Why do we Give?

October 15, 2006 Mark 10:17-31 1 John 4:7-19 Why do we Give? Sunday edition … I struggled with whether to show this clip for a lot of reasons. But my hope is that you all would take it with a grain of salt – and see the humor in it and not take it too seriously. But let’s face it, we live in a materialistic world. Everything in this world about paying for and receiving a service. We hear consumeristic messages everywhere, even in church. I also wanted to point out that this is not a sermon about tithing. It is about pledging our gifts and our lives to God. Tithing is a wonderful practice, and has been a very effective for many people. If you do it, then you know the rewards of it. But every year we are asked to look inside of our hearts, to look at our relationship with God, and to determine what God is calling us to do, to create in our lives and in the world. If you read the messages of Jesus, Paul and even John Wesley. There is not a lot about tithing. Tithing asks you to give 10% of what you have. Yet Jesus says that you probably have more than 10% to give, and that the needs of the world certainly require more than 10%. Pledging is about giving from all that you have and in meeting all of the needs of people. Today I want to talk specifically about money. I am sure that many of you would agree that money is always a touchy subject in church. What does money have to do with faith and worship? Actually, if you read through the New Testament- you would see that according to Jesus, money has everything to do with faith. Many of the parables and examples that Jesus spoke of have an economic basis too them. Some say that there are at least 38 parables in the new testament, 16 of them- almost half are about money or possessions. There is the widow who gave all that she had, the woman who celebrated for finding a con on the floor, the men who stood all day waiting to be hired – and the list goes on. Isnt it interesting in a world where we would rather go to the store and pay $1 for water than use our water faucet, where youth would rather spend $100 for shoes that say Micheal Jordan than go to payless and pay $20 for sneakers that say nothing that the church has been crippled in speaking about money. What better place to learn about healthy money management principles? Money is the core of who we are. How we handle money uncovers what we treasure in life. I could ask you what your priorities are – and you will tell me what you think you should say. But if I look in your checkbook even before you balanced it, I can learn all there is to know about you – your priorities, how charitable you are, your integrity in paying bills, your bad habits. I can learn everything about you. Money has everything to do with faith – because money is a part of every aspect of our lives. And our lives is the arena in which our faith is lived out. Jesus was very much aware of that concept – even way back then. Jesus knew that when he encountered this very sincere man – who asks what he must do to have eternal life. Now this is one of those surface conversations, where the man thought that he would ask the right questions so that he would get the right answer. And he would get the pat on the back for being a good man and he could just go on with his life. What does it mean to have eternal life – to have eternal life- is that an investment in a far off unknown future. Instead of saving for retirement- was this man preparing to make sure that he has going to be comfortable forever? Or is does eternal life start with our lifestyle today. You can buy a comfortable bed, but you can’t buy a good nights sleep. You can buy health insurance, but you cant buy good health. You can buy all of the monitoring equipment in the world, but you cant buy a sense of peace and security. Those things are gifts that come only from our relationship with God. Jesus being God – had the ability to look beyond the man’s words to see his heart, his soul, his checkbook, his whole being- to hear the inner heart question that the man was really asking. Jesus answered out of sincere love - a love that would transform this man’s life. Sell everything that you have and give it to the poor. It is exciting that the Nobel peace committee has started to think above the culture. They gave to peace prize to Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank for doing just that- giving loans to the poor of bangledesh. Poverty is a large part of the lack of peace in the world. Mr Yunus has done just what Jesus calls all of us to do – to give what we have to help others. We can all agree on the importance of helping the poor. But the man in the scripture and even Mr Yunis are rich and they have it to give. What about those who don’t have to give? Those who are struggling to survive, or those who have money – but also have a lot of obligations. Most of us are not rich or poor- we are middle class. We have the money to live- but we have to be careful in how we spend it. The world that we live in is certainly a lot different than the world that Jesus lived in. People are losing jobs, companies who used to take care of employees have stopped, the economies of whole cities is are falling apart. Studies show that People are not giving as much as they used to. Has the world finally succeeded in making Jesus words obsolete? How can we give everything, when we don’t have everything? The scripture always has a word of hope, even in the harshest teaching. Jesus reminds us that the work of God is not dependent on his advice for the man to sell everything. He says that all things are possible with God. That man giving all that he had would not change that. Giving of ourselves is not about saving the church, it is not even about saving the world. Giving is about our relationship with God. It is about showing our love in a tangible way. Love is always from God – not from our pockets. God loved us first, so that we would know how to love others. God has given you not only everything that you have – God has given you everything that God is. God is love, God is creation, God is life, God is salvation, God is the gift of Jesus Christ in our lives – God is everything that there is – and it has been given freely to us all. Good calls us all to give freely – not because we owe it – but because we can. God has a mission to spread love in the deep crevices of pain in our lives and to the far ends of the earth- wherever there are people. God calls us to be partners in that mission. We give not to get- but to be a blessing to others. And when we give- God always returns with a blessing in our lives. That is the function of calling us here together in the church. We come together because we are all on a journey, a journey to the heart of God. In reality, we are all in different places, we give different amounts for different reasons. Here is a drama of some people and their experience of the church….. Each of us has a different relationship with God – we give in different amounts for different reasons. No matter where we are on our journey – God has called us here together. To walk together, to support one another, to help each other grow, to walk away from the past and to enter into the future together as community. Whereever we are, we are called to a deeper relationship with each other, with God and more importantly to the mission of God – to transform this confused materialistic world. When we come together are the church, and we walk together we become true stewards of God’s creation. When we come together as the church we can all be partners with God and not individual owners of our own small domain. We are focused on who we are as a community, not who we are as an organization. We are focused in our mission in the world, not on our budget. We value our relationships, not our membership numbers. And we look to the potential good that we can accomplish, not the on what we don’t have. Each of us here have two hands to help in that transformation. One hand to receive the blessings of God and one hand to give. To give to god wholeheartedly. To give with everything in our hearts, with everything that we have, and with everything that we have. To take your whole checkbook into consideration, not just the 10% . What does money have to do with faith? Everything. How you spend it says a lot about how who you are as a citizen of both earth and heaven. Just as you can’t survive in the world without money You can’t pledge your time, your service, your prayers without it. Your generosity is always the most important sign of spiritual health. My financial planner must work for Jesus. Because I have had that encounter that the man in the scripture had. When I told the financial planner the value of my doll collection- he told me that in order to be happy in the future I had to stop buying dolls. He said that he was not convinced that was a sound investment in the future. My reaction was a lot like the young man’s. First of all you are meddling, and second that is just not ready to think about that. This scripture has been a challenge for me every time in my life that I have encountered it. Sell everything and give it to the poor. What a harsh request in a world that honors stuff. My deepest fear is that there will be nothing left for me. And yet in the midst of our deepest fears, is also our greatest hope. With God all things are possible. Pledging is giving to God out of our whole selves. Jesus is well aware of your situation. And yet Jesus still asks you to give. To give out of everything that you have. To give from your scarcity as well as your abundance, from your fears as well as your hopes, from your past as well as your future. From you debts and your assets, from your barriers, as well as your freedoms. Christ loves you enough to ask for you to give from our whole selves, not just 10% of who we are. We are being asked to have the courage to let go and to trust God full and completely with every aspect of our lives. Out of love, God has given you everything that God has- and out of love he calls you to freely give as you soul will allow? What do you have to give?