DEUTERONOMY  8:12-14, 17-19
MATTHEW  6:19-21                                                                     

Gordon Ellis & Linda Fernandes-Bailey
April 29, 2007

GIVING   TO   GOD:   A   CONVERSATION

GORDON: It’s STEWARDSHIP time again!

LINDA: That’s alright, Gordon!  We NEED to talk about money in the church.  Do you realize that Jim and I JOINED a church based on a sermon about MONEY?  That always SURPRISES people because everybody seems to HATE how the church talks about MONEY.  In fact, many people LEAVE churches because they think there’s TOO much talk about MONEY.

GORDON: That’s TRUE, but our attitude toward money is JUST as important to our FAITH journey as anything ELSE that we do.

LINDA: Do you realize that Jesus talked more about MONEY than about anything else EXCEPT…  the Kingdom of God?

GORDON: Linda, thanks to you, BOTH of us have been reading a new book by Mark Allan Powell entitled, Giving to God.  And I’ve found it VERY helpful, because I always DREAD preaching about STEWARDSHIP.  I always FEEL like I’m singing for my supper.  And there are only SO many TIMES you can PUSH people to live by the BIBLICAL standard, which is living on only 80% of our income, and saving 10% for the FUTURE, and giving 10% back to GOD.  I mean: HOW many TIMES can people HEAR that the goal in OUR church is for EVERYONE to give 5% of their income back to God through the CHURCH, and ANOTHER 5% back to God through OTHER organizations, which ALSO do God’s WORK.  And I APPRECIATE that so MANY are taking that goal very SERIOUSLY and working TOWARD it.  It’s really IMPORTANT for our spiritual growth!  But I’ve been REALIZING that I need to find some OTHER way to preach about STEWARDSHIP, and the book is HELPING.

LINDA: You could use the POTATOES….

GORDON: WHAT?  What are you TALKING about?

LINDA: Well, let me SHOW you!  I once saw our colleague, Tony Robinson, DO this.  He took 20 potatoes and said that the BIBLE tells us that we are to SAVE at least 10% for the FUTURE.  SO, he took 2 potatoes OUT for the FUTURE.  MOST of us are OK with THIS 10%.  We DO it with our IRA’s and such.  Then, he said that the Bible ALSO tells us to give 10% back to GOD.  SO, he took another 2 potatoes out.  But THEN he went on to say that the average person in a mainline Protestant church like ours gives only 1.2% of their income.  SO, he took ONE potato of the 2 potatoes and he cut it into 5 pieces.  Then he picked up ONE of the pieces and said: OF your 20 potatoes, friends, of EVERYTHING that you HAVE and ALL that you ARE, this potato CHIP is ALL you give back to God.  SO, you COULD use POTATOES!

GORDON: No, FORGET the potatoes!  Let’s use the BOOK.  Do you remember Powell’s story about the GAULS? 

LINDA: Yes, I LOVED that story!

GORDON: The GAULS were a WAR-LIKE people in ANCIENT times, and they inhabited what is NOW France and Belgium.  Well at one point, the Roman Empire, which had become CHRISTIAN, came along and CONQUERED the Gauls.  SOON, Christian MISSIONARIES were venturing into these new territories of the Empire and CONVERTING the Gauls to Christianity.  However, WHEN one of their WARRIORS was BAPTIZED in a river or stream, that warrior would hold ONE of his arms HIGH in the AIR as the missionary DUNKED him under the water.  Well, THIS seemed like a strange CUSTOM to the missionaries, but they didn’t QUESTION it.  After awhile, however, the missionaries found out WHY the warriors were DOING it.  You see: the NEXT time a REVOLT against the Roman Empire broke OUT, these newly-baptized, so-called “CHRISTIAN,” warriors proclaimed that their FIGHTING arms were NOT baptized!  SO, they GRABBED their swords and clubs and rode off to DESTROY their enemies in a most UNCHRISTIAN-like MANNER.

LINDA: SO, Powell’s question to US is: WHAT part of OURSELVES, what aspect of our OWN identity, are WE trying to keep FREE from the INFLUENCE of OUR baptism, FREE from the influence of OUR faith, and MAYBE free from the influence of GOD?  You see: becoming a CHRISTIAN is about getting completely WET!  It’s about giving our ENTIRE self -- our ENTIRE life, ALL that we HAVE and ALL that we ARE -- to GOD and GOD’S purposes.

GORDON: That’s TRUE!  You know: we so easily PRAY the words: THY kingdom come.  THY will be done.  But do we ever LISTEN to what we’re PRAYING for?  When we pray, THY kingdom come, we’re really asking God to RULE our lives!  We’re asking God to BE in CHARGE!  And when we pray, THY will be done, we’re asking for what GOD LONGS for us to actually HAPPEN… and to happen NOW!

LINDA: Gordon, if you were falling into water, what would you try to keep OUT of the water?

GORDON: My WALLET, of course!

LINDA: And you’re not ALONE!  MOST of us WOULD do that!  And THAT’S the POINT!  WE are just like the GAULS!  WE’RE no better than THEY were!  We TOO want to hold something OUT of the water!  We TOO want to KEEP something from being UNDER the INFLUENCE of our BAPTISM, our FAITH, and our GOD!  And it’s usually our WALLET!

GORDON: Our CULTURE has this PARADOXICAL attitude toward MONEY and WEALTH.  On the one hand, we KNOW that HAVING money doesn’t GUARANTEE happiness.  We even PORTRAY the rich as GREEDY, UNHAPPY people -- like Ebeneezer SCROOGE, or Mr. BURNS on The Simpsons.  On the OTHER hand, we somehow BELIEVE that our lives would be BETTER, and more FULFILLING, IF we just had more MONEY.  And therefore, instead of giving to God FIRST, MANY of us end up giving to GOD from our LEFTOVERS, AFTER we’ve spent it on everything ELSE that we THINK we need, or maybe just WANT.  But don’t you SEE: stewardship is about HOW we live our ENTIRE lives.  It’s NOT just about giving 10% of our income BACK to GOD!

LINDA: Right!  Stewardship is about HOW we CARE for our BODIES, the TEMPLE of God: from flossing our TEETH to eating HEALTHY, from getting EXERCISE to managing STRESS.

GORDON: Stewardship is about HOW we CARE for our ENVIRONMENT, God’s CREATION: from conserving water to recycling, from preserving WETLANDS and rainforests to trying to STOP global warming.

LINDA: Stewardship is about HOW we CARE for our FAMILIES: from nurturing our marriages and civil unions to raising healthy, happy children, from caring for our ELDERLY to making sure that EVERYONE has access to good quality HEALTHCARE.

GORDON: Yes, stewardship is about ALL of life!  It’s about giving OURSELVES to GOD and using ALL of God’s BLESSINGS in GRATEFUL, appropriate, LIFE-GIVING ways!  STEWARDSHIP is a LIFESTYLE, a lifestyle of acknowledging that ALL that we have, and ALL that we ARE, comes from God, and therefore, needs to be CHERISHED -- and USED according to GOD’S values, and FOR God’s purposes!

LINDA: But Gordon, let’s not forget to talk about the BEST part of Powell’s book, the part about SHAPING our HEARTS.

GORDON: That’s right!  Why don’t YOU start….

LINDA: Well, Powell says that of ALL the spiritual disciplines presented in the Bible, stewardship is SPECIAL because it is directly CONNECTED to the condition of our hearts.  The scriptures talk a LOT about how IMPORTANT it IS that our hearts are RIGHT with God -- SET on God.  In First Samuel, it says: The Lord does not SEE as mortals see.  Mortals look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the HEART. (1 Samuel 16:7)  You know: THAT’S my biggest FRUSTRATION with my WORK here!  I try and try and TRY to tell people the IMPORTANCE of spiritual DISCIPLINES, but they keep RESISTING!  But WITHOUT spiritual disciplines, like PRAYER and meditation, WORSHIP and stewardship, we’re likely to end up with hearts of STONE, living self-centered lives, and HOARDING everything we HAVE.

GORDON: WHY don’t you tell us how you REALLY feel, Linda?

LINDA: Well, Gordon, Jesus says in our Scripture Lesson: Where your TREASURE is, THERE will your HEART be also.

GORDON: But MOST people, even ministers, get that saying BACKWARDS!  They say: Where your HEART is, THAT’S where you’ll put your MONEY, right?  I’VE even said that!

LINDA: But, you see: JESUS said it the OTHER way around!  JESUS said: where you put your TREASURE, THAT’S where your HEART will end up!  It’s NOT that HOW we spend our money reveals what sort of PEOPLE we are, though it often DOES.  The POINT is: HOW we spend our money determines WHAT sort of people we BECOME!

GORDON: But we ALSO need to remember that our TREASURE is not just our MONEY.  Our TREASURE is whatever we VALUE: from our money to our physical bodies, from our talents to our families, from our possessions to our TIME.

LINDA: That’s RIGHT!  And JESUS would say that what we DO with our treasures affects our HEARTS.  It determines WHO we ARE inside.  It DETERMINES what kind of PEOPLE we become.  Powell says that, even though this may sound SCARY, it’s actually GOOD NEWS, because it MEANS that we can MAKE our hearts FEEL what they DON’T.  In other words, we can DIRECT our hearts to GO in ways that we WANT them to go.  And if that’s TRUE, then we can BECOME the people we WANT to become, and the people that God CALLS us to become.

GORDON: Well, I can tell you from personal EXPERIENCE that it happened for ME!  For a NUMBER of years, even as a MINISTER, I didn’t TITHE.  Diane and I didn’t give anywhere NEAR 10% back to God through the church and any OTHER organization.  But it’s something we WANTED to DO!  And we KNEW that we’d feel GOOD about it if we DID.  SO, we set it as our GOAL, and started working TOWARD it.  EVERY year for a NUMBER of years, we added another $5 PER week to our PLEDGE.  And NOW, our TOTAL giving to the church is WELL over 5%.  And we ALWAYS give away over 10% our income.  And I have to TELL you that it feels FANTASTIC!

LINDA: Good point, Gordon!  THAT’S the BIBLICAL message!  It’s that our GIVING needs to be PROACTIVE rather than REACTIVE.  People often say: Give from the HEART, but JESUS wouldn’t SAY that!  JESUS would say: GIVE where you WANT your heart to BE, and let your HEART catch up!  DON’T just give to the things you CARE about.  GIVE to the things you WANT to care about!  DON’T decide the AMOUNT of your giving by how much you CARE.  Decide it by how much you WANT to care.  In other words, ASK yourself: If I were the person I’d LIKE to be, WHAT would I do?  HOW would I spend my MONEY, my TIME, my TALENTS and everything ELSE that I have?  And then, DO what you would do IF you were the sort of person you WANT to be.  In other words, put your TREASURE where you WANT your heart to BE… and Jesus promises that your heart WILL go there.

GORDON: That’s a GREAT message for ALL of us, isn’t it?  How often do we WISH that we could be DIFFERENT, that we could have DIFFERENT cares, concerns and wants?  Well, we NEED to learn to put our TREASURE -- whatever that IS for us -- INTO the things we WANT to CARE about, because WHERE your TREASURE is, THERE will your HEART be also.  Friends, I hope that we ALL will THINK long and hard about this ALL-IMPORTANT truth.  It literally can CHANGE our LIVES!  And THIS week, I HOPE we’ll all THINK about it -- and PRAY about it -- in LIGHT of the MAILING that we’ll ALL be RECEIVING tomorrow or the next day, the one with the PLEDGE card in it.  Let’s PRAYERFULLY consider how much we WANT to support GOD’S work of LOVE and CARE, GOODNESS and PEACE, JUSTICE and HOPE, that is being accomplished IN and through OUR church family and its ministries and programs and missions.  And friends, let’s ALL put our TREASURE where we want our HEARTS to BE.  Let’s BECOME the persons we WANT to become -- AND that God CALLS us to become.  Amen.

(Based on the book, Giving to God: The Bible’s Good News About Living a Generous Life,

by Mark Allan Powell; Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006)