness of sin and frees us to live into a full life freed from guilt and regret.
Now, lets look at another scripture where confession is mentioned.
Jas 5:15-16
15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
Where the writer of 1 John talks to us about the benefits of confessing to God our sins… so that we can be freed from darkness and emptiness, toward a new creation… James is a bit more challenging.
Confess your sins to each other, he says
Now, I was raised to believe that confession was all well and good, but that confession to priest or pastor was not necessary or appropriate for Baptists. That was a catholic thing…
I asked my friend Jonathan about confession and he told me something that was shocking. Some Baptist churches in the 1700’s, including the Swansea church, practiced confession. Now individual’s did not come to the preacher to confess. They held a Wednesday night meeting and confessions would be made before the group that had gathered… they would listen, discern, and pray.
Now, before you completely shut the whole idea out of your head…just follow me for a minute.
Remember that in 1 John we had the word fellowship… koinonia in greek… which means sharing. In James why does the writer, James say we should confess to one another? Healing.
Sin is isolation. In Genesis 1 before the Fall, Adam and Eve and Yahweh walk together in the garden. Adam and Eve eat the fruit and then they hide… they are isolated from God. Sin is a separation from God and from one another. And sin is isolating. When we are struggling with sin… we can feel like we are the only one, like no one will understand, that people will think poorly of us, not like or love us anymore… and so we avoid it. What James is urging us to realize is that the best way to deal with the isolation of sin… is to be a community that uses confession so that we can support one another. The church hearing the confession isn’t meant to judge, to banish, to gossip, to punish… but to listen and pray and offer support. I think that what James has in mind is a bit like a twelve step program and meeting… a place where we can confess that we are addicted to whatever… and the people listening do not judge or condone… but understand and offer support.
James idea of church is not that this is meant to be a social club for those who already have it all figured out… but that it would be a family in which the burden of our failings and mistakes wouldn’t have to be carried alone any longer. This isn’t meant to be a social club for those who have it all figured out and straightened out… but a place to come with our brokenness to find support… to find mentors who have had similar struggles… to be isolated no longer.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together suggests that confession should be a regular part of the church’s life. He doesn’t suggest that we start admitting things to the whole church… but that we create partnerships… one on one relationships… where we can seek guidance and support with our struggles.
Jesus himself in Mt 18:15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
Notice that although confession isn’t mentioned specifically… what is described is confession. And the end result is not vengeance, anger, punishment… but reconciliation. And it just needs to be between two people who have experienced an event that caused isolation and break in their relationship.
I do think that as Baptists we can reclaim the practice of confession, not to a group, perhaps not even as Bonhoeffer suggested a regular practice with a partner… but just in those instances where we have wronged another… to start confession there. The tough part… but important part.. is that the wronged person… being confessed too… becomes the prayer partner… the supportive mentor…
1 John 1: fellowship comes from koinonia –sharer
James 5; the point of confession for James is healing… sin need no longer be isolating… through confession we are no longer alone or ashamed of our failings because we have the unconditional love and support of our sister and brothers in Christ. Confession leads to intimacy, community, confidence…
Confession is a part of the foundation of peacemaking
Sunday, October 11, 2009
The Fullness of Christ
I left this script behind in the actual preaching... but you will get the point
Sunday October 11, 2009
I Cor 12: The Rule of Christ
Every Member has been given some gift by the Holy Spirit
Intro:
Over the past few weeks we have been learning about Christian Practices. The point is for us to ponder together not simply what we believe uniquely as Followers of Christ, but how those beliefs cause us to behave uniquely as a result.
There is a book that was one of the causes of my beginning to think about this issue of Christian practice and unique behavior. Its call UNChristian; what a new generation really thinks about Christianity. It is based on the research of the Barna Group who spent countless hours interviewing young Christians, mature Christians, and young people who were not involved in Church, for simplicity sake I suppose, called ‘Outsiders.’ One of the things they discovered was that a vast majority of young ‘outsiders’ automatically assumed that Christians were hypocrites… that there was a vast difference between what Christians said and did. Statistically, 85% of these younger ‘outsiders’ had been exposed to Christianity and concluded that Christians were hypocritical. 47% of these young people were active churchgoers… and they too felt that most Christians were hypocrites.
To sum this up notice, whether we agree or not, that the perception among young people is that there is a disconnect between what they hear us saying we believe and how they see us behaving.
Furthermore, the Barna Group did surveys of Christian Adults and found that while in some areas there were differences like; going to church more often, owning more Bibles, donating money to religious non-profits. But, they found that the substance of people’s daily choices, actions and attitudes contained few meaningful gaps between ‘born-again’ Christians and non-religious adults.
Are you starting to get the picture that we have to deal with
Let me give it to you one more way… 84% of young outsiders interviewed said they know at least one committed Christian. 15% of those thought the lifestyles of those Christ-followers were significantly different from the norm.
This is why I started this sermon series and once wrote that is was one of the most important of my ministry. It seems obvious to me that if we cannot reclaim the uniqueness of a Christian lifestyle, we will soon be considered, if we are not already, irrelevant.
So we have talked about how Communion makes our view of money and wealth unique… we share wealth. We have talked about how Baptism makes us unique. We offer outsiders, misfits, ne’er do wells, others, welcome and hospitality instead of fear and mistrust. We have talked about Confession and how that practice teaches us to be uniquely honest about our failures and mistakes and how it also builds a community that helps the individual move beyond past failures and into something new…. That something new is what we are going to talk about today
Turn with me if you will to 1 Cor 12 and we will start by reading verse 4
I. The Church Chosen vs. The Church Created
1 Co 12:18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
I want us to think about that for a moment. Does Paul think that the Corinthian Church was chosen by each individual member? OR Created by God.
It is common, especially in our culture for us to assume that we choose the church that meets our needs, lives up to our standards. Many even use a phrase… church shopping. When we say ‘church shopping’ or think that we have chosen the church we are buying into the idea that the church is like a great number of other goods that we own, like cell-phones and flat screen TV’s; or service providers that we use; PC or Mac, Verizon or AT&T.
I suppose you could say, what is so bad about that? But the thing is… TV’s and cell-phones get replaced don’t they… and we go to service providers who provide the best…. Well…. Service and if we don’t get what we want, we can move on.
But what is the church? 1 Co 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
We aren’t a service provider, a social service agency, a social gathering. Paul see’s the church as the body of Christ… and we do not choose the church according to Paul… God chooses us and places us in the church.
How does 1 Cor 12 challenge the way we think about church? First of all, Paul does not see the church as something we create or choose to participate in… Paul sees the church as something God is creating. When we are drawn to church we are being drawn into the creative activity of God, that began when God spoke over the chaotic waters and hung the starts and placed the planets and caused the sea to teem with life… the creative activity of God that cared for and guided rebellious humanity that God created… Adam and Eve, Cain, Abraham, Sarah, Moses and on and on… when you are drawn to church you are drawn into this long, long story of God creating and calling that creation good… and when it goes wrong… God starts over again to recreate because God won’t give up on this creation…
And you and… this is the exciting part… we are here to discover how we can play a role in that creating!
II. Gifts we have vs. Gifts we discover
1 Co 12:7-11 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
What are your gifts? What gift do you bring to church?
Did you notice how odd some of the gifts that Paul describes are? Did any of you name those gifts? No. You see, churches, all churches in my experience, tend to assume that what we mean by ‘gifts’ is the skill set that we have acquired through education, work experience, hobbies, natural talents or interests. And while that isn’t wrong, and in another letter Paul encourages the followers of Christ to put to good use these gifts in the church… what Paul is talking about here isn’t the skill set that we already have… but something new, outside our history and experience, something super-natural…
The church is meant to be the crucible in which we receive, where we discover just what part God has created us to play in this on-going creating… that we may have had no idea of, no inclination of. Let me tell you, preaching does not come naturally to me… public speaking is not my favorite thing to do… I don’t come by it easily
(feel free to insert your jokes about my preaching here)
But in all seriousness… I don’t preach because I think I’m good at it. When I leave this place and specifically you, my church family, I get very nervous and uncomfortable. I sweat and my hands shake. I don’t like public speaking. But I preach because God has called me too.
Notice that I said that I get nervous when I’m not with you. Paul says that these gifts are given, in verse 7… for the common good… in the greek this is sumferon… to carry to together.
This too challenges some of the common assumptions of church. Many people tend to think of the church in terms of what they are getting out of it. What am I receiving? Paul here is talking about what we carry together… what gifts we already have, what gifts we have to discover… to be used for the common good…
I often say to potential members… I don’t ask where you have been, if you haven’t been to church, because of my own ego, because I think you are missing something. I ask because I am missing something because you are not here… you have been placed here by God to share some special gift… if you are not here, we suffer the loss.
This also challenges the way we think about ourselves.
Again, think about my example. I don’t preach because I want to… but because I’m called to, for you… and I get nervous when I’m in front of other folks… I am who God called me to be when I am with you… John Howard Yoder wrote, and I included this quote in your devotions for the week, ‘Every human being, Christian or not, is less than he or she could and ought be if not part of a body of organic, interdependence with many peers. ‘
Think about how different that is from the world. In the world we are taught the value of the rugged individual. We are taught to leave behind associations and question the authority of the group in order to discover who we are. And yes sometimes we do have to question the authority of the group. But Paul says here that we only discover who God created us to be, who we have the potential to be… when we have a group to share ourselves with, to be shaped and challenged and encouraged by.
III Women
The sad history of the church shows that much of what Paul is talking about has been missed. Especially when he talks about being baptized into the body of Christ, jew and greek, slave and free. God gives the gifts to whom God wishes according to the needs of the community. Yet women for most of our Christian history and even today in places are denied the chance to use the gifts of ministry God has given because they are women.
It is important to realize that there were women in leadership roles in the early church. Paul depended on women to lead the early church. If you look at the first page of your devotions I included just one passage, from Romans 16 and bold printed all of the women that Paul named as key leaders in various churches.
The common assumption in both Roman and Jewish culture was that women were not equipped to be leaders, especially of men. The common assumption was that slaves (people of other ethnic groups) would not have the skills to teach or instruct. The common assumption was that poor people would not be able to take important roles in a community… and this is what made the church different, unique…
The Holy Spirit empowered men and women, rich and poor, of a variety of ethnic groups and from diverse places in the social world, to preach and teach and serve and heal and pray and spread the good news. It wasn’t past experience or education or gender or economic status or societal status that defined them empowered them… it was the call of God… the Spirit that breathed on them and made them what God created them to be…
IV. Instruments
School has started. Some of you perhaps have children in school learning instruments for the first time… or you remember what it was like when the French horn or trumpet or saxophone first entered your home. What did it sound like?
I mention this because I bet there are two reactions when the horns start bleeting and blatting. I bet there is some pride at that first trembling rendition of Mary Had a Little Lamb. Pride not at what is, but what might be. And there is probably a headache too.
My point is this. The church is meant to be that one place in all the world, where we are not only free, but encourage and supported as we learn to play our part in the band. It is meant to be a bit noisy and sometimes seems a bit disorganized. But here is the place where everyone gets a part, everyone plays an integral place in the song… it won’t sound the same, it won’t sound right without them. From the greatest of gifts like teaching or handling finances, to the simplest, like greeting or making coffee, are important, all are vital.
I think that is very different than the message people get in the world.
You are valuable. You have a part to play, in important part to play in God’s ongoing creation. Regardless of your education, or lack of it, your experience or lack of it, a police record, a history of rehab; no matter what you’re your parents or teachers or coaches have said about it, in this place, at Berean Baptist church we believe that you are here because God has brought you to us to play an important part in our lives, in the body of Christ, in God’s redemption of all creation. We see the potential in you, we believe that you are here to discover that image of God that you were created in and created to develop and share. We are here to support you and encourage you, to share our gifts with you, to take risks with you and to receive what you have to give.
God Bless you all
Friday, July 17, 2009
The Practice of Stewardship
This week I am away again... Chautauqua Institute to meditate, reflect, learn a little from Jim Wallis about economics and faith, plan some sermons... anyway... here is a sermon I preached at a friends church on the topic of stewardship and tithing. If you do read this and are sick of money sermons... this is the last for a while anyway...
Today we have to talk about stewardship… we have to talk about the deep things of our faith, cruciform living and resurrection faith… we have to lift up some ideas that are meant not for the Peter’s who follow Jesus back in the shadows, but instead for the Martha’s and Mary’s who will stand with Christ no matter where he goes, even to the cross….
today is not meant for dabbling in faith… today is for full hearted devotion to the life of Christ…and full-throated testimony of our faith… specifically… this is a time for us to have a discussion about how our devotion to Christ seeps into our finances, influences our spending and saving habits, and directs the way we both acquire and then put to use our economic resources.
That is not a discussion for the curious or the faint of heart
I remember being challenged at my very first church to talk more about the tithe and stewardship… I didn’t teach and challenge enough about those topics (so they thought ) and the church largely lived on the principle of its endowment. So I started to do more sermons and bible studies on tithing and giving and stewardship and Christmas came. I always got an envelope on Christmas Eve with a little something extra. It wasn’t always a lot and that was fine, but usually a few extra dollars as a Christmas gift. But this Christmas nothing. Later the explanation… you are talking about money too much. So we don’t necessarily like to talk about these topics, we find them challenging and perhaps frightening.
Scene 1:
To talk about finances and money and investment and stewardship… we need to talk about resurrection. That is why I had us listen to a portion of an Easter Risen Christ story from Luke this morning… because we aren’t really talking about money… we are talking about resurrection here today…
But before we can talk resurrection we need to talk…
Crucifixion & the Cruciform Life:
The bewilderment and bafflement that we heard about in Luke this morning came after the crucifixion… a violent act of oppression and terrorism that the Roman Empire used to punish any of those occupied peoples who dared to assert their humanity or independence. The disciples are astonished and amazed because Peter saw Jesus arrested, scourged, crowned with thorns, nailed hand and foot and hung high to slowly suffocate...
I was taught to see that act of Jesus… that selfless… giving act… sacrificial act… to see that as a response to the sins of the world.
On that Cross Jesus bore, carried, was wrapped in the sins of the world… perhaps you were taught the same thing? Yes?
But today I want to suggest another way of looking at this scene. I’m not saying that this previous understanding of the cross is wrong by the way… I like to think of this other way of viewing the cross as just another facet of it… on the cross, Jesus bore, carried, was wrapped in the poverty and suffering… first of his own people under Rome and then of all humanity. So that when we look to the cross we are not only meant to see our sins… but also to see poverty and suffering.
Just think for a moment about those whom Jesus came in contact with. Those with leprousy, those whose dignity was diminished to the point of begging, those with disease. There it is right in front of us when we open the gospels to read, Jesus spoke to the poor and suffering, walked among the poor and suffering, touched and was touched by the poor and diseased, yet we rarely consider closely the harsh realities of the crowds whom Jesus surrounded himself with and what their life was like, how different it was from our own.
For instance… why did the leper have leprousy? He got sick… why? Poor nutrition. Why? He couldn’t afford to buy food. Why? He was taxed heavily by Rome (and by the Temple). He was in so much debt he was thrown off his own farm and had no way to provide food for himself or his family. Jesus
The opening of the earth-shattering Sermon on the Mount in Matthew ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ sounds very similar in Luke’s version the Sermon on the Plain… ‘Blessed are the poor’
We are taught in the Lord’s prayer…give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts…We tend to pray right over these things…. But if you lived in 1st Cent Roman Palestine… getting a loaf of bread to eat and being somehow fortunate enough to have a creditor who would forgive your debt… well… these would be incontrovertible evidence of ‘Our Father in heaven… whose kingdom has come….
Jesus told parables about the poor and the wealthy… the rich man and Lazarus… do you remember that one? The story of a wealthy man who dressed in fine clothes and has so much food he just tosses out the left-overs ( I know that doesn’t sound all that egregious, but in a time and place when so many were dying of malnutrition, to throw away food was just an incredibly callous thing to do).
Anyway… both the wealthy man and Lazarus die…
Where does Lazarus go after he dies...? What about the wealthy man…? Why?
That is the shocking part of the story for there is no clear explanation of why he lands in hell accept that he was woefully ignorant of the plight of the poor right outside his own gate
And his conversations were often challenges to the wealthy… To the young man who came to seek eternal life, he said ‘go sell everything and give to the poor…’ and when he went to visit Zacchaeus…he hardly said a word, but his presence caused Zacchaeus to offer to give half his wealth to the poor.
It is for these reasons that when Jesus hangs on the cross…. I see poverty and oppression and hunger and disease hanging there…
Of course… it doesn’t just stop there…
Are Ye Able said the master… to be crucified with me… with me… have you ever sung that hymn… Have you ever stopped to think that maybe it isn’t just a metaphor? That we are meant to give up something in order to follow Christ?
The crucifixion wasn’t just an event in history but somehow it is meant to be a practice kept current by the disciples after Jesus death and resurrection down through the ages right up to today, a practice that you and I together observe.
Luke 9:23-25
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
Luke 14:27
And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Ro 6:3-4
Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Crucifixion as in a violent act of oppression wasn’t meant to be practiced… but crucifixion as a loving act of sacrifice on behalf of others to incarnate… make flesh…make real… the love of God…. Well that was meant to become a regular practice for Christians…
Made in God's image, we are to grow into that reality by doing what God does: love the world (McFague; Life Abundant , pg. 13)
'Faith in god does not consist in asserting god's existence, but rather in acting on [God's] behalf.' Henri Nouwen quoted in McFague pg34 Life Abundant.
Those who call themselves Christians, Christ-followers then, are meant to show the sacrificial love of God to those who suffer…. Those who hang on the cross… we are not allowed to turn our heads… to avert our gaze from the suffering of the world around us. We can turn Sally Fields commercials off… change the channel… but those of us who are baptized are baptized into his suffering and death… and we cannot ignore the fact that…
According to UNICEF, between 26-30,000 children die each day due to poverty
Half the world – nearly three billion people – live on less than two dollars a day
Estimated cost of clean water and sanitation for the world 9 billion US dollars
Americans spend 8 billion on cosmetics
US and Europe spends 12 billion on perfume
17 billion on pet food
The world spends 780 billion dollars in military expenditures
I know you love statistics…
1 in 10 of our RI neighbors are living in poverty….
40, 468 children, live below poverty in RI
17, 805 children live in extreme poverty… extreme poverty would be me trying to provide for my wife and two children on 11,000 dollars a year. Almost 18, 000 kids in our own state are living in those circumstances.
Resurrection Faith
This is where our resurrection story, which is meant simply to remind you of all of those resurrection stories, comes in. In all of these stories we meet baffled, confused, doubting disciples. We meet Mary who looks and Jesus and thinks he is the gardener… and Cleopas who walks with Jesus to Emmaus and listens to him speak but still can’t recognize him. All of these stories… Mark’s original ending perhaps the most maddening of all… for it ends with Mary and the other women running away from the empty tomb so frightened of this empty tomb that Mark says ‘they say nothing to no one.’ I know that isn’t good grammar, but that is the greek. They say nothing… Resurrection staring them straight in the eye… a tomb empty and an angel telling them to go to Galilee to see Jesus and they scream and run!!!
How can it be!
But here we are brothers and sisters, just as baffled, just as confused…
Here we are… we have heard the words of Jesus, blessed are the poor, forgive us our debts as we forgive…. Here we are with the stories of the rich man and Lazarus and that odd saying about rich men getting into heaven and camels fitting through needle eyes… 9 billion dollars would buy clean water and sanitation for the world (don’t forget why the leper was a leper, malnutrition and lack of sanitation) and we are spending 17 billion on pet food.
Currently, American's spend $8 billion annually on cosmetics and Europeans $11 billion on ice cream, a total more than it would cost to provide basic education ($6 billion) or water and sanitation ($9 billion) to the more than two billion people worldwide who do not have schools or toilets. (New York Times 'Most Consuming More, and the Rich Much More,' Sept 13, 1998
I believe Christian discipleship for twenty-first century North American Christians means 'cruciform living,' an alternative notion of the abundant life, which will involve a philosopy of 'enoughness'… for us priviledged Christians a 'cross-shaped' life will not be primarily what Christ does for us, but what we can do for others. (McFague; Life Abundant, pg. 14)
Resurrection Faith is all about new life…and not just a new spiritual life, but a whole new life in all its fullness. After Jesus visits with Zachaeus and Zachaeus, makes this realization that his money is not his own… let me say that again, his money is not his own… it is a gift from God for the good of the community… he offers half his wealth to the community… and what do we read in Luke… what does Jesus say? Salvation has come to this house. Salvation… is it too much of a stretch for me to suggest that salvation and resurrection do not just apply to things of the spirit, but to physical things… even financial things… Zacchaeus is saved and it reaches into his wallet and then there is a resurrection of life…not just for him, but for his community… for the poor, for those he has wronged, for those he has defrauded, for those he has ignored because he thought that his money was his own.
Since we are talking about life here… resurrection life…
Juliet Schor wrote an excellent little book called the Overspent American. You can still find it in bookstores and I would recommend it highly. Anyway Prof. Schor cites a study in this book on how American’s define ‘The Good Life’ Listen to some of this. It compares 1975 to 1991 but even though the study is dated I think it still highlights trends that are relevant and perhaps frightening…
In 1975 14% of people surveyed said a swimming pool defined the good life; by 1991 29%
In 1975 10% said a second TV defined the good life in 1991 28% said a second tv said good life
In 1975 38% said that a lot of money would give them a good life; by 1991 55% said the same
You are hearing the trend here right… material wealth, possessions, things…. Define the goodness of our lives… more and moreso…
Would you like to know what things statistically were shown to be less important to Americans for a good life: A happy marriage, children, an interesting job…
My point is that Jesus has called us to live a new life, a resurrected life… and that there is meant to be an unrestrained generosity in that new life… a belief, beyond what our eyes see and our minds tells us… that we can have an impact upon such things as poverty in RI, or even world hunger… we are called by the risen Christ to believe that we should care about the education of a girl in oh, I don’t know, Costa Rica, or Nicaraugua…
Stewardship as Creation Care
Just after this whole economic downturn hit Barbara Kingsolver, a writer of a few books, you may have heard of the Poisonwood Bible? She wrote an editorial about the lending crisis. I found what she said to be particularly striking. She basically said that we have forgotten in our nation that there is a mutual relationship between those who make loans and those who are receive those loans. It is not just the creditors who make the good life possible for their debtors, but the creditors too depend upon the business of the debtors to provide for their families… we have forgotten the relationship…
which immediately reminded me of the words of John Donne
No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Which is what we read in our Acts text for today… that the early believers held all things in common and thought nothing of selling personal possessions to provide for the safety and security of their sisters and brothers in Christ.
My sisters and brothers… we live in an age… I believe I have shown in which the relationship between you and I… the relationship between one human being and another is less valuable than relationship between me and my money or me and my possessions… how else could this mortgage/banking/economic crisis have happened?
When my connection to money and possession is valued over my connection to another human I am less human, less the image that god created me to be and this is one reason why we as Christians practice the tithe and giving offerings… it reminds us of our humanity… of the reason why were created by God… which in Genesis ch2 says to keep and till creation, but you can translate those two words… to serve and protect. We were created to share ourselves… we were pleased, Paul says in 1 Thess… to share not only the gospel, but ourselves… so tithing… planning your giving… is the practice of sharing yourself with others… so that you maintain…. No you discover and utilize and perfect the image of God that is within you.
Let me say a word about practice.
It seems quite obvious to me that Acts 2, the disciples held all things in common… was not an anomaly… It was a common practice, a standard practice in the early church. In Acts 9:36 we are introduced to a woman named Dorcas who is noteworthy because she supported the poor…
In Acts 10:1-4 we meet Cornelius who is a Roman… but he is not hated… he is known as a God-fearer… How do they know that he is a God fearer? Acts 10 says it is because of his generosity to the poor. I could go on and on… Paul mentions collections taken for the poor in churches in Romans and in Galatians… it was a standard practice… an expected resurrection lifestyle… those who joined the church joined in the practice of giving to support those in need.
More than a standard practice… dare I say it was a sacrament?
I know, as Baptists we are uncomfortable with that word… but just for a minute consider…
We practice a tithe because Christ called us to take up a cross… to live a cruciform life of sacrificial service to others and the tithe is allows us to remember and rehearse that commitment
We practice tithe to reclaim our humanity… to proclaim that we are not defined (as so many in the world are) by the possessions we own, the size of our houses or cars, the breadth and depth of our portfolio’s… we are those created by God to serve and protect… and the tithe reminds us of that humanity.
We practice tithe as a sacrament… a means of communicating God’s love to the world (specifically in my mind the poor) but still the whole world…
Finally a tithe is witness to a watching world…
This is one… very important way that we show the world that the words that we pray every Sunday morning ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done’ are not empty words… we believe in these words… we believe enough to get some skin in the game… to lay our own resources down to construct that kingdom… tithe is our witness to the watching world…
Never for a second think that this is a private act… Tithing is the most important thing for the world to see, for when we tithe… when we give of our best to the master… we say to the watching world
this is what compassion looks life… this is what love is… this is what grace is… this is what humanity is meant to be…
Are ye able said the master… to be crucified with me? Sings the old song…
In our tithe… In our gift giving… in our service to the poor and rejected and forgotten our society, in our state… we answer… Lord, we are able… Lord, we are able…
Today we have to talk about stewardship… we have to talk about the deep things of our faith, cruciform living and resurrection faith… we have to lift up some ideas that are meant not for the Peter’s who follow Jesus back in the shadows, but instead for the Martha’s and Mary’s who will stand with Christ no matter where he goes, even to the cross….
today is not meant for dabbling in faith… today is for full hearted devotion to the life of Christ…and full-throated testimony of our faith… specifically… this is a time for us to have a discussion about how our devotion to Christ seeps into our finances, influences our spending and saving habits, and directs the way we both acquire and then put to use our economic resources.
That is not a discussion for the curious or the faint of heart
I remember being challenged at my very first church to talk more about the tithe and stewardship… I didn’t teach and challenge enough about those topics (so they thought ) and the church largely lived on the principle of its endowment. So I started to do more sermons and bible studies on tithing and giving and stewardship and Christmas came. I always got an envelope on Christmas Eve with a little something extra. It wasn’t always a lot and that was fine, but usually a few extra dollars as a Christmas gift. But this Christmas nothing. Later the explanation… you are talking about money too much. So we don’t necessarily like to talk about these topics, we find them challenging and perhaps frightening.
Scene 1:
To talk about finances and money and investment and stewardship… we need to talk about resurrection. That is why I had us listen to a portion of an Easter Risen Christ story from Luke this morning… because we aren’t really talking about money… we are talking about resurrection here today…
But before we can talk resurrection we need to talk…
Crucifixion & the Cruciform Life:
The bewilderment and bafflement that we heard about in Luke this morning came after the crucifixion… a violent act of oppression and terrorism that the Roman Empire used to punish any of those occupied peoples who dared to assert their humanity or independence. The disciples are astonished and amazed because Peter saw Jesus arrested, scourged, crowned with thorns, nailed hand and foot and hung high to slowly suffocate...
I was taught to see that act of Jesus… that selfless… giving act… sacrificial act… to see that as a response to the sins of the world.
On that Cross Jesus bore, carried, was wrapped in the sins of the world… perhaps you were taught the same thing? Yes?
But today I want to suggest another way of looking at this scene. I’m not saying that this previous understanding of the cross is wrong by the way… I like to think of this other way of viewing the cross as just another facet of it… on the cross, Jesus bore, carried, was wrapped in the poverty and suffering… first of his own people under Rome and then of all humanity. So that when we look to the cross we are not only meant to see our sins… but also to see poverty and suffering.
Just think for a moment about those whom Jesus came in contact with. Those with leprousy, those whose dignity was diminished to the point of begging, those with disease. There it is right in front of us when we open the gospels to read, Jesus spoke to the poor and suffering, walked among the poor and suffering, touched and was touched by the poor and diseased, yet we rarely consider closely the harsh realities of the crowds whom Jesus surrounded himself with and what their life was like, how different it was from our own.
For instance… why did the leper have leprousy? He got sick… why? Poor nutrition. Why? He couldn’t afford to buy food. Why? He was taxed heavily by Rome (and by the Temple). He was in so much debt he was thrown off his own farm and had no way to provide food for himself or his family. Jesus
The opening of the earth-shattering Sermon on the Mount in Matthew ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ sounds very similar in Luke’s version the Sermon on the Plain… ‘Blessed are the poor’
We are taught in the Lord’s prayer…give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts…We tend to pray right over these things…. But if you lived in 1st Cent Roman Palestine… getting a loaf of bread to eat and being somehow fortunate enough to have a creditor who would forgive your debt… well… these would be incontrovertible evidence of ‘Our Father in heaven… whose kingdom has come….
Jesus told parables about the poor and the wealthy… the rich man and Lazarus… do you remember that one? The story of a wealthy man who dressed in fine clothes and has so much food he just tosses out the left-overs ( I know that doesn’t sound all that egregious, but in a time and place when so many were dying of malnutrition, to throw away food was just an incredibly callous thing to do).
Anyway… both the wealthy man and Lazarus die…
Where does Lazarus go after he dies...? What about the wealthy man…? Why?
That is the shocking part of the story for there is no clear explanation of why he lands in hell accept that he was woefully ignorant of the plight of the poor right outside his own gate
And his conversations were often challenges to the wealthy… To the young man who came to seek eternal life, he said ‘go sell everything and give to the poor…’ and when he went to visit Zacchaeus…he hardly said a word, but his presence caused Zacchaeus to offer to give half his wealth to the poor.
It is for these reasons that when Jesus hangs on the cross…. I see poverty and oppression and hunger and disease hanging there…
Of course… it doesn’t just stop there…
Are Ye Able said the master… to be crucified with me… with me… have you ever sung that hymn… Have you ever stopped to think that maybe it isn’t just a metaphor? That we are meant to give up something in order to follow Christ?
The crucifixion wasn’t just an event in history but somehow it is meant to be a practice kept current by the disciples after Jesus death and resurrection down through the ages right up to today, a practice that you and I together observe.
Luke 9:23-25
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
Luke 14:27
And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Ro 6:3-4
Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Crucifixion as in a violent act of oppression wasn’t meant to be practiced… but crucifixion as a loving act of sacrifice on behalf of others to incarnate… make flesh…make real… the love of God…. Well that was meant to become a regular practice for Christians…
Made in God's image, we are to grow into that reality by doing what God does: love the world (McFague; Life Abundant , pg. 13)
'Faith in god does not consist in asserting god's existence, but rather in acting on [God's] behalf.' Henri Nouwen quoted in McFague pg34 Life Abundant.
Those who call themselves Christians, Christ-followers then, are meant to show the sacrificial love of God to those who suffer…. Those who hang on the cross… we are not allowed to turn our heads… to avert our gaze from the suffering of the world around us. We can turn Sally Fields commercials off… change the channel… but those of us who are baptized are baptized into his suffering and death… and we cannot ignore the fact that…
According to UNICEF, between 26-30,000 children die each day due to poverty
Half the world – nearly three billion people – live on less than two dollars a day
Estimated cost of clean water and sanitation for the world 9 billion US dollars
Americans spend 8 billion on cosmetics
US and Europe spends 12 billion on perfume
17 billion on pet food
The world spends 780 billion dollars in military expenditures
I know you love statistics…
1 in 10 of our RI neighbors are living in poverty….
40, 468 children, live below poverty in RI
17, 805 children live in extreme poverty… extreme poverty would be me trying to provide for my wife and two children on 11,000 dollars a year. Almost 18, 000 kids in our own state are living in those circumstances.
Resurrection Faith
This is where our resurrection story, which is meant simply to remind you of all of those resurrection stories, comes in. In all of these stories we meet baffled, confused, doubting disciples. We meet Mary who looks and Jesus and thinks he is the gardener… and Cleopas who walks with Jesus to Emmaus and listens to him speak but still can’t recognize him. All of these stories… Mark’s original ending perhaps the most maddening of all… for it ends with Mary and the other women running away from the empty tomb so frightened of this empty tomb that Mark says ‘they say nothing to no one.’ I know that isn’t good grammar, but that is the greek. They say nothing… Resurrection staring them straight in the eye… a tomb empty and an angel telling them to go to Galilee to see Jesus and they scream and run!!!
How can it be!
But here we are brothers and sisters, just as baffled, just as confused…
Here we are… we have heard the words of Jesus, blessed are the poor, forgive us our debts as we forgive…. Here we are with the stories of the rich man and Lazarus and that odd saying about rich men getting into heaven and camels fitting through needle eyes… 9 billion dollars would buy clean water and sanitation for the world (don’t forget why the leper was a leper, malnutrition and lack of sanitation) and we are spending 17 billion on pet food.
Currently, American's spend $8 billion annually on cosmetics and Europeans $11 billion on ice cream, a total more than it would cost to provide basic education ($6 billion) or water and sanitation ($9 billion) to the more than two billion people worldwide who do not have schools or toilets. (New York Times 'Most Consuming More, and the Rich Much More,' Sept 13, 1998
I believe Christian discipleship for twenty-first century North American Christians means 'cruciform living,' an alternative notion of the abundant life, which will involve a philosopy of 'enoughness'… for us priviledged Christians a 'cross-shaped' life will not be primarily what Christ does for us, but what we can do for others. (McFague; Life Abundant, pg. 14)
Resurrection Faith is all about new life…and not just a new spiritual life, but a whole new life in all its fullness. After Jesus visits with Zachaeus and Zachaeus, makes this realization that his money is not his own… let me say that again, his money is not his own… it is a gift from God for the good of the community… he offers half his wealth to the community… and what do we read in Luke… what does Jesus say? Salvation has come to this house. Salvation… is it too much of a stretch for me to suggest that salvation and resurrection do not just apply to things of the spirit, but to physical things… even financial things… Zacchaeus is saved and it reaches into his wallet and then there is a resurrection of life…not just for him, but for his community… for the poor, for those he has wronged, for those he has defrauded, for those he has ignored because he thought that his money was his own.
Since we are talking about life here… resurrection life…
Juliet Schor wrote an excellent little book called the Overspent American. You can still find it in bookstores and I would recommend it highly. Anyway Prof. Schor cites a study in this book on how American’s define ‘The Good Life’ Listen to some of this. It compares 1975 to 1991 but even though the study is dated I think it still highlights trends that are relevant and perhaps frightening…
In 1975 14% of people surveyed said a swimming pool defined the good life; by 1991 29%
In 1975 10% said a second TV defined the good life in 1991 28% said a second tv said good life
In 1975 38% said that a lot of money would give them a good life; by 1991 55% said the same
You are hearing the trend here right… material wealth, possessions, things…. Define the goodness of our lives… more and moreso…
Would you like to know what things statistically were shown to be less important to Americans for a good life: A happy marriage, children, an interesting job…
My point is that Jesus has called us to live a new life, a resurrected life… and that there is meant to be an unrestrained generosity in that new life… a belief, beyond what our eyes see and our minds tells us… that we can have an impact upon such things as poverty in RI, or even world hunger… we are called by the risen Christ to believe that we should care about the education of a girl in oh, I don’t know, Costa Rica, or Nicaraugua…
Stewardship as Creation Care
Just after this whole economic downturn hit Barbara Kingsolver, a writer of a few books, you may have heard of the Poisonwood Bible? She wrote an editorial about the lending crisis. I found what she said to be particularly striking. She basically said that we have forgotten in our nation that there is a mutual relationship between those who make loans and those who are receive those loans. It is not just the creditors who make the good life possible for their debtors, but the creditors too depend upon the business of the debtors to provide for their families… we have forgotten the relationship…
which immediately reminded me of the words of John Donne
No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Which is what we read in our Acts text for today… that the early believers held all things in common and thought nothing of selling personal possessions to provide for the safety and security of their sisters and brothers in Christ.
My sisters and brothers… we live in an age… I believe I have shown in which the relationship between you and I… the relationship between one human being and another is less valuable than relationship between me and my money or me and my possessions… how else could this mortgage/banking/economic crisis have happened?
When my connection to money and possession is valued over my connection to another human I am less human, less the image that god created me to be and this is one reason why we as Christians practice the tithe and giving offerings… it reminds us of our humanity… of the reason why were created by God… which in Genesis ch2 says to keep and till creation, but you can translate those two words… to serve and protect. We were created to share ourselves… we were pleased, Paul says in 1 Thess… to share not only the gospel, but ourselves… so tithing… planning your giving… is the practice of sharing yourself with others… so that you maintain…. No you discover and utilize and perfect the image of God that is within you.
Let me say a word about practice.
It seems quite obvious to me that Acts 2, the disciples held all things in common… was not an anomaly… It was a common practice, a standard practice in the early church. In Acts 9:36 we are introduced to a woman named Dorcas who is noteworthy because she supported the poor…
In Acts 10:1-4 we meet Cornelius who is a Roman… but he is not hated… he is known as a God-fearer… How do they know that he is a God fearer? Acts 10 says it is because of his generosity to the poor. I could go on and on… Paul mentions collections taken for the poor in churches in Romans and in Galatians… it was a standard practice… an expected resurrection lifestyle… those who joined the church joined in the practice of giving to support those in need.
More than a standard practice… dare I say it was a sacrament?
I know, as Baptists we are uncomfortable with that word… but just for a minute consider…
We practice a tithe because Christ called us to take up a cross… to live a cruciform life of sacrificial service to others and the tithe is allows us to remember and rehearse that commitment
We practice tithe to reclaim our humanity… to proclaim that we are not defined (as so many in the world are) by the possessions we own, the size of our houses or cars, the breadth and depth of our portfolio’s… we are those created by God to serve and protect… and the tithe reminds us of that humanity.
We practice tithe as a sacrament… a means of communicating God’s love to the world (specifically in my mind the poor) but still the whole world…
Finally a tithe is witness to a watching world…
This is one… very important way that we show the world that the words that we pray every Sunday morning ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done’ are not empty words… we believe in these words… we believe enough to get some skin in the game… to lay our own resources down to construct that kingdom… tithe is our witness to the watching world…
Never for a second think that this is a private act… Tithing is the most important thing for the world to see, for when we tithe… when we give of our best to the master… we say to the watching world
this is what compassion looks life… this is what love is… this is what grace is… this is what humanity is meant to be…
Are ye able said the master… to be crucified with me? Sings the old song…
In our tithe… In our gift giving… in our service to the poor and rejected and forgotten our society, in our state… we answer… Lord, we are able… Lord, we are able…
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Sermon July 12 2009 Tithing, the Witness of Giving
Note; this concept still needs work... so if this were an article I would be calling it 'TOWARD a theology of tithing... I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to say about Tithing as Witness...
Intro: It’s difficult to talk about money, in general. It is difficult to talk about ‘giving money’ right now for a variety of reasons I suppose; Times are tough economically and some people, even here among us are really struggling financially. Because financial matters can cause such anxiety and even shame, we often don’t talk about our financial struggles with each other. Besides it just isn’t considered polite.
Add to that the fact that it seems like every other phone-call seems to be a telemarketer offering us a ‘service’ of some sort which is just a polite way of saying that they want our money… some of them for their profit… some of these calls from worthy non-profits, like special Olympics for instance. Well, it just gets tough to talk about all of this in church.
When we do talk about it in church it is often connected to the budget of the church. So in effect we are talking about fundraising for electricity and oil and my salary and insurance and to support the ministries of the church… Some churches talk about tithing (the churchy word for giving money) purely in terms of obedience… God commanded that we tithe and so we should tithe. Or some churches will talk about the ‘spiritual benefits’ of giving as a connection to God.
No matter how we do talk about it… some will feel uncomfortable because they don’t have much if anything to give financially. Some will feel offended because they already give a lot.
So let me just say a few things.
Today’s sermon is about giving, tithing…. Whatever you want to call it. The purpose of the sermon is not to make those who are already struggling financially feel guilty that they don’t have something to put in the plate. Before I read today’s scripture I am going to read from Romans…Rom 12:6-8
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Notice that giving is a spiritual gift according to Paul, one among many… some of us have been given the resources to use this gift… perhaps your gift right now is not financial generosity… it just isn’t possible… so store what I’m going to say about giving away for the day when you do have the resources to be generous… Ok?
Second, I want to say to those of you who give faithfully and generously… who have writers- cramp from responding to every request for aid by whipping out your check-book… thank you… sincerely… American Baptist churches around the state are amazed at the amount of service we can provide to the community and you who have been given the gift of generosity, are doing so in an exemplary fashion… and that gift along with the gifts of others who have time and talent to put your generous gifts to good use all works together for our witness to the world. Today I want to talk about Giving and Tithing from a different perspective from those I mentioned earlier and my hope is that it will not feel like a pitch to those of you who already give generously to give more… or a guilt trip to those of who have not been given the gift of generosity.
So Lets read our Scripture for the day. 2 Cor 8:1-15
Pray
1 Tim 6:10 ‘for the love of money is the root of all kinds of money’
One church member... is fond of quoting this scripture whenever he discusses church endowments…the monies that churches accumulate and invest. Some people think that endowments are really good things and some think they are bad things… He likes to note… it doesn’t say money is evil… it says LOVE of money is the root of evil.
And this is a common theme actually, throughout the Bible.
In Deut 6:10-12 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you — a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build , 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant — then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Now the thing to remember is that the story of the Torah… the first five books of the Bible… is the story of God leading Israel from wanting to having… from scarcity to abundance… it starts with Abraham in the book of Genesis and it continues as a theme throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. God wants the people of Israel to live comfortably and safely… with all of their needs met… this, by the way is what the Bible means by abundance… not opulence… not a showing and conspicuous gathering and hoarding of wealth and property… but enough to live safely and happily.
This is explained in Ex 16:17-20 and if you do not know this story it is important because Paul has quoted it in today’s reading…. It takes place just after Israel has left Egypt… and the people are in the desert and they are hungry and they are afraid… so God provides Manna… bread from heaven to feed them… and there were rules. Each Israelite was to gather enough… ENOUGH to feed the family for the day… not too much… they weren’t allowed to try to stash it or save it… but to take enough and trust in God for tomorrow… and this is what happened…
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed. 19 Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning." 20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell.
God will provide. That is the lesson of this story. Trust in God, not in money, accumulated wealth or material possession.
But there is another lesson that I think applies… When the manna becomes the ultimate concern… the main goal for some of the Israelites… more important that leaving some for others… more important than trusting in God… their manna goes bad… When our wealth or our money becomes the most important thing… the ultimate goal… it is dangerous…
If we look to Jesus own teaching… Money is a prevalent theme… Jesus is always talking about money.
In Luke 16 Jesus tells the story of a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus… they both die and the rich man ends up in Hell… and we are never told that he had any grossly immoral marks on his soul… we are not told that he was evil or cruel… all we know is that he was wealthy, conspicuously wealthy and that Lazarus the beggar lived right outside his gate and the rich man did not know him or know about him and that IGNORANCE caused him to end up in hell… Notice that… His ignorance sent him to hell… his preoccupation with stuff… with things… with wealth… blinded him to the plight of the poor… and he ended up in Hell… Love of money is a dangerous thing.
And what may be most frightening about this… at least how I understand it, is that the rich man is blind to his own material preoccupation. Which is what I think is most threatening about the consumerism in our own country…we don’t even realize its influence over us. We spend an hour and maybe a bit longer in worship… some of us spend time in prayer and in devotion at home… but we are constantly surrounded, bombarded by the suggestion to buy, purchase, accumulate and collect…and we don’t even realize the influence this has over us… this is what the Deuteronomy story is warning us of… before we know it… we have replaced God with the stuff that we can buy.
Luke 19 is the story of Zacchaeus… we’ve talked about him often haven’t we… we really have to learn that ‘wee little man song’ sometime… anyway… he too is wealthy and his wealth, as a tax collector is gained from his in-ethical practice of overtaxing his own poor neighbors….
Do you see a pattern emerging. When the point of life is to gain wealth… when wealth and money become the end… the goal, the purpose… we end up disconnected from each other… like Zacchaeus and ultimately from God, like Lazarus.
So the bible offers us multiple warnings about the toxicity of loving money… of making it our god…
Before you dismiss the idea that you or I could possibly get that distracted… that we could be that influenced… remember the struggle I had to sell two of my four guitars. Seriously… why did I have to have four guitars anyway? Without stopping to think about it I accumulated four guitars and let me tell you that two of those purchases were just consumer therapy… I was feeling bad about something and getting guitars and seeing them sitting in the house gave me a little high…
William Cavanaugh suggests in a little book called Being Consumed that what is insidious about our consumer culture is that it is, in some sense, spiritual… we fill emotional and spiritual needs quickly and easily through the pursuit of some new product, gadget…
And even though we may pride ourselves on be bargain hunters… when we are filling spiritual emptiness with easily procured things… we are missing the chance to grow in faith… because the growing pain is assuaged by the good feeling of a new something.
Sum Up so Far:
While God wants us to live in security and happiness, also called abundance, what God means by abundance is not what our culture teaches us about abundance. When The Bible talks abundance, The Bible means abundance for the entire community, not for individuals here and there. So that abundance for all calls for generosity and simplicity as values for individuals.
Therefore, money is not evil, nor is wealth nor material gain… but they are dangerous. Material wealth can take the place of the God in our lives, creating a sense of comfort when we are feeling discouraged, giving us a joyful feeling… and so material wealth and gain slowly but surely can make themselves a god… can take the place of God in our lives without us even realizing it. And we live in a culture where we are bombarded daily, mostly via television, with the consumer gospel… the good news of the new and improved!
Now, what is going on with Paul in 2 Corinthians that we read together?
2 Cor 8:1-2 And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
So Paul is writing to the church at Corinth about other Macedonian churches. Now, we have to pay specific attention to phrase Macedonian. So Paul is talking to churches who culture was pagan… not Jewish. And he is urging them to continue to take up a monetary collection for the churches in Jerusalem, churches that are largely Jewish in heritage. There was a sometimes contentious divide in these early church because the Jerusalem churches, mostly Jewish maintained many Jewish practices and traditions, while the new church Paul planted, were converted pagans who did not have the same heritage. So the question that these churches struggled with was… should pagans adopt Jewish practices in order to become Christian?
Now, Paul describes the Macedonian churches as having received grace from God…And then goes on to say2 Cor 8:7 But just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us-see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
So Paul sees giving, tithing, as something more than just taking care of the basic necessities of the church building (which they didn’t have anyway) and even more than personal piety, a spiritual practice for the good of the individual. Paul see’s giving as an act of participating in God’s grace.
2 Cor 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Paul is talking about Jesus. Specifically he is talking about Jesus’ incarnation… that the word of God, the creative love of God became flesh, human, visible. Even more specifically, Paul is talking about Jesus’ crucifixion. In the grand scheme, Jesus gave up the wealth or riches of existence with God, to come and live with us. Specifically Jesus gave up the riches of his life and become poor… was tortured and crucified to show us the depth of God’s creative love… love that knows no bounds, love that Paul would in another place say, we cannot be separated from. That is what Grace is… the gift of Jesus that made God’s love available to us no matter what… a relationship with God is available because of Jesus own gift, his giving of his own wealth for our gain.
Paul does not want the Macedonian churches and the Jerusalem churches to remain in this state of tension, distrust and bickering because it taints the witness of the church to the wider world.
2 Cor 5:17-21
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Why would people believe that Jesus’ generous gift reconciles humanity to God IF we can’t be reconciled to one another? So Paul is urging the Macedonian church and specifically the church in Corinth to finish the collection begun for Jerusalem, in spite of their own financial hardship, to bear witness to the watching world of the reconciliation that is possible through Christ.
You notice that for Paul money is not dangerous (first of all I suppose because he is asking people in poverty to give sacrificially to others).
This is perhaps one of the challenges that the Bible offers to the way we think about giving. While we often think about giving to the church from what we can easily afford… Paul is challenging these early churches to continue to make sacrifices of their own meager finances, for the good of others.
When we give sacrificially, money is not an evil… it is a good, a grace.
You also notice that for Paul, money is a grace when it is put in service of something truly ultimate. When money is sacrificially given for the good of others, it is transformed from a dangerous substance to grace, a sign of God’s love.
Which is perhaps the most important lesson that we are meant to teach the world through the practice of tithing and other offerings… the proper place of money in our lives…
For many in the culture around us… money is an ultimate.
The July 13th issue of TIME has a little interview with a man named Robert Kiyosaki who apparently is a financial guru. Now, I don’t know him and have never read his books and I’m not trying to judge the man… but one part of the interview popped out at me. ‘As a young kid, I really wanted to be rich.’ Its so subtle we might miss it, and that is what the Bible has been trying to tell us. Wealth and money can become the ultimate concern for us very easily, without our even noticing.
I remember trying to educate myself about economics when the whole ‘financial crisis’ hit…
What I particularly remember about one explanation of the housing market crash was that it too illustrated how common the ultimacy of money is in the culture around us. Mortgages could be bundled and sold to larger corporations as an investment. So little mortgage companies started popping up all over the place offering mortgages to one and all. I particularly remember one interview with a man who dealt with these mortgages. He had no background in the mortgage business or in finance whatsoever, but he heard that mortgages were a quick way to make easy money. His ultimate concern was… profit, wealth. Many of these little companies folded up as soon as the profit was made. Their entire purpose was to make quick and easy money.
And I’ve wondered (perhaps a bit idealistically) what would have happened if the church (not this church, but American churches of every shape and size and denomination) had been more willing to talk about the purpose and the practice of tithing… if we had all (instead of avoiding the difficult topic of money and giving) had been showing the world the proper place and purpose of money? Would so many have been caught, some innocently, some not so innocently, in this view of money that it the ultimate, the end?
I think this is why tithing is such an important witness because it is a practice that constantly reminds us and shows the world the proper place and purpose and use of money. When our wealth is used for the glory of God, through being used for the good of others… money is not a dangerous thing, but a gift of grace… a sign of God’s deep deep love for all humanity. When our wealth is used, as Paul wanted it to be used in Corinth, as a sacrificial sign of unity and compassion, our wealth is a witness to the larger world showing it that we need not fear scarcity, but actually will find abundance of life, as Jesus promised, not by hoarding for ourselves, but by giving generously to others. For this is what pleases God and God cares and provides for those who care for others.
Matt 6:24-3424 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry , saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
What would others learn about your faith… by looking at your check book
Intro: It’s difficult to talk about money, in general. It is difficult to talk about ‘giving money’ right now for a variety of reasons I suppose; Times are tough economically and some people, even here among us are really struggling financially. Because financial matters can cause such anxiety and even shame, we often don’t talk about our financial struggles with each other. Besides it just isn’t considered polite.
Add to that the fact that it seems like every other phone-call seems to be a telemarketer offering us a ‘service’ of some sort which is just a polite way of saying that they want our money… some of them for their profit… some of these calls from worthy non-profits, like special Olympics for instance. Well, it just gets tough to talk about all of this in church.
When we do talk about it in church it is often connected to the budget of the church. So in effect we are talking about fundraising for electricity and oil and my salary and insurance and to support the ministries of the church… Some churches talk about tithing (the churchy word for giving money) purely in terms of obedience… God commanded that we tithe and so we should tithe. Or some churches will talk about the ‘spiritual benefits’ of giving as a connection to God.
No matter how we do talk about it… some will feel uncomfortable because they don’t have much if anything to give financially. Some will feel offended because they already give a lot.
So let me just say a few things.
Today’s sermon is about giving, tithing…. Whatever you want to call it. The purpose of the sermon is not to make those who are already struggling financially feel guilty that they don’t have something to put in the plate. Before I read today’s scripture I am going to read from Romans…Rom 12:6-8
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Notice that giving is a spiritual gift according to Paul, one among many… some of us have been given the resources to use this gift… perhaps your gift right now is not financial generosity… it just isn’t possible… so store what I’m going to say about giving away for the day when you do have the resources to be generous… Ok?
Second, I want to say to those of you who give faithfully and generously… who have writers- cramp from responding to every request for aid by whipping out your check-book… thank you… sincerely… American Baptist churches around the state are amazed at the amount of service we can provide to the community and you who have been given the gift of generosity, are doing so in an exemplary fashion… and that gift along with the gifts of others who have time and talent to put your generous gifts to good use all works together for our witness to the world. Today I want to talk about Giving and Tithing from a different perspective from those I mentioned earlier and my hope is that it will not feel like a pitch to those of you who already give generously to give more… or a guilt trip to those of who have not been given the gift of generosity.
So Lets read our Scripture for the day. 2 Cor 8:1-15
Pray
1 Tim 6:10 ‘for the love of money is the root of all kinds of money’
One church member... is fond of quoting this scripture whenever he discusses church endowments…the monies that churches accumulate and invest. Some people think that endowments are really good things and some think they are bad things… He likes to note… it doesn’t say money is evil… it says LOVE of money is the root of evil.
And this is a common theme actually, throughout the Bible.
In Deut 6:10-12 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you — a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build , 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant — then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Now the thing to remember is that the story of the Torah… the first five books of the Bible… is the story of God leading Israel from wanting to having… from scarcity to abundance… it starts with Abraham in the book of Genesis and it continues as a theme throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. God wants the people of Israel to live comfortably and safely… with all of their needs met… this, by the way is what the Bible means by abundance… not opulence… not a showing and conspicuous gathering and hoarding of wealth and property… but enough to live safely and happily.
This is explained in Ex 16:17-20 and if you do not know this story it is important because Paul has quoted it in today’s reading…. It takes place just after Israel has left Egypt… and the people are in the desert and they are hungry and they are afraid… so God provides Manna… bread from heaven to feed them… and there were rules. Each Israelite was to gather enough… ENOUGH to feed the family for the day… not too much… they weren’t allowed to try to stash it or save it… but to take enough and trust in God for tomorrow… and this is what happened…
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed. 19 Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning." 20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell.
God will provide. That is the lesson of this story. Trust in God, not in money, accumulated wealth or material possession.
But there is another lesson that I think applies… When the manna becomes the ultimate concern… the main goal for some of the Israelites… more important that leaving some for others… more important than trusting in God… their manna goes bad… When our wealth or our money becomes the most important thing… the ultimate goal… it is dangerous…
If we look to Jesus own teaching… Money is a prevalent theme… Jesus is always talking about money.
In Luke 16 Jesus tells the story of a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus… they both die and the rich man ends up in Hell… and we are never told that he had any grossly immoral marks on his soul… we are not told that he was evil or cruel… all we know is that he was wealthy, conspicuously wealthy and that Lazarus the beggar lived right outside his gate and the rich man did not know him or know about him and that IGNORANCE caused him to end up in hell… Notice that… His ignorance sent him to hell… his preoccupation with stuff… with things… with wealth… blinded him to the plight of the poor… and he ended up in Hell… Love of money is a dangerous thing.
And what may be most frightening about this… at least how I understand it, is that the rich man is blind to his own material preoccupation. Which is what I think is most threatening about the consumerism in our own country…we don’t even realize its influence over us. We spend an hour and maybe a bit longer in worship… some of us spend time in prayer and in devotion at home… but we are constantly surrounded, bombarded by the suggestion to buy, purchase, accumulate and collect…and we don’t even realize the influence this has over us… this is what the Deuteronomy story is warning us of… before we know it… we have replaced God with the stuff that we can buy.
Luke 19 is the story of Zacchaeus… we’ve talked about him often haven’t we… we really have to learn that ‘wee little man song’ sometime… anyway… he too is wealthy and his wealth, as a tax collector is gained from his in-ethical practice of overtaxing his own poor neighbors….
Do you see a pattern emerging. When the point of life is to gain wealth… when wealth and money become the end… the goal, the purpose… we end up disconnected from each other… like Zacchaeus and ultimately from God, like Lazarus.
So the bible offers us multiple warnings about the toxicity of loving money… of making it our god…
Before you dismiss the idea that you or I could possibly get that distracted… that we could be that influenced… remember the struggle I had to sell two of my four guitars. Seriously… why did I have to have four guitars anyway? Without stopping to think about it I accumulated four guitars and let me tell you that two of those purchases were just consumer therapy… I was feeling bad about something and getting guitars and seeing them sitting in the house gave me a little high…
William Cavanaugh suggests in a little book called Being Consumed that what is insidious about our consumer culture is that it is, in some sense, spiritual… we fill emotional and spiritual needs quickly and easily through the pursuit of some new product, gadget…
And even though we may pride ourselves on be bargain hunters… when we are filling spiritual emptiness with easily procured things… we are missing the chance to grow in faith… because the growing pain is assuaged by the good feeling of a new something.
Sum Up so Far:
While God wants us to live in security and happiness, also called abundance, what God means by abundance is not what our culture teaches us about abundance. When The Bible talks abundance, The Bible means abundance for the entire community, not for individuals here and there. So that abundance for all calls for generosity and simplicity as values for individuals.
Therefore, money is not evil, nor is wealth nor material gain… but they are dangerous. Material wealth can take the place of the God in our lives, creating a sense of comfort when we are feeling discouraged, giving us a joyful feeling… and so material wealth and gain slowly but surely can make themselves a god… can take the place of God in our lives without us even realizing it. And we live in a culture where we are bombarded daily, mostly via television, with the consumer gospel… the good news of the new and improved!
Now, what is going on with Paul in 2 Corinthians that we read together?
2 Cor 8:1-2 And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
So Paul is writing to the church at Corinth about other Macedonian churches. Now, we have to pay specific attention to phrase Macedonian. So Paul is talking to churches who culture was pagan… not Jewish. And he is urging them to continue to take up a monetary collection for the churches in Jerusalem, churches that are largely Jewish in heritage. There was a sometimes contentious divide in these early church because the Jerusalem churches, mostly Jewish maintained many Jewish practices and traditions, while the new church Paul planted, were converted pagans who did not have the same heritage. So the question that these churches struggled with was… should pagans adopt Jewish practices in order to become Christian?
Now, Paul describes the Macedonian churches as having received grace from God…And then goes on to say2 Cor 8:7 But just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us-see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
So Paul sees giving, tithing, as something more than just taking care of the basic necessities of the church building (which they didn’t have anyway) and even more than personal piety, a spiritual practice for the good of the individual. Paul see’s giving as an act of participating in God’s grace.
2 Cor 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Paul is talking about Jesus. Specifically he is talking about Jesus’ incarnation… that the word of God, the creative love of God became flesh, human, visible. Even more specifically, Paul is talking about Jesus’ crucifixion. In the grand scheme, Jesus gave up the wealth or riches of existence with God, to come and live with us. Specifically Jesus gave up the riches of his life and become poor… was tortured and crucified to show us the depth of God’s creative love… love that knows no bounds, love that Paul would in another place say, we cannot be separated from. That is what Grace is… the gift of Jesus that made God’s love available to us no matter what… a relationship with God is available because of Jesus own gift, his giving of his own wealth for our gain.
Paul does not want the Macedonian churches and the Jerusalem churches to remain in this state of tension, distrust and bickering because it taints the witness of the church to the wider world.
2 Cor 5:17-21
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Why would people believe that Jesus’ generous gift reconciles humanity to God IF we can’t be reconciled to one another? So Paul is urging the Macedonian church and specifically the church in Corinth to finish the collection begun for Jerusalem, in spite of their own financial hardship, to bear witness to the watching world of the reconciliation that is possible through Christ.
You notice that for Paul money is not dangerous (first of all I suppose because he is asking people in poverty to give sacrificially to others).
This is perhaps one of the challenges that the Bible offers to the way we think about giving. While we often think about giving to the church from what we can easily afford… Paul is challenging these early churches to continue to make sacrifices of their own meager finances, for the good of others.
When we give sacrificially, money is not an evil… it is a good, a grace.
You also notice that for Paul, money is a grace when it is put in service of something truly ultimate. When money is sacrificially given for the good of others, it is transformed from a dangerous substance to grace, a sign of God’s love.
Which is perhaps the most important lesson that we are meant to teach the world through the practice of tithing and other offerings… the proper place of money in our lives…
For many in the culture around us… money is an ultimate.
The July 13th issue of TIME has a little interview with a man named Robert Kiyosaki who apparently is a financial guru. Now, I don’t know him and have never read his books and I’m not trying to judge the man… but one part of the interview popped out at me. ‘As a young kid, I really wanted to be rich.’ Its so subtle we might miss it, and that is what the Bible has been trying to tell us. Wealth and money can become the ultimate concern for us very easily, without our even noticing.
I remember trying to educate myself about economics when the whole ‘financial crisis’ hit…
What I particularly remember about one explanation of the housing market crash was that it too illustrated how common the ultimacy of money is in the culture around us. Mortgages could be bundled and sold to larger corporations as an investment. So little mortgage companies started popping up all over the place offering mortgages to one and all. I particularly remember one interview with a man who dealt with these mortgages. He had no background in the mortgage business or in finance whatsoever, but he heard that mortgages were a quick way to make easy money. His ultimate concern was… profit, wealth. Many of these little companies folded up as soon as the profit was made. Their entire purpose was to make quick and easy money.
And I’ve wondered (perhaps a bit idealistically) what would have happened if the church (not this church, but American churches of every shape and size and denomination) had been more willing to talk about the purpose and the practice of tithing… if we had all (instead of avoiding the difficult topic of money and giving) had been showing the world the proper place and purpose of money? Would so many have been caught, some innocently, some not so innocently, in this view of money that it the ultimate, the end?
I think this is why tithing is such an important witness because it is a practice that constantly reminds us and shows the world the proper place and purpose and use of money. When our wealth is used for the glory of God, through being used for the good of others… money is not a dangerous thing, but a gift of grace… a sign of God’s deep deep love for all humanity. When our wealth is used, as Paul wanted it to be used in Corinth, as a sacrificial sign of unity and compassion, our wealth is a witness to the larger world showing it that we need not fear scarcity, but actually will find abundance of life, as Jesus promised, not by hoarding for ourselves, but by giving generously to others. For this is what pleases God and God cares and provides for those who care for others.
Matt 6:24-3424 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry , saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
What would others learn about your faith… by looking at your check book
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