Sermon for October 22, 2006

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME???

Third in a series on The Next Step Of Faith

By

Rev. Dr. Harvey c. Martz

Scripture: Luke 6:38

³⁸ give, and it will be given to you; 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.

 Some of you saw the cover story in Time magazine three weeks ago about the so called “Prosperity Gospel”.  Have you heard that term, “prosperity gospel”? The five page article told about some American churches and prominent preachers whose spin on the message of Jesus is this; if you honor God first and give generously to God and others, you will become rich and successful and have every material thing your heart desires.

Some of you know about some of the preachers who were featured in the article: Joel Osteen at Lakewood church in Houston is one who was quoted in the article as well as United Methodist pastor Kirby Jon Caldwell in Houston who leads the largest congregation in our denomination. Rev. Caldwell is quoted as saying that it is God’s will that you should own property and be monetarily rich.

However, other prominent American pastors like Rick Warren in California, the author of the best selling book The Purpose Driven Life believes that such a simplification is a misunderstanding of the gospel message, and Rick Warren says, “The idea that God wants everybody to be wealthy is baloney. It is creating a false idol. You don’t measure your self worth by your net worth.”

Warren reminds us of a central Bible teaching; money can be neutral. Having money is great if people use it to do good. But the worship of money—what does the Bible say about that? “The love of money is the root of all evil” and we so often get seduced into thinking that happiness is all about what we have instead of about who we are and about who we are in relationship to God.

The prosperity gospel can cause us to forget one of the central biblical passages that we have on our walls: “God blesses us so that—we can BE a blessing for others. “

One other minister in the Time article makes a critical point. He says, the prosperity gospel preachers have it half right, but God is not a supernatural ATM. God does want us to be successful, one of them says–and THEN, let’s talk about what it means to be successful!!  What is a successful life? Here is your lunch or dinner table question together: what does a successful person look like? What does a successful human being look like? What is the good life? Is it all about what we own or is it something more than that?

Having money is good. Who was it who said, “I have been poor and I have been rich and believe me, rich is better.” And now, some of the wealthiest people around, Warren Buffett and Bill and Linda Gates are showing us that what counts is how we use our resources to benefit other people and to be of benefit to those who are vulnerable and poor and ill.

I think God does want us to be successful people, and God gives us in our book some ideas of what a successful person looks like and it may or may not be related to what we can earn and accumulate. I think it is good for people to be financially prosperous and I hope that when they are, they remember what Moses said in our scripture two weeks ago, that it is God who has helped us prosper and not just we on our own. And I don’t want people, in that process of gaining the world’s goods, to do what Jesus warns about—gain the whole world and lose their soul in the process.

That is why, in the Bible, one of the characteristics of being a successful human being is the characteristic of generosity—sharing with God and others: living not just as a taker but as a giver also.

When you talk together today about what a successful person looks like, keep in mind the parable of the two seas in Israel—it is in your bulletin. One of those seas is able to receive water from the Jordan River and then pass it on beyond itself to the southern part of the Jordan River. That sea is alive; fish and plant life thrive in the Sea of Galilee. Fishermen still fish the waters just as they did 2000 years ago in the time of Jesus.

The other sea that the Jordan flows into is very, very different. No fish or plant life is able to survive. It is so full of minerals that you can float almost completely on top of the water! But if you are floating and you happen to get some of the sea water in your eyes it is so toxic it will burn you and even possibly affect your sight. It is the Dead Sea and it is dead because it only receives and does not give anything out of itself. It is not just dead, it is toxic.

When we talk about what a successful human being is, we remember that a big part is whether we are just takers and receivers and consumers, or whether we give out of ourselves and share with others.

The funny thing is that when we do share and practice generosity, we just get back. The verse for today points to that. The story we heard from Dana Woodbury told us that. That has been my experience and our family’s experience also—that when we are willing to share and live generously, good things do happen to us. I can’t explain it and don’t want you to see it in a mechanistic fashion but it has been true for us—that when we give freely and generously we do receive generously. We get something back.

One of our stalwart volunteers who spends many hours a week as a servant leader here told me this last Monday when she was working at one of the computers in the staff office area and I thanked her for the time she was spending that day and she immediately said, “I always get more out of what I do for this church than what I give.” I hope you can understand that because you have experienced that as well.

One of our members is practicing that spirit of generosity in a very bold way this month. This person said to me a month ago that they know what an ambitious year next year is for us in our need for program expansion and they said, to help us raise that additional half million that we need to do what God is asking us to do, they are giving $100,000 as a matching gift for every new pledge or every increased pledge from 2006 to 2007. So if you have been attending this church for a while and want to pledge to support our programs for the first time, your pledge will be doubled-matched dollar for dollar. Or if you are increasing your pledge, whatever that increase is from 2006 to 2007 will be matched/doubled dollar for dollar.

The person who gave this tremendous gift has discovered the rewards that come from sharing and giving.

We give to God and to others because of how we feel as we do that. Let me close with two other examples, one from our neighborhood and one from a church mentioned in Diana Butler Bass’s new book. 

I was buying my non fat no foam latte at a nearby Starbucks this week and talking with the manager whom I have gotten acquainted with. We were talking about something her staff has just decided to do. The company gives a certain amount of money to each store to hold a Christmas party for their employees. She told me that her employees decided not to use the money for a party for themselves but to take the money and to use it to buy presents and food for needy families through the interfaith community service group in south Denver. She said they would still have their party for themselves but they would just make it a potluck with team members bringing their own food and sharing it. They chose not to keep and take just for themselves—they chose to give and share. Why? Because there is a good feeling when we give and share and make a difference—especially during the season of Christmas when we remember words from the Bible like—“there is more blessings in giving than in receiving”. 

We get something when we give; that isn’t our motivation but it happens. When we are generous, we keep ourselves from just being takers and receivers. We need to give, whatever our circumstance is.

We saw the same truth in one of the stories in Diana Butler Bass’s book about thriving mainline churches. She tells about Epiphany Episcopal Church in DC……..

In many cases, the roles of host and guest appear reversed.  At church of the Epiphany, an Episcopal congregation in Washington, D.C. they host “The Welcome Table,” an 8:00 a.m. worship service, breakfast, and small group Bible study for about two hundred homeless people every Sunday morning. There, guests are called by name (instead of number as in the case at most social service agencies in the city) and dine on china with real silverware as waiters (other members of the church) pour their coffee.  When guests leave after the meal, a congregational host says, “Thank you for coming.”  “But we should thank you,” a homeless man said to one of the hosts in my hearing.  The host quickly responded, “No, we thank you.  You have given to us.”

At first, those who attended Epiphany’s traditional 11:00 a.m. service simply referred to the 8:00 a.m. people as “the homeless.”  Gradually, however, “the homeless” have become “guests” and, now, in many cases, “homeless members,” or “members who live on the streets.” Or simply Joe, Wanda, or Ted.  When the service was initiated, the liturgy included no collection because the regular churchgoers thought it inappropriate to ask guests to contribute.  However, homeless members insisted that their service should include a traditional offering.  They wanted to give back to the church.  As the priest reported to me, “They felt like they were not real members and asked to contribute.”  Daniel, a member of the traditional congregation, recalled how moved he was the first time he acted as an usher at the homeless service: “As the plate passed down the rows, I watched poor people turn their pockets inside out and throw loose change and crumpled dollars in the offering. I almost cried.  I learned more about giving that morning than in a thousand sermons.” [1]

We need to give. We not only need to give, something happens in us, something good, when we go through life not as takers and grabbers, but as generous givers. Have you discovered that? Would you like to?

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