April 28, 2024

by | Apr 28, 2024 | sermons

Scripture: Matthew 6:24-34

24 You cannot be the slave of two masters! You will like one more than the other or be more  loyal to one than the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

25 I tell you not to worry about your life. Don’t worry about having something to eat, drink, or  wear. Isn’t life more than food or clothing? 26 Look at the birds in the sky! They don’t plant or  harvest. They don’t even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them.  Aren’t you worth much more than birds?

27Can worry make you live longer? 28 Why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers  grow. They don’t work hard to make their clothes. 29 But I tell you that Solomon with all his  wealth[wasn’t as well clothed as one of them. 30 God gives such beauty to everything that grows  in the fields, even though it is here today and thrown into a fire tomorrow. God will surely do  even more for you! Why do you have such little faith?

31 Don’t worry and ask yourselves, “Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to  drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?” 32 Only people who don’t know God are always  worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows you need all of these. 33 But more than  anything else, put God’s work first and do what God wants. Then the other things will be yours  as well.

34 Don’t worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today.

Sermon

  1. My two grandfathers both had contrasting stories of how they provided for their families during the Depression:
    1. One grandpa worked his whole life in a lumber mill in Spokane;
      1. Long, hard hours for a very small paycheck;
      2. but somehow, he never got laid off.
      3. Although he did suffer from emphysema the rest of his life, probably from working in a toxic environment. But at least he fed his family!
    2. My other grandpa was more of an entrepreneur:
      1. for a while, he would buy boxes of encyclopedias, load them in his car, and drive around the country selling them door to door.
      2. Now and then, he came home with a suitcase full of cash.
    3. Neither was the wrong approach; to get through a crisis, we all do what we have to do. But their approaches were very different. And both are probably embedded in my DNA even now.
  2. We all have family stories about hard times, survival, prosperity and loss;
    1. and they play a big part in shaping our attitudes about money:
      1. Maybe you’re descended from people who gambled away their money on impossible dreams
      2. Or maybe your people hid their money under the mattress
      3. Either way, all our stories shaped our attitudes and anxieties about money.
    2. They shape how we choose careers, relate to our partners and children, how we borrow, spend, save and how we give.
      Think for a moment about the people or circumstances that influenced your approach to  money … The people who shaped your attitudes about money… Who or what shaped you?
  3. How we give is one of the most complex calculations for humans
    1. Giving away what we think of as ours seems counterintuitive;
    2. It’s risky, because it may not benefit us in the long term
    3. And yet, humans like to be generous!
    4. studies show that generous people are happier people, whether they share their money or acts of kindness
    5. Most church people long ago figured this out, and that’s why you’re here, so I’m preaching to the choir
  4. But another thing I’ve observed about giving is that people have different motives for giving:
    1. In the world out there, money is a transactional thing;
      1. I give something, I get something
      2. so you may donate with the idea that you’ll get something back
      3. Sometimes we give without letting go; we attach conditions to our gifts;
        1. I once lived in a town where they needed to build a new City Hall.
        2. One wealthy person offered a huge monetary gift to the City on the condition that they build it at a particular location.
        3. And the City took the money!
        4. So one rich person got to decide where City Hall would be built.
      4. But other people have learned to give openly, freely, allowing the receiver to choose how they will use the gift.
    2. Then there are people who give from a sense of duty, or even fear about what will  happen if they don’t give:
      1. I wrote a book about church closure a few years ago,
      2. I interviewed members of churches that closed and heard stories of people  who gave not just generously, but I would say sacrificially of their money and labor, as their churches declined,
      3. I started calling these people “heroic givers”.
      4. They were quietly accepting more and more of the financial burden of the church upon themselves as individuals
      5. One interviewee said to me, “I kept giving more, but it was never enough”.
    3. And then there are people give from a place of hope and excitement about the future;
      1. an attitude of “Let’s be daring and see what we can do!”
      2. They give not to a guaranteed outcome, but to some unrealized potential,
      3. I once had a clergy colleague who ran for office in his County
        1. He asked me and other colleagues for small campaign donations.
        2. I really respected this guy, so I wrote him a $300 check
        3. I had never made a political donation before
        4. He didn’t win, unfortunately.
        5. But there was something satisfying about investing in the dream that he might win! I never regretted that gift.
    4. It’s exciting to give to a new venture or idea
      1. I learned this week that your congregation came up with $800,000 in a  capital campaign so that you could become part of the venture that is now Springhouse;
      2. that was on top of the value of the church building you sold!
        1. That was an extraordinary act of hope for you!
          Think for a moment about WHAT MOTIVATES YOU TO GIVE TO A CAUSE?  Do you give because you want to feel some control, or ownership of a project? Or because you’re afraid of what might happen if you don’t donate?
          Do you ever just give out of spontaneous, wild hope?
          Or overwhelming gratitude for what has been given to you that you didn’t earn and don’t really deserve?
  5. Deciding what and how to give as an individual is challenge enough!
    1. But churches have the additional challenge of how we steward our gifts as a group
    2. Like when we face the dreaded annual church budget
    3. Church Budgeting brings all our different money stories into one room!
      1. And inevitably, they will collide with each other
      2. The penny pinchers and the risk takers all have to work together to figure out the budget!
    4. These days, just tweaking a few line items in a budget is not always enough. Churches need some big adaptive change;
      1. We need new ways to generate revenue – like grant writing, or using our buildings as venues
      2. New ways to share staff and buildings –
        1. Two of my interim churches learned to share one pastor and one administrator between them;
      3. Some churches look at mergers or closures
      4. or entirely new models of being the church without buildings and staff!
    5. While this is painful discernment for churches, it’s compels us to clarify our priorities;
      1. What do we really need in order to carry out the ministry God has put before us?
      2. And what can we let go of that no longer serves our mission?
      3. What do we need to preserve to pass to future generations?
  6. This month, your Council and committees are doing some hard discernment about Lyndale’s budget and sustainability.
    1. You have a few choices that boil down to:
      1. Continuing as you are and drawing more deeply from your endowment;
      2. You can ask members for significant increases in generosity to close the gap, and/or find other sources for revenue
      3. You can cut back on your expenses to get closer to a sustainable budget
      4. Or some combination of all these options
  7. Your leaders are in a tight place; and they need your prayers;
    1. I do not expect them to do this without your help,
    2. At some point, they will also need your wisdom so you can make these decisions as a group, so stay tuned.
    3. And also, your leaders need your generous financial commitments.
    4. financing a ministry truly “takes a village”.
  8. It’s worth remembering that Jesus also had a money story;
    1. he trusted, and asked his disciples to trust, that God had always and would always provide for them somehow
    2. He asked them not to worry about what they would eat or wear!
    3. And he asked them to stop and pay attention to all the beautiful ways God was already providing for them.
    4. Once his followers learned to trust in the way of life he led them to, they were freed from worry about themselves and could become more generous with the world.
    5. I hope we are learning that, too.
  9. As we dedicate pledges today, Christ invites us also to move away from fear and toward the joy of mutually providing for each other and the world.
    1. After the hymn, we’ll have a prayer, and hear Claire’s testimony,
    2. Then we’ll segue into the offering time.
    3. I’ll invite you to step out of whatever puddle of anxiety your brain goes into when the topic of money comes up…
    4. And do a little dreaming with pen and paper about God’s dream for Lyndale.