"Stewardship is Worship"

Genesis 28:10-19

Psalm 96:1-9

2 Timothy 1:1-12

John 12:1-8

A few weeks ago, when we were talking about funeral planning, I explained that throughout my professional life, I have made a habit of breaking taboos. My first career was fundraising, where we talked about money a lot. And then I became a pastor and part of my job is to talk about God and religious tradition. And I also worked as a hospital chaplain where I had holy conversations about death. Money, religion and dying - all things that are generally excluded from “polite conversation.”

But when I was fundraising, I got to have conversations with people about what kind of legacy they wanted to leave, and how they wanted to use their charitable giving to tell a story about their lives or values. One conversation I remember was not with donors, but among the staff in our advancement office. As we were thinking about how we would ask people for contributions, we talked about why people give. This was not in a church, but another non-profit, and some of the reasons included “recognition”, “duty”, “loyalty” and even “guilt”.

And while those reasons may be part of why you give,
in the Church, we teach that our giving is a response to what we have first been given;
a response to the abundant grace and forgiveness of God;
and, a response to the fullness of life we have, that especially here in our congregation, we have roofs over our heads, clothes on our backs, and food in our bellies.

As Pastor Jonathan preached last week, when we rightly recognize that everything we have belongs to God, the question we ask isn’t “How much are we giving?” as much as it is, “What are we withholding or keeping back from God?”

During this season, as you reflect on how you will go deeper in your faith and what that may look like as you make choices about your time, financial resources and the gifts you share with our congregation, neighbors and world, I want to offer another way to think about being stewards of what God first has given us.

I truly believe that stewardship - planning how we will respond to what God has first given us - is worship and that giving is joyful.

In our Lutheran tradition, “Worship is fundamentally about what God is doing and our response to God's action. Worship is an encounter with God, who saves us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.”[i]

Looking at today’s texts, we see where our response to God is gratitude, and where our response to God’s generosity to us is praise. It is worship.

In Genesis, Jacob receives a vision where the Lord speaks to him. And in response, Jacob awakes and says, “Surely the Lord is in this place” and “How awesome is this place!” and he takes a stone, sets it up as a pillar and pours oil over it, creating an altar to the Lord.

And in Psalm 96, the psalmist commands us “Sing to the Lord, bless his name…declare his glory….” And then says, “Bring an offering,…worship the Lord in holy splendor.” Our song and our worship is our response to the greatness of the Lord.

In Second Timothy, the author states his gratitude to God (1:3) and remembers the gifts that God has given them – “the spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” (1:7) And then he asks Timothy to guard the treasure – which in this context is not gold or silver, but faith and love in Christ Jesus – that was entrusted to him, and to depend on the Holy Spirit for help. (1:13-14) One of the places where we remember the faith we have been given and where we ask for God’s help is here, in worship.

And finally, we have the Gospel text where we witness the extravagant gift that Mary gives to Jesus. Jesus is with his friends at the home of Lazarus in Bethany at a Passover dinner, and the Evangelist John tells us that “Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair.” (12:3)

We’re not surprised when Judas Iscariot objects, and maybe a part of us even agrees with him that her action is reckless or excessive. But Jesus doesn’t.

He praises Mary, recognizing her gift as a gift of love. Mary was delighted to pour out this treasure for Jesus. Her action was an expression of her love and adoration of Jesus. It was an offering, and it was worship.

I have said before that God is always the actor in our Bible stories and in our lives of faith. We are called to live in response to what God has already done. And so, our gratitude and praise for God who abundantly loves us and has set us free from sin is why we give.

Our giving is joyful because, like Mary, it is an expression of our delight and our response to all that we have first been given, and worshiping God – responding to what God has done - is central to our life of faith and following Jesus.

Let us pray…
Good and gracious God,
Thank you for all you have given us.
May we delight in your love for us, and
may we depend on your Holy Spirit to help us respond faithfully,
with glad and generous hearts.
We pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.

---

[i] https://www.elca.org/Our-Work/Congregations-and-Synods/Worship#:~:text=Worship%20is%20fundamentally%20about%20what,and%20resurrection%20of%20Jesus%20Christ.

20th Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 10:17-31 

Often wealth, possessions and financial security have been seen as signs of God’s blessing. Even in modernity, preachers of the “prosperity gospel” promise their followers that “God wants you to be happy. God wants you to be rich. God wants you to prosper.” But speaking to the young man in today’s gospel Jesus answers the question, “What does God want?” differently.

Don’t misunderstand me. God wants good for God’s people. That’s why we have the Law and commandments in the first place, so that we may know how to live in relationship with God and with each other.

But the commandments have never been mere checklists where we can tick off the boxes:

Do not murder. Easy.

Do not commit adultery. Safe.

Do not steal. Yep.

Do not bear false witness or defraud. Good.

Honor your father and mother. Done.

The Law and commandments are the foundation of living as God’s people but no one issues a report card showing how well we’ve kept them, and there’s no honor roll.

So we join the young man in asking, “What does God want?”

Jesus answers, “God wants you.” Not just your obedience to a list of rules and not just your worship for an hour on Sunday mornings, but your very self.

And in our gospel today, the young man judges that the cost of discipleship is too high and he leaves Jesus grieving.

Now, sometimes preachers try to guess what happened next. Mark doesn’t say anything more about the young man, so we don’t know.

Some disciples, like Simon and Andrew, heard the call to follow Jesus and “immediately they left their nets and followed him.” (Mark 1:18)

Other disciples are what one scholar calls ‘resident disciples.’ These are people like the sisters Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus who know Jesus and call him “Teacher” but live in their own house in Bethany.

And still others are those Jesus has healed like the demoniac in Gerasene. After Jesus delivered the man from the demons, he told him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you." (Mark 5:19 NRS).

And for others of us, it takes time to recognize God is calling us to follow, and even longer to respond to that call.

So, sure, it’s possible the young man returned after a day, a week or even a month, having done what Jesus asked. But it’s also possible that Jesus was right, and the young man’s wealth and possessions were too great an obstacle to overcome.

And this isn’t Jesus bashing the rich or calling his disciples to a life of self-denial or poverty, but it is Jesus leveling a criticism against those whose wealth and possessions, or desire for safety and security, distances them from God.

There are different ways to live as disciples, but no matter what when we say we want to follow Jesus, we are asked to give ourselves first and fully to God. We are not at a negotiating table. We cannot barter for a more comfortable discipleship.

In this season where you are being asked for a financial commitment to support the ministry of Ascension and we will be creating a budget to plan for our ministry expenses, it’s easy to look at the bills first and give God what’s left. But Jesus calls us to come and follow him, giving everything first to God, and trusting in God’s provision.

That’s not the answer we want to hear when we ask, “What does God want?”

We want, like the young man, for there to be a reasonable answer, not a sacrificial one. We want discipleship to be easy, not difficult. So, it’s no wonder that Mark says the other disciples were amazed and asked, “Who then can be saved?” It feels like God is asking for something impossible.

And they’re not wrong. On our own, it is impossible. We cannot by our own merit or understanding to follow God’s commandments and live faithfully in relationship with God.

As Saint Paul writes in Romans 7, “¹⁸ I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Rom. 7:18-19 NRS)

And seventeenth century Catholic Saint Vincent DePaul told his priests,

Believe me, we will never be any use in doing God’s work until we become thoroughly convinced that, of ourselves, we are better fitted to ruin everything than to make a success of it.[i]

It is recognizing how far we fall short that brings us to the cross where we find Jesus, grace and love. We cannot do anything apart from God, but God can make all things possible.

The hard answer to, “What does God want?” is that God wants you, and me, from our hands and feet to our innermost thoughts. God wants us to surrender ourselves to God, to let go of our desire to control and preserve and direct and follow God. And then, maybe then, we will see what really is possible.

Let us pray…

Good and gracious God,

Thank you for your Son Jesus who shows the world how much you want us to live in relationship with you.

When being his disciples seems to come at an impossible cost, assure us of the mighty ways you have already beaten the odds.

Give us wisdom and courage to surrender everything we hold onto and follow you, trusting first in You.

We pray in the name of your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

---

[i] Jean-Baptiste Chautard. Soul of the Apostolate.

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost / Lectionary 29A

Matthew 22:15-22

Have you ever set a trap for someone?

In one of the last scenes of the second Harry Potter movie Harry confronts the villainous Lucius Malfoy, returning a troublesome diary to him. Angrily, Lucius thrusts the book at his house elf Dobby, but when Dobby opens the book, he discovers a sock. If you don’t know, giving a house elf clothing is how a master frees the house elf, so unwittingly Lucius has set Dobby free. When he realizes he was tricked, Lucius sputters and spits at Harry, but he cannot change what has happened. Harry has defeated him.

In today’s gospel, the Pharisees set a trap for Jesus.

And – spoiler alert – the trap backfires.

There’s an ancient proverb that says, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and the Pharisees, who were the Jewish leaders and teachers, team up with the Herodians, who supported the political appointees who governed the region, and were dependent on Roman favor. [i]

The trick question they ask Jesus is, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”

Earlier, in Matthew 17, the collectors of the temple tax asked Peter if Jesus paid that tax. Prior to the destruction of the temple in 70CE, the temple tax was a sign of solidarity of the  Jews in Israel and the Diaspora, and it supported the sanctuary in Jerusalem; after the temple’s destruction, the Romans continued to levy the tax to keep up the Jupiter Capitolinus temple in Rome.[ii] Peter answered that Jesus did pay the temple tax, and Jesus instructed Peter to pay the tax for them both, “to avoid giving offense….”[iii]

Ironically, in today’s gospel reading, the Pharisees and Herodians begin with false praise of Jesus, including stating that he does not show deference or partiality to others; they say that he is not swayed by the opinions of others. The truth is he isn’t swayed by superficial arguments or illegitimate leaders, but, throughout Scripture, Jesus is moved by the suffering he sees and has compassion upon the crowds he meets.

Today his opponents are asking about the census tax. That was a direct poll tax or “head tax levied by the Romans on all adults under their rule.”[iv] To call the census tax unlawful wouldn’t merely give offense; it “would be a public and dangerous repudiation of Roman authority.”[v] And yet, to call it lawful, without qualification, would appear to endorse the Roman occupiers.

But Jesus evades their trap.

He asks them to show him the coin used for the tax. When they produce the Roman coin imprinted with the image of Tiberius Caesar on it, and inscribed with the title, “Tiberius Caesar, august son of the Divine High Priest Augustus” Jesus simply asks them whose head and title are on the coin, and then he delivers the familiar one liner:

Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s , and to God the things that are God’s. (22:21) [vi]

Not only does Jesus evade the trap they’ve set with their question, but he also exposes them and the nature of their hearts.

Too often when we hear this parable, our attention turns toward the role of government and taxes, or even separation of church and state. But the question that matters isn’t about civics or money or taxes. The question that matters is, “Who is the Lord and ruler of our lives?”

When we proclaim that God is sovereign, then everything in creation belongs first to God. There is nothing to reserve or keep from God.

In his book Giving to God, Lutheran pastor and teacher Mark Allen Powell begins by telling a story about the baptism of the Gauls. He’s careful to say that while the story may not be historical fact, it is nonetheless true.

The Gauls were an ancient people who lived in what is now France and Belgium, and by the time of the Christian era, they had been conquered by the Roman Empire and were supposedly under their control. As Christian missionaries arrived in the region, many of the Gauls became Christians.

As the story goes, when a converted Gaul warrior was baptized in a river or stream, he would hold one arm high in the air as the missionary dunked him under the water. This seemed peculiar to the missionaries but they soon learned the reason for it. When the next battle broke out, the Gaul would proclaim, “This arm is not baptized!”, grab his weapon, and ride off to brutally destroy his enemy.

Even as he acknowledges the story is more likely myth than history, Powell tells the story because it gives us the compelling image of someone trying to keep part of their body, one aspect of their identity, free from the influence of baptism.[vii]

Baptism delivers us from the forces of evil, puts our sinful selves to death, gives us new birth, and makes us one with Christ and the whole people of God.[viii]

When I hear Jesus say, “Give to God what is God’s.” I am reminded of Psalm 139 where the psalmist writes,

13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.  15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. 17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 I try to count them-- they are more than the sand; I come to the end-- I am still with you. (v. 13-18)

God— our creator, our life-giver and our sustainer — knows us inside and out and loves us, and delivers us wholly and completely. Following Jesus, being a disciple, means surrendering ourselves, without qualification, to God. As Luther writes in the catechism regarding the first commandment, “We are to fear, love and trust God above all things.”[ix]

We can no more hide, reserve, or withhold a part of ourselves from God — our lives, thoughts, words or deeds — than live with a gangrenous limb. And if we think we are succeeding at separating what is ours, what is theirs and what is God’s, we are allowing the powers and principalities of this world to trap us in a reality that does not reflect God’s abundant kingdom. And we are deceiving ourselves, not God.

Let us pray.

Holy and Lifegiving God,

Thank you sending your Son Jesus that we can know your abundant love for us.

Show us how to fear, love and trust You above all things. Following Jesus, may we withhold nothing, show compassion for those who suffer and not be swayed by false teachers.

By the power of your Holy Spirit deliver us from division.

We pray in the name of our Savior and Lord, Jesus the Christ.

Amen.

[i] Donald Senior. Matthew. 248.

[ii] Senior, 202-203.

[iii] ibid

[iv] Senior, 247.

[v] Senior, 247.

[vi] Senior 248.

[vii] Mark Allen Powell. Giving to God: The Bible’s Good News about Living a Generous Life. xi-xii.

[viii] Evangelical Lutheran Worship, 225.

[ix] Ibid, 1160.

Lectionary 18C/ Proper 13

Luke 12:13-21

Today’s gospel begins with a brother bringing Jesus a dispute over an inheritance. But instead of arbitrating between the man and his brother, Jesus tells one of his parables, cautioning the crowd first, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life doesn’t consist in the abundance of possessions.” (v. 15)

In the Contemporary English Version or CEV translation, he says, “Owning a lot of things won’t make your life safe.”

And then, Jesus tells the story of a man who has a problem. The problem the man thinks he has is that he has stored up so much of his harvest that he needs to build bigger barns to keep all his crops and goods.

This man isn’t someone you’d see on “American Pickers”, who has barns filled with old treasures and junk, or a hoarder who has stacks of newspapers towering in the study and closets filled with paper towels because they were on sale. He hasn’t just let the attic overflow with boxes of stuff. His problem won’t be solved by a good spring cleaning, decluttering, or a yard sale.

As Jesus tells us the story, we see that the man’s problem isn’t what he thinks it is. His problem isn’t the abundance of crops and goods, possessions and things. Or, maybe it is, but having enough storage for his things is not the cause of the problem.

If you have watched "Seinfeld" maybe you remember a scene when Jerry, George and Kramer are in a locker room after a basketball game and they’re talking about a fourth player named Jimmy who was really on top of his game. And then Jimmy comes in the locker room and talks about himself in the third person for the whole conversation. “Jimmy played pretty good.” “Jimmy couldn’t jump at all before he got these training shoes.” “Jimmy will see you around.”

Like Jimmy, this man in this story only refers to himself; six times in fact he addresses himself and his soul, questioning how he can solve his problem and proposing a solution that would leave him with “ample goods laid up for many years.” (v 19): “What should I do?” “I have no place” “I will do this” “I will pull down” “I will store” and “I will say”.(v. 17-19)

He was a rich man, so it’s unlikely he worked his own fields, and yet, he never mentions the people who helped him prepare the land and reap the harvest; he never mentions his neighbors or community, or even family; and, of course, he never mentions God.

This kind of self-centeredness and individualism is the very turning in on oneself that is Martin Luther’s definition of sin.

And, then, there is his lack of compassion. As a rich man in Jesus’ time, in what was a subsistence economy, his neighbors would have been more concerned about “daily bread” – where their next meal was coming from – than whether they could “eat, drink and be merry” in the future.

While the story is set more than two thousand years ago, it remains relevant to us today. While many of us have refrigerators, freezers and pantry shelves filled with groceries, many of our neighbors right here in Shelby and Cleveland County experience poverty, homelessness and food insecurity every day. Even when people are employed often their earnings aren’t enough to pay for housing, food and medical expenses. And, of course, it’s not just adults. As much as kids love summer vacation, the start of school means many children and teenagers will eat free breakfasts and lunches again after a lean summer. So even in 2019, for many families, like our ancestors in faith, the concern isn’t where to store an abundance, but whether they have “daily bread”.

Going back to the parable: is it really that surprising that God calls this man a fool?

His disregard for others impoverishes him in ways he doesn’t even recognize.

Artist James B. Janknegt (jankneg), in his painting “The Rich Fool” shows “Death” – a skeleton dressed in a dark robe – and the rich man at a dining room table in a large empty house while in a more modest, neighboring house, eight people including children are gathered around a table together and there is a fenced-in yard and toys by the front door. While the rich man has his ample crops and goods, he has no one to share them with and no community where he belongs and is loved.

And that brings us back to Jesus’ initial warning:
“Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life doesn’t consist in the abundance of possessions.”

The writer of Ecclesiastes has learned this lesson. We only have a few verses from the book’s first two chapters, but the rest of those chapters tell the story of one who went searching for meaning and found great wisdom but no satisfaction. Wartburg College religion professor Walter Bouzard notes that, the writer, who is called the “Teacher” continues searching “in pleasures of sensuality, labor and wealth” but ultimately “declares all these activities to be equally vain” or pointless.[i]

What the Teacher discovers,
and what the rich fool fails to learn,
is that the “stuff of life” is not “stuff” at all.

Life is not found in work, wealth, pleasure or achievement.[ii]
Life is found in the relationships we build and cherish, in the communities where we live and give of ourselves, and, especially here in our context as a community of followers of Jesus, in our faith.

Today’s texts remind us that our own efforts can not deliver security, safety or salvation.

That is the rich fool’s problem. Either he fails to acknowledge that all he is and has comes from God or he is ignorant of the truth and does not see that God provides both his daily bread and his hope for the future.

The Good News is that, forgiven of our sin and reconciled to God, our security, our safety, and our salvation are in Christ Jesus. As Saint Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “Our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin….having died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. (Romans 6:6, 8)

Even as we rest confident in God’s reconciling and redeeming grace, as we listen to Jesus tell this cautionary tale, we are encouraged to ask ourselves how we are like the rich fool and how we are poor in the sight of God:

When has avarice, greed, or arrogance closed my eyes to the ways God has provided for me?
Who have I overlooked as I rest in the safety and security that I enjoy?
Where do I find life – with God and in community?

Today especially, with the echoes of gun violence again reverberating through our lives after shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, Jesus’ warning that “things cannot make our lives safe” brings us again to the cross – empty-handed, heavy-hearted and gut-wrenched at the death of dozens of innocents – where we meet the One in whom we find safety, security and life.

Let us pray…
Wondrous God,
We give thanks for Your Son Jesus who reconciles us to You,
even when we sin and fall short,
failing to love as we are loved.
Guard us against all kinds of greed and idolatry
and set our minds on the ways of Your Kingdom.
Lead us by Your Holy Spirit to abundant life in relationship with You and our neighbors.
We pray in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
Amen.

[i] Walter C. Bouzard. “Working Preacher Commentaries.” Workingpreacher.org, 2016.
[ii] ibid