1.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from
God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The message from God’s Word as we finish our
Stewardship Series, “The Wonders of His Love,” is taken from 2 Cor. 8:9
& 12. It’s entitled, “The Only
Free Lunch in Town,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
It’s a wonderful thing when people
trust the Lord to take care of them rather than relying upon themselves or
their money? When that happens, they
have the right priorities. I’d like to share a true story of such a
right-prioritied lady. It comes from
Sunday worship, not so many years ago, in North Dakota. An elderly woman by the
name of Mary fainted, and struck her head on the end of the pew. It didn't take
long for a member of the congregation, an Emergency Medical Technician, to call
an ambulance. Mary was strapped to a
stretcher and they headed her out the door.
That was when she regained consciousness. Weakly, she motioned for her
daughter to come near. In all
probability, the Trustees of the church were hoping that she was not
threatening the congregation with a law suit, but most people watching the
events assumed that she was using her last bit of strength to share a final
request, or a last bit of motherly wisdom.
The daughter, with her ear next to her mother's mouth, heard the
whispered words, "My offering envelope is in my purse." Just like Jesus truly appreciated the widow
who confidently placed herself, her future and her two mites into the Lord’s
hands; we can applaud someone, in our own century, who does the same things
with the blessings the Lord has entrusted to them.
3.
“The church is always asking for
money.” When you talk with people that have drifted away from the church,
that’s one of the reasons they give. Whether or not they are accurate isn’t
really important. What’s important is that some folks seem to feel that no one
else—not even God!—should know the balance in their checkbook or what’s in
their wallet. How is our money involved in our Christian faith and life? Martin Luther wrote that we need to be
converted, brought to faith, three times by the Holy Spirit. The first two
conversions are of the heart and head.
4.
Conversion
of the heart is to be touched by the love of
God, often by the Holy Spirit working through the caring of another Christian.
We realize that there is something here that is bigger than we are, and we want
to be part of it. We’re like children who can’t remember a time when they didn’t
love their mom or dad. Love of God is the conversion, the bringing to faith, of
the heart, of the feelings in our lives.
5.
The second part of our Christian
faith and life is the conversion of the head, which means to grow in
what we know about God. That’s why we have Sunday School, Bible Classes, Vacation
Bible School, New Member’s Classes, and Youth Confirmation Class. We need to
know God’s will for us so that we can respond in love to the ways in which he
has blessed us. For most of us, using our heads as Christians isn’t a problem.
That’s why conversion of the heart and head may seem easy.
6.
But that’s not where our Christian
faith and life stop. For Luther says we also need to have our purses
converted which, he acknowledges, may be more difficult. Why? Because how
much money or property we have is intensely personal. Imagine how we would feel
if our listing in the telephone book would include how much money and other
treasure we had. The struggles between the President and the Congress over budgets
remind us that money also means power. Sometimes we don’t want to give up the
power, the control, that comes with our money.
7.
We’re like the fierce warriors in
Europe that did something different when Christianity came to their tribes
about 1,500 years ago. When some of them were baptized, they held their sword
arm out of the water. They thought that meant they could go on slashing and
cutting and killing, like in the “good old days.” After all, that sword
arm had not been baptized, had not been turned over to the control of Jesus
Christ. Some of us may not have had our wallets or purses baptized. How we use
our money doesn’t always reflect our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives.
8.
Do
you take credit for your financial success, or do you acknowledge that God has
made it possible? So often we hear
stories about the self-made millionaire.
He himself and others as well may give sole credit for his
accomplishments to his own hard work, his ingenuity, and/or his “good
luck.” This false thinking has seized us
for generations. Moses warned the
Israelites about it. He said, “You
may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this
wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord
your God, for it is He Who gives you the ability to produce wealth…”
(Deuteronomy 8:17-18).
9.
Money
is one of Satan’s most effective tools to separate us from an intimate
relationship with our Lord. Love for
money can grow stronger than love for our Lord.
The writer of Hebrews wrote, “Keep your lives free from the love of
money and be content with what you have...” (Hebrews 13:5). The Apostle Paul warned, “For the love of
money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced
themselves with many griefs” (1
Timothy 6:10). In Mark 10:17-22, we read
of the Rich Young Man who “went
away sad, because he had great wealth” which Jesus, knowing that his wealth barred him from a relationship
with God, asked him to give up.
10.
In our text, the apostle Paul is
writing about earthly treasure, but he points to some even better riches. He
writes: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; rich as he was, he
made himself poor for your sake” (v 9 TEV). Paul is saying this: Jesus
became part of our world so that we could become really rich. Paul isn’t
talking about how poor Joseph and Mary were as they reared Jesus. They were,
but that isn’t the point here.
11.
The point is that Jesus’ poverty
meant sharing in our weakness and death. Money can come and go, to which anyone
who lived through the Great Depression can attest. But Jesus became poor by
giving up his power as the Son of God for a time. He who was present at
creation, who brought the universe into being, was willing to taste the very
opposite of his divinity. Jesus was willing to die on the cross. He did it for
all the sins of humanity. That includes those times when we feel good toward
God and even speak the right words, but we hold back part of our lives from
him. We live as though our purses or wallets or some other part of our lives
belongs not to God, but only to us.
12.
Jesus becomes one of us in this poor
world so that all this can change. Through his being charged and condemned for
our sins, we are forgiven. Through his death on the cross, we receive Easter
life. We then are rich in ways the IRS can’t touch. Paul says that Jesus made
himself poor “in order to make you rich by means of his poverty” (TEV).
Often you and I may say that if only we had enough money, we would be happy. To
have more money than we could ever need is not true happiness. There are many
stories of individuals who won the lottery and all the problems it has caused
in their lives. Our riches from Jesus start with forgiveness of our sins and
new life. They go on to meaning in life and knowing that, with the Holy Spirit
directing us, our lives can make a difference.
13.
When we realize that, then we
understand why Christians and the church are different. That’s also why
Christ’s church can provide the “only free lunch in town.” When people
complain about the church asking for money, maybe they’re not looking at the
whole picture. One of our members who was a shut-in once said to me, “I
worry about it, that I don’t have any money to give you.” What did I say to
her? “Don’t worry about it.” I went on to tell her that God didn’t
expect her to bring an offering when she didn’t have any.
14.
Paul puts it this way: “God will
accept your gift on the basis of what you have to give, not on what you don’t
have” (v 12). God only expects us to give from what we have. And that’s why
we can say Christ’s church provides the “only free lunch in town.” If
that sounds too strong, when was the last time you or I received a bill in the
mail from church for the various services (and I’m not just talking about worship)
offered here? No one knows how much anyone in our church family gives in
offerings of money except the financial secretary, which seeks to ensure that
we’re aware that God only expects us to give from what we have . . . and we try
very hard not to apply pressure so that people give because of that, and not
out of love.
15.
Giving as a response to God’s gifts
to us, the “Wonders of His Love,” is the goal. Paul says that we can be
“eager to give . . . and do it with what you have” (vv 11–12). The word “eager”
can also be translated “enthusiastic.” Imagine that: being enthusiastic
about parting with our money! But Paul says that. We can be enthusiastic
(eager) about what we give. We have members who are like that. I know one
family where the check for the church offering gets written at the start of the
month, before any bills are paid. There is a real joy in giving!
16.
Often, the most enthusiastic givers
are those who give sacrificially. Often they’re working toward or have reached
giving a tithe, the 10 percent off the top, which the Old Testament commanded.
The New Testament doesn’t command the tithe, the 10 percent, but it’s certainly
a goal for which to aim. You would think that persons who give that amount of
their income might be grudging about turning over 1 dollar of every 10 to
church. To the contrary, they will tell you about how much joy they have in
giving a lot to the Lord and how their needs always seem to be taken care of,
even when times are tight. For them, it’s not a case that we “must give.”
Instead, they say, “We have the privilege of giving!”
17.
Because we are converted in our
hearts and heads, we can grow in the conversion of our purses. Our wallets also
have been baptized. Because of that, and because Jesus became poor so that we
can be rich, we as Christ’s church can offer “the only free lunch in town.” Amen. Now
the peace of God that surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.
Amen.
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