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For
February 14, 2010
Dear
friends: grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our
Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ
Let's
pray:
Today
we have the double treat of celebrating St Valentine's Day and the
day of Transfiguration. Jesus had taken Peter, James and John to the
top of Mount Tabor. And there Jesus is transfigured - his
appearance changes to his heavenly glory, and appearing with him is
Moses and Elijah. Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the
prophets - focusing, as they do in the Bible, on Jesus, the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world.
Peter,
James and John are overwhelmed by the sight of Jesus - shining with
the glory of heaven. There are having one of those moments that they
wanted to last forever. "Let's pitch some tents and stay..." They didn't really know what they were saying.
As
they were speaking a cloud covers them, and a voice says, "This is
my son who I have chosen, listen to him." And then looking up they
saw no one but Jesus only. And Jesus? Jesus had things to do.
Jesus went down the mountain to be about the work of the Kingdom -
the work of the reign of God - work that culminated in the cross.
And down from the mountain his disciples followed him,
This
morning I want to continue talking about the 5
traits of the followers of Jesus.
You remember the first - prayer and reading the bible. The second
is weekly
worship. The third is regularly serving in and out of our church.
And the fourth? Regularly giving towards the work of our church.
Don't
stop me
if you have heard this one: The
pastor walks into
his little church and begins the service with some announcements.
The usual announcements - Pot luck next week, confirmation, coffee
after the service, and then: "I know you have been wondering about
our old church roof. Well, I have some news - do you want the bad
news or the good news first?" "The bad news," the congregation
says.
"The
bad news is, the roof needs replacing, and it's gonna cost $10,000.
The good news is, we have the money, and
it's in your wallets."
As
we begin looking at giving and the work of the church, I want to say
a couple things: First, I am so grateful for all the givers and all
the giving. This church has gone on for 105 years, because people
like you have followed Jesus with your giving. Just last week, we
wrapped up our special appeal for Haiti, and from our giving,
combined with government matching and a grant from Faith Life, about
$5100 was raised. Bless you.
Second
thing: I have no idea what you give. I don't get a report, I don't
count the offering, I don't get tipped off about who is giving much
and who is giving less. I don't think that's my job to know, do I
don't know. So when I talk about giving, I am not pointing fingers
at anyone. I am not thinking of you.
One
of the traits of the followers of Jesus is to regularly give to the
work of the church. The disciples had a common purse - kept by
Judas, from which he would regularly steal, the bible says. And
listen to this part of Luke 8: "After
this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another,
proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with
him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and
diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come
out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household;
Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them
out of their own means."
Supporting
the work of the Kingdom - the reign of God - is a part of
following Jesus. Out of our means, we give. Being good stewards of
what we give to the church is also part of the kingdom, and we
entrust that responsibility to our church council. I am so grateful
for the church council we have. In another church I have served,
which shall remain nameless, church council was a dog's breakfast of
anger and resentment, and it was my monthly trip to purgatory.
But
this council is optimistic, joyful, and forward looking. They have
worked hard to make the most of what we give. They have made a
budget, and not wanting to go backward, the budget is similar to last
year's. Trouble is, our giving has been behind. We are headed for a
deficit. But the good news is, we have the money - and it's in our
wallets.
Darren
Stevenson is stewardship guy on council. I think he has the
spiritual gift of numbers. He crunches numbers for a living, and he
has crunched the numbers on the budget. Darren figures if we each
could increase our giving by 6 bucks a week, we would have no
deficit. He also figures if we each increased our giving by 10
bucks
a week, we would have the kind of budget we need to do more outreach
into our community - to bring the message of Jesus to the
de-churched and to the unchurched in our lives.
Six
bucks. What's that? Two skinny low foam tall cinnamon lattes? One
less beer at your favourite watering hole? And ten bucks? One less
lunch eaten out a week? Buying Costco brand jeans instead of Levis?
If
you are giving all you can, these words are not for you. But if you
are able, up your giving by 6 bucks a week - or even ten bucks a
week. Make it 20 if you can, to help out even more. Maybe cut back
that cable package that includes Latvian curling.
The
New Testament talks about giving regularly, and giving
proportionally. Ten percent would be great. But give of what you've
got, once a week. (I was going to say "give weekly," but you
might have heard "give weakly.")
English reformer, Charles Wesley had a sermon in which he said,
"Earn as much as you can, save as much as you can, give as much as
you can." I know it's not easy. Luther talked about three
conversions in peoples' lives. The conversion of our heads, of our
hearts, and the hardest of all Luther said, is the conversion of our
wallets.
Why
give? Because we need
to give. We have a God-given need to be generous - to focus our
attention and our money on something other than ourselves. We have
been provided for by God - and we use that divine providence to
provide for others.
I
was made to think of Shakespeare this week, as I thought about
giving. In the play The
Merchant of Venice,
Portia, disguised as a man, defends her husband's friend, Antonio in
court. She appeals for mercy: The
quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from
heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth
him that gives and him that takes:
Like chopping firewood warms you twice - when you chop it and when
you burn it, well, giving blesses twice - it blesses the receiver
and it blesses the giver.
Remember
our following Jesus is within the framework and in response to Jesus'
death on the cross in order to save us from sin death and the power
of the devil. One of the traits of the followers of Jesus - along
with prayer and reading the Bible, with weekly worship, with serving
in and out of church, is giving towards the work of the church.
Freely you have received, so freely give. | 