Matthew 6:24-26 - "The Secret Spiritual Stimulus" (5-25-08)

Matthew 6:24-26 - ²⁴“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. ²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

1 Corinthians 4:1 – “Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.”

We are called to be the stewards of the mysteries of God. Indeed it is a mystery that God does provide for us and yet we worry. As we are called to be stewards of the mysteries of God and stewards of our time, talent and treasure, our government is called to be good stewards also. So we remember this time of year that the political leaders of our country are called to be the stewards of the mysteries of the election year vote. We give you money and you vote for us.

My initial sermon time was called “The Greatest Rebate” but I then checked out the IRS website. The checks we will start to receive are not rebates or refunds; they are actually called an “economic stimulus payment”.[i] So I changed my sermon title to the “Secret Spiritual Stimulus” as a way to view this money we are receiving as an opportunity to be stimulated to grow spiritually.

First of all, the rebate checks are coming soon according to the website. Payments will be made by either direct deposit or paper check, consistent with how people filed their 2007 tax return. For those who filed their taxes with direct deposit, the tax rebate checks should be completed already. For those like me, who file their taxes in paper form and by snail mail, the stimulus payment is being sent out based on the last two digits of your Social Security Number. So if the last two digits of your social security number start with 00-09, you should have received your check by May 16^th; at least that’s what the website said. Unfortunately the last two numbers in my social security number is 88, and I’m in the last batch that will receive them after July 11^th. I have some time to think about what to do with the economic stimulus check.

So when you receive your economic stimulus payments, there are some things we can do with them. First of all, when you get them turn to a child (name a few children who are in the worship space) and say thank you; thank you for paying for this economic stimulus payment. When I think about those who have sacrificed on this Memorial Day or think about the sacrifice my parents made during the depression, the world wars or post World War 2, I remember that they made sacrifices and paid for the sacrifice themselves. They didn’t sacrifice economically and made their grandchildren pay for it. That isn’t much of a sacrifice. Yet these economic stimulus payments are being placed on the shoulders of future generations because we are so in debt as a country.

So how might we respond to this economic stimulus that it might become a spiritual stimulus? For many, people who do the wise thing and pay down debt. Others will use it for savings. If you want to check out some retailers, they will actually give discounts if you spend the entire rebate check on an item or they will give you an additional 10% if you buy a gift card with the entire rebate check!

The other thing you should know is that this money will be non-taxable income so you don’t need to save 1/3^rd of it for taxes to pay the government back. So the ELCA Bishop have encouraged and our church council as well to give 10% or more to the ELCA Hunger appeal or the ELCA Disaster relief! Giving a percentage of this income is a way to practice generosity! My wife and I have been giving 10% of our income here at Living Waters for almost ten years; that means we have had to say no to certain things; we haven’t stepped up to a larger home or nest! Then I hear Jesus say, “Consider the birds of the air” Yet this spring we found this nest had had fallen out of a tree in the front yard.

Life’s been hard on the birds in our yard as we noticed a foreclosure take place on one such next. I’m not sure which banking institution had rights on such a nest, but the local branch of tree nest building had the nest removed from our tree, there’s been a difficult economic reality for many nests. Yet we also discovered this spring a new bird’s nest in our back yard under a gutter downspout. Consider the birds of the air.

Dr Seuss wrote a book called Which Nest Is Best? In it he shows two birds in a bird house getting ready for a new baby. The wife doesn’t like the house anymore and wants a new one. So they leave. They find a shoe but soon a foot is put into it. They find various places until they find a church steeple with a two bird garage. It has all the bells and whistles of a new house and they start building a nest. They the bell wrings and they have to leave quickly, entering a rain storm. The soon find a new house to protect them from the storm and are content. It happens to be the same house they started with. “Consider the birds of the air, how God provides for them”.

Jesus said you cannot serve two masters! There was hardly a surplus for food for the every day person. No stocking upon on much except wheat or corn and oil. He was telling his listeners, most of them who were poor, that they shouldn’t put their complete trust in possessions but in God. The root of all evil isn’t money but the love of money or when we put our complete trust in it. Mammon was a Hebrew word for material possessions. “Originally it was not a bad word. It comes from a word that means to entrust; and mammon was that which a man entrusted to a banker or to a safe deposit of some king. Mamon was the wealth one entrusted to someone for safekeeping. But the word came to mean not that which is entrusted but that in which a man put his trust.”[ii]

It’s about trust! Where is your trust? God was trying to remind me of this message of trust this week when I was leaving the office. I was dive bombed this week leaving church by a pair of robin’s. I had to stop, drop my bag and jump back as one almost flew right into me. I thought, is that how the Holy Spirit is tying to get my attention? Somehow the mysteries of God continue to fall gently upon us as we are called back into the nest of family and faith, where we are nestled up with one another in community. We gather in this nest and the mysteries of God surround us. We hear God’s birds singing gently to us, chirping out words of trust and comfort. We see the birds of the air and hold onto the promise that God is trying to comfort us and remind us to trust that this nest is best.

Let us pray: Gracious God, you call us to be the stewards of your mysteries. Remind us that we can trust you to provide for us and you call us to care for others, in Christ we pray, Amen.

---

[i] http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=177937,00.html

[ii] Barclay, Matthew Commentary, Westminster, 1958 page 252

Matthew 6:24-26 - "The Secret Spiritual Stimulus" (5-25-08)

Matthew 6:24-26 - ²⁴“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. ²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

1 Corinthians 4:1 – “Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.”

We are called to be the stewards of the mysteries of God. Indeed it is a mystery that God does provide for us and yet we worry. As we are called to be stewards of the mysteries of God and stewards of our time, talent and treasure, our government is called to be good stewards also. So we remember this time of year that the political leaders of our country are called to be the stewards of the mysteries of the election year vote. We give you money and you vote for us.

My initial sermon time was called “The Greatest Rebate” but I then checked out the IRS website. The checks we will start to receive are not rebates or refunds; they are actually called an “economic stimulus payment”.[i] So I changed my sermon title to the “Secret Spiritual Stimulus” as a way to view this money we are receiving as an opportunity to be stimulated to grow spiritually.

First of all, the rebate checks are coming soon according to the website. Payments will be made by either direct deposit or paper check, consistent with how people filed their 2007 tax return. For those who filed their taxes with direct deposit, the tax rebate checks should be completed already. For those like me, who file their taxes in paper form and by snail mail, the stimulus payment is being sent out based on the last two digits of your Social Security Number. So if the last two digits of your social security number start with 00-09, you should have received your check by May 16^th; at least that’s what the website said. Unfortunately the last two numbers in my social security number is 88, and I’m in the last batch that will receive them after July 11^th. I have some time to think about what to do with the economic stimulus check.

So when you receive your economic stimulus payments, there are some things we can do with them. First of all, when you get them turn to a child (name a few children who are in the worship space) and say thank you; thank you for paying for this economic stimulus payment. When I think about those who have sacrificed on this Memorial Day or think about the sacrifice my parents made during the depression, the world wars or post World War 2, I remember that they made sacrifices and paid for the sacrifice themselves. They didn’t sacrifice economically and made their grandchildren pay for it. That isn’t much of a sacrifice. Yet these economic stimulus payments are being placed on the shoulders of future generations because we are so in debt as a country.

So how might we respond to this economic stimulus that it might become a spiritual stimulus? For many, people who do the wise thing and pay down debt. Others will use it for savings. If you want to check out some retailers, they will actually give discounts if you spend the entire rebate check on an item or they will give you an additional 10% if you buy a gift card with the entire rebate check!

The other thing you should know is that this money will be non-taxable income so you don’t need to save 1/3^rd of it for taxes to pay the government back. So the ELCA Bishop have encouraged and our church council as well to give 10% or more to the ELCA Hunger appeal or the ELCA Disaster relief! Giving a percentage of this income is a way to practice generosity! My wife and I have been giving 10% of our income here at Living Waters for almost ten years; that means we have had to say no to certain things; we haven’t stepped up to a larger home or nest! Then I hear Jesus say, “Consider the birds of the air” Yet this spring we found this nest had had fallen out of a tree in the front yard.

Life’s been hard on the birds in our yard as we noticed a foreclosure take place on one such next. I’m not sure which banking institution had rights on such a nest, but the local branch of tree nest building had the nest removed from our tree, there’s been a difficult economic reality for many nests. Yet we also discovered this spring a new bird’s nest in our back yard under a gutter downspout. Consider the birds of the air.

Dr Seuss wrote a book called Which Nest Is Best? In it he shows two birds in a bird house getting ready for a new baby. The wife doesn’t like the house anymore and wants a new one. So they leave. They find a shoe but soon a foot is put into it. They find various places until they find a church steeple with a two bird garage. It has all the bells and whistles of a new house and they start building a nest. They the bell wrings and they have to leave quickly, entering a rain storm. The soon find a new house to protect them from the storm and are content. It happens to be the same house they started with. “Consider the birds of the air, how God provides for them”.

Jesus said you cannot serve two masters! There was hardly a surplus for food for the every day person. No stocking upon on much except wheat or corn and oil. He was telling his listeners, most of them who were poor, that they shouldn’t put their complete trust in possessions but in God. The root of all evil isn’t money but the love of money or when we put our complete trust in it. Mammon was a Hebrew word for material possessions. “Originally it was not a bad word. It comes from a word that means to entrust; and mammon was that which a man entrusted to a banker or to a safe deposit of some king. Mamon was the wealth one entrusted to someone for safekeeping. But the word came to mean not that which is entrusted but that in which a man put his trust.”[ii]

It’s about trust! Where is your trust? God was trying to remind me of this message of trust this week when I was leaving the office. I was dive bombed this week leaving church by a pair of robin’s. I had to stop, drop my bag and jump back as one almost flew right into me. I thought, is that how the Holy Spirit is tying to get my attention? Somehow the mysteries of God continue to fall gently upon us as we are called back into the nest of family and faith, where we are nestled up with one another in community. We gather in this nest and the mysteries of God surround us. We hear God’s birds singing gently to us, chirping out words of trust and comfort. We see the birds of the air and hold onto the promise that God is trying to comfort us and remind us to trust that this nest is best.

Let us pray: Gracious God, you call us to be the stewards of your mysteries. Remind us that we can trust you to provide for us and you call us to care for others, in Christ we pray, Amen.

---

[i] http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=177937,00.html

[ii] Barclay, Matthew Commentary, Westminster, 1958 page 252

John 10:19-23 - "Language of Peace" (5-11-08)

The Gospel: John 20:19-23 - ¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

So many different languages were spoken on the day of Pentecost. The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered to speak in various tongues the language of peace and forgiveness, the great works of God in Christ. The language of peace is now spoken to us in English, Spanish, Polish and German in our community. Our two children have the Spanish and Korean languages in their heritage. In 2004, when I was about to receive our adopted daughter Maggie from her foster mother, I was able to speak a word of peace to her in Korean. I learned to say “hananami bachshenul chukbok hashimnida”, which means God bless you. We speak the language of peace.

Today is the day of Pentecost. We heard from Acts 2:1-21 how the Holy Spirit empowered the disciples to speak in various languages. They were lit up with a powerful spirit that allowed them to communicate in a way they couldn’t before. The sole purpose was of this empowerment was to move them toward telling people about the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ. They were given this ability to speak in various languages in order that disciples of Christ would convey this forgiveness so that the repentant might find life and warn those that forfeit God’s mercy.

The disciples were hiding a few weeks after Jesus had died. They had been told about the resurrection yet still that wasn’t enough. Jesus just showed up. He stood in the midst of them. The first thing he offers these friends who had denied and ran was a gift. Peace! What do you give someone who isn’t sure what to do after they’ve lost a loved one? You pray peace! Peace! He spoke words of peace and forgiveness.

He says it again! Peace be with you! As the father has sent me so I send you! They are being commissioned! They Jesus breathes (emphoosa) on them and says receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives them a gift, undeserved, yet Jesus keeps on giving after they have failed. Jesus breathes new life into them in the midst of guilt, shame and uncertainty. Jesus gives them BREATH as he continued to draw life out of them that the whole world would know God’s grace!

What is the sign of this life giving breathe; the work of the Holy Spirit? Forgiveness! What is the language of the Christian faith? To forgive and be forgiving! The language of peace is given to the community of faith so that when there is no peace, you may go to those you have spoken a language other that peace and share it. This is why we share the peace with one another. We’ve made our confession to God and have heard words of forgiveness at the start of the service. We messed up and fessed up and God cleaned up our messed up lives in Christ. We then offer that word to one another. We will find some huggers and most hand shakers. We can’t connect with everyone, but those nearest, families especially. We need to speak words of forgiveness to one another.

Today is also Mother’s Day. I still recall the only time I preached when my mother was in the audience on a mother’s day. After reading the Gospel and then inviting all to sit, I said Happy Mother’s day. I then said it is a privilege to have my mother with us today at worship and the congregation clapped as I invited her to stand. I then said, “Now it’s my chance to say whatever I want to about my mom and she just has to listen.” She then said, “I’ve got stories about you too.” On with the sermon, I stated.

As it is mother’s day and Pentecost, this passage speaks to me. Jesus showed them his scars, the reality of the cross he bore. But these words of Jesus are from the other side of the grave and I think they are words of peace for all those who face a mother’s day with a distance between family members. Today is the first Mother’s Day for me without my mom and the words of Jesus brings healing and peace. This is a good word, a word of peace to all who have a distance for whatever reason with a mother. What is that word? PEACE! The language of peace!

The peace of the Lord is with you all! C: And also with you! Let us pray – Gracious God of peace, you speak words of peace to us today. Bring us healing and peace here in this place that we may be your peacemakers who have a peace that goes beyond our human understanding; in Jesus name! Amen