Sermon for Sunday, May 4, 2008

LEARNING FROM KING DAVID ABOUT GENEROSITY AND SACRIFICE

By

Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

Scripture:  II Samuel 24:18-24a     Good News Translation

¹⁸That same day Gad went to David and said to him, "Go up to Araunah's threshing place and build an altar to the Lord." ¹⁹David obeyed the Lord's command and went as Gad had told him to. ²⁰Araunah looked down and saw the king and his officials coming up to him. He threw himself on the ground in front of David ²¹and asked, "Your Majesty, why are you here?" David answered, "To buy your threshing place and build an altar for the Lord, in order to stop the epidemic." ²²"Take it, Your Majesty," Araunah said, "and offer to the Lord whatever you wish. Here are these oxen to burn as an offering on the altar; here are their yokes and the threshing boards to use as fuel." ²³Araunah gave it all to the king and said to him, "May the Lord your God accept your offering." ²⁴But the king answered, "No, I will pay you for it. I will not offer to the Lord my God sacrifices that have cost me nothing."

We are in the midst of the largest and most ambitious building campaign we will probably ever do in this congregation. And as you might expect in a group of 2000 members and another 2000 constituents, there are many voices and opinions about this.

I hear some folks say that it is a really difficult time to build more space. People are hurting financially. We are deeply affected by the home mortgage crisis, by gas prices, by the high prices of food. We are rightly worried about the economy. We worry about our personal debt and also about how much debt the congregation should take on.

I have talked with people with those concerns and people whose personal finances are shaky. I take those concerns seriously and I know that there are members who may want to help but who may be able to do little or nothing as we expand. I understand that and want you to know that if that is true for you, please know that your fellow members and leaders understand. We still hope you will come to the party tonight—because everybody is invited to the party!! And we hope you will join us in the prayer vigil next Saturday and in the meetings the next few months on design of the building.

I hear other perspectives as well—not only the comment that it is a tough time to do what we are doing, but others who say, it is actually a good time to be building more space. Interest rates will be pretty low for borrowing money to build, contractors will be looking for work and will be competitive, and other people will be able to give and have been waiting for a chance to support more space that includes the new sanctuary.

And my personal experience is that even in very tough times people support church buildings! The sanctuary we built in a former congregation was built in 1981 when mortgage interest rates were 18% and the congregation successfully built that building.

And the most persuasive evidence for me in this church is that 65 of you have already made advance pledges of more money than we have ever before raised in a building program in our 48 year history and we still have another 500 families who will be able to support this as well!! We will announce those details tonight. We are far ahead of anything we have ever done before—even in a tough economy with people understandably worried.

I believe we will have a very good result in the next few weeks and that in an all church meeting in June we will vote to be able to expand what we are doing and to continue on the path of reaching and involving more people in new life in Jesus Christ. We began that path when we voted to relocate and buy almost 17 acres of land to draw the circle of God’s love very wide. This is a wise and generous congregation. We are a congregation that has been willing to give and sacrifice when we need to do so, and that is what will make us successful.

That word “sacrifice” is part of our discussion the past few weeks—not an equal share but an equal sacrifice. Sacrifice is something we don’t talk much about in our self indulgent culture. But many of us do it. We make some sacrifices for our children as they grow up. We deny some things for ourselves if we are healthy parents; we sacrifice, so that our kids can thrive. If we have pursued our own education and advancement, we have made some sacrifices—some of us working our way through college as Judy and I did. Some holding a full time job and going to graduate school.

Sacrifice is a deeply Biblical word. Jesus was willing to sacrifice his life so that people could know God more fully and be moved closer to God and to abundant life.

But even in the Old Testament, sacrifice has been part of how we relate to God. Our worship of God requires something of us, it costs us something or it is not worship. German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught us about costly discipleship and then set the example by offering his very life in participating in a plot to assassinate Hitler—a plot that almost succeeded and if it had would have saved thousands of lives.

King David teaches us about sacrificial worship, sacrificial giving in today’s story. He has come to build an altar, a worship center to worship God. The owner of the place he is to build that altar offers to give the land to him and David vehemently refuses. Why? What does he say about it? “I will not offer to the Lord a gift that has cost me nothing.”

In the Bible, our generosity has to make us a little uncomfortable, has to cost us something. It must be sacrificial and not easy. Our youth told us that last week in their drama of the widow whom Jesus praises because she gave sacrificially and the others gave in a way they would not miss what they gave.

What is a sacrificial response to God for God’s blessings in your life? You are the only person who can answer that!!

There is no magic amount that is prescribed. It might be, for some of us, a small amount of money but a really large amount in ratio to the rest of our personal budget. In my family of origin growing up in the 1950’s, a sacrificial gift to the church was the $5 a month I saw my mother put into the pledge envelope each month. That might even be a sacrificial gift for you right now.

And it could be the case that some of the larger amounts of money that we saw listed in the giving pyramid last Sunday might not even be sacrificial for others of us. No one knows what is a sacrificial gift, a sacrificial response, except you and your family.

Here is what I do know: when we commit ourselves as disciples of Jesus Christ, when we give our hearts and lives and, yes, our pocketbooks, as resources for Christ to use, that will be enough. And when we make, not equal gifts but equal sacrifice, God will honor and bless what we are doing, and others will have a chance to experience new life and hope. That is my prayer for all of us for the next few weeks. Thank you God.

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