Sermon for September 23rd, 2012
Malachi 3:10-18
10Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. 11I will rebuke the locust for you, so that it will not destroy the produce of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not be barren, says the Lord of hosts. 12Then all nations will count you happy, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
13 You have spoken harsh words against me, says the Lord. Yet you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ 14You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What do we profit by keeping his command or by going about as mourners before the Lord of hosts? 15Now we count the arrogant happy; evildoers not only prosper, but when they put God to the test they escape.’
Matthew 25:14-30
14 ‘For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, “Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.” 21His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” 22And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, “Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.” 23His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” 24Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.” 26But his master replied, “You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. 29For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 30As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
We Respond to God's Word, Part II
If you haven't already figured it out from the scripture readings and the children's sermon, today's sermon is indeed...the "Money Sermon." We're currently in the midst of an eight-part series on the Heart of Worship--and no, money is definitely NOT at the heart of worship here at First Presbyterian Church, but by now I hope you all know what is: The Word of God, which is Jesus Christ. Last week we began talking about the third broad movement in our worship service, which is entitled "We Respond to God's Word." After we have heard the Word of God read in the scriptures, after we have heard the Word of God preached in sermon, it is natural and fitting that we respond to God's Word--that we respond to Jesus Christ. Last week we talked about various ways we do this in worship: by affirming our faith in the Apostle's Creed, or crying out to God in the Prayers of the People. You may have thought last week that I forgot one thing that we always do in this part of the worship service: We Present our Tithes and Offerings. Well, I didn't forget. I saved it for an entire sermon in itself. So here it is, my first "Money Sermon."
As a new pastor, I say that with some amount of fear and anxiety. After all, in our culture, money is a very sensitive issue, a "private" matter that we don't talk about publicly. Added to that is the fear that if we talk about money in church, we might scare people away, especially first-time visitors, who might get the impression that all we ever talk about is money.
If you are a first-time visitor today, I promise I won't talk about money every Sunday. But I did say that this is my "first" Money Sermon, and I promise it won't be my last, either. My plan is to preach on financial stewardship (money) four times a year. Incidentally, that is far less than Jesus himself preached about money in the gospels--but I'm no Jesus, of course. Four times a year will have to suffice.
(Gordon's Joke Here)
I suspect that many of us, whether we are willing to acknowledge it or not, tend to think of giving to the church (or to any Christian cause, for that matter) in the following three ways:
- It is something we initiate or choose to do of our own free will.
- It is something we do with our own property, from what already belongs to us.
- It is a personal expression of our own kindness and compassion to others (i.e. the church or the ministry).
- It is based on what we feel we can "afford" after all other things are considered.
But today's passage from Matthew calls those assumptions into question. As is often the case in the Gospels, Jesus takes the way of the world and flips it upside down, shifting our perspectives and challenging the way we see ourselves, our actions, and most importantly, our God.
In this parable, we have a Master who goes on a journey. The master, is of course, God. We are the servants. Notice that it is the master who summons the servants to him, the master who decides how much to give each servant, and the master who entrusts them with his own money. This is a challenge to the first assumption, that giving is something we initiate. God is the one who initiates the giving process--he does this by summoning us to himself, by assessing how much we are capable of handling, and then by entrusting us with an appropriate amount. Everything we do is merely a response to what God has already done. And here in this parable, we see three different responses from three different people.
A "talent," by the way, is no small amount of money. One talent is approximately 6,000 denarii, and one denarii would have been the average wage for one day's labor. So adjusted for inflation, one talent today would probably be somewhere between $300,000 to half a million dollars. So the master gives the first servant a few million dollars, the second servant about a million, and the third servant several hundred thousand dollars. Generous guy, right? Wrong. Because he doesn't really "give" it to them--as we learn at the end of the parable, he fully expects to get it back. But he does give the servants complete freedom
-cart before the horse: give as a response to God's word, rather than go to God's word as a response of our finances.
-different levels of giving: sporadic givers, consistent givers, tithers, sacrificial givers.
-To our members: God-sized dreams require God-sized commitment, and God-sized generosity.
-God has a plan for the world, and for the City of El Paso. God doesn't need us to accomplish this plan. God is going to do it with or without us, but he invites us to join in what he's doing--to be on his side.
-To our visitors: Principle of reaping what yo sow. Some call it Karma, Christians call it the Golden Rule, and it applies to finances as well.
"Our whole lives must be God's if our lives are to be whole." --Bill Burroughs.
