Walking the Talk

Alison Williams - Sep 28/29, 2014 - Bethel Lutheran Church - Prayer Shawls, 50th Anniversary for BLC Foundation, 3rd Grade Bibles, Baptisms

(Readings below)

Today, Jesus tells a story about two sons responding to their father’s instruction to go and work in the vineyard. One son says he will go but he doesn’t actually go. Another says he will not go but then he eventually does. So one is a verbal yes but with no action. And the other is a verbal no but with action. Then Jesus asks, which son do you think did what their father asked?

The answer seems as obvious to me as it was to the disciples: the one who did the will of his father was the one who actually worked, not the one who merely SAID he would. And we all know the adage, “Actions speak louder than words.” Then again, I also heard a different one growing that goes, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Did any of you get that growing up or say it when raising your kids?

Though the issue is laid in two extremes, each of us are scattered along the line in between the two extremes. We move along that line from day to day or from one situation to the next. We all say no to certain things and eventually change our minds and take action. We all say an immediate yes to something, only to never get around to actually doing it. Regardless of where you fall on the scale, I'd like to explore the idea that we are not the workers in the vineyard, that there are parts of us that SAY yes to God, but do NOT work.

Our vineyard, though is the kingdom of God. The great big world of which we are a part. The movement of the holy spirit. The forming of community in Christ. But what is the work? We heard a few examples in Paul's letter to the Philippians: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” Paul writes that we should have the same mind that was in Christ who humbled himself, became a slave and was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. In other words, the stakes are high. Our work in this kingdom of God is about so much more than showing up to church for an hour or so each week. What God calls us to is about all 168 hours of the week (and yes, even resting is holy).

And yet if God requires every part of us and we have responded to our call and said yes, then why do some of us feel so unconnected to a living God? Why aren't every single one of you engaged in some kind of ministry that gets you excited? That lights you up? Why is it so easy for some to walk away? Of course, I have a unique perspective. I hear from many of you a thirst to be a part of something, to connect, to be in community. And then I hear from so many groups that need more people to do ministry. I asked in my last sermon for people to do visitation. Two people came forward. I’d love to have more. Perhaps everyone was waiting on a blurb in the bulletin. I spent a couple hours last weekend with Bethel's Church Ladies, a ministry that works with women transitioning out of prison. There were three of us there. I’d love to have more. And I'd love to have more people interact with my friends who are homeless if only so you could all see how similar their stories are to your own.

When Jesus was teaching in the temple, he was looking at two groups of people, the insiders and the misfits. One said yes but did not act according to their yes. The other group had originally said no but had changed their minds and believed. Jesus said those misfits, the prostitutes and tax collectors and the rejects of society, would be going ahead of the educated religious people who questioned Jesus’ truth.

But I have to tell you that my mind keeps inching toward one of the more taboo subjects in church: money. Because if we want to talk about a way that Christians talk the talk but don't necessarily walk the walk, we need to talk about money. You need to ask any server who works in a restaurant on Sundays about the after church crowd. Christians are some of the worst tippers. You see, there's this idea that Christians are very giving, very generous on the whole but if so many people are unexcited, unconnected, and searching for something a bit more, what inspiration is there to give money, time, or any of the resources that God has provided us? Perhaps we are all waiting for an invitation to jump in.

If we are thinking about money, about finances and tithing and charitable giving, I want to plug that back into our story. I propose that we are the group who says yes but doesn’t act. Which would mean that we say YES to God's call to give all that we have but that we do not live up to what we say. Our actions don't match what we preach. At the other end of this spectrum, then, would be a group that says NO to God but who actually is quite generous. So that would be all the non-Christians we know in our lives or in the media who are remarkably generous, self sacrificing, kind, and doing the work of God's kingdom.

Let me give you a tangible example to do with money. There is a charity that I enjoy giving to called Kiva. Are any of you familiar with it? Kiva is basically a micro lender, helping people all across the world, including people in the United States, receive small financial loans. These loans go to a myriad of different things: they can provide education, help someone build up their retail business, purchase or repair a house, enhance a crop and so on. On KIVA, everyone loans money in $25 increments. You can thumb through photos and stories of real people, search for specific countries to direct your loan, or join a team to support causes you care about. And when the recipient repays their loan, you get to invest that $25 all over again in someone new. There is a friendly competition among groups to see who can raise the most money. The highest lending team of all time on Kiva is not the “Kiva Christians,” but a group self defined as various kinds of non-Christians. They’ve given about 4 million more dollars to finance micro loans than their Christian counterparts. I won't tell you how far behind them my smaller “KIVA Lutherans” group is. But perhaps they don’t have somewhere else to give. The point is, statistically non-Christians don’t give any more or less than Christians.  

This is just one example, of course. But I would wager that all know more. Stories of remarkable generosity from non-Christians that, at times, outshines the work of those who have said YES to God, those who have professed the name of Christ and have heard the way Jesus speaks about money. About giving it all away and placing our security in the hands of God. We believe that all we have comes from God so it should not be difficult to give a fraction away. Or to look at it different, to keep only 90% of it for our own bills, spending, direction, families.

I’ve been researching stewardship and tithing recently and the truth about the financial giving habits of Christians across the board is not pretty. At Bethel, we are not magically exempt from these things, either. We have our debt issues just like churches across the country. Many of our special programs this year have come not through the general budget where most of our tithing goes but through the generosity of the Bethel Endowment Foundation (which we get to celebrate today). They've sponsored over $9 million dollars in special projects since their beginning 50 years ago.

But there have been studies done, surveys given, papers written, graphs and charts prepared on how little we all give. The idea that we all tithe 10% is no where near the truth. I’ve read that about 25% of professed Christians give absolutely no money to charity and that includes church. I also read that our giving is not actually relative to our income like we might believe. Someone making over $90,000 gives about the same percentage as someone making less than $10,000. It seems that a very small portion are exceptionally generous and they make our averages look much better. [From “Passing the Plate”]

A wonderful article in the Huff Post in 2012 said:

“A quarter of respondents in a new national study said they tithed 10 percent of their income to charity. But when their donations were checked against income figures, only 3 percent of the group gave more than 5 percent to charity.” In other words, a huge proportion of people who say they give generously do not give as generously as they thought. And doesn’t that seem to fit our parable today to a T? Saying one thing, doing another.

I don’t know if you’ve ever sat down and done the math on your own giving but I sat down earlier this year when I had to to work on my taxes. And I tallied up my giving from 2013, believing that I had done pretty well. I'm a pastor, after all. I should have this thing down. I had filled out my pledge card and put it on my fridge and done somewhat regular monthly bank drafts to the church. And I assumed that if I did not give as much to the church, it was because I was generous with my resources elsewhere. And while I did give money to some outside charities and donated some bags of clothing and items to Goodwill…. it certainly was not as much as I thought I was doing.

I will admit that I was a bit ashamed of that reality, especially as one of your pastors! So I had to ask myself the question from today’s story, How is God calling me to act? What is God calling me to do? Certainly my vocation is part of my call to work in the kingdom, but I also recognize that all I have comes from God in the first place. If I keep a small fraction of that, I'm abundantly blessed, far richer than most of the world. And most of us keep a lot more than 90%. I battled through my excuses about student loan debt, about building up my savings and planning for retirement (which they keep telling me I should start planning for NOW)…. and I talked to wise people and prayed. I worked through my fear that I would not have enough money at the end of the month, the year, or my life for bills and necessities. I thought about what would happen if I ever got really sick. And I kept asking myself, “What is God asking me to give?” I'd love to tell you that I am now easily giving more than 10% to the church and to other charities. What I can tell you is that I stepped up my giving by one percent and plan to step up again in the coming year.

I remember my pastoral internship year where I got a $1,000 monthly stipend and I believed I was the richest person. If I could live on that, couldn't I give whatever I made beyond that away? Ah, but wealth is a moving target, never actually within our reach but just a bit farther out.

Hear me when I say I'm not asking for your money. I'm asking what God is calling you to do. If you decide to unburden your pockets, you have my permission to give it all to an entirely different charity that is not the church. In fact, it would guarantee that your money would in no way come back around to benefit you, as if this were some kind of pay for service transactional facility where you pay in money and get out, what? Preaching? Coffee? I tell you what, I promise I'll keep preaching if you keep giving me coffee.

But honestly, when Paul wrote to the Philippians, he was not giving them rules and regulations about how to live their calling. About how much to give financially, how often to feed the poor or visit the sick, or how many hours to volunteer in a given week. Paul simply trusted that God was at work in them and they would take action and serve others and put themselves last. Christ had called them and set himself as an example before them of humility and service and sacrifice.

How is God at work in you? There is in every one of us, something we are still saying NO to. A fear that is holding us back. Fear of, what? I don't know. Not fitting in, falling short? Fear of the unknown? (Me!) Fear of the future? But God IS at work in you. Whether or not you were the YES crowd or the NO crowd. The same power that was at work in Christ and in those early Christians is at work in you, setting you about to free you from those fears. It is then that you can ask the hard questions.

What is God calling us to say YES to? What is God calling you to do? There are beautiful examples before us today in the church as we celebrate the Endowment Foundation which has helped make so many amazing ministries possible at Bethel, distribute 3rd grade bibles as just one tiny piece of the way that we interact with children and nurture the faith in them, and bless prayer shawls, another tangible sign of God’s love for us.

Will you give that daring 10% or even 1%? Will you knit prayer shawls? Teach 3rd graders? Read the bible? Visit those who are homebound? Pray? This is your church. This is your opportunity to respond to God's call for your life. This is how you grow in Christ. This is how I grow in Christ.This is how we grow as a community, as a church, as a people that say yes to God.

God is at work in you. How will we respond?

Amen.

READING: Philippians 2:1–13

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death —

even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

GOSPEL Matthew 21:23-32

When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?" Jesus said to them, "I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?" And they argued with one another, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'Of human origin,' we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet." So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And he said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' He answered, 'I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir'; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

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Huff Post 09/01/2012 David Briggs

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-briggs/the-flesh-is-weak-churchgoers-give-far-less-than-they-think_b_1846516.html [09/26/2014]