Summer Stewardship Sermon

This is the sixth Sunday of Pentecost and for the sixth Sunday of Pentecost, indeed, for every Sunday there are four, what we call liturgical or lectionary readings for a Sunday. There is an Old Testament lesson. There is a lesson from the Psalter. There is a New Testament lesson and a gospel lesson. They’re… You can go look on the calendar in the sacristy in there, and see what the readings are coming up for the next Sundays. And I say that, and I’ll say it other ways, but I say that to say that our reading this morning is the New Testament epistle reading for the sixth Sunday of Pentecost, from second Corinthians, the eighth chapter. Hear these words.

Now, as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge and utmost eagerness, and in our love for you. So we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking. I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this matter I am giving my advice. It is appropriate for you, who began last year not only to do something, but even to desire to do something. Now finish doing it so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means. For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has not, according to what one does not have. I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. As it is written. The one who had much did not have too much. And the one who had little did not have too little.

Friends, this is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

I was sleeping peacefully. It’s what I do Sometimes. And in the midst of my peaceful sleep, there was an intense tapping right here. What is this? It was Tamara. The intense tapper. You see, Tamara, because she’s a banker, gets up and goes to the super-secret banking software where she can pull up at home. And she had pulled up our super-secret banking software account. And there was an expenditure. I want to know what this is. Wrong thing to say, guys. There is a $200 expenditure to Angels Little Puffs yesterday. What is it? I don’t know what she thought. I don’t know what I thought. I thought, A, I’m in a lot of trouble, and B, somebody’s hacked my checking account. What is Angels Little Puffs? What in the world? Some criminal has this, and, and they’re receiving whatever happens at Angels Little Puffs, and I don’t want to know about it, but I want them arrested.

She left the room intensely. You know, when they’re leaving intensely by the sound of the slamming of the door. I swung my feet over the bed. And I thought, what in the world? So I get up and they’re laying at the foot of the bed on the floor with two very large, now very bald Labrador retrievers. We had two chocolate retrievers at one time. And the thing with a chocolate retriever: Unless you want to pick up chocolate dust bunnies all the time, we just shaved them. And as we walked to the back and I let them out, I realized what had happened. Do any of you have those cute little puffy dogs? They’re just cute and puffy. And you take them to a place and you get them puffed up, don’t you? Yes, I know some of you do. They get manicures and pedicures and their hair done. $200. Puffs Little angels, or Angels Little Puffs, thank you very much, was for two chocolate Labrador retrievers to be shaved. I was off the hook.

Your checkbook will rat you out every time. It will confess your sins for you. It will point out your weaknesses. It sometimes even points out some behaviors that you need to get rid of. You cannot get away from a checkbook register. Or that nettlesome little page in quicken or QuickBooks that tells you everything. I was telling a friend of mine we were talking earlier this week. We were sharing sermons. Actually, we were trying to steal sermons from each other and he said, what are you preaching? And I said, the sermon is entitled the Summer Stewardship Sermon. And there was a pause and he said, it’s not October, is it? I said, no, no, this came up. It’s a lectionary reading. And I just I just have to throw it in there. Paul said, I want you to excel in everything and we get happy about that. We want to excel in faith. We want to have the faith as a grain of mustard seed that grows into a great shrub.

We want to excel in speech. We want to be able to talk about Jesus Christ, to defend the faith, to talk about our church. We want to excel in knowledge. We want to know what the book says and how to live out, what the book says and how to be God’s people. And we would like to excel in eagerness. I will tell you that the idea is volunteering and stepping up and filling the breach and doing what needs to be done. We want to excel in all those things, and we’re resting up this summer so we can excel in all those things in the fall. Except, Paul, you mentioned one that we just soon let go of. So, we want you to excel also In this generous Undertaking. I come to church to hear the Word of God proclaimed. Second Corinthians, the eighth and ninth chapter. Do you know what Paul’s talking about? An offering. Mother church. The church in Jerusalem has fallen on bad times. Yes. Pentecost came. Yes. 2000 joined the church and became a part of the church on the first Pentecost. And yes, Jerusalem becomes the hub of the early Christian movement. But what happened was all those Jews who gave their lives to Christ lost their livelihood. They were ostracized by their culture. They were… Had their backs turned on them by their family. They had their businesses ignored. And the church in Jerusalem was struggling because the church in Jerusalem was convinced that one of the things they needed to do was to take care of the widows and the orphans in Jerusalem, and that’s where all their resources were going. And they couldn’t keep up with taking care of the widows and orphans. So, Paul, as he went out and preached. Invited the churches to take an offering to help the church in Jerusalem take care of the widows. And the offering and the orphans.

He’s talking about an offering, and he’s talking about an offering that the Corinthians started to take. They were all fired up because the Macedonians, the poor Macedonians, were giving so much money to the church in Jerusalem. It was just embarrassing. The big urbanite Corinth church. So they started with great fervor and vigor, and then it faded on them. And Paul writes two chapters in the New Testament about taking an offering.

Ha! you knew it, didn’t you? You knew it. That’s all we preachers think about. Money. I saw some of you when you saw the sermon title. You it’s. You assumed the stewardship position. You reached over and made sure you were sitting on the wallet. There is not a pledge card in this facility. Everybody relax. But you know, that’s all we preachers want. We want your money.

Bubba lived out in the country and Bubba had an old bird dog. And because Bubba was Bubba nobody pay any attention to Bubba. Bubba was a single man live by himself. Just him and the bird dog. And one day the bird dog died and he goes by the local Methodist church and he says, preacher, my dog died. That dog had been side by side with me for years. And every place I went, he went. And everybody knew Bubba and the dog, because the dog waited for everybody while Bubba was in church. Bubba said, preacher, will you do a funeral for my dog? The preacher said, Bubba I know you loved your dog, but we not going to do a do a funeral for that dog here in the church. It’s just not going to happen. But why don’t you go down, go down the street to that that that funny church down there, you know that they do strange things. Maybe they they’ll do a funeral for your dog. And Bubba said, well, okay, preacher, do you suppose if I paid them $5,000, that be enough to do a funeral for my dog? The preacher said, well, Bubba I didn’t know your dog was a methodist.

I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen a lot in these years of being a minister with financial shenanigans that that we’ve done. And I was remembering in an annual conference, I remember the annual conference because I think Mickey Cloud was either directing the choir at the annual conference, or he was playing the organ at the annual conference. But this fine new musician from Trinity Methodist Church was at the annual conference, and we were in the middle of a big holy worship service. I mean, everybody was there. The place was packed, and I assume my position against the wall, looking over the shoulders of the people sitting on the back pew. And it came time for the offering. And I’m sure Micky had the choir singing some rousing anthem, and the ushers were spread out all over the sanctuary, and they were passing the plate back and forth. And they had we’d been asked to give to some mission effort, and the plate came to a lady right in front of me. I was looking over her shoulder. A leader in a methodist church in Louisiana. First time had ever seen this. She took the offering plate. Both hands, put it gently in her lap, took out a $20 bill and laid it on the rim of the old offering plate. And she proceeded to take out $15. First time I’d ever seen change made out of an offering plate. But she did it, and I thought, she’s the leader in the church. Yep.

I pastored the Kenner Methodist Church. They’d write a check for me on Thursday or Friday, and they’d hand me my paycheck. More money than I ever seen in my life. They say now preacher, you can’t cash this until we take the offering on Sunday morning. And if we don’t get enough Sunday morning, you got to wait until the next Sunday’s offering to see if you can cash your check. The Blackwater Methodist Church would hold on to their conference apportionment, and it became a game. And one year they actually told me what they were doing. Preacher, we hold on to our money and we have a little meeting to decide if we’re going to pay our conference apportionment and give you all that extra money you need to get our conference apportionment paid. We decide if we’re going to do that before Christmas or after Christmas, whether or not we’re going to let you enjoy Christmas.

Methodists. You just kicked into the Methodist mode. You know, the two times you can make Methodist speak quiet, number one, when you’re feeding them, number two, when you’re talking about their money, you just went into number two. Quiet. I was at the Mount Moriah Church and Gordy dance took the offering, and he walked back as we were singing the doxology, holding the offering plate, and he started thumbing. That meant Gordy was counting. Doxology ended before I sat the congregation. He held his hand up like this and said, wait a minute, Doug. We got to take the offering again. Redo. I’ve seen it all.

Paul said, I want you to excel. What? In a generous undertaking. I want you to excel in generosity. And later in Second Corinthians, Paul will say, God loves a cheerful giver. And the Greek word is not cheerful. The Greek word is hilarious. God loves a hilarious giver. It is a spiritual matter. In the early part of the 21st century, a couple of guys, named, Levitt and Dubner wrote a book entitled Freakonomics. A Rhode Economist’s Looks at the Hidden Side of everything. And in this book about economics, the thesis of the book was that if morality represents how we’d like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually works. Just as like how we would say we would like to say we are excelling in faith. We are excelling in speech. We’re excelling in knowledge. We’re excelling in eagerness to volunteer. Your check registry tells you if you really are.

Stewardship is, first of all, our acknowledgment that God owns everything. It’s all his. cattle on a thousand hills? His. The hills are his. The grass, his. It’s all his. But he blesses us, and he gives us the opportunity to make money. He gives us the opportunity to have resources. He gives us the opportunity to use our wits and our wisdom to thrive and succeed and have abundance. He blesses us with that. He says, I’m giving you all that. Take care of it. Take care of what I’ve given you. Take care of your your time. Take care of your talents. Take care of your treasures. But as you’re taking care of it, what I ask is that you share it in a way that makes a difference; that you share it in a way that brings about the kingdom of God, that you share it in a way that other people will come to know Jesus Christ.

In the 15th chapter of Romans, the 16th verse, Paul is writing the church at Rome, and he says this: for Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to share their resources with the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Paul, still in the book of Romans, is still talking about this offering. And he’s saying the Macedonians and the Achaia, the people in Achaia have participated and they’ve shared their resources. And the Greek word resource is the word koinonia, which is usually translated fellowship. For the Macedonians have been pleased to share their fellowship with the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Paul is making the point that everything we have is on loan to us from God. Everything. How are you using what God has given you? How are you blessing others with what God has given you? How are you living and giving in faith based on what God has given you?

He sat down opposite the treasury. And watched the crowds putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums, and there were the offering kettles were made out of brass, and the sound of a coin made a different pitch depending on what kind of coin it was. So not only could you visually see the offering going in, you could hear the offering going in. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins. Which were worth a penny. The coins were so insignificant that when she dropped them into the plate, when she dropped them into the offering bowl, if you will, they made no sound. Jesus Called his disciples and said to them, truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more in than all those who are contributing to the treasury, for all of them have contributed out of their abundance. But she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.

And Jesus told a story About her Because she excelled in faith, she excelled in eagerness. She excelled in her generosity. It’s all she had to live on. And she gave it all.

One more story that Jesus told. Jesus, mind you. Someone in the crowd said to him. Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me. But Jesus said to him, friend, who set me to be a judge or arbiter over you? And he said to them, take care. Be on guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. And he told them a parable. The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, what should I do? For I have no place to store my crops. And he said, I’ll do this. I’ll pull down my barns, I’ll build larger ones, and there will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, you fool, this night your life is being demanded of you. And these things you have prepared. Whose will they be? Jesus never condemns wealth. Jesus never condemns people who have money, make money, use money, or enjoy money. Jesus. Reminds people who’ve been blessed. It’s not yours. 100 years from now, can you throw yourself out there? 100 years from now, 100 years from now, we won’t have to sing when we all get to heaven. Because we’ll all be there 100 years from now. Who’s going to own your house? Those things you work all the time for. Who’s who? Whose is it? That’s what Jesus was saying. You’re not taking it with you. So be a good steward. Bless others with what God has given you and be a blessing with what God has given you. He doesn’t say, be poor. He says, be faithful.

I see nutty things driving on 20. I’m just going to start doing a rolling podcast from my car. The things I see on I-20. This morning before the sun came up, because that’s when I get here, before the sun comes up. This morning, driving from Gibsland to Ruston, there were three pickup trucks with trailers. They were boat trailers. They were small boat trailers. Smallest boat trailers I’ve ever seen. And I got curious about what are they pulling on those boat trailers? And as I got closer, those three guys, I assume they’re guys, were pulling kayaks on their boat trailers. Two greens and a yellow. And y’all, I have never seen so much stuff on the kayak. They all had battery powered motors. This one guy had a mercury 200 laying in the bed of his truck. He was going to try that on the kayak. They had all kinds of, I assume they were, depth finders or fish finders. They were on both sides of the kayaks. There was there was some kind of it must have been another trolling motor on front, trolling motor on the back. Those kayaks were super. Yeah. Ever been in a kayak? I have to have the kayak on the shore, get in the kayak, have it lifted in the water. Because if I try to get in the kayak with it and water, I’m going to flip that puppy. It’s not this long. There’s $100,000 worth of equipment on each of those kayaks. What were those people doing with those kayaks? And, I thought, you know what? Some child’s going to have to deal with that because daddy’s going to leave the kayaks to him in the will, and they’re not going to know what to do with it. And I hope they’re enjoying those kayaks. I hope they’re having a good time. For all I know, there’s a kayak race on some lake here in Louisiana.

God does not judge you or condemn you for having stuff. God does not condemn you or judge you for having riches. In fact, God’s given you those riches. All God asks is that you remember who the owner is. And that you take care of what you’ve been given while you have it.

Would you stand and pray with me?

Help us to excel. God, help us to excel in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in earnestness, and in being generous. We thank you for your word, which bothers us and challenges us. Help us to hear and obey. Amen.