Christ's Promising Word

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 19, 2010
Belonging to God
Luke 12:22-33

Everything Belongs to God

Let me tell you something you already know. Everything we are and everything we have belongs to God.

We say it in one of our most cherished hymns:

“We give thee but thine own, whate’re the gift may be; all that we have is thine alone, a trust, O Lord, from thee.”

And we said it at the time of the offering in our old green worship book:

“Merciful Father, we offer with joy and thanksgiving what you have first given us—ourselves, our time, and our possessions, signs of your gracious love.”

It is not possible to give to God anything that does not already belong to God. Stewardship is simply a matter of putting this faith to action.

That’s Good News!

The message that we belong to God is good news, even though it may not sound like it at first. Because God is very good at being in charge.

You are not in charge. Not of your own body, your time, your talents, your physical appearance, your personality or your money.

You are not in charge because they do not belong to you. You just got them on loan. That pretty face…on loan. That brilliant mind …on loan. That athletic physique…on loan. The hours and days that make up your schedule…on loan. And your money, your possessions, your house, your car, your checking account, your pension plan…all on loan.

The bible says we all are dust and to dust we shall return. We bring nothing into this world and we take nothing out. But we need not worry about it. Because we belong to God and this God to whom we belong only wants the best for us.

God Purchased and Redeemed Us

Why do we belong to God? Well, first of all, we belong to God because God made us. The bible says, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.” We did not create ourselves. We have a creator to whom we belong. That is the first reason.

And the second reason that we belong to God is because God purchased us. God bought us so that we could be God’s people. Saint Paul tells us twice in the book of 1 Corinthians: You are not your own, because “you were bought with a price.” And that price, of course, was the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now we are to live for the Christ who died for us.

Not a “Catch,” but a Gift

In the DVD that I am showing the Adult Bible Class today, the one that goes along with the book Giving To God, (the one we are asking all of you to read), Dr. Powell says that many of us think of this as “the Catch.”

We are glad Jesus died for us. We are glad for that. But now we “owe” him BIG TIME! We see living for Jesus as an obligation, not a privilege. We are now eternally in debt to Jesus. And since we can never do enough to repay Jesus, some preacher is always in our face asking us to do more, more, more. We always seem to need to do more.

But Dr. Powell invites us to look at it a different way. He invites us to see salvation is a gift. A totally free gift. And to see that we do not “owe” God anything for it.

Belonging to God and living for Christ is not a means by which we try to pay God back for salvation. It is salvation. Belonging to God is not a “response” to salvation. Belonging to God and following Christ is a way of describing what it means to be saved.

Wow! God Saved Me!

Dr. Powell says look at it this way. Think back to the time of the Exodus. God frees slaves from bondage in Egypt. God leads them out through water, through the Red Sea. And the very first thing God does is to say, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of bondage. I am your God and you are my people.”

Now not a single one of those liberated slaves said, “Oh, shucks, now I owe God big time.” No, what they said was, “You have lifted me up like as on the wings of an eagle.”

And all that has led to what is probably one of the most popular and frequently requested songs in our Lutheran book of worship. The song On Eagle’s Wings. We sang it at Stan Green’s funeral, and we will sing it at the close of our worship today:

“And he will raise you up on eagle’s wings, bear you on the breath of dawn, make you to shine like the sun, and hold you in the palm of his hands.”

Does that sound to you like, “Oh, shucks, now we owe God big time”? No, of course it doesn’t! It is “Wow!” God saved me.

God Will Provide

If God spends so much time to create us and to redeem us, don’t you think that this same God will do everything in his power to protect and provide for us?

It is what we hear from the lips of Jesus in our gospel lesson for today:

“Do not worry about your life, what you shall eat,…or what shall you wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.” “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”

This the God that we want to put in charge of our money and in charge of our lives.

What Would Happen If…

And let me ask you this? What would happen if you did put this God in charge of your money? Would you have more of it? Or, would you have less of it?

There are many stories in the bible where God prospers generous people and increases their wealth. God does it for Abraham who let his nephew Lot have first dibs on the land of promise. And God did it for Ruth who left everything to care for her mother-in-law Naomi. God did it for the widow of Zaraphath, who gave the prophet Elijah the last bit of flour and the last bit of oil out of her little cruse.

And yet, there are also stories in the bible where God commands people to give everything away, like the rich young ruler and some of the disciples. And later in church history many monks and nuns heard the call to give everything away, including Saint Francis of Assisi and our own Martin Luther. I cannot say what God is telling you specifically. I cannot tell you what God’s perfect plan is for your life.

Not a Preview, but a Promise

But I can tell you this. That while God does not give to each of us the exact same pattern for living out our life in Christ, God does give us all the same promise.

God wants the “best life” available for us in this world and in the world to come. God wants us to have wonderful, blessed lives.

And if you put God in charge of your finances, if you use all of your money and possessions as a steward who belongs to God, your life will get better not worse. When we put God in charge of any area of our life our lives get better not worse.

Stewardship is about belonging to God. But not just any God. We belong to a God of grace of loves us and takes care of us. And who wants us to have wonderful, joyful lives. Think of it this way. If God shed the blood of his own son to redeems, don’t you think he will take pretty good care of us?

“Do not worry,” Jesus said. Why? Because… you belong to God. And that is good news for us.

Part of a sermon series based on Dr. Mark Allen Powell’s Giving to God (Eerdmans, 2006)

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 12, 2010
Take the Plunge
Matthew 13:44-45

Living a Generous Life

Over the summer, I became acquainted with this new book which is rapidly becoming an Amazon bestseller. It is called Giving to God: The Bible’s Good News about Living a Generous Life. And this book intrigues me.

It intrigues me because it is written by one of ours: Mark Powell. Dr. Powell is a Professor of NT down at Trinity Seminary in Columbus, who has a well-deserved reputation for being one of the most popular profs in our church body and he is probably the most sought after speaker in the ELCA after Bishop Hanson himself.

Mark has take extra special gift for taking biblical truths and connecting them to our everyday lives in an exciting and energetic way. He bounces when he talks. He loves Jesus and the Scriptures. He makes the Bible come alive. No wonder he is so popular.

And it intrigues me because of the book’s subtitle: The Bible’s Good News about Living a Generous Life. I know people who are stingy. And I know people who are generous. And I know that there are times when I am stingy. And I know that there I times when I am generous.

And you tell me. Who do you like more? Who do you prefer? Do you like stingy people or generous people? I am with you. I like generous people. I admire them. And I want to become more like them.

And Dr. Powell’s theme is simply this: Christian stewardship is a way of life. It is a “good” way of life. For many, it is a “better” way of life. And I want that good life, too.

The Baptism of the Gauls

I love Dr. Powell’s opening illustration. He talks about the “baptism of the Gauls.”

The Gauls were a warlike people who in ancient times inhabited what is now France and Belgium. They spoke a Celtic language and were Druids by religion. And by the time that Christians arrive on the scene, they had been conquered by the Roman Empire and were supposedly under its control.

Well, a number of Christian missionaries entered into Gallic territory and, over time, many of the Gauls became Christians. And so the story goes that whenever a converted warrior was baptized in a river or a stream, he would hold one arm high in the air as the missionary dunked him under the water.

This seemed to be a most peculiar custom and the missionaries were very puzzled until they final learned the reason for it. When the next battle or skirmish broke out, the warlike Gaul could proclaim, “This arm is not baptized!” grab his club or sword and go off to destroy his enemy in a most un-Christian manner.

Get Completely Wet

No one knows if this story is authentic. It is probably just an ancient version of what we would call today an “urban legend.” But the picture is compelling of the way we all try to keep some part of identity free from the influence of baptism. We want to keep something that we cherish, something that we value, away from God.

Maybe we don’t do it with our arms. Or with our swords or clubs. We are peaceful people after all. But we do do it with our pocketbooks. And with our money. And with our wallets. We hold our checkbooks out and we say, “This arm is not baptized!” and then we spend our money totally apart from God.

Christian stewardship, Dr. Powell says, is about getting completely wet. Discovering what it is that we would like to keep dry and then immersing it in the waters of Holy Baptism. It is about giving to God. Turning total control of our lives over to God. And that is “good news” for us. Because God is very good at controlling lives. In fact, God is much better at it than we are.

Christian stewardship is taking seriously what we so easily pray week after week: “Thy kingdom come, they will be done.”

And so we invite you in these coming weeks “to take the plunge.” Not only into Dr. Powell’s book. [As I said before there will be copies floating around. Pick one up. Take it home. Read it and bring it back for someone else to read. It is a winsome and engaging read.] But also into the waters of baptism. To get completely wet. And to turn everything you have and everything you are over to God. For stewardship is everything that happens after a person says, “I believe.”

Worth All that We Have

Take a look at the Gospel reading for today. There are two people who took the plunge now didn’t they? Totally and completely.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field,” Jesus said, “which someone found and hid; and then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” And again, “the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; and on find one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

If I held in my hand the winning ticket to $200 million Megabucks jackpot, wouldn’t you cash out everything in your banking account to get it? I know I would.

And hasn’t Jesus given us so much more? All generosity begins with God. With the gift of his own son. With the death he died upon a cross. Jesus did not hold his arm out of the water, the day he was baptized. But rather he got completely wet and stretched out that arm in a holy sacrifice for us.

God is very good at being “in control.” God is very good at managing people’s lives and that is “good news” for us.

The Way of Life

There are many kinds of stewardship. There is stewardship of our “money.” Of our “time, talents and treasures.” There is the stewardship of our “bodies” and the “good earth” that God has given us. There is the stewardship of our “families” and the nurturing of “relationships.” There is our stewardship of the “holy gospel” and passing on the faith to future generations.

There are all kinds of different forms of stewardship. But the point is this: stewardship is THE way of life for those who belong to God. It is an act of worship. It is an expression of our faith. It is a discipline for spiritual growth. It affects everything we are. And everything we do. For the better and not for worse.

We invite you to take the plunge…and get completely wet.

A sermon series based on Dr. Mark Allan Powell’s Giving to God (Eerdmans, 2006)