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Sunday, October 30, 2005
What Are You Investing In?
3rd in a series “What Shall I Return to the Lord?”
By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz
Luke 6:37-38
37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."
The first thing I want to do this morning is to talk with any newcomers about this unusual service today. This is the Sunday once a year when we rededicate ourselves as followers of Jesus Christ, disciples and imitators of his life and teachings. We do that by promising again our PRAYERS, PRESENCE, GIFTS, AND SERVICE for his work through this congregation.
And we usually do this cheerfully and joyfully. My friend Norman Neaves at a large church in Oklahoma City tells about a woman who came up to him after worship in October after one of their stewardship sermons and she told him how much she enjoyed coming to church during the time of year when they focused on giving and generosity. Norman was surprised and told her that her comment was a little unusual because some people are uncomfortable when their church talks frankly about money.
She said something very insightful. She said she likes coming to church during October because it helps her look again at what her priorities are and what is most important in life and whether she is giving attention with her time and energy and money to what is truly important, most important.
That is what any stewardship focus should do, and if you have thought with that woman about any of those questions, we are on the right track and doing what Jesus would want us to do, especially when he said, you are worried about so many things and when we put God at the center of our attention, then the other things we worry about will fall into place.
I want to review for a moment what we have done. Two weeks ago we looked at part of this wonderful psalm that we have printed for you, Psalm 116. The Psalmist gets us off on the right foot: we have been given so much; we are so blessed by God. We are so fortunate. Anything we do is just a response to God and to God’s bountiful blessings.
Last week we talked about the three Biblical standards for our generosity: sacrificial giving, proportionate giving, and the tithe-ten percent of our resources as a spiritual practice for all Christians. We urged people to keep moving toward the tithe if we are not there yet, to dedicate another percent or two or three toward God’s work. You can find where you are on the chart in your bulletin and keep moving forward each year.
Both these past weeks we have heard from fellow members about why they are supportive of this church and what they will be doing next year to follow their promises of PRAYERS PRESENCE GIFTS AND SERVICE. I need to say that I am just inspired every time we do this to hear from some of you about your decisions and your commitment. It is much more powerful than anything the preacher could say.
We have been doing that for several years for this reason: generosity is contagious. We can be inspired to grow when we hear of the generosity of others. Let me tell you a story about that: ten years ago a family from California was vacationing in Italy. They unfortunately got into the middle of a gun battle among some thieves or gangsters while they were driving and seven year old Nicholas Green sitting in the back seat of the rented car was shot in the head. He was rushed to the hospital and was determined to have no brain activity. His parents, in that country with no friends or family around them, decided to donate Nicholas organs. Because of that act of generosity seven Italian children who were desperately waiting for organs were allowed to benefit and in some cases, were allowed to live.
This was highly unusual because Italy at that time had one of the lowest organ donation rates of any western country. But after the story of what Nicholas Green’s family hit the Italian newspapers, requests for organ donor forms in Italy went up 500%! And what is even more inspiring, that increase has been sustained. Nicholas father just wrote a letter to Dear Abby a month ago giving an update. Over the past ten years, the organ donation rate is still 300% what it was before little Nicholas’ tragic death.
Generosity is contagious, and that has been the case for us over the years as we have heard from fellow members about their faith and how they express faith in their generosity and this church has moved people from thinking that being a Christian is about putting my dollar or five dollars in the plate to dedicating five per cent or seven per cent or ten per cent of my resources to God.
In the next few minutes I want us to think about our investments, about what you are investing in. I don’t just mean the stock market or real estate or vehicles for monetary rewards. I hope you are able to do some of that and that you are successful.
But I want you to think about other ways we invest our resources. There was an article in the Boston Globe a week ago about the clutter that many Americans have created for ourselves by spending for so much stuff. There is a growing business in which people who will come in and help us organize and get rid of our clutter and simplify our lives because we have cluttered up our lives with so much stuff.
I am guilty. I took a serious look at my closet last week and was embarrassed when I looked at the shirts in the back of my closet that I haven’t worn for quite a while. I have a weakness for shirts and I know that came from growing up poor. As a sixteen-year-old soda jerk I would window shop at the men’s clothing store after I got off work and all the stores had closed and would wonder if I would ever be able to have clothes like that.
What I did last week was to give away half dozen shirts that had not been worn for quite a while and still I had a lot left.
I had been investing in something that was trivial and I was overdue in sharing and changing that.
In our family we also are investing in what this church does with ten per cent of our income each year, and it is that investment I want to talk with you about. I want you to think about the information you will indicate on your pledge card today as an investment, an investment in people and in spiritual health for yourself and others. It is a less tangible investment than other things but I think it is more important. And it is an investment, as Jesus tells us that really will provide benefits in your life that are comparable to how you invest.
When you give to God’s work, you are investing in children and in the spiritual growth of children. We do that not only through our Sunday School program which is touching over 200 children each week, we do it through our weekday Children’s Learning Center in which most of the 200 families served in that program are not members here but are from our community.
Your generous pledge today will be an investment in youth. You heard Mike Kritenbrink talk last week about the strength of our youth programming here—one of the best in the country. How important do you think it is for kids to grow up in a church where they are known, accepted, have a chance to serve through our mission trips that involved almost 221 kids and young adults this past summer? How important is it that kids particularly in our part of town get a chance to experience how most of the world lives and how blessed we are and how being blessed means that we are expected to be a blessing for others? I think it is very important—not only for our own kids but for the hundreds of kids we are now reaching through our nine month old LIFEspot ministry two miles north of where we sit.
Your pledge today will be an investment in young people who need a safe place of belonging and acceptance and who need a moral compass and a guide for life.
You will be investing in outreach ministries in our community and our world and we just don’t have enough time to show enough pictures of all this church does in outreach through agencies that help families get off welfare and become self sufficient and help runaway kids get their GED and go on to college. The latest outreach ministry we are undertaking will be in January when we host in our building homeless families one week at a time, families who are learning to get back on their feet and rebuild their lives through job training and placement.
Our outreach includes the privilege of resettling the Cooke family from Liberia a few months ago and participating in what Musu Cooke called the saving of their lives in leaving war torn Liberia for a new life here. And for me one of the most moving worship experiences in this new space was the Sunday we welcomed them in worship and Musu sang, Let Us Count Our Blessings.
Speaking of music, your generous pledge will also be an investment in one of the most active music ministries in all of Denver as we continue to add people to the 16 music groups here, groups that involve close to 500 people in the blessing of music and the camaraderie of being in a community together because that is what our choirs and ensembles become—a true community for each other. One glowing example of this was the production last June of Fiddler On the Roof by our youth choir—one of the most inspiring and positive experiences ever in Holy Pretzel youth choir history.
This is a long list of how your investment is changing lives. There are the several twelve step groups that meet here during the week. Incidentally, this nine-month-old building is one of the best-used church buildings in Denver with almost 100 different activities here each week Sunday through Saturday.
That list includes sixteen Disciple Bible study groups, adult classes with visiting scholars like this one last week with Dr. Hernandez from the Iliff School of Theology teaching us about Islam. It includes meetings of people who prepare to go on pilgrimages to Israel, and the myriad other groups and classes listed in our Pathways booklet.
Your generosity supports our congregational care program with Stephen ministers, our weekly care team meetings that reach out to all of our members in need, and our covenant visitors who call on elderly persons who cannot get out.
And our worship life where we hear God’s instructions for living and practice our faith not only on Sunday morning but in our monthly Taizé service and our labyrinth experience. Funerals are supported by your generosity, those important events to give thanks for life at its end and to reaffirm our faith in God in life and in death—and the celebrations of marriage when two people commit their lives to each other and are joined in that celebration by family and friends.
Jesus says, “Give and it will be given to you.” And last week St. Paul promised us that when we are generous with what God has blessed us with, we will be enriched and blessed again. I think it is a blessing and a privilege to invest part of our family’s resources in all that this church is doing. I think we are doing each other a favor to let you invest in something this important! I hope you feel that blessing with me this morning as we bring our cards forward at the end of the morning and sing, Here I Am Lord.