Dr. Hugh Hamilton Trinity Presbyterian Church Pensacola, FL October 28, 2018 Stewardship Consecration Sunday I WANT MY DOLLAR BACK! 2 Corinthians 8:7-15 1 Timothy 6:11-19 David Russell, a pastor in Union City, Tennessee, tells about Nathan, a precocious three-year-old in his church. Nathan s parents were trying to introduce him to what it means to be in church. One Sunday they gave him a one-dollar bill that Nathan was to place in the offering plate. When the plate moved down Nathan s pew, his parents held the plate in front of him and told him to place the dollar in the plate. Nathan balked. Finally, his mother gently took the dollar from him. She placed it in the plate, and it was passed on down the pew. Nathan began to shout, I want my dollar back! I want my dollar back! In Nathan s eyes, he had been robbed and he wanted everyone to know it. His parents tried in vain to quiet him, but he was insistent, yelling, I want my dollar back! Folks in the congregation were fighting a losing battle against laughter. Throughout the remaining portion of the of the organist s offertory, the only thing most worshippers heard was, I want my dollar back! Eventually, his parents gave Nathan another dollar to hold and he was content enough so that the congregation could make it through the Doxology. David Russell says that as he stepped into the pulpit, he knew he needed to talk about what had happened. Looking out at the smiling faces he said, We shouldn t laugh. Maybe, Nathan was only voicing the feelings that some of us have after having given to God. We do so, not joyously but out of a sense of obligation. We do so unwillingly. We may not say it, but some of us think it, I want my dollar back! (Holwick,1) Neither you nor I won the $1.6 billion dollar Mega-Millions lottery this week so we are not overnight BILLIONAIRES but we sure had fun dreaming of what we would do with all that money. We also talked about lottery winners whose lives were ruined after winning millions of dollars either because they did not know how to handle money or because con artists and shysters hounded them, and well-meaning people ran them weary with requests for handouts. Talk about stewardship, tithing, and generosity makes people uneasy. I read recently about a pastor, now deceased, said that he never preached a sermon without slipping in a reference to tithing. Think of that! Every sermon, every week, for fifty years he slipped in a reference to tithing. His church had many members who gave more than 10% of their income to the church. I guess it worked. Are you ready for me to start that here? A country pastor used a different approach. One Sunday he announced, Now, before we pass the offering plate, I would like to request that the person who stole the chickens from Farmer Jones henhouse please refrain from giving any money to the Lord today. The Lord doesn t want money from a thief! The offering plates were passed around, and for the first time in months everybody gave. That approach might work, but stealing chickens is not a big problem around here.
I want my Dollar Back! p2 Some of you are old enough remember the wonderful television host Art Linkletter. What you may not know is that Linkletter grew up in poverty. His father was an itinerant evangelist who sometimes preached on street corners. The family lived where they could, on such money as his father was able to collect from his "offerings." Once they occupied one room in an old folk's home. Most of the rooms they lived in were skimpy and bare. Linkletter said that Christmas and Thanksgiving would have been bleak if churches hadn't donated their dinners. In fact, Art Linkletter s first public appearance was in a church. His father used him to help swell the Sunday offering. Dressed in patched clothes, looking forlorn, Art would solemnly parade up and down the church aisles with an offering plate, while his father begged from the pulpit, "dig deep, brothers and sisters, for the good work." (Linkletter). Well, that s another way to raise money for the church, I guess. But I am not here to guilt you into giving. I try not to brow beat you or guilt you or trick you into giving. I try to speak honestly about money - its role in our lives and Trinity s need of it to do our ministries unto God s people. Jesus talked honestly about money and talked more about money than any other one subject. He knew what trouble money can bring to people as well as what good things money can accomplish and how giving can bless us. Jesus knew the proper place of money in our lives. We spend much of our life working for money. We also worry about money. Some of you have had a difficult year. Lost jobs, medical expenses drained your savings. It s hard. People across the panhandle are digging out from Hurricane Michael damage and some have lost everything they owned, everything they worked for. The next few years are going to be hard for them. You remember what 2005 was like for us here after Hurricane Ivan hit us in September 2004. I thank you again for your amazing generosity, donating supplies to help them and for offers to help them in the months ahead. Losing funds set aside for retirement, losing homes, losing jobs, it s painful. However, money can bring us much pain when we have too much of it as well. For some people, money becomes their God. Nothing matters as much as holding on to their wealth. In the 1890s there was a Turkish professional wrestler named Youssouf who competed in Europe and the United States under the name The Terrible Turk. He insisted he be paid for his matches in gold. Following his retirement, Youssouf headed back to Turkey with the gold he had won. On its second day at sea, however, the ship ran into a storm and started to sink. Youssouf jumped into the sea near a lifeboat, but the weight of the gold in his belt, estimated to be between $8,000-10,000, pulled him down and he drowned. Which is worse to have money and lose it or to become so obsessed with money that it costs you your life and/or your soul. We read from the Apostle Paul s second letter to the church at Corinth. The church at Corinth was well off, more financially secure than the other churches that Paul had started. Some of these latter churches were struggling to survive. Some members of these churches were literally on the verge of starvation. Paul s message to the Corinthians was basically, share the wealth! He writes, But since you excel in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love, we have kindled in you--see that you also excel in this grace of giving (verse 7). Further on in verse 13 he writes, I do not mean there should be relief for others and pressure in you, but it is
I want my Dollar Back! p3 a question of fair balance between your present abundance and their need; so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there might be a fair balance (NRSV). You would think that the one place this message of equality would be acceptable would be in the church. After all, when the church first began, the members had all things in common. You would think that church people would say Amen to the idea of sharing resources. But, I can hear members of the church Corinth complaining, Why should we help them? Nobody helped us when we were struggling. That s human nature--even in churches. Paul knows that and so he appeals not to their human nature but to the divine nature. He writes, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. Giving is the Christian s response to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Jesus shared the riches of God s grace. Whether you are giving to Trinity or giving to foreign missions or giving to United Way or giving to the homeless person on the street you are imitating Christ who gave, first, to us. Theologian Leonard Sweet speaks of four rules by which we live. The first is The Iron rule Do to others before they do to you. We know people who live by that rule. The second is The Silver rule Do to others as they do to you. In other words, if someone does something good for you, do something for them in return. Some people live by this rule. It is a good rule, but it s not the ideal. The third we know as The Golden rule which Jesus gave us Do to others as you would have them do to you. This is a major step up from the Iron rule and the Silver rule. In other words, treat other people like you would like to be treated. However, to these Sweet adds The Titanium rule Do to others as Jesus has done to you. Jesus was the original giver. He gave to us the gift of salvation. Everything we give to his work or as an act of charity is in response to his gift to us. Giving is the Christian s thankful response to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. (Duncan, 4) Giving is also the Christian s recognition of the proper place of money in our lives. Dave Ramsey chastises us for buying things we don t want with money we don t have to impress people we don t like. Do you own your money or does your money own you? Is Money your master or your servant? When we give to the work of God we re declaring our freedom from materialism. We serve God, not mammon. On of the finest qualities I see in you is that you share the best of who you are and what you have! John Drescher tells the story of a corn farmer who won all the blue ribbons for his corn year after year at the county fairs around him. Yet each year he shared his best seed corn with his neighbors. Someone asked him, How do you expect to continue to win blue ribbons if you give your best seed corn to your neighbors? You don t understand, the farmer said. the wind carries the pollen from field to field. If I am to have the best corn, I must see to it that all my neighbors also have the best corn. If they produce poor corn it will pollinate with mine and pull my quality down. (Sweet, Soul Café, 100).
I want my Dollar Back! p4 So it is with our lives. The quality of our lives and our generosity have a direct bearing on the quality of our neighbor s lives. Our church, our community, our world, are blessed by our sharing. There are some things that only money can do--put food on the table and clothes on our back, pay the mortgage, pay for water and electricity, buy us fuel and medicine. What it can t do is buy us happiness or fulfillment or salvation. Giving is the Christian s response to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Giving is also the Christian s recognition of the proper place of money in our lives. Mother Teresa once told of a young Hindu couple who came to her and gave her a large amount of money. She asked them, Where did you get so much money? They answered, We got married two days ago. Before we got married we had decided not to celebrate the wedding, not to buy wedding clothes, not to have a reception or a honeymoon. We wanted to give you the money we saved. Mother Teresa knew what such a decision meant, especially for a Hindu family. She asked them, But how did you think of such a thing? We love each other so much, they answered, that we wanted to share the joy of our love with those you serve (as sited in Duncan, 5). This young couple understood better than most of us the place that money is supposed to occupy in our lives--we are to share it with those in need. It is in giving that we receive joy. I must say one more thing about money: giving is our declaration of faith in Jesus Christ. You may think, I would give more to the church and to those in need, but I m afraid that I won t have enough to meet my own needs. What does that say about your relationship to God? Do you trust God? Has God ever let you down? If you don t have enough to meet your real needs, then of course, do not give. But don t refuse to give simply because you are afraid. Frances Ridley Havergal was a young English woman, daughter of an Anglican pastor. She was chronically ill most of her life, and she was not a woman blessed with wonderful talents or riches. Yet she wanted to give to Christ what she did have. She had a passion for missions. One day she determined that she really had no need of her jewelry. She packed it all up, all save a couple of pieces with some sentimental value, and shipped it off to the Church Missionary Society, and asked them to sell it and use the proceeds for their work. I had no idea I had such a jeweler s shop, she wrote to her friend. Nearly fifty pieces are being packed off... I never packed a box with such pleasure. Frances Havergal didn t say, What if I need this jewelry someday to sell to pay my bills? She could have. She wasn t a wealthy woman. But she didn t say that. She trusted God. Her simple desire was to give back to God in response to what God had given her. Of course, we remember Frances Ridley Havergal not because she gave her jewelry to church missions, but because of some verses she wrote about giving--words she meant from her heart. They went like this: Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to thee; take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my hands and let them move At the impulse of thy love. Take my feet and let them be Swift and beautiful for thee. Take my voice, and let me sing, Always, only, for my King.
I want my Dollar Back! p5 Take my lips and let them be Filled with messages from thee. Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold. Take my intellect and use Every power as thou shalt choose. Take my will and make it thine; It shall be no longer mine. Take my heart, it is thine own; It shall be thy royal throne. Take my love; my Lord, I pour At thy feet its treasure-store. Take myself, and I will be Ever, only, all for thee. (Johnson, 6) In sharing your money or time or talents or influence or leadership you are thanking God for what God has done for you in Jesus Christ. Generosity expresses your recognition of the proper place of money in our lives. Generosity declares your faith in Jesus Christ. When the offering plate passes you may think or scream like Nathan, I want my dollar back! But I suspect that most of you are filled with gratitude for God s gift to you in Jesus Christ and for the good service Trinity members offer to God people week after week after week. I thank you for your giving and I applaud your amazing generosity! Let us hold nothing back and give all that we may, even as Christ has given to us! Consecrate yourself and your offerings to God today and you come to the Lord s table, then join us for joyous laughter around our lunch tables! Amen! Sources Duncan, King. Dynamic Preaching, July11, 2012. Holwick, W. David. http://www.holwick.com/sermons/thanksgiving/thank5.html. Linkletter, Art. Kids Say the Darndest Things! Berkeley: Celestial Arts, 2005. Gonzales-Balado, José Luis. Mother Teresa: In My Own Words. Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 1996, p19. Johnson, Richard O. http://www.predigten.unigoettingen.de/predigt.phpid=3007& kennung=20110731en. Sweet, Leonard. A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Café. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1998. \10-28-18 I Want My Dollar Back Consecration Sunday.docx