Guilt, Gratuity, Gift, Gratitude
RUMC October 25, 2015
I want to start today with a question.
Are you a little tired of emergency appeals from the church to keep up with
expenses? I’ll admit I am. I want to be the first to point we have only had two
cash flow pinch points this year instead of 4 or 5 when I came here 7 years
ago. Things are getting better, and I am thankful for that and proud of the
growth we have seen. I am also grateful that when the church asks for help you
come through with flying colors like this last week. We had only $700 in the
offering plate two weeks ago. The offering from last Sunday and throughout the
week was $7,000. You are generous people. Thank you.
Finally, I want to point out that we
are not unique. Almost every church… no matter the size or the location has
these same issues and struggles. We are not alone.
I don’t know about you, but none of
that really makes me feel better when I get the email or hear the appeal for
emergency funds.
So let’s start with a quick lesson in
church finances.
Just like your personal budget, the church
expenses vary depending on a variety of issues like utilities, insurance,
withholdings, snow removal and more.
Most of us have a predictable income. We pretty much know how much our
paychecks are going to be month to month. The church income varies from week to
week. Farmers, salesmen and others, also face this situation. For the church,
this variation depends on the week of the month, season of the year, travel,
harvest, economy, holidays attendance, giving habits, and a whole bunch of
unknown and uncontrollable factors.
In an ideal world, those expense and income cycles would match.
But they rarely do. When those expense and
income cycles are out of sync… that is when we experience the cash flow pinch
points and we have to issue the appeal. The Finance team does a top-notch job
trying to anticipate and prepare for these events, and they do the very
difficult task of dealing with these cash flow pinches when they come. We need
to applaud them and thank them for their hard work, but the Finance team can
only work with what we give them.
One thing that would help them would be to
minimize the fluctuation in our offerings. You have an insert in your bulletin
describing options of how you might help make the church’s income more
predictable.
Also the Finance Team or I would be glad to
answer any questions you have about how the church finances work.
NOTICE, HOWEVER, … I said leveling off the income cycle is a PARTIAL
solution.
The MOST IMPORTANT part of the solution
cannot be graphed or calculated
The MOST IMPORTANT part of the solution
is not economic, because the problem is not an economic issue. The median
family income in Grundy County puts us in the top ¼ of 1% of the world’s
richest households. In global terms, we are the 1%ers. The poorest households
in Reinbeck are still richer than 85% of the rest of the world.
I don’t say that to minimize anyone’s
financial struggles. I have been there. Believe me. I know how hard it is to
choose between buying food and paying a medical bill. I am not criticizing
anyone. I am simply pointing out that at its heart; this is not an economic
issue. If it were, the money would not have appeared in the last week.
The MOST IMPORTANT part of the solution
is not psychological. If the sin of greed were at the heart of the problem,
using the psychological tool of making people feel guilty would be appropriate.
But you are not greedy, or again the money would not have come in last week.
The MOST IMPORTANT part of the solution
is not administrative. Our budget is lean and our spending is very well
monitored. There is nothing the office or the leadership team can do to solve
this problem, because it is not administrative.
Well, I’ve told you what the problem is
not. So what is it? Let’s turn to the scripture lesson for the morning.
Ten Lepers came to Jesus. Lepers were not only
religiously unclean, they were feared in Jesus day, forced to live as outcasts
in shantytowns outside of the “Real” cities. They had no contact with anyone
outside of their own little quarantined shantytown. If they violated that rule,
they were summarily stoned to death.
Ten lepers approached Jesus, keeping
their distance so as not to make him unclean. They cried out, “Jesus, Master,
have mercy on us!” Jesus did have mercy on them and told them to, “Go and show
themselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean.
What a miracle! Except that is not the
end.
On the way to the priest, who was the
only person who could examine them and declare them healed, one Leper who had
been healed said, you know we ought to go back and give thanks to Jesus.
One of the others said, “You know what,
I deserve to be healed. I have been sick for so long, I think Jesus only gave
me what I deserved. You go back if you want; I am going to the priest.”
The second leper who had been cleansed
said, “Jesus is a healer. He was just doing his job. You go back if you want; I
am going to the priest.”
The third leper who had been cleansed
said, “How do we know it’s real? It might come back tomorrow. You go back if you
want; I am going to the priest.”
The fourth leper who had been cleansed
said, “I’ll see Jesus later. There’s plenty of time to thank him. You go back
if you want; I am going to the priest.”
The fifth leper who had been cleansed
said, “I was getting better anyway. You go back if you want; I am going to the
priest.”
The sixth leper who had been cleansed
said, “I don’t care what Jesus did, it is the priest who will declare the
disease gone. You go back if you want; I am going to the priest.”
The seventh leper who had been cleansed
said, “Any rabbi could have done it. You go back if you want; I am going to the
priest.”
The eighth leper who had been cleansed
said, “I haven’t hugged my kids for 7 years. I have to get home. You go back if
you want; I am going to the priest.”
The ninth leper who had been cleansed
said, “I don’t think I really had leprosy any way. You go back if you want; I
am going to the priest.”
Only one solitary former leper “turned
back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and
thanked him.”
Are you more like the nine who didn’t return,
or the one who did?
None of us has leprosy, thank goodness.
Unfortunately, we have something far worse. Terminal Sinfulness. Figuratively
speaking, I’m a leper, you’re a leper. We are all lepers in the eyes of God
until Jesus died on the cross and healed us of our disease. And as if that
weren’t enough, look around you at the people who surround you and love you.
And as if that weren’t enough, think about your family and friends. And as if
that weren’t enough, look around at this beautiful building and think of your
nice comfortable house. And as if that weren’t enough, open your eyes and see
the glory of the fall colors, the miracle of a bountiful harvest. And as if
that weren’t enough, think about the fact that God loves you… even you… even
though you in no way deserve it.
If all those things added together
don’t make you overflow with gratitude, I think there is something wrong with
you. We have a lot to be grateful for, and as we come closer and closer to God,
we come to realize more and more the magnitude and multitude of God’s
blessings, and our hearts are filled again and again to overflowing with
gratitude.
There are some people who give to the
church out of guilt. Thinking, not consciously of course, but in the back of
their minds that they somehow owe a debt (either to God or the church) and they
feel guilty not paying for it. If that is you, bless you. But God doesn’t want
your guilt, he would much rather have your gratitude.
There are some people who give to God as
though they are leaving a gratuity. For them the offering plate is a tip jar.
Their giving depends on how they feel. If they had a good week, they might drop
in a little more. If God didn’t give them what they asked for in prayer, maybe
they drop in a little less. If the preacher didn’t wave at them as they spend
by on the highway at 60 miles an hour they don’t give anything. It is all
dependent on how they feel at the moment the plate comes by. Thank you, but God
doesn’t want your gratuity, he would much rather have your gratitude.
Then there are some people I call the
"gifters" (not givers, but gifters). They give because they feel like
they should. The rule is, if you come to the party, you bring a gift. These
folks give because they think they have to. Or because they always have. They
may even give the exact same dollar amount they always have, even though times
have changed dramatically. They may even look around to see how their gift
compares to the offering of the person next to them, but they give to the
church because they believe it is expected. Thank you, but God doesn’t want
your gift, he would much rather have your gratitude.
There are lots of reasons to give and I
am not holding judgment on anyone.
I do want to point out, however that:
• I
don’t think God wants us to put up pictures of sad puppies so people will feel
guilty and give.
• God
doesn’t want us to put out a tip jar so that folks can give him a gratuity.
• God
doesn’t expect that we will give because we feel like we have to.
God wants us to give out of gratitude.
God wants us to give because our hearts are overflowing with thanksgiving for
all that he is and does. God wants us to give because we feel blessed by God.
God wants us to give because our hearts are bursting with joy over him! God
wants us to give because our hearts are bursting with delight in God’s ways!
God wants us to give just because we love him so much that we want to give
anything and everything we have, anything and everything we are to him in
loving gratitude.
God wants us to want to come back to
Jesus like the one leper just because we are grateful
God’s instruction to tithe in the Old
Testament was not a tax on success. It was an opportunity to bring the first
fruits of the harvest in to God in gratitude and thanksgiving.
God wants our offering to be like the
wonderful parade that lead the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. 2 Samuel
says, “David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all
their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and
cymbals.”
That’s what our offerings should look
like. That’s what next Sunday should look like as we bring God our estimates of
giving. It should be a great party, “Dancing before the Lord with all our
might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and
cymbals.”
I’m not going to go so far as one
preacher who told his congregation that if they couldn’t give out of gratitude
that he didn’t want them to give at all. The chairman of the finance committee
was kind of upset with him and told him, “It’s OK preacher, we’ll take money
from grumpy givers and we’ll add the gratitude ourselves.” I’m not going to go
as far as that preacher, but I will say that God will take gratitude over
grumpy any day.
Anthony Demello, one of my new favorite
authors tells a story “One evening a wise man was just getting ready to sleep
under a tree when he was approached by a villager who came running up to him
asking that he give him a precious stone. “ What stone” the wise man asked? “I
had a dream last night and told me that if I came to this place at dusk tonight
a wise man would give me a precious stone that would make me unbelievably rich.
The wise man rummaged in his bag for a moment and, smiling, said, “You probably
meant this one. I found it in the forest today and you certainly can have it.”
The villager gazed at the diamond in wonder. It was as large as his fist and,
even in the fading light, filled with luminosity. He took it and walked away.
But, that night he couldn’t sleep. He was deeply troubled. Next morning at
dawn, he rushed back to the wise man, and thrust the diamond back into his
hands. “I don’t want it,” he said. “What I want is whatever you have that makes
it possible for you to give it away so easily.”
In other words, Generosity.
It is not the gift. It is not the
offering. It is not the size of the check, or how much of a sacrifice it is to
us. Christian stewardship is growing into such love for God that we are more
than happy to give whatever we have just out of gratitude for who God is and
what God does.
AMEN
