John 6:1-14
“Are
you OK?” Tim looked up to see his boss Mary Jo, standing in his doorway. “Why
do you ask?” Tim responded. “You were very quiet during the status meeting?”
she said. “I know the company is a little down right now, but we really are
making progress in turning things around. We are actually doing OK, considering
the state of the economy.”
“I
know, I know” Tim replied. “I am not worried about the company. In fact, you
have really kept us from getting into the trouble a lot of financial
institutions have gotten in to. No, when you were talking about the economic
forecast, I started thinking about something I heard in church yesterday.”
“What
happened?” Mary Jo asked.
“Well
it’s that time of year when the church is talking about money.” Tim said.
“It’s
that way at my church too.” Mary Jo replied.
“Well,
Pastor Kim was saying how important it was that we grow to the point where we
are giving God 10% of our income, because it shows that we trust God to provide
for us and that we love God more than money. This kind of made me angry.”
“Why?”
Mary Jo asked.
“Well
you know what a mess the world is in. Europe is in trouble. The middle east is
even worse than it was when I was a kid. Crazy people are working on getting
nuclear weapons. Who knows what Russia and China are going to do? The price of
Gold keeps going up, which means people are afraid. And you remember a few
years ago, when the bottom dropped out of the market. Nobody saw that coming.
So, even if things get better, we don’t know what the future holds. I can’t
afford to be giving away that much money.”
“I
know how you feel.” Mary Jo responded. “I used to think that way too.”
“What?”
Tim said.
“I
used to think that I needed to hang on to my money.” Mary Jo said.
“You’re
not one of those tither’s, are you?” Tim said looking shocked.
“Yes,
I am” Mary Jo said with a smile on her face, “and I would highly recommend it.”
“Why?”
Tim asked, looking puzzled.
“Because
I missed out on so much when I didn’t.” Mary Jo said.
“It
didn’t make sense to me, either. That is until I took the plunge” Mary Jo said “and
like you it was getting mad at my pastor that made it happen. I still remember
that Sunday. The pastor was talking about the feeding of the five thousand. You
know, where the boy gives Jesus his lunch and Jesus feeds thousands of people
with just five rolls and two small fish. He began to wonder out loud what Jesus
would have done if that boy had not given his lunch, everything he had, to
Jesus. He went on to say ‘think of what that boy would have missed if he had
decided to keep his lunch? Because he gave his lunch to Jesus, thousands of
people, not only ate, but they saw how Jesus could take a simple gift and work
miracles with it. Don’t miss out on the miracle.’ the pastor said. I walked
away thinking that he was just trying to manipulate me like one of those bait
and switch TV commercials where they have these people telling you how much
weight they lost or how their acne cleared right up.”
“At
that time I was giving about 2% of my income to the church, so I decided to see
what they did with all that money and what kind of return I was getting. (That
was a big part of the problem. Even though I said I was giving it to God, I
still thought of it as my money. But that is for another time.) Any way, one of
the places that we gave money too was a youth center in the inner-city to help
with a tutoring program for kids. It was just about a mile from here, so one
day, after work, I went over there to see what was going on. When I walked in,
I saw three people that I recognized from church. ‘Hi, Mary Jo,’ one of them
said. Her name was Sylvia. ‘Are you here to help?’ I pretended that I was, so they
showed me around. At one point I asked, ‘does this really make a difference?’ I
was led to a big room. ‘See that wall over there?’ my guide said. I looked to
my right and saw a wall covered floor to ceiling with test papers, some with A’s
on them others with B’s and some with C’s.’“Each of those papers represents one
of our kids who succeeded. Then I was directed to the left and saw a wall with
framed pictures. ‘Those are our kids that have graduated from High School. She
pointed to one and said that’s James. He was my first student. He is in college
now. The first one in his family to go. He is what keeps me coming down here.’
When I left there I had a sense of pride that I had a small part in that. Over
the next several weeks, I found it the same with every other ministry that I
visited.”
“Then,
one Sunday as I walked into church, I noticed a man wearing a Stephen Ministry
name tag. I had heard talk of that program around the church, but didn’t know
to much about it, so I asked him what it was. He told me that it was a program
that had given him training to enhance one of the spiritual gifts that God had
given him so that he could help people who were dealing with a crisis in their
life. Then he said something that really grabbed my attention. ‘I know that I
am helping people through this program, but it has done some amazing things in
my life. It is so wonderful to feel like I am working with God. I am grateful
we have this.’ Wow. This man was growing up in his faith and helping people at
the same time and I was a small part of that. When I talked with Sunday School
teachers and youth leaders, the people who love to keep the building looking so
good and usable, even the people who came to put the newsletter out, all of
them felt they had grown closer to each other and God through this place.”
“This really came home that Sunday a
young woman was preaching. She was telling us about how God called her to go
work with the ‘Least of these’ that Jesus talked about in Matthew chapter 25.
She was working in India, with the untouchables, sharing the love of Jesus with
these people that no one cared about. Then I found out that she had grown up in
our church. She had heard about Jesus’ love for her in that very place. Now she
had given her life to serve God in this amazing way. It made the purpose of our
children’s and youth programs come into focus for me. I began to think about
all of the wonderful young lives that have been shaped over the years, that are
now serving God either through their secular work, like what we do in this
company, or by going into the ministry. I also thought about the help we had
given to parents as they raised their children through the sometimes difficult
teen years and into adulthood. I know what rocky years those can be. I had a
small part in that and I was beginning to realize what a small part it was.”
“Suddenly,
I realized, how big an impact the church had had on my life. It was there that
I was learning about who God is and how God wanted to be a partner in my life.
It was there that I was learning about how God put us human beings together and
the best way to live this amazing life that I have been given. It was to that
church that I turned during one of the darkest moment in my life when my
husband walked out on me. It was through those people that I was able to feel
the love of God when I felt unwanted and unloved. As I looked back over my
life, it was the church that introduced me to God and helped me to grow up in
that relationship. Then I realized that as much as I had thought I had given to
God. God had given me so much more. God had taken my little lunch and done
amazing things with it making me a part of something so much bigger than
myself.”
“It
was then that I realized something about that story that I had never understood
before. When the boy gave his lunch to the disciples and Jesus, he wasn’t
expecting that Jesus would do this miracle. He was just giving his lunch to
Jesus. As far as the boy was concerned, he was giving what he had to Jesus out
of love. That is why I began to work toward becoming a “tither”. It wasn’t
because I wanted to be part of God’s work, although I am part of something
pretty great, and it’s not to pay Jesus back for what He has done for me,
because there is no way I could do that, it is because, like that little boy, I
want to show Jesus that I love Him by giving Him my lunch. What he does with it
after that is His business. You know what else, I don’t even miss the money. I
always have more than enough.”
“That’s
quite a story” Tim said. “I had never thought of it like that. Maybe I should
rethink this whole thing.”
“I
highly recommend it” Mary Jo said. “It will change your relationship with God,
and your life.”
This
morning, there is a question each of us need to answer. “What are we going to do
with our Lunch?” As you can see, giving it to Jesus is always a good idea.
Sermon given November 3, 4 at St. Mark Presbyterian Church For the audio, click here.
The images are from http://freechristimages.org/
The images are from http://freechristimages.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment