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“May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord, my rock
and my redeemer.”
Good morning, church. I am honored and excited to be with you this morning. That may mean I am a little nervous or anxious, but I hope it is not fear. People fear different things. There have been surveys done about what people fear, such things as the fear of spiders, of heights, fear of public speaking, and fear of dying. Surveys have shown that more people are afraid of public speaking than they are of dying. So, I guess that means that if we were at a funeral today, more of us would rather be the one in the casket than giving the eulogy.
Let me say that this is a 50 year-old dream of mine; that is, to preach! When I was a young girl of about 5 years old, I would use an old high chair, place my Bible on top, line up my toy soldiers and cowboys and Indians, and preach to my “congregation”. (I never owned any dolls.) I was also probably preaching about hell, fire, and brimstone.
I have to admit, standing in front of 350 or so real live people is a bit more daunting than preaching to a few toys. Regardless, I am honored to have this opportunity today and want to share with you why I am here.
You will notice that the Scripture today is from Matthew 25:14-30, the Parable of the Talents.
During this past Thanksgiving, Mother, Jennifer, and I were driving home from Cincinnati, after our visit to my sister’s. Somehow, in the course of the conversation, Mother told us that once, as a teenager, she had led a devotional for a group of ministers who were meeting at Mother’s church. This was news to me so I asked her more questions about it. I said, “Mother, what did you talk about to a group of pastors?” She said that she spoke about the parable of the talents. “What all did you say?” Her response, “Honey, that was 70 years ago, I don’t remember.”
I let it go at that until the following Saturday, Dec. 1, when, at a church board and staff retreat, Teena shared that she needed a back-up for Jan. 20, in case she didn’t get back from a trip, from which she was flying stand-by. Judy Barr and I exchanged some sort of words, then for the next few days, my mind kept going back to my conversation with Mother about the parable of the talents, which, would probably fit into a message about stewardship and giving.
Then, I woke up a couple of nights in the middle of the night, my head filled with thoughts about this whole thing.
Somehow I felt led to let Teena know that if she needed a “back-up”, then I was willing to help. Well, in a way that only Teena can do, she said, “Why don’t you just plan to give the message on Jan. 20?”
So, I thought, why not, and in some way, it could be a tribute to Mother, who had talked about the same subject some 70 years ago. Now I really wanted to pin Mother down, so I called her, asked her to re-read Matthew 25 and jot down any thoughts she had about it. She agreed to do so.
I went home a couple of weeks later, had my notebook and pen in hand, ready to record her memories and wisdom. That’s when she told me that as she looked in Matthew, she remembered that she spoke on the parable just preceding the talents, and that is the parable of the 10 virgins. Well, for whatever reason, I am not prepared to preach about the virgins, but will share with you a few thoughts on stewardship, tithing, pay day, giving back to God.
Today is the 3rd message centered around the Stewardship Team’s month long program about prayer, service, and giving. Teena’s first 2 sermons focused on prayer and service. Today, I want to visit with you about giving, and how giving gives us our “Pay Day”. First of all, did everyone get a Pay Day candy bar as they came in today? If not, raise your hand and someone from our stewardship team will give you one.
The Pay Day is used to symbolize the sweet blessings we receive from God for our stewardship, our tithing, our faithfulness. What is tithing? Webster defined tithing as the 10th part, or 1/10, 10% of the annual produce of one’s land, or, its equivalent in money. Our scripture today says to “bring all the tithes into the storehouse”. Biblical teachings about tithing start n the Old Testament. So, tithing is giving back to God 10% of what God gives to us. Our “Pay Day” comes after giving back to God part of what God gives to us. What do we really mean by “give back to God?”
We hear this phrase all the time – I’ve said it, it’s been said by others here when calling for the tithes and offering. It is even written on our offering envelopes “My return to God for God’s Gift to Me.” Many of us may not have a good picture of what that means. It may seem like we are asked to put in a bunch of our money, and, like at the drive through at the bank, it disappears somewhere in that great vacuum in the sky.
(Put money in bank tube and hold it up.)
Where does it go? What does it accomplish? How does God use our tithes and offerings? Do I get “my money’s worth?” How much am I supposed to “give back to God?” Who determines that anyway? What does all this mean? What do we see, hear, touch, taste, or experience by giving back to God?
What does this mean in everyday terms? I believe the answer is framed in our vision and mission statements. Our vision- “Changed Lives”- Our Mission- “To Manifest, Communicate, and Celebrate God’s Surpassing Love”
Listen to the promise in Malachi 3:10-12: “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so that there will be food enough in my Temple; if you do, I will open up the windows of heaven for you and pour out a blessing so great you won’t have room enough to take it in! “Try it! Let me prove it to you! Your crops will be large, for I will guard them from insects and plagues. Your grapes won’t shrivel away before they ripen”, says the Lord of Hosts. “And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land sparkling with happiness. These are the promises of the Lord Of Hosts.” This is God’s faithfulness for our faithfulness to God.
How does giving back to God manifest itself in our everyday lives? What are the blessings that are promised in Malachai?
To prepare for today, I studied, prayed, searched the Bible and other resources, consulted Teena and a few others, some of you here. Then, I went to some of the ministry team leaders, I am sorry I could not get to all of them, and asked them to dream about the possibilities of their ministries. What if resources were no issue? What would their ministry look like? One common theme that the leaders kept bringing up was their passion for their team and the belief that lives have been changed through the ministry teams that they lead.
God’s Love is manifested, communicated, and celebrated through our music ministry. Please think for a moment about your favorite music you have experienced here. Was it the Easter concert a couple of years ago? Maybe it was the most recent Christmas concert? If it was that, think back on the song, “Go Tell It On the Mountain”, which featured Tad and Lora as soloists. Was it our music ministry that first brought Lora to MCC? Was it the music ministry that helped bring her from despair to joy? Watch her face as she sings, you will see the joy. THAT’S what giving back to God does. THAT’s a CHANGED LIFE!
And what about the ministry of the choir and IWitness? Have our numbers grown because the community out there is hungry to hear wonderful music that brings peace, and joy, and promise? Our tithes, our “giving back to God” helps to supply the materials, the equipment, the people who give so much of their time and talent to this ministry. We feel chills down our spines as soloists like Kurn, and Scottie, and Gina, Kathy, Kate, and Pam, and Tracey, and many others, share their talents with us.
Let’s dream: What if our “giving back to God” enabled our music ministry to distribute their gifts in other ways to the greater community of those hungry for the word of God in song? What more could we do if we had the talents of Tim, Jerry, Emily, full time?
How many more might we attract with a high-tech audio-visual system, additional microphones, a larger soundboard. Could we celebrate our love of God and God’s surpassing love for all of us with an MCC Orchestra that could reach out to the greater St. Louis community? What a pay day that would be.
Let’s talk about our pastoring ministry. Our tithes enable us to have 2 full time pastors. If any of you have ever been in a church with a part-time clergy, you know you are blessed because we have the luxury of well-trained, professional, dedicated clergy and staff who can minister to us full time. This means time for them to study, prepare, pray, and minister to the scores of people who ask for their help and guidance. It takes careful planning and execution each Sunday just to prepare the order or service. What about the part of the ministry we don’t see unless we are directly involved?
Ask Emily Turner what a Blessing the ministry of our Director of Congregational Life, Sue Yarber, is. Emily recently lost her aunt, the twin sister to her Father. The ministry that Sue brings allowed Emily to attend the funeral while Sue and members of the Prayer and Care team ministered to Emily’s Father. Emily calls it a “casual miracle”. I call it God doing God’s work through this ministry. How many others in our church and community could be assisted in time of grief and pain? How much hurt is out there that MCC could be the catalyst in healing? How many more classes on recovery could we hold? How many more “Sues” could we hire? That’s what “giving back to God” could do!
About a year and a half ago, a study was done here at MCC by an outside consultant, Wendy Foxworth. Wendy found that if all current church attenders were to tithe, MCC could realize a total projected income of over $1 and ˝ million! That was then, what is our potential now? I’m not sure, but I do know that if we each raised our level of giving so that we averaged $25 per person, per Sunday, we could fund our funding plan for 2002, and we could begin to realize our dreams. Our ministries would grow, God’s surpassing love would be manifested, celebrated, and communicated throughout the St. Louis community.
I’ve talked about what we hear through our music ministry, what we experience through the ministry of our pastors and staff, now let’s imagine the possibilities with the ministry to our children.
Each Sunday as the children return from Children’s Church, we watch them scurry back to their seats, eager to share with their families what they did that morning. Look into their faces – faces beaming with fun and joy and expectation and pride as their tiny hands clutch whatever creation they made that morning. How wonderful to be able to provide a safe, loving place for our children to learn about God’s surpassing love for ALL people – UNCONDITIONALLY!
How wonderful that here is a time and place that teaches love, acceptance, inclusion. Jesus said in Matthew 19: 14-15: “Let the little children come to me, and don’t prevent them. For of such is the kingdom of heaven.” And he put his hands on their heads and blessed them before he left.”
Close your eyes. Humor me for a moment. Remember the Sunday before Christmas? We had 10-12 children up here, singing, giving unselfishly of their toys to less fortunate children. Now imagine this altar filled with children, from all backgrounds, all family types, all ages. Listen to their voices. Imagine a children’s choir, with 100 or maybe 120 voices up here.
Imagine a youth ministry as the children mature and other families are added to the church. Imagine a full-time ministry leader, a paid staff position to continue the ministry growth and development.Giving back to God replenishes the supplies the children use. A library of tapes/CD’s/books,and video would be extremely useful for the children.
We worship God in this physical space; fortunate that our resources provide us a place that is warm in the winter and cool in the summer – OK – sometimes it’s warm in the summer. Maybe we have been uncomfortable a few times, but listen to what happened to Job, found in the 2nd chapter of Job: “So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with a terrible case of boils from head to foot. Then Job took a broken piece of pottery to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes. Now THAT’s uncomfortable! His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to be godly when God has done all this to you? Curse him and die.” But Job replied, “Shall we receive only pleasant things from the hand of God and never anything unpleasant?” So in all this Job said nothing wrong. How much longer before we outgrow this facility? Resources could provide for a new and bigger space.
Each quarter the “LifeLink” provides written communication to spread the word about God’s love. How else could we let the community know about us? Susan’s dream for the communication team is a full time public relations person.
And you heard Teena talk last week about the CHEF ministry, and the way that that ministry provides for some social interaction and building of relationships. Imagine a larger facility with a commercial kitchen, a social hall, a place that not only serves us each Sunday, but could serve the homeless, the senior citizens; a place that could provide a safe place for teenagers.
Our participation in Pride every year is the opportunity for MCC to demonstrate to the community what MCC is all about. That is, manifesting, celebrating, and communicating God’s surpassing love. Picture us owning our trailer and a building in which to store it!
I know that some of you out there now are saying, “This is all fine and good, Toni Smith. You look like you are doing pretty well for yourself, but you do not understand my situation. I do not make much money and I am having a hard time making ends meet.” I do understand that, I have been there. And tithing may be a journey. It may begin with tithing of your time. Ten percent of a day is two and a half hours. Maybe that could be spent in prayer, helping a neighbor, visiting a hospital. I do know that God keeps His promises and God does not lie.
Let me share with you this story of another example of tithing:
“Few have witnessed so insidious and continuous a barrage of wickedness as Brigadier Josef Korbel, confined for ten years because of faithfulness to Christ in an inhumane Communist prison. In his book In My Enemy’s Camp, he tells of his longing to show his love to Christ by the simple act of tithing, a Christian discipline many of us view as burdensome.
The daily portion of food given the prisoners was a tiny piece of bread which most men swallowed in a single gulp. Led by the Spirit of God to act differently, Korbel would hide half of the morsel in the pocket of his jacket and ask God to strengthen his body for the day’s hard work. He would eat the crumb as slowly as possible and in the afternoon take out the second half of the bread and place it in the palm of his hand in the presence of another prisoner.
Passing the little piece of bread to a hungry fellow prisoner, Korbel would pray: “Lord, I have nothing from which to pay my tithe for Thy goodness and love. Lord, take this little piece of bread as my tithe. You said that ‘Whatsoever You give to the littlest of Mine in My name, it is given as unto Me.’ So dear Lord Jesus, accept this little piece of bread I give to my fellow prisoner as a sign of my gratitude. Lord, I love You.”
Korbel’s faithfulness in the face of persecution and death resulted in countless conversions, blessed and multiplied over many years and in an eternal reward worthy of Christian disciple.” (This story is taken from “The War Cry”, March 17, 2001.)
My prayer is that each of us will have a heart of giving back, like Korbel.
So, what is Pay Day?
Pay Day is watching God work through our ministries.
Pay Day is experiencing all the rich blessings from God.
Pay Day is God’s promise of blessings and happiness for our faithfulness.
Pay Day is CHANGED LIVES, and that, my friends, is a promise from God that you can take to the bank.
Amen and God Bless.
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