Dr. Ron Sumners
April 30, 2006
It was Pentecost Sunday. As the congregation filed into the church, the ushers handed each person a bright red carnation to symbolize the festive spirit of the day. The people listened attentively to the reading of the Pentecost story from the Book of Acts: about how the disciples had heard what sounded like a mighty, rushing wind from heaven and how the Holy Spirit appeared in tongues of fire. Then came the sermon. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon us," the preacher began. "Like the powerful wind from heaven!" shouted a woman sitting in the first pew.
Then she threw one of the red carnations toward the altar. The preacher began again, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon us." The same woman's voice rang out: "like tongues of fire, like tongues of fire!" Again, she threw a red carnation toward the altar. The preacher looked straight at her and said, "Since you are so excited, why don't you throw your pocketbook." To which the woman replied softly, "Preacher, you have just calmed the wind and put out the fire."
From time-to-time it is necessary to talk about church finance. This is an absolute, practical necessity. God forbid that we should betray our responsibility by not doing it. As Christ's Church, Christ's people on a mission, we simply cannot afford not to bear the burden of money talk. Not to face this reality honestly and openly would diminish our life as a worshipping community, materially and spiritually, both. Like all other churches, our experience has been that the more active we become, the more faithful to the Spirit of the Gospel we become, the more willing to pick up the cross we become, the more determined to follow the Lord Jesus Christ we become, the more devoted to the worship of God "in spirit and truth" we become, the more money it costs!
In church, people tend to regard the "money" subject as something to be dealt with as apologetically as possible, so that we can get back to the real matters of faith. This attitude misses the whole point of the Bible's teaching on this matter. A forthright, unapologetic, earnest discussion of our money situation may well be the most religious thing we can do in all the year in this church. It is critically important to us as a Christian community that we do this the right way. If we do not, our attitude toward everything else we do as Christ's church will be affected adversely.
A young soldier, serving overseas, was writing a letter to his fiancée. He had written only a few lines when he decided to express his great love for her more emphatically. "I'll send her a telegram" he told himself. He dashed to the telegraph office, completed a message form, and handed it to the clerk It read, "I love you; I love you, Bill." "You can add one more word for the same price," said the clerk. The soldier scratched his head, puzzled a bit over the telegram, wrote something else on the form, and handed it back to the clerk. The message now read, "I love you; I love you, regards, Bill." We hear messages every day about love, about our responsibilities as good Christians to love one another. In our prayer and in our worship, we say to one another, to the neighborhood, to the larger community and to the world, "I love you, I love you." But often it comes through as simply "regards"; cold and unreal!
When a man asked Jesus how to properly respond to God, Jesus answered, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind: and your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10:27). "Who is my neighbor?" the man asked. Notice, he did not have a question on loving God! He appears to have this well set in his mind. "Who is this neighbor that I must love in order to properly be related to God?" That was the man's question. In response, Jesus told the story we call the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
A Jew has been beaten, robbed, and left to die by the roadside. He is ignored by his own people passing by. Then the unlikely happens: an outsider, a natural enemy, a Samaritan stops to give him aid. The Good Samaritan ministers to the wounded in two ways. First, he is just there; he is present with his neighbor. He does not pass him by as the others did.
How often has it been said from this pulpit that we need you? This church needs you. We need your involvement; we need your active presence; we need your help in fulfilling the Church's teaching ministry; we need your help in the church's helping ministry; we need your help in the church's witnessing ministry; we need your help in enriching the Church's worship experience. We need for you to be here! We also need you in the second way in which the Good Samaritan ministers to the wounded man. The Good Samaritan uses his money.
Jesus tells us that the Samaritan dressed the man's wounds, lifted him on his mount, carried him to the inn and looked after him. The next day, he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper. "Look after him," he said, "and on my way back I will make good any extra expense you have" (Luke 10:24-35). A beautiful parallel can be drawn between this story and the Gospel story of the widow who gave everything she possessed to the Temple Treasury.
The widow used two coins to show God how much she loved Him; the Good Samaritan used two coins to show how much he loved his neighbor. The two responses inevitably go together. Love for God and love for your neighbor are inseparable. At Meadow Brook Baptist Church, we need your presence, and we need your money!
At such a time as this, we are given a unique opportunity to enrich ourselves spiritually. This could be the way in which the door of spiritual fulfillment opens for you. For the first time in your life, you may be willing to take a good honest look at the percentage of your earnings that you give to the church.
If, like the poor widow in the Gospel story who gave everything, you present your gift as a sign of your deep love for God and, if, like the Good Samaritan, you present your gift as a sign of your deep love for all God's children, I can promise you that your gift will enhance your peace of soul. Your life will be enriched.
For many of us, the mad, daily scramble to add to our possessions may be the very thing that is causing the headaches and the frustrations in our lives. Many of us already know that the more we get the less worthwhile it all seems. Where a man stands in relationship with God is clearly revealed in the way he uses his money. We talk and sing all year about God; we give praise and thanksgiving to God regularly as a community. But words are cheap! Money, on the other hand, really means something to us. Face it, we hate to part with it. It hurts to give some of it up. We regard our duty of money giving as a heavy burden that weighs us down.
A Church in upper New York State was experiencing severe financial problems. During the crisis, the following notice appeared in the Church bulletin on a cold Sunday in January:
"Churches were not heated in the Middle Ages.
Add one dollar a week to your contribution to
keep this custom from being renewed."
It's as simple as that, here at Meadow Brook Baptist Church. We cannot carry out an effective ministry unless we all give the money and the time that makes ministry possible!
In the Gospels, Jesus talks more about the uses of money than He does about prayer. Why does He talk about it so much? It is because He knows how important money is.
He knows how reluctant we are to make a real choice between the rule of God and the rule of money. Until we have repented, until we have changed our attitude toward money and placed it under God's rule, we are "fools," Jesus says. We are the "lukewarm" of whom Jesus says, "I will spit you out of my mouth." If, in our value system, money comes before God, then all our singing about God, all our praising God, all our praying to God, will not do one thing to enrich our lives. We cannot love God and money. God, and only God can be first in our lives. That is what we are saying to one another and to the world when we gather together in Jesus' Name.
Your money can destroy you; Jesus warns. But He does more than warn us. He also tells us, most positively, that money can be the means of breaking through to the new, rich, fulfilling life He wants for us to enjoy.
Many times, you have heard the story of the rich, young man who asked Jesus how to break through to a more rewarding life. The man was a good Jew who obeyed the commandments. Yet, he remained frustrated, unfulfilled. Jesus conceded that the man obeyed the commandments; he was not a thief; he was not an adulterer; he was not a murderer; he was not a liar; he was not mean to his parents, "But" Jesus said, "there is still one thing that you lack." In a word: generosity.
Generosity is the key to the new, rich, full, rewarding life in Christ. He told the man to give up his money because he treasured it so highly. "Give up your money," he told the young man, "and then come and follow Me." When the young man heard this, he went away in sadness, because he was rich and could not let it go.
Most of us are not wealthy by American standards. But all of us have something to give. The question is does the thought of giving generously fill our hearts with sadness or with hope. Do we see generosity as a threat to the uptight, money-grabbing, old life, or as the breakthrough into the open, money-giving, rewarding new life of the Lord Jesus Christ?
The question cannot be answered in words. Talk is cheap. In this moment of truth, you can answer only with your money! Apart from generosity, you cannot enrich your life. Apart from generosity you cannot begin to experience the kind of fulfillment you desire.
God or money? Old life or new life? You alone can choose. And choose you will!
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