Whatever happened to Bobby McFarrin? or Don't Worry . . .

Below is the message I shared at our inaugural 'Shepherd 701' service on Sunday night.  It deals with, what I think is a foundational issue for our day to day walk with God: Trust.  I don't think we can begin to let go of the worry in our lives until we start to trust God with all of our lives.  Thanks for reading!


 Matthew 6:24-34 (The Message)

 ²⁴"You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and Money both.

 ^25-26"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

 ^27-29"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

 ^30-33"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

 ³⁴"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

When we look at this passage it is easy to focus on what seems to be the primary message – Don’t Worry

I say that it is easy to focus on that message, but that in no way means that it is an easy message to live up to or put into practice in our lives.

For most of us, worry is a fairly constant companion in our daily lives.  We are surrounded by things to worry about:

At work or school – the big assignment that is proving difficult or the colleague or class mate that is mad at you

At home – any member of the family that might be struggling at school or work

Worries about the economy, about terrorism (where having specific threat levels seems designed to encourage worry), about any number of things

And I could go on and on, from situation to situation in our lives and give examples of legitimate reasons to worry, but I don’t need to – because all of us can easily think of them on our own. 

We are surrounded by worry and things to worry about

Our culture perpetuates and encourages this worry:

The local and national newscasts, not to mention cable news networks, seem to draw almost exclusively on our anxiousness and worry to bring viewers in – ‘what you are drinking that is probably killing you  . . . .news at 11’

So much of the advertizing that we see is simply an attempt to create a fear or worry so that we will be prompted to buy the ‘solution’

I’ve already mentioned our response to real threats in our world, like terrorism with ‘threat levels’ and the like.

Into this situation Jesus comes with a plea – a command, actually – ‘Do not worry’

To understand how that is even possible, it is important to look at the beginning of this passage:

Our passage starts, not with the call not to worry, but with the assertion that no one – none of us – can serve too masters.

I don’t want to get too caught up in a discussion of money, which these verses often lead too.

But I want to point out that Jesus is not saying money is bad.  Instead, Jesus is simply highlighting money as a bad boss – or Lord, which is a better translation for the word master we often hear in this passage, or even the word ‘god’ which is used in the translation we heard a moment ago. 

We don’t talk about ‘Lord’s very often any more, but a Lord is someone who demands and deserves our loyalty, allegiance and worship

So again, Jesus isn’t saying that money is bad, per se, rather he is lifting it up as one of the many things that makes for a bad and unworthy Lord in our lives. 

When we lift up something as ‘Lord’ in our life, part of what we are saying is that we believe this person or thing, as in the case of money, can meet and satisfy our deepest needs. 

The problem with money, or any other thing but God being our Lord is that it is finite.  There is not an unlimited supply of money – or power, or influence or any thing in this world

So if it is money that grants safety and security, then we must immediately participate in the practice of counting, tracking, stock piling and striving for it – because there simply will never be enough

Into this economy of scarcity Jesus provides a different opportunity:

The alternative Jesus invites us to consider is entering into relationship with God, the God who is infinite and whose love for us and all creation is infinite as well. Love operates from a different "economy" than money

When Traci was pregnant with Jack, I had what I think is a common concern – how in the world could I love anyone as much or in the way I loved Charlie?

But that question, as I found out is to misunderstand the infinite nature of love.

When Jack finally came, I didn’t have to divide the love I currently had so that he could have some.  Instead, I suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere had more love to give and share.

No doubt you've noticed the same thing: how the more love you give away, the more you have. Love – and especially God's love – cannot be counted, tracked or stockpiled. And when you live in this kind of relationship of love and trust, you've entered into the realm of abundance, the world of possibility, the world of contentment. Suddenly, in this world – Jesus calls it the "kingdom of God" – not worrying actually becomes an option.

It is hard to believe in this world and this life of abundance that Jesus proclaims.

It is so difficult because so much of our lives and so much of our world is thoroughly invested and entrenched in the world of scarcity

This idea of abundance is ultimately the practical thing those that had Jesus killed could not abide by or stand for.

Because those in power were so invested in the world of scarcity that abundance was down right frightening, even threatening. Scarcity, after all, creates fear, and fear creates devotion to those who will protect you (think "threat levels again).

Abundance, on the other hand, produces freedom.   God doesn't operate from scarcity; God operates out of abundance.

 God resurrects – which, when you think about it, is the ultimate act of abundance: creating something, once again, out of nothing, drawing light from darkness, giving life to the dead.

This is the world Jesus invites us into: a world of abundance, generosity, and new life.

But it is also a world of fragility, trust, and vulnerability. Lilies and birds, after all, can't defend themselves but must trust God's providence and love.

And trust is the fundamental issue.  Who or what we choose to trust determines what economy and what worldview we are participating in:  are we going to accept the economy of scarcity and the worldview of finite resources that we all must – literally fight over and for OR are we going to accept Jesus’ invitation to participate in an economy of abundance based on a worldview centered on the infinite nature of God’s love for us. 

We are constantly surrounded by images of scarcity and the ‘reality’ of the world’s economy of fear, scarcity and worry. 

Jesus provides us with a different image and a different way to live our lives. 

When we begin to put our trust in him, not only do we begin to let go of fear and worry for ourselves, but we plant the seeds of the kingdom of God in the here and now by providing the world around us with a alternative picture of what life can look like.

The life of Jesus, even including his death on the cross, is a life exploding with a witness to the infinite abundance of God’s love. 

Jesus life gives us picture after picture, scene after scene of reason to trust in God’s faithfulness, love and providence. 

When we trust in Jesus – and make the God of abundance our Lord, we begin to provide for others pictures and proof of the infinite reality of God’s love. 

And in the light of that, very real love we are able to say – Do not worry.

Amen.

Photoshoots with Jesus or something like that . . .

Below is the message I shared yesterday with Good Shepherd.  It was an abbreviated message as we spent a large portion of our worship time participating in prayer stations.  You don't get to do those with us, but hopefully there is still something of interest and value to you here.  

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (Common English Bible)

¹⁶ Rejoice always. ¹⁷ Pray continually. ¹⁸ Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 6:5-15 (The Message)

⁵"And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat? 

⁶"Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.  ^7-13"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: 

   Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are.  Set the world right; 
   Do what's best— as above, so below.                                                Keep us alive with three square meals.  Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.  Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. 
   You're in charge!  You can do anything you want! 
   You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.

^14-15"In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part.

Yesterday our family had the rare opportunity to participate in a photo shoot for a friend of Traci’s from High school – The Boys, Traci & I all had to dress in a certain way – this was a ‘no sock’ photo shoot!

Furniture & decorations were rearranged or put away.  Legs, arms, bodies and faces had to be posed and positioned in certain ways.  We even had specific actions to do – or pretend to do – at one time or another – they boys ‘surprised’ us, we were ‘reading’, at so on.

Julia – Traci’s friend – was very good with the boys and is a gifted photographer.  But the simplest and most accurate word to describe what we were doing yesterday is – Fake. 

A slightly less harsh way to describe the action yesterday morning is ‘staged’. 

All of the actions that were captured might have happened naturally, all of the situations and movements were prearranged, choreographed and coordinated. 

What does this have to do with prayer or anything related to faith, you might be wondering? 

I think it is a great metaphor or comparison to how we often view or approach prayer.

When it comes time to pray we think we have to talk a certain way – how many of us pray with words and in a style that is different than every other time we communicate, flowery language, overly formal, etc?  Be in a certain position – on our knees?  Standing up?  Eyes closed?

But hopefully in over the last month we have started to think about prayer in a slightly different way. 

Just like the actions in the photo shoot yesterday, there is nothing wrong with on our knees, eyes closed formal language prayer. 

But it is just the tip of the iceburg, just the beginning of the life of prayer that we are called to. 

What the photo shoot was missing – and what many of our prayers are missing is authenticity and a connection to what is really going on in our daily lives.

God doesn’t want a staged photo opportunity or a rehearsed speech.  What God wants is snapshot after candid snapshot of who we really are, where we really are and what we are thinking and feeling.  Right now.  

We are called to walk through our everyday lives open to the leading of God’s Holy Spirit. 

We are called to ‘pray without ceasing’ which really means to constantly be in a state of openness to God’s leading and to always be actively seeking God’s leading, direction and guidance. 

What this means is that every moment, every situation, every action is an opportunity – and a direct invitation from God – to be engaged in conversation with God, to be open to the leading of God’s Holy Spirit and to offer up our circumstances and ourselves to be used by God. 

The fact that every situation is an appropriate one for  prayer, that means that there are many different kinds of prayer:

You can read or say verses of Scripture as a prayer

There are ‘breath prayers’, where you offer up a moment of prayer to God in the time it takes to take a breath or say a single word – like amen, or a short phrase – like may your will be done, God.

We all know of the more formalized kind of prayer

There are many different forms for this type of prayer

The ACTS prayer is a good one: ACTS standing for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication

And, of course, we have spent some time over this last month looking at probably our best example of dedicated or formalized prayer, the prayer Jesus taught his first disciples and then us – The Lord’s prayer

At this point we spent about 10 minutes ‘doing’ prayer stations based on each of the petitions in the Lord’s prayer.  The last ‘station’ was an opportunity to rework the Lord’s prayer and sort of make it our own

Since you can’t participate in the prayer stations with us, I invite you to take a moment to look at the Lord’s Prayer – each of the petitions individually and see how you might be able to ‘rewrite’ it and make it your own. 

Petition One – Hallowed be your name:

Petition Two – May your kingdom come:

Petition Three – May your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven:

Petition Four – Give us this day our daily bread:

Petition Five – Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors:

Petition Six – Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

Amen.

If its good enough from Jesus . . .

Below is the message on prayer that I shared yesterday with Good Shepherd.  Prayer, as important as it is, is a source of confusion and anxiety at times.  I try and address that, and I hope that in these words you hear God inviting you into relationship and conversation with him.  

Matthew 6:5-15 (Today's New International Version)

 ⁵ "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

    ⁹ "This, then, is how you should pray:
       " 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

    ¹⁰ your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

    ¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.

    ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

    ¹³ And lead us not into temptation, ^[a] but deliver us from the evil one. ^[b]'

    ¹⁴ For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Prayer: Lord, in your great wisdom you gave us prayer as a means of growing in our relationship with you and growing in our understanding of your will and our role in it.  We come to you now seeking to see your face, to feel your presence and to know your will.  Open our ears to hear your word spoken to us and embolden us to speak your word to others by what we say and what we do.  Now, I ask that you would hide me behind your cross, so you are what’s seen Lord, and speak through me, so you are what’s heard.  Amen.

          Last week we began our series on prayer.  We began by saying there are few things as central to our Christian faith as prayer is.  It is at the center of all that we do as a body of believers in worship, it is a guide for us as we work and meet together and it is our connection point to God in our daily, individual walks of faith. 

So, as in all things, when we need guidance about prayer or an idea of what our prayer life should look like, we turn to Jesus, who is not only our God, but our living example of what it means to live in response to God’s love, as he spent his life on earth centered on, buoyed by and marked by prayer. Simply put, prayer is at the center, the very heart of our connection to God and to what it means to be in relationship to God. 

            Last week we also noted that, although we all know that prayer is a central aspect of our lives as Christians, prayer is often a source of confusion, nervousness and even fear for many of us.  Some of us don’t know what to say when we pray, some of us aren’t sure of where and when we should pray, some of us think we have to have our eyes closed and most of us are, at least a little wary of praying in public. 

Even in Seminary, among those training to be full-time leaders of the church the number one struggle that people would claim was with their personal prayer life or in leading corporate prayer.  So let’s look closely at Jesus teaching on prayer to see what we can learn about what prayer should really be like.

In verses 5-8 Jesus is making it clear what prayer is about – and who it is about.  The first instructions Jesus gives are about praying in ‘secret’ and then about not making a show of your prayer in public.  The first instruction, about praying in a secluded, quiet place is about us – the focus isn’t and shouldn’t be on us when we pray.  It isn’t about what we say or how we say it or if our eyes are closed or if we are on our knees. 

Instead, when we pray the focus should be on God, presenting ourselves honestly before our God and listening to what God is doing in the world and how we are being called to participate in it.  The second instruction, about not praying in public the way the Pharisees do is for a similar concern – Jesus has already established that in prayer the focus shouldn’t be on us, it should be on him.  But he doesn’t want there to be any confusion.  When we pray, even if it is in public or corporate prayer – we are still praying to an audience of One.  The prayer and the words of the prayer are not for the people in the congregation or anyone listening to us, but they are for God and God alone.  To truly be in prayer, we can’t be  focused on ourselves or anyone else – except God, because it is God’s plan, his will and his working in the world that we are seeking to see, understand and participate in.

There are six petitions in the prayer Jesus taught us.  The first Petition: ‘Hallowed be thy name’ simply serves as a reminder of where we stand in reference to God.  We are the creation and he is the creator.

The second Petition:  ‘Thy kingdom come.’ This petition, along with the third, ‘ Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.’, gets at the heart of what prayer is about.  By praying for God’s kingdom to come on earth we are asking that God would use us.  That by connecting to God we would be allowed to participate in his will and work in this world and that we would do that to so fully, that Gods kingdom would be present on earth.

In the fourth petition we honestly ask God for what we need - ‘Give us this day our daily bread’.  We are asking for what we need, but we are also asking God to keep us focused on what he has put in front of us right now and not be caught up looking into the future, even if that future is only what we will eat tomorrow – we need to give our attention to what God has for us today – not worry about what we might be planning for tomorrow or next week or next year.

In the fifth Petition, ‘And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.’ We recognize that in order to be used by God we must seek forgiveness for our sins and shortcomings.  And we also acknowledge that this is one of the first places where we can participate in God’s redemptive work in this world, by forgiving those that have wronged us.

All of which leads us to our last Petition : ‘And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’  Here we lift up all of our requests with the understanding that we don’t have the power to do this alone.  It is only through the grace and peace of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in us that we are lifted out of bondage to sin and freed to participate in God’s mission in the world.

Jesus gave us a great model for what prayer should look like and how we should understand and approach it, which can go a long way in alleviating our anxiety about how to pray.

But, maybe even more perplexing for us than how we are to pray – is how God responds to prayer.  We all know the stories of miraculous healings and of events unfolding in ways that we would describe as impossible and when these things happen we say – it was God, it was our God, answering prayer. 

And that is a great witness.  But what about the other side of those stories, and we know those as well.  The miracles and the healings and the changes of heart that we prayed and prayed for but never came – what do we say about those?

Does God answer prayer?  Does he answer it sometimes?  Or as I have often heard it, does he always answer but sometimes the answer is no and sometimes the answer is wait.   If we look at how Jesus understands prayer, he wouldn’t accept the premise of those questions. 

Contrary to what we often think and how we often act prayer is not about getting something that we want or even really getting ‘answers’ to our questions.  Prayer is about seeking to be in God’s will and to know God’s plan and your role in it.  It is about being in relationship with God through the Holy Spirit and living in, dwelling in that relationship.

We talk a lot about ‘answered prayer’, but - as we have seen – prayer as taught by Jesus isn’t so much about getting ‘answers’ or results – checking off items on a list; as it is about allowing the Holy Spirit and our relationship with God to color our understanding and interaction with the world.  It is through prayer that we can begin to see the world as God sees it; it is through prayer that we can see ourselves, each other and all of creation through Jesus’ eyes. 

Pastor and author Rob Bell says it this way, ‘when Jesus prays he is tapping into this divine creative energy’ – that is what we can do too.  That is what prayer is designed for, it isn’t for us to share our laundry list of wants and needs with God or to remind him of things that he should be doing anyway.  Prayer was created, it was designed to allow us access to Gods creative and redemptive work in the world and allow us to become co-creators with God and instruments of his redemption of the world\ 

We are looking and hoping to come into the will of God and the plan of God through opening ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit in and through us.  Prayer allows us to get in line with God’s will through the power of the Holy Spirit

It’s not about us saying the right things or saying them the right way or in the right place.  Prayer is about being open to the Holy Spirit and connecting to the creative and redemptive power of God in our lives.

God is constantly pouring out his love and grace in the world – in us and through us, if only we will listen and respond. 

            Prayer is about being transformed.  It is about being changed by our relationship with God so that we begin to look at the world, to see, experience and interact with it in the way that God would.  It is through prayer that we become Jesus eyes and ears so we can see and hear the world as God has and know where God has planned for us to participate in his mission in the world.

            It is only after we have experienced the world through God’s eyes and ears are we able to become his hands and feet: bringing his peace, hope and grace to all and shining the light of his love into every dark corner of our world.  This is what prayer is about, this is what Jesus was inviting us to participate in when he taught us how to pray and this is what he is calling us to today. 

            Amen.

Advent Conspiracy Devotional: Tuesday, December 7th

Scripture: Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Reflection: Money is often a taboo subject in church, even when many other very sensitive matters are routinely and casually shared over coffee or during the prayer concerns. 

            I think this is because we often think of money and God or our faith as opposing forces somehow.  This isn’t quite true though.  The truth is that God makes it clear that we have to decide what is most important to us and what is going to be our driving and underlying motivation.  Is it going to be God and God’s will for our lives or is it going to be the pursuit of money, wealth and possessions. 

            What Jesus is making clear in Matthew 6 is not that we have to hate money or that we can’t have it or even want it.  But that they can’t be equals in our lives or in our hearts. 
            We are called to love and serve God with all of our heart, mind, strength and spirit.  With all of who we are and what we have – this includes our money, so we can’t be trying to serve it too.

Question: What or who are you serving right now in your life? 

What would it take to really begin to serve God first?

What are you invested in?

Sorry that the blog is late today.  I have been in a presbytery meeting all day (I still am, don't tell anyone!)
So, that means no lectionary blog.  But below you will find yesterday's message that I shared with Good Shepherd.  It was our 'Stewardship Sunday' and I asked the question, 'are you invested?'
I would love to hear what you think:

Malachi 3:6-12

 ⁶ "I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. ⁷ Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty.
      "But you ask, 'How are we to return?'

 ⁸ "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
      "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'
      "In tithes and offerings. ⁹ You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me.¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. ¹¹ I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. ¹² "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty.

Matthew 6:19-34

¹⁹ "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

    ²² "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, ^[c] your whole body will be full of light. ²³But if your eyes are unhealthy, ^[d] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

    ²⁴ "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you 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 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life ^[e]?

    ²⁸ "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers 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—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. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Prayer: God, open our eyes that we might see you.  Open our ears that we might clearly hear your Word calling us.  Open our hearts so they might be tuned to yours.  And I ask that you would hide me behind your cross, so you are what’s seen and speak through me, so you are what’s heard.  Amen.

Several years ago, I was part of a group of St. Tim’s leaders going to get a $150,000 donation from Mrs. DuPont.  A leader said, it really shouldn’t be that hard, after all she could really pay for the whole thing and not even miss the money.  ‘She won’t even miss it’ – maybe hard for us to comprehend, but that was the reality of her situation.

But then Father Tom, the priest, said something profound that I will never forget - If she doesn’t miss it, then we will never get it.

The point he was making is about the nature of giving in the church and it is one that I think we all too often miss.

You see, I don’t think giving from a Christian perspective is about generosity or helping out those in need around us, or even helping to ensure that the doors of the church stay open.  These are all good and important things, and the money given to the church is certainly used for them – as it should be

But that is not the point or the purpose behind giving back to God through our tithes and offerings.  The point is that we are to be fully invested in what God is doing in and around us – that we are to actively participate in the mission and work of God in this world.

It is a point clearly illustrated in the story of the widows’ offering :

From Luke 21:1-4 (The Message)

^1-4Just then he looked up and saw the rich people dropping offerings in the collection plate. Then he saw a poor widow put in two pennies. He said, "The plain truth is that this widow has given by far the largest offering today. All these others made offerings that they'll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn't afford—she gave her all!"

Many of you may be familiar with that story and it is yet another one of the stories of Jesus that gets trotted out around stewardship time, but I think by looking closely at this passage – along with the others we read this morning  can give us an important understanding of God’s call to invest in His mission in this world.

I think we are to draw two things out of Jesus’ description of the widow’s offering.  The first is about priorities and the second is about control.  The issue of what are priorities are in relation to God is simple

God calls us to put him first in our life, this may be hard to hear or difficult to think about implementing, but if you listen to the words of Jesus – this isn’t really a negotiable point

The thing is it’s easy to talk about making God a priority in our lives and there are many ways to do that:

Daily study and devotion

Involvement in the life of the church and regular worship

Engagement in service to and for others

But really, for most of us it is when we reach for our wallets that we get the truest picture of where God really stands as a priority in our lives.  We can take solace in remembering that of all the people Jesus encountered, only one did he call to sell everything and follow him.

For most of us God simply requires that we put him first.  Our money is so interconnected with the rest of our lives that when we shut God out of that area, it quickly becomes difficult to truly make God a priority in any other area of our lives

The hard truth is that in our world our ‘spiritual lives’ are directly connected to our pocketbooks and our wallets.  This is exactly what Jesus is talking about in the Gospel passage from Matthew that we heard a few minutes ago: ‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’

To put it more bluntly, Jesus is saying that our Hearts follow our dollars.  And that our Dollars lead our Hearts.  I think we assume that the heart – our hearts – work in the opposite direction: that we care first and then we share.

We think that someday, sometime down the road we will be spiritually mature enough that we will trust God to provide enough so that we can share with others.

We allow ourselves to believe that someday – but not now – when we have all we need, we will practice generosity. 

But Jesus says that isn’t the way it works.  First we must become invested in God’s work and mission in this world and in and through our lives.  Jesus says that if we want to trust that God will provide, we begin that process by  trusting that God has already provided. 

Treasure first, says Jesus.  Our hearts will follow. 

First we share – of our time, our talents and yes, our money – we invest who we are and what we have in God’s mission and in so doing we grow to care.  Trusting in God – which is a crucial part of what is needed to take the first step in investing yourself in God’s will for your life and in God’s work in and around you is not easy. 

It isn’t easy and it hinges on the second issue.  Jesus is getting at in the story of the widow’s offering– control.  If you were here last week, we talked a little about this then too – because I really believe it is right at the heart of stewardship.

We all want to be able to control as much as we can about our lives, and thanks to technology, wealth and knowledge for the first time in human history we can at least perceive to have some level of control over all or almost all of our lives

But if you have lived long enough, studied enough history or listened closely enough to the Word of God you know that our ability to control – well, much of anything really – is nothing more than an illusion.  And this is, again, directly tied to how we handle our money

Do we see ourselves as children of God, trusting in our creator and savior for all that we need – as we are told in Matt 6 –

'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Or do we ignore those words and hold on as tightly as we can to all that we have been given, operating under the illusion not just of control but of responsibility – that we are in this life alone and it is our responsibility (and ours alone) to provide for our families; to care for ourselves; etc.

If we let go of this illusion, if we truly make God a priority in our lives – in every area of our lives and we recognize that God is in control and accept his responsibility for us than I believe, It will mean that sometimes we are asked to give so much that we can’t help but notice it

But I also believe that whether we have less or more; plenty or want; whether we are the rich giving our offerings or the poor widow among them when we trust in God and invest what God has given us in the mission and work of God we will experience grace, peace and providence as the first dividends of an amazing investment

Let me briefly share three steps to beginning to invest in God’s mission in and around you

Step One – Make a promise.  The spiritual practice of generosity begins with a promise – the promise to share.  It is a promise to ourselves and to God.  In this church we have the opportunity to record our promise through a pledge card – which I once heard described as a promissory prayer.

Step Two – Share in proportion to your resources.  Our Hebrew ancestors gave us an example of proportional giving, setting aside the first ten percent of their harvests or herds to God in what was called ‘the tithe’.  Ten percent is a good goal or bench mark, but it isn’t a magic number – especially if you are just beginning the spiritual discipline of generosity.   Starting where you are is a great goal – beginning with 1 or 2 percent of your resources.  Much more important than the amount is that we promise a proportion of what God has shared with us.

Step Three – Be persistent in giving.  Generosity, like all disciplines is self-confirming.  What I mean by that is that it is only by practicing it that we are able to learn and understand its value.  This is true of prayer, worship, Bible study and it is true too of generosity.  Simply put to see the benefits of generosity for ourselves and the world around us we must keep at it. 

Persistence pays off as disciplines become habits and Godly habits become sources of joy and energy for our life and the lives around us.

Are you invested?