Money Matters: A sermon on giving to the church (10/20/13)

Matthew 16:13-20 

  13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

  17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

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What is valuable enough for you to sacrifice for?

How many of you have ever helped a friend move?  We can all agree that it’s usually a miserable experience.  It never fails that there are at least 3 flights of stairs at both ends, it takes longer than expected, and it’s usually 100 degrees inside.  If you’re lucky, you get a free meal out of it. 

So why do we do it?  Why do we ever help friends move? 

Because we value the relationship.  If a total stranger calls you this afternoon and asks you to move, you probably won’t do it, but if a good friend asks, you might be willing, because you value the relationship to such an extent that you’re willing to sacrifice for the benefit of the relationship.  You’ll give up your energy and time because you value the relationship. 

What is valuable enough for you to sacrifice for?

I’ve read that raising a child costs upward of $250,000, and that’s just to get them to the age of 18.  We have a strict policy in our house when it comes to talking about the cost of college—we don’t.  $250,000 spread out over 18 years works out to around $14,000/year.  I have to imagine I could come up with some great ways to spend $14,000 every year.  But instead of thinking about that, we invest it in our children.  Why?  They’re important.  They’re worth sacrificing for.

We all have things we sacrifice for.  Men—ever held your wife’s purse?  You’ve sacrificed some dignity to help her out.  Women—ever pretended you were interested in whatever sports game was on television?  You’ve sacrificed some of your time to build a relationship.  We sacrifice in little ways, and we do it in big ways.  If things didn’t matter to us, we’d stop sacrificing for them.  When relationships fall apart, it’s often because the relationship has ceased to matter to us, and we stop giving of our time and our energy and our heart.  We close up shop because walls are being built.  It’s ceased to be worthy of sacrifice.

So we learn what really matters to people by how much they’re willing to sacrifice for it.  Ultimately, our checkbooks can probably tell a story of what is important to us.  The single biggest item in most of our budgets is probably housing—we sacrifice our money because it’s important to have a place to live.

So if we determine what is important to someone by what they’re willing to sacrifice for it, we can determine what is important to God by what God is willing to sacrifice for, right?

So what does Scripture tell us?

Scripture tells us a story of a God who never stops pursuing us.  From the very first sin to the last verse in Revelation, God pursues us with his amazing love.  When God could have easily turned his back on us, he continued to pour out love and grace so that we might be restored and redeemed.  God sends countless prophets and angels to open our eyes to his constant grace, and when none of those messages make it through our thick skulls, God sends his own Son, Jesus Christ.  God sends his Son not only to show us the awesome power of God, but also to prove to us his love when he ascends the cross and dies for us.  Humanity is so important to God that he is willing to sacrifice his own Son so that the relationship between God and humans might be restored.  God will pay any price to fix what we have broken. 

So the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross demonstrates that humanity is valuable to God.

So if we believe that what matters to God should matter to us, then the church ought to matter deeply to us, too.  Which means that we ought to be willing to sacrifice for the sake of the church.

Why the church?  Why isn’t this just about our individual faith?  Why can’t we just focus on personal salvation and not worry about the complicated relationships that are involved with being a body of believers?

Because nowhere in the Bible does it encourage us to shun the community of faith because they are inconvenient or challenging for us.  In fact, God makes a point of using flawed people to build his church.  Doing so, God proves that it’s not about the strength or wisdom of the individual, but rather it’s about the power of God working through people.

Here, in our reading today, Jesus tells Peter that the church will be built upon Peter.  This is the same Peter that is later found denying Christ.  This is flawed, imperfect Peter, the fisherman turned disciple.  Peter, imperfect Peter, is the rock upon which Christ will build his church.

And what a church it is. 

Do you realize that the church is the only eternal organization of which you can be a part?

Think about it—everything else you ever join will eventually fade away.  Whatever you have membership in, whatever you join, will pass away at some point, but the church never will.  Christ promises as much here in our Scripture reading—he tells us that even the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.  Nothing can stand against it, and in the book of Revelation we see the church reaching its full potential, when Christ descends from heaven to meet his bride.  The church will stand forever.

And so this is why we give to the church.  We give to the church because the church matters to God, and we give to the church because the church will last forever.  The church has a mission—to go forth and make disciples of all people.  There is no plan B beyond the church—God will use the church to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel.  You have the chance to make the church important in your own life by giving to it.

Now, how do we give to the church?

We give in different ways.  We give our time to the church when we gather to worship and when we volunteer.  We give our energy to the church when we participate in Sunday School and other functions of the church.  And we give our money to the church.

All of these are important, but I want to say a few words about money in particular, for one reason.  If your child walks into the house holding a leaf and a snake, which one are you more worried about?  Do you wonder if the leaf is poison ivy, or do you go straight for the snake?  You reach for the snake, because that’s more likely to be dangerous, right?

In the same way, we need to talk about money here in the church.  In Timothy, the love of money is called the root of all evil.  Jesus talks about money constantly.  Money is powerful, and whether we are rich or poor, it can easily hold sway over our hearts and minds.  So we need to pay attention to money, and giving money away is one of the most powerful ways to combat its influence in our lives.

When we give away money, we break its allure over us.  When we give away money freely, we are making a statement that accumulating as much wealth as possible is not the single most important thing in our lives.  When we give away money, we are acknowledging that it was a gift to us in the first place, so we are freed to give some of it back.  When we give away money, we declare that what is important to Christ is important to us.  When we give money to the church, we are boldly fighting against greed.

So we give money to the church.  In doing so, we our placing the church first in our checkbooks and first in our hearts.  In doing so, we are sacrificing for something important, the only organization that will stand forever, the organization that will stand firm against the gates of hell.  In giving to the church, we are joining in the work of God’s kingdom and acknowledging Christ’s Lordship over all of our lives.

Let us pray