Difference between revisions of "Sermon for November 25th, 2018"

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Philippians 4:10-20

10 I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it. 11 Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. 14 In any case, it was kind of you to share my distress.

15 You Philippians indeed know that in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you alone. 16 For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs more than once. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the profit that accumulates to your account. 18 I have been paid in full and have more than enough; I am fully satisfied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 20 To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Simple Gifts: The Secret of Well-Being

I'm going to start today with a confession. We'll get to the joke, the scripture passage, the inspirational words, the secret of well-being, eventually. But first, some brutally painful truth.

I hate writing sermons. That's probably not what you want to hear from your pastor, but it's true. I've always hated writing, even though from a young age I knew that I was pretty good at it. I hated writing papers in high school. I hated writing papers in college. If you had told me back then that someday I would have a job where I had to write a 2,000 word paper every single week (usually on a Friday or Saturday night), I would have laughed and said "you're crazy."

Don't get me wrong...I love actually preaching sermons. And I love reading and researching in preparation to write a sermon. It's just the writing part that I hate. And the only thing I hate more than writing sermons...is writing sermons about money, about giving, stewardship, generosity, annual-pledge-drive-kind-of-sermons.

Knowing how much I hate writing this kind of sermon, I started early this week, sometime last Tuesday. And by started, I mean I sat there staring at a blank screen, thinking of all the things I'd rather be doing than writing a sermon about money and giving. And then I ran out of time, so I started again Wednesday. And then I started again Friday. And again Saturday morning. And again Saturday afternoon.

Why do I hate writing this kind of sermon more than any other? Well, for one thing, I'm not very good at it. This is the third sermon in a row I've preaching on giving, our third week into our annual pledge drive, and so far, of the 322 members of our congregation, only four people have turned in commitment cards. If I were being graded on a 100 point scale, my success rate right now would be 1.2%.

If we were putting together our 2019 budget today, based on those 4 commitment cards, we would be able to pay for the air conditioning bill...in the months of June, July and August...that's about it. And I would need to find a part-time job on the side.

I'm not saying all this to guilt-trip anyone (ok, maybe just a little bit), but mainly to point out that as awkward and painful as it may be for you to have to sit there and listen to this (and believe me, I know that's not why you came to church today) It's just as hard, maybe harder, for me to stand up here and say it--to think of, and put together just the right words to say, or at least the very best ones that I can.

I suspect that most pastors feel that way, even if they never say so out loud, in a sermon.

I suspect that the Apostle Paul (the author of today's scripture passage and indeed, the author of more than half of the New Testament) felt this way too. In all of his travels, planting countless churches, visiting and re-visiting the churches he planted, and writing to those churches when he was away from them, Paul always asks them to give generously to the work of the church, to proclaiming good news to those who desperately needed to hear it, to providing for the poor and those under the care of the church community.

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The story is told of a rich businessman who was disturbed to find a fisherman sitting lazily beside his boat. “Why aren’t you out there fishing?” he asked. “Because I’ve caught enough fish for today,” said the fisherman. “Why don’t you catch more fish than you need?” the rich man asked. "What would I do with them?”

“You could earn more money,” came the impatient reply, “and buy a better boat so you could go deeper and catch more fish. You could purchase nylon nets, catch even more fish, and make more money. Soon you’d have a fleet of boats and be rich like me.” The fisherman asked, “Then what would I do?”

“You could sit down and enjoy life,” said the industrialist. “What do you think I’m doing now?” the fisherman replied as he looked calmly out to sea.