 Dr. John E. Harnish Senior Pastor |
Bountiful Faith: Two All Beef Patties, Special Sauce,
Lettuce, Cheese, Pickles...Etc.
Sermon:
Scripture: |
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Have Faith…
In a day when everything changes, some things never change. And in it all and through it all, a bountiful God of grace gives us a bountiful heart, a bountiful faith… 1. God calls us to live boldly and to give bountifully. Our theme verse for this campaign includes the phrase “Live courageously,” but at least one translation says, “Live boldly.” I like that! To live boldly is to live with a spirit of exuberant gratitude, out of an awareness of God’s overwhelming abundance, with over-flowing joy. It’s the evidence of a bountiful faith. Now, I am not talking about living in extravagance or flaunting affluence, Donald Trump-style—that self-centered, self-congratulating, ego-endowed lifestyle. That’s what the Bible calls just plain, old, down-to-earth greed. Bishop Will Willimon has a new book out called Sinning Like Christians: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins, and of course, he identifies greed as the most deadly sin of all. It is to live as if we somehow deserve God’s bounty, God’s gifts, God’s grace. Greed is not primarily a matter of wealth. You can be really poor and really greedy at the same time. It’s a matter of attitude, a matter of the heart. It has to do with what’s at the center of our lives. Greed assumes that somehow this all centers on me—my wealth, my property, my goodness, my world, my deserving…me, me, me. We’ve been using 1950’s advertising slogans to interpret our stewardship theme this year, and often our advertising says a lot about our values. Have you seen the magazine ad for Armstrong floors…sleek loft apartment, modern furniture, a collection of coffee table books and an over-sized chess set with an obviously successful, upwardly mobile, single, young businessman. And the caption reads:
Not everything in your home is
all about you, you, you. That may be a form of “living boldly,” but essentially, it’s just greed…good, old-fashioned, homemade, deadly-sin greed. By contrast, a bountiful faith in a bountiful God produces a spirit of gratitude and generosity, an overflowing heart, a humble spirit and overwhelming thanksgiving, realizing that all of life is but a gift, a trust from God’s gracious hand. Here’s another ad…again, not from the 50’s but current television, for “Lending Tree” with Stanley Johnson:
Hi, I’m Stanley Johnson. And, of course, the help comes in the discipline of stewardship. Christian stewardship is not just about how much we give to the church. It’s about how we live with what we have:
Christian stewardship gives balance and discipline to our lives and helps us to live responsibly. Here’s one way of doing it. It’s called the 10-10-80 plan, and it would be a great help to Stanley Johnson:
It was a great joy to introduce you to my brother this week. I am just so proud of this congregation and am grateful for your gracious welcome. On Thursday he spoke for a conference gathering and used a DVD from their last stewardship campaign. It included a variety of persons sharing their witness. The one that stuck with me was a woman who said: Of all that God has given us, we enjoy the first 10% the most. That’s the part we give away, and it’s given us more joy than all the other 90%. That’s what it means to live boldly:
One of the most generous people I ever met was Francisco Bazon. I will never forget him. Judy and I were just married, in our first year in seminary, and Francisco was a pastor from the Philippines, also studying at Asbury Seminary. He was there through the generosity of a couple of friends, living on practically nothing. His family was back in Mindanao, barely managing to survive on meager savings while he studied at the seminary. But he was one of the most joyful people I ever met. Judy and I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Colombia, the first time we had ever traveled outside the U.S.—only the first of many mission trips to come. We were struggling to pay the rent and tuition and trying to put together the funds for the trip when Francisco came by our little house trailer one day with our good friend, Chuck Killian. Chuck said Francisco had something for us. He handed me an envelope with five $10 bills. I was overwhelmed. That was a lot of money back then, and for Francisco, I am sure it was a fortune. I began to protest and was ready to refuse his gift when Chuck said, “Jack, please, he has so little. Don’t deny him the joy of giving.” Francisco had learned the secret. He had learned that joy comes, not with getting and holding, but with giving and sharing. He had learned to accept everything as a gift from God. He had learned to live boldly and to give generously. I just have to say in more than 30 years of ministry, I’ve discovered that in every church I have served, the happiest people are the giving people and the grumpiest people are the greedy people. The most joyful people are generous people and the stuffiest people are the stingiest people. St. Paul says, “God loves a cheerful giver” ( I am often tempted to add that, here at First Church, we will also take from a grouch!), but I wonder if it doesn’t work the other way…they are cheerful because they are givers. It’s the giving which brings the joy to their lives. We are called to a bountiful faith in a bountiful God, called to live boldly and give generously… 2. Because in the end, you can’t out-give God. We talk about the bottom line, but the bottom line on faith is that no matter how much you give, you can’t out-give God. St. Paul says, “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance.” It defies logic, breaks all the financial formulas and the actuarial-approved accounting practices, but the bottom line is that with the more you give, the more you receive…because you simply can’t out-give God. This bounteous God is a God who delights in giving. This generous God is a God whose giving knows no bounds. This gracious God is a God whose greatest joy is the joy of abundant living, and this God desires that same joy for each of us. This bounteous, generous, gracious God is nothing less than a Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun kind of God. A super-sized God who delights in super-sizing every gift simply for the joy of giving. You simply cannot out-give God. Now, let me quickly say, I am not here to advocate for over-eating or promoting cholesterol-saturated fast food. But in the spirit of the theme…this is what God is like:
In his wonderful book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning says: Oh that we would recognize God’s grace when it comes to us. We get so preoccupied with ourselves, the plans, the projects we conceive that we become immune to the glory of God’s grace all around us. We barely notice the cloud passing over the moon, or the dewdrops clinging to the rose leaves. The ice on the pond comes and goes. The wild blackberries ripen and wither.
We buy prepackaged fish and fowl and never think or blink about the bounty of God’s creation. We grow complacent and lead practical lives. We must rediscover the gospel of grace and the world of grace. (B. Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, page 89) Again, my friend Chuck Killian taught me the “shovel principle” of stewardship. It’s as simple as this: I shovel out, God shovels in, and God has a bigger shovel. You simply cannot out-give God. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul picks up the same theme as the Corinthian text. He prays that they would be: …rooted and grounded in love, they may have the power to comprehend with all the saints the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passes all knowledge, that they will be filled with the fullness of God. Then he commends them: …unto God who by the power at work in us is able to do exceeding abundantly about all we can ask or think, to the only wise God be dominion and power and glory, now and forever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20) The Eugene Peterson translation, The Message, says it this way: I ask that with both feet planted firmly in love, you will be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience its breadth. Test its limits. Plumb its depths! Rise to its height! Live full lives, full of the fullness of God.
God can do anything you know—far more than you ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams. Glory to God in the church! Glory down through the generations! Glory through all millennia! Oh yes! (The Message, page 279) God is able…
Able to provide you with every
blessing in abundance. As I have worked on this sermon, of course I’ve also been reading the newspapers. I realize this is a difficult time in the Michigan economy. Any preacher in the midst of a stewardship campaign who opened up the Friday Free Press would have had the same reaction: “Oh…thanks!” In the 1950’s musical Lil Abner, there was a song which was a spoof on one of the bulwarks of our economy: “What’s Good for General Bullmoose is Good for the USA,” and of course, in Michigan, we all know the adage to which it refers: “What’s good for General Motors is good for the USA.” Well, I don’t know how General Bullmoose is doing lately, but we all know the stress on General Motors, the Big Three and the USA. Someone on the Finance Committee said, “It’s a tough time to ask for fund-raising,” and I suppose, so it is. But the fact is, this morning is not just about raising funds, it’s about raising our spirits in response to God’s love. It is not just trying to meet the church budget, we are trying to live out of the abundance of God’s grace offered to us in Jesus. It’s not just asking for pledges from the pocketbook, but the commitment of the heart. God is not just calling us to be donors, but calling us to be disciples of Christ, giving out of a bountiful faith in a bountiful God who gives blessings in abundance. The phrase “bounteous God” has been humming in my head. It comes from the ancient hymn by Martin Rinkert. I told you the story of the hymn this summer. It was written during a difficult time, certainly more difficult than ours. It was 1663, following the devastating 30 Years War in Europe and the plague of the early 1600’s. Pastor and poet, frail of health himself, Rinkert had personally buried over 5,000 people, including his wife. Yet, in the face of it all he could sing:
O may this bounteous God through
all our lives be near us Today…when everything seems to be changing, some things never change. Today…I invite you to “Have Faith:”
To live boldly
Great is thy faithfulness, O God
my Father;
Great is thy faithfulness!
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