The Dawning of Peace

Luke 1:67-79

2nd Sunday of Advent

Elizabeth M. Deibert

December 9, 2012

 

Last week our theme was hope and as we read the promises of God from the prophet Jeremiah, we were reminded that hope is hanging onto the promises of God expectantly.    H – hanging.   O – onto   P – promises   E – expectantly.   Today we move to the great word, our favorite theme: Peace.   People eagerly awaiting coming Emmanuel.   

The opening chapters of Luke's Gospel are like a musical drama.   At all the significant moments the characters break into song.    And in the music, one finds the heart of the message.  In the first two chapters of Luke we have three famous songs: the Magnificat sung by Mother Mary, the Benedictus sung by Uncle Zechariah, and the Nunc Dimittis by Simeon, devout elder in Jerusalem.    If you removed these three songs along with the songs of the angels, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to all people” the narrative would lose all its power. You'd hardly know anything was happening in Bethlehem.

Hear now the Benedictus,  which is Latin for Blessed.  The Benedictus tells us first – what God has done; second – what we are supposed to do in response, and third – what the prophet John the Baptist will do, and finally – what God will ultimately do.

 

Luke 1:68-79

⁶⁸ "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.

⁶⁹ He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David,

⁷⁰ as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

⁷¹ that we would be saved from our enemies

and from the hand of all who hate us.

⁷² Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,

and has remembered his holy covenant,

⁷³ the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,

to grant us ⁷⁴ that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,

might serve him without fear,

⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

⁷⁶ And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

⁷⁷ to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.

⁷⁸ By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us,

⁷⁹ to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace."

(NRSV)

Now as the Benedictus has been sung for most of the generations of the church, hear it set to music.   (Sing Hymn 602. Vs. 1)

In the first part there are seven active verbs of which God is subject. God has looked with favor on us and redeemed us. God has raised up a mighty Savior as God promised us. God has saved us from our enemies. God has shown mercy and remembered his covenant.   In other words, friends, God has been faithful. God has not let us down, even when we were faithless.  These words are uttered by Zechariah before the birth of Jesus, but they speak of the Savior as if he already is.  Remember Luke is crafting the memory, the story, knowing already the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.

We then, being rescued by God, are called to serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness all our days.  It is important to note that we are first rescued. God doesn’t call to us when we are drowning in the deep waters of fear, sin and death, and tell us to swim to shore so God can forgive us. No, God rescues us. Then we are called to serve without fear of death and in thankfulness for our rescue.

Our holiness and righteousness are in response to his rescue. The Old

Testament reminds the Israelites sixty times that it was God who brought them out of slavery in Egypt. God rescued them. God rescued us from our slavery to sin. Our grateful response is to live holy and joyful lives.

John the Baptist is called the prophet of the Most High, the forerunner. He goes to prepare the way, to give knowledge of forgiveness. John prepared the way for the first coming of Christ. We Christians are called to prepare the way for the second coming, which we anticipate during Advent.  Our responsibility, like John’s, is to share the good news of God’s forgiveness in word and action.   You see, if you are really in touch with the fact that you nearly drowned and God rescued you, you cannot help but be filled with gratitude and with forgiveness of others.   You want to love people into believing this good news, not judge them.

The last two verses of this passage are the promise of what God will do. God, filled with tender mercy, will make the dawn break upon us, giving light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, guiding us in the way of peace. This message is peace is just what we need. It’s what the world needs. The world waits in the dark shadows of night for the light.  We wait in the eery, long hours of night, hoping for the light. We wait for daybreak, for some sign of peace and hope that we are not forgotten. We wait in the darkness.  (Lights out)

A very sad example of darkness.    Just last Sunday, one of our sister Presbyterian Churches in northern Pennsylvania, experienced the horror of having their organist gunned down in the middle of worship by her ex-husband.   Two elementary school teachers, a soured divorce.   I cannot begin to understand this darkness. 

We wait in the darkness, knowing that God promises daybreak. We wait in the darkness in solidarity with those for whom life is dark and scary. We wait in the darkness of our sin, aware that we ourselves have extinguished light by our actions, by our attitudes, by our inability to do what we wanted to do, what we ought to have done. But we do not sit in the darkness without a light. Do you see how even two Advent candles illumine this entire room?  

All it takes is a little light.   How many of you watched the CNN Heroes Award presentation last night?   It was truly inspiring – people with courage and with vision, accomplishing great things to benefit others – a school for girls in Afghanistan, where getting an education is unusual for girls.   A gym with special goals and esteem-building exercises for those recovering from addiction.  A program to support children and youth who are caregivers for their parents or siblings with disabilities and at risk of losing their own childhood.  A program that has helped 1000 kids in Ohio, mostly poor minorities, learn to swim, started by a grieving mother whose son drowned at age 16.    A center to provide compassionate care for children in Nepal who were stuck in prison with their parents.

When my siblings were 2, 4, and 6, my dad spent a year in a TB sanitorium, unable to see his kids, unable to work.   My mom struggled to make it.   The Presbyterian Church reached out to a young mother at home alone with three children and no money. They provided Christmas for my family and that’s how my family joined the Presbyterian Church.   You are providing Christmas for several families in the worshiping community of Presbyterians at Mission Beth-El.   And you are making a difference in the lives of people in many countries through your Alternative Gifts International donations.    And you help one another in times of crisis.   You pray, you visit, you provide the caring support of Stephen Ministry.   You give to the discretionary fund, by which I can confidentially help people in our congregation and beyond who have unique needs, due to crises.  It is beautiful to see a compassionate church, reaching out and reaching in to care for all in need. In the light of that compassion, we see the dawning of God’s peace.   We see the glorious dawn when estranged people forgive one another. We see the glorious dawn when nations put down their guns and work on diplomacy and when we try to figure out together how to feed the hungry.

Advent is a time of waiting for the light of the world which will overcome every dark corner of death and despair. God has not finished what was started on that silent and holy night in Bethlehem. We’re waiting for the Dayspring to disperse the gloomy clouds of night in Syria and in Jerusalem.  And we’re waiting for the day of rejoicing when Immanuel comes again to put an end to our cynicism and rampant materialism.  We’re waiting for death’s dark shadows to be put to flight in this global economic recession, which leaves us feeling uncertain but leaves the most vulnerable in great peril.    

We’re waiting for the dawning of peace, a day when greed and power do not rule the day and prevent leaders from negotiating justice and peace for all.  We’re waiting for the dawning of peace for everyone who is depressed or grieving or suffering in any way.   We’re waiting for the dawning of peace in family relationships, where harsh words and hard judgments and bitterness tear at the fabric of love and unity.   We’re waiting for the dawning of peace in our diseases and addictions, longing for day when health and freedom come to us all.  

We’re waiting for the dawn of peace, that peace which reminds us once again that we are all forgiven of all our sins, and able to begin anew with the full assurance of God’s love and God’s strength and God’s grace. 

But we do not just wait, we worship and we work with God to bring light to dark places.   The Incarnation is about God’s love being made flesh, and so we take our own flesh, our bodies into the dark places of the world to bring God’s light.   We are the body of Christ, the body called to be Immanuel, the God who is with the people, with us.   And so we are with other people, waiting and working for the dawning of peace.   By our presence and by our love, we can remind them that God comes into every dark corner of life where people are in pain, bringing light, bringing life, bringing peace. 

Let us pray:

You are our light and our salvation.   You are the Prince of Peace.   No darkness can overwhelm your light.    Guide our feet in the ways of peace, that we like John the Baptist, and his parents Elizabeth and Zechariah, might prepare the way for you, Immanuel, our God with us.

Life-giving Hope

Jeremiah 29:11-13; 31:3,8-9; 33:14-16
1st Sunday of Advent

Elizabeth M. Deibert
December 2, 2012                         

I started this week in a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad mood.   You know what I mean?   The kind of mood that makes you want to get away from everybody because they are either driving you crazy or you know you might soon say something that you will quickly regret.   What I’ve learned is that for me, being in the pit of despair is actually my lack of awareness of the life-giving hope all around me.   We can endure anything if we have hope – hope of relief, hope of comfort, hope of rescue, hope that things will get better.   That’s the kind of hope Jeremiah gives the Israelites, whose lives as exiles in Babylon were hard-pressed and discouraging.   If you can imagine the shock and destruction of 9/11 multiplied by leaders being removed and most of the population being forced out of the country to live in an unknown land among the very ones who destroyed your homeland, then you can understand how the Israelites felt.

We are reading three brief and beautiful passages from Jeremiah, words that help us to hope in the future God is bringing us, hope in the faithfulness of God’s love, hope in promises of God being fulfilled.   While we know Jeremiah was writing them to the Israelites 600 years before Jesus, we hear the overtones of the future God will bring in the life of Jesus, the righteous branch.

 

Jeremiah 29:11-13 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12 Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 31:3,8-9 I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.  8 See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here. 9 With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; 

Jeremiah 33:14-16  The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.  15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.   16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.   And this is the name by which it will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness."  (NRSV)

In 1963 Thomas Merton wrote an essay titled, “Advent: Hope or Delusion?”  Merton says, The certainty of Christian hope lies beyond passion and beyond knowledge. Therefore we must sometimes expect our hope to come in conflict with darkness, desperation and ignorance. Therefore, too, we must remember that Christian optimism is not a perpetual sense of euphoria… We must not strive to maintain a climate of optimism by the mere suppression of tragic realities….In Advent we celebrate the future coming and indeed the already present Christ in our world. We witness to His presence even in the midst of all the world’s problems and tragedies. Our Advent faith is not an escape from the world to a misty realm of slogans and comforts which declare our problems to be unreal, our tragedies inexistent…Our task is to seek and find Christ in our world as it is, and not as it might be. The fact that the world is other than it might be does not alter the truth that Christ is present in it and that His plan has been neither frustrated nor changed: indeed, all will be done according to His will. Our Advent is a celebration of this hope.

Our Advent is a reminder that even when you have an empty chair at your table in the holidays, there is hope in the God who keeps promises, the God who comes to us in Jesus Christ.    Even when your bank account is empty after the bills and before you shop, there is hope in the God who keeps promises, the God who comes to us in Jesus Christ.   

Even when your job search is endless and your sense of self-worth is lagging, there is hope in the God who keeps promises, the God who comes to us in Jesus Christ.    There is still hope, even when you are estranged from your child or your parent or your spouse.   There is still hope even when the cancer is raging and you see no cure in sight.    There is still hope even when you’ve done something really foolish and you desperately need forgiveness or you need to forgive the other foolish one who hurt you.   There is still hope because we believe in a God who keeps promises, and this God did not just set the world turning and leave us alone.  This God came to us, to be one of us, God with us, Immanuel.    And so we have hope.   

Even if we free fall as a country off the fiscal cliff, we still have hope.  Why?    Because our hope is not in our Congress and our President, even if they were at their the very best bipartisan unity.   No, our hope is in the God, who came to us in Jesus Christ, the God, who said, “For surely I know the plans I have for you – plans for your peace, your shalom, your welfare – to give you a future with hope.”  Not just a future you can live with – a future with hope, with peace, with love, with promise.   That what God promises.    And our God keeps promises.

Even if our growing church, now one and half times as large as the median Presbyterian Church in the USA, finds itself pressured to secure a new home,  we will NOT lose hope because God has brought us too far to let us go now.   No, God has loved us with an everlasting love; God continues to be faithful to us.    God may bring us east or bring us west, north or south.   God may challenge us once again to dig into our pocketbooks and bank accounts to bring the vision of Peace to fruition.   But one thing I know – God is not forgetting about us now.    No, there are too many signs of God’s Spirit here.   People gathering faithfully for worship, service,  and learning each week.   People feeling loved and comfortable in church for the first time ever.   People being supported and upheld through difficult times.  People learning to live together in peace despite difference of political and social perspectives.   People learning to pray, to give, to live with a hopeful spirit.

God may bring us weeping, blind, or lame.   God may bring us worn out, broke, and blue, but I know God will bring us to those lovely brooks of water, quenching our thirst for hope.   God will bring along those straight paths of where we will no longer stumble;  God is going to give us a home Peace where we can live into our vision to be an intergenerational diverse community of fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ (JC) who reach out with the good news of Christ’s love, who grow strong in the service of God of neighbor, who send one another out with the joy of the Holy Spirit.    God is going to make it possible, even if we have to wander like the Israelites, God will help us to live out our mission to make God known by growing as disciples of Jesus, building a community of Peace, and caring for the needs of others.    We have hope.

God entered the world as an infant and Herod began to ruthlessly aim to kill off all the baby boys.    Not an easy situation for Mary and Joseph, but they were already strong from the hope of believing the messages of angels rather than the critique of the world.    If God entered the world, courgeously willing to live in the danger zone like that, helpless as a tiny baby, we can live courageously in our times of weakness.   We can live with hope.

 (SLIDE)  And what is hope but hanging onto promise expectantly.   HOPE.  Hanging onto promises expectantly.   When we say we hope someone feels better is because we know the promise of God to heal people from grief and disease, to renew them in joy and love, and so that hope is grounded in promises which we have seen fulfilled.    When we say hope there will be peace between Israel and Palestine, peace in Syria, peace in all the troubled places in the world, we are hanging onto promises expectantly, because we have heard promise that one day there will be no more war.    We have seen reconciliation before, so we have hope.    When we say we hope that life will get better, that our heaviness of heart will be lifted, we expect it to happen, because we have seen it before.    We have watched the lives of others be renewed in vitality, so we have hope.   

When we say we have hope it is not because we see the end of the road in this current situation.   When we say that we have hope, it is not because we have an answer for all of life’s challenges.   When we say that we have hope, we are not diminishing the pain of the present moment.   But we are saying that we can wait expectantly because we trust in a God who keeps promises.    We rehearse the faithfulness of God over and over again so we can hang on through longest night, trusting that the sun will rise again.   After making the promise of a righteous branch which is to come, Jeremiah reminds those who have trouble believing that God’s covenant to restore their hope is as sure as God’s covenant with the day and the night.   Did the sun rise today?    There is hope.    There may not be any holly, jolly Christmas cheer.  So forget that part of the season.   Forget the Holly Jolly and get on with the Holy Jesus, in whom there is always hope.

Faith and/or Fear

John 18:33-38

Christ the King

Elizabeth M. Deibert 

November 25, 2012            

Black Friday gets bigger every year.   Now starting on Thursday evening and extending through to Cyber Monday, it is taking on a cultural magnitude, such that people are beginning to religiously plan their Thanksgiving celebration around keeping a Black Friday schedule, so we can feverishly purchase gifts, many of which we do not need.  

In the church on this last Sunday before Advent, we focus on another Black Friday, a Friday we call Good.   This other Friday was not about getting stuff, but a Friday about giving it all away.   God Incarnate giving up life itself in order to endure death with us and for us, bringing us with him to eternal life.   In the middle of the night on the eve of that first Black Friday, crowds were gathered, not to see what kinds of financial bargains they could secure, but they see what kind of political bargains they could secure for criminals about to be crucified.  

Pontius Pilate, consummate political leader seems to want to rescue Jesus, but he cannot muster faith enough to overcome his fears – fears for his personal success, fears about what people would think of him.    So instead of following his spiritual instinct, he follows the crowd and has Jesus crucified.    Listen to one of his conversations with Jesus.

 

John 18:33-38

³³ Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him,

"Are you the King of the Jews?"

³⁴ Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own,

or did others tell you about me?"

³⁵ Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I?

Your own nation and the chief priests

have handed you over to me. What have you done?"

³⁶ Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world.

If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting

to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.

But as it is, my kingdom is not from here."

³⁷ Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?"

Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king.

For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.

Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

³⁸ Pilate asked him, "What is truth?"

After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them,

"I find no case against him.

(NRSV)

 

There’s all kind of dissonance on this last Sunday of the church year, Christ the King Sunday, whether we call it Christ the King or Reign of Christ, the point is the same.    This Jesus is not like any other King.   He is the opposite.    Think about it.   In just a few weeks, we will be singing about a little baby, “Joy to the World, the Lord is come.   Let earth receive her King.”   “King of kings.   And Lord of Lords, Alleluia!   Alleluia!   And he shall reign forever and ever.”    But this King is the same one who stands before Pilate and exercises little power, except the power of truth.    His kingdom is not from here, he says.   Pilate deals in power of politics.   Jesus speaks of the power of truth.

This is the first of three scenes, in which Pilate is truly trying to find a way to save Jesus.   He wants to let him off.    Pilate seems to know that there is something to the truth of this man.   He inquires.  

But Jesus does not seem to be interested in his own release but in the release of others by his message of truth and life of love.   Jesus, the one who by all reasoning should be afraid, seems full of faith.  

The ancient creeds got something right when they remembered Mary and Pontius Pilate almost in the same breath. Though “king” is male, the word is important because Jesus turned that word on its head. This king is in handcuffs, standing before Pontius Pilate who has the power to condemn him to death or set him free. This Sunday honors Jesus Christ as King, but soon the religious leaders will shout, “We have no king but the emperor!” There is great tension on this day and in this text because of this different kind of king.    (Barbara Lundblad, A Different Kind of King, http://odysseynetworks.org/news/onscripture-the-bible-john-18-33-37-page-2)

And there is dissonance and tension for us.    We live in a world that is eager to enthrone Kings of Entertainment, Wealth, Technology, and Worldly Power.   We have Elvis, King of Rock and Roll.   Michael Jordan, the King of Basketball.   Mike Tyson, King of Boxing.   Steve Jobs, the King of I-stuff.    Gates and Buffett vying for King of Wealth.    We work to maintain our status as a country as Sovereign over the world.

And we have King of Kings, Jesus, battling for nothing but truth and life.

 

What kind of king is Jesus?

Pilate wants to know. He needs to know because “king” is a political term, and Pilate is a political person. In this chapter, he keeps going back and forth between the Praetorium and the crowds outside. He moves from questioning Jesus inside City Hall to appeasing Jesus’ accusers outside. Unfortunately, in John’s gospel those accusers are always called “the Jews” – as though Jesus wasn’t Jewish, as though all the Jews were to blame for killing Jesus.  

Years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, animosity toward Jewish people infected John’s gospel with language that accused all Jews of condemning Jesus. There were some Jews who opposed Jesus and some who followed him. There were some who collaborated with the Roman authorities – like Christian bishops appointed by the Nazi regime.

Today we must repudiate every claim that Jews were responsible for Jesus’ death. Pilate needed to know: “Are you the king of the Jews?” If so, you’re guilty of treason because the emperor in Rome is the king of everyone everywhere, including the Jews.
 

“What is truth?”

“What is truth?” Pilate asked, and the question is left hanging in the air. Was he being sarcastic or was he searching for answers nobody else had given him? The answer was not a philosophical proof or a creedal proposition. Truth was the person standing in silence before Pilate….“And the Word became flesh and lived among us…full of grace and truth” So opens the Gospel of John.   (John 1: 14).    (Barbara Lundblad, A Different Kind of King, http://odysseynetworks.org/news/onscripture-the-bible-john-18-33-37-page-2)

Dissonance.   Eternal Word colliding with earthly flesh. We hear dissonance in the beginning and now near the end of Jesus’ life. The truth is a person, the Word made flesh.

Pilate, like each of us,  has to decide which motivates more – is it faith, inexplicable, in this person, Jesus, calling us to do foolish things, to spend time with powerless people, loving and caring to the end of our lives?   Or are we motivated by fear?   Fear that we will be rejected, lose our credibility and our power in the world, if we live according to the values of this Jesus?    Is it that fear that keeps you from discussing faith with friends, from inviting friends to church?   Will you appear foolish?   Do you want to follow the crowds who are staying home on Sundays, filling their days with television and shopping?

What we celebrate today is that Jesus’ reign has broken into this world, never to be removed or defeated.   We do not celebrate a King who rules like a politician to preserve his power, but a King to gives himself for the sake of empowering others.   The reign of Christ is not just in heaven, but right here, in this world of ours.   Your spirit has somehow been captured by this King of Kings and Lord of Lords, this Jesus whose reign is different from any other power we have known.   In the presence of this King, willing to take on weakness for our strengthening, can we hold on to faith, not fear.  

We all have a little Pilate in us.   We want to trust Jesus Christ, but we wonder if he will put us at too much risk.   Can we cultivate faith, not fear, to live according to Christ’s value and Christ’s kingdom, to trust that Jesus is sovereign, even when it seems the powers and values of this world are consuming everything.   The difference is one of attitude of worldview.   Do you want to live in Pilate’s world or Jesus’ world?  They are the same world, but they are very different ways of living.   The challenge is to move beyond the curious “What is truth?” but to live according to the every bit of the truth which has been revealed to you in Christ Jesus the King of all Creation.        

Extravagant Generosity

Mark 12:38-44

Gratitude Sunday

Elizabeth M. Deibert

November 11, 2012

 In the early years of my ministry, I had a strong discomfort with stewardship sermons.    But in the last decade, I have become more accustomed to preaching and more comfortable talking about money.   After all, our finances are a big factor in life.   How we spend or save our money says a lot about our priorities.

2 Corinthians 9:7-9 says  Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.  My job is not to help us meet the budget, whatever that might be for next year, but to encourage you to live as faithful, generous disciples of Jesus Christ.    Living with generosity of spirit and resources is a fruitful and joyful way to live.   Hands and hearts open, not clutched tight.   A funny illustration of the tight-fisted man:

A husband went into a department store to buy an anniversary gift for his wife.   He asked the store clerk, "How much does this perfume cost?"   “$50” she answered.   He was shocked.  “Fifty dollars for that small bottle!” he said.   “Can you show me something cheap?”   The clerk reached down under the cabinet and pulled out a mirror and held it up to his face.

(slide) I have observed that money attitudes are tied up with depth of faith.  How much do I really trust God and others, or do I just rely on myself?   Faith in God vs. Fear that it’s all on me.   Also the issue of control vs. surrender– is God in charge of my life or am I?   And the issue of gratitude vs. dissatisfaction.   Do I count my blessings, giving thanks to God, or am I never satisfied with what I have?   And finally, the issue of humility vs pride.   Can I be content to give God whatever I am capable of giving, without worry of comparison with others – others higher or lower.

Trust vs. Fear.  Commitment vs. Control.  Gratitude vs Grumbling.  Humility vs. Pride.

Today’s story from Mark’s Gospel will help us see some of these issues played out.  NRS  Mark 12:38 As he taught, he said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 40 They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation." 41 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury.  Many rich people put in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44 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."

Beware of pride, Jesus says.  The pride of having so much that one loses compassion for the one who has very little.   The pride of expectation – that I deserve a better life than this other person.   I deserve the respect and the comforts of a life of prominence and prestige.  I think it is interesting that Jesus sits to watch what people are putting in the temple treasury.    He is interested in what we give and with what attitude we give it.  Our commitment and trust in God matters.     But clearly what doesn’t matter is the amount, in comparison to others.   What matters is the amount we give in comparison to what we actually have in our bank accounts.   What matters is giving sacrificially.  That’s what the widow did.   She actually gave all she had to live on.    She was “all in.”  Now that’s extravagant, especially for a widow or orphans, who in Biblical times were the most vulnerable and weak, with little opportunity to improve their lot.

Jesus tells his disciples that the poor widow who gave the two mites, which would be the spending equivalent of two dollars for us, gave more than all the wealthy people putting in large sums because she gave all she had to live on.

In other words, the widow gave so much that she was forced to trust God.   Now perhaps she had to go without food for a day until she got paid the next day, assuming she was earning daily wages.   Perhaps she knew she had family she could rely on for food that day.   But the point is, she put her last dollar in.

Helen, a woman living in subsidized housing in the church where I grew up was like this widow.   Helen was single, poor, and in the end, homebound at the end, but she would get her social security check and immediately take the ten percent and say in her unpolished accent, “Dis here belongs to God, not me.   Take it to church, will you?”  Helen put me to shame with her top priority giving. 

Often times, we figure out what we need for our lifestyle before considering what belongs to God.   Sometimes we consider what will help us with taxes.  Do we ever consider lifestyle adjustments?  In fact, giving is one area of life in which we can make measurable growth in faithfulness.   I can try to live up to the high standards of maintaining love, patience, kindness, forgiveness, and so forth.   But I will always fail and it is difficult to measure, especially if you ask me, versus asking my family and friends.   With pledging, I can make measurable growth in trusting God.    I remember in our early marriage when it was hard for Richard and me to put $20 a week in the plate.   But every year of our marriage, we have tried to increase our giving, and decrease our wasteful discretionary spending.   Every year I share with you our pledge, because if I’m asking boldly for yours, it seems only right that I should be accountable for mine. This coming year we are giving $200 weekly to the operating fund, and we anticipate pledging $100/week to the special fund for future building expenses beginning in the first quarter of next year.   This is what we will put on our pledge card for next Sunday.

This total of $300/week next year will really stretch us, even though we have two comfortable 5 figure incomes.   But we have three in college, and very little saved for retirement, which makes me nervous.  I often want to retract out of fear, but I keep reminding myself that God can be trusted to provide.  I can let go of trying to control the future.   I can be generous in thanking God, but never prideful enough to think that I’ve really reached the goal, or achieved more than others in giving. 

Now it must be said that $20/week is a stretch for some people, especially if you are single, or if this is a new discipline.   If you’re trying to get into better shape physically, you don’t just go out and run ten miles the first day.   You would collapse.   You might have a heart attack or a stroke.   No, you start small and build.   The same is true with financial giving.   Start with something manageable.   Budget it off the top, not bottom of your budget.   If you’re like me, you have to think first about where you waste money or where your primary fears lie.

We give to Peace Church, first and foremost, because we are thankful for all God has given us.  (click)  Everything we have is a gift from God, so we can at least give a portion back in gratitude.  Secondly, we give to Peace Church, because giving is a spiritual discipline and we need to grow spiritually and have not matured.  (click) The commitment we make now in pledging helps guide our discretionary spending next year.  We give to Peace, thirdly, because we believe in Peace’s mission and want Peace to thrive.   (click)  A growing church has a growing budget.   In the last year at Peace one of every 10 dollars has gone to missions, to benevolences beyond Peace.  Six out of every 10 dollars given at Peace goes to personnel, and 2 dollars out of ten go to pay the rent and bills, so there’s only 1 dollar out of every ten that we can actually choose to spend on advertising, youth conferences or curriculum or coffee for Sunday mornings.   It is a tight budget.

I invite you to consider what we might be able to do as a church if most of us were able to continue or increase our giving to Peace for operations, but adding a commitment in February to a special fund for building costs.   Would you be able to give half of your pledge again to help Peace secure a permanent location for ministry?  $100 to operating and $50 to building each week?   $20 to operating and $10 to building each week?   You may not have noticed but the Manatee Association of Realtors have not taken these buildings off the market, even after we assured them we would happy to continue renting for the next three years.   We had a plan.   God laughed.   We’re still working and praying.  We’ll keep you posted.   We have come way too far for God not to complete what was started seven plus years ago.    We can trust God to carry Peace forward, with your sacrificial and generous support.   Join us in giving as you are able.  Whatever it is, make it your joyful sacrifice of praise.  Don’t give ‘til it hurts, give ‘til it feels good.

(slide) I want to end with some gratitude for our Veterans on this day of remembrance, because their sacrifice is a good witness like that of the extravagantly generous widow.    Think about it.   All of us value the freedom, opportunity, comforts and the protection we enjoy in this country.   I suppose all of us have a role to play in the preservation of those values, but the veterans have, like the widow, been willing to put their very lives on the line for these privileges which we all enjoy.    What a debt of gratitude to we owe to them for their sacrifices.   Similarly, we owe a debt of gratitude to all people at Peace who are sacrificing to preserve the values of this church through generous giving.

(slide) A missionary once asked a new convert, “Pablo, if you had a hundred sheep, would you give fifty of them to the Lord’s work?”  He answered, “You know I would gladly give them.”   “Pablo, if you had fifty cows, would you give twenty-five to the Lord’s work?”   “Yes, you know I would be more than happy to do that.”  Again the missionary asked, “Pablo, if you had two pigs, would you give one of them to the Lord’s work?”  “That’s not fair,” Pablo replied. “You know I have two pigs.”   Many people are extremely generous in theory but not in practice. They say, “If I only had a million dollars, I would give half of it away.” This is simply not true.   If we aren’t faithfully giving five or ten percent of our money right now, we likely wouldn’t give away half a million dollars if we had it. (Kent Crockett, Making Today Count for Eternity, p. 151-152) 

So start with where you are, not where you’d like to be, in terms of financial security.   Give what you can with a grateful heart and that nerve-wracking leap of faith.  Trust in God to get you to the other side of the week, month, year, or the other side of life.   Fear not.   Let God control your future by making a commitment to put God first.    Spend more time in gratitude than in grumbling.   And in humility, refuse to compare yourselves with others.   Extravagant generosity begins with trust in an extravagantly generous God who gives us 1000 gifts every day, if only we would open our eyes.  As Ann Voskamp said in her book 1000 Gifts, “Slapping a sloppy brush of gratitude over everything leaves me deeply thankful for nothing.”   So join us for lunch today as we continue counting our blessings, one by one, seeing more clearly all God has done.

Generous Loyalty

Ruth 1:1-18

All Saints Sunday

Elizabeth M. Deibert 

November 4, 2012

 

In stormy times like this week with Sandy, there are always amazing stories of courage and loyalty.   The preemie 2-pound baby rescued by NYU hospital staff as the ventilators failed and elevators stopped. The Coast Guards risking their lives to rescue 14 from HMS Bounty. The state police saving countless people from floating cars and barely standing rooftops.    The National Guard evacuating 20,000 people in Hoboken, who were trapped in their homes.   A President and Governer of opposing parties, set aside differences to take care of what really matters.  Three companies of volunteer firefighters in Breezy Point, overwhelmed by flooding and an inferno that destroyed more than 100 houses. Yet they fought the elements all night, saving many people and protecting houses on the perimeter of the burn zone, including the home of a 9/11 widow.   The Point Breeze fire chief led the group in prayer, Our Father who art in heaven, said in the candlelight.   Then he reassured the crowd huddled together, "I told everyone, ‘We're beach people. Just imagine it's a summer day and you're standing in three feet of water at the beach, and relax.’" 

Sometimes suffering a common tragedy brings out the best in us.   It brought out the best in the main characters of our story today.   Naomi, having lost her husband and both her sons, encourages her daughters-in-law to find new husbands in their homeland.   Remember that being a widow was an extremely dangerous and powerless position in Biblical times.   Ruth and Naomi were the poorest of the poor.  There was a famine, so Naomi prepares to return to her hometown, having had nothing but trouble in Moab.  Ruth, a Moabite, decides to follow her mother-in-law to this unknown country, out of loyalty.   As a young woman, she could have easily stayed in her homeland, like Orpah and found a husband.  When the two women arrive in Bethlehem, Naomi’s wealthy cousin Boaz, hears of Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi, and he provides protection for her, and food for both women.   Boaz, out of loyalty to the family, makes sure that his younger cousin is not interested in marrying Ruth before he does.  

In this story all three characters demonstrate the kind of generous loyalty that we know God has for all people.   God gives us freedom to make our own choices, as Naomi gave her daughters-in-law.   God never abandons us, as Ruth never abandoned Naomi.   God provides for our needs as Boaz did for both women when they arrived in Bethlehem.   God welcomes all people, no matter their background, as Ruth is valued for her character, not hated for being a Moabite, typically seen as an enemy by the Israelites.   I recommend the whole story to you, but for now we will read the opening eighteen verses, hearing about the plight of the widowed women, and of Ruth’s generous loyalty.

 

Ruth 1:1-18

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons.  2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there.

 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.   4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

 6 Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the LORD had considered his people and given them food.   7 So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah.  8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back each of you to your mother's house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.  9 The LORD grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband." Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud.

 10 They said to her, "No, we will return with you to your people."  11 But Naomi said, "Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?   12 Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, 13 would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the LORD has turned against me."   14 Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

15 So she said, "See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law."  16 But Ruth said, "Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you!   Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.  17 Where you die, I will die-- there will I be buried.  May the LORD do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!"  18 When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her. 

(New Revised Standard Version)

 

Ruth was a saint to make such commitment to her mother-in-law.  To be willing to follow her into a land where her kind were hated was a courageous and generous act of loyalty.   Ruth sacrificed her best interests for Naomi’s best interests, and in the end, she is rewarded for her selfless love.

Who has stood by you in hard times?    Stood by you when it would have been easier to leave.   Have you cared for someone in such a time?  Have you been Ruth -- a protector, a steady presence, a reliable friend in the storms of life?    Have you made sacrifices of time and money to rescue friends or family or church family?   Is that not what we do, when we have a shared budget as a church, bringing our common wealth together to do more than we can alone?   When we have congregational care team members and Stephen ministers, trained to care. 

Have you like Boaz offered help to foreign immigrants like Ruth?   Is that not what we do when some of us support Mission Beth-El by bagging food or delivering school supplies, when some of us collect food for the Manatee Food Bank, and when some of us stand for justice with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers?    Not all of us are called to the same tasks, our perspectives on them vary, but all of us are doing our own part in being generous toward those in greatest need.   And at a church named Peace, we can respect those differences of call and perspective and be united still.  No matter what happens on Tuesday, we are one family in Christ.   No matter where we worship and how we serve God, we are one body in Christ.  Remember that Naomi gives her blessing to both daughters-in-law – the one who felt compelled to stay and the one who felt called to go find a new husband in Moab.   And Ruth did not complain to Orpah  “You are disloyal.” nor did Orpah say to Ruth, “You are unwise.” 

In times of common tragedy, like the multiple deaths in Naomi’s family, like the horrific scenes of Superstorm Sandy, we might find ourselves inspired to a deeper integrity.   Our compassion stirred by a call to loyalty, by a recognition that we are a united humanity.   

These losses remind us of the gift of each day, the gift of friends who for us pray, the gift of a warm shower, the gift of electric power, the gift of family loving us true, the gift of strangers coming to rescue.   So many gifts from God when we count.  With grace overflowing, our troubles we surmount. 

Love of God, of neighbor always in our sight.   Sacrifice, mercy, our shared delight.   Seeing Jesus Christ, our one true light.   Inspired by saints, who follow his way, we have strength to face each challenging day.   Surrounded by loved ones, in heaven and here, ones who pray and tell us “no fear.”   Hold onto to the Spirit, present and near.    Remember, the cloud of witnesses, dear. 

People young and faithful like saintly Ruth, ever loyal to the truth.  People courageous, poor, but free, very much like Naomi, giving others true liberty.   And people like Boaz, always there, successful, wealthy, ready to share.   This is our family, this our tree, this is whom we are called to be, people of generous loyalty.