Matthew 16:21-26
Stewardship
1-15-23
Jesus tells is that to be his followers, we must take up our cross.
Now not even the most zealous Christians
today
believe that Jesus meant
that everyone should be
crucified like he was
crucified.
But Jesus did say that
we should deny ourselves and take up our cross.
Jesus doesn’t say that his followers
need to believe
in a particular creed or doctrine, or need to sing
a certain kind of hymn, follow a certain kind of worship,
not even to subscribe to a certain morality, which is how we usually
define Christian.
But he says If any want to be my
followers,
deny yourself, take up your
cross
In other words,
sacrifice.
This is a vital attribute of the
Christian community.
We are the people that
sacrifice.
We put our own wants and
even needs aside and give to others.
He didn’t say
specifically what we needed to give
or how we should deny ourselves.
But he said that we
should.
Die
to ourselves is the way he put it.
These days it
seems, like the prevailing identity of Christians is
Not people who deny themselves anything but people
people who demand, very loudly, for their own
rights:
their
right to say whatever they want,
their
right to do whatever they want and not face consequences.
their
right to deny services to people different from them,
their
right to have their personal views dictate law.
During the height
of the pandemic,
there
was a really disturbing video of a man who identified himself
as a
Christian pastor, and his mission was to go into stores without
a
mask and pick loud fights with the workers who tried to stop him.
He
said it was his Christian duty to defend his rights.
But Jesus defines
his followers as the ones
who
deny themselves, who give what they have for others.
Now I think that
naturally, we’re generous people. We want to give.
But
we’re taught over time to hold onto things
We have been taught to fear that there isn’t enough.
We’ve been taught to hold back, to hoard what we have, just in case.
To
the rational world, and to many people,
just
giving things away seems ridiculous.
And giving
your money away seems especially ridiculous.
If
you are like me, or most people, you have a
complicated relationship with money.
It’s a joy, and a pain. It’s a source of
pride, comfort, and anxiety.
Habits and feelings about money are
hidden deep within the recesses of our brain
some where we aren’t even consciously aware of
them.
Money
is the cause of many family
arguments and many divorces.
It’s a motivator for crime, violence, and
murder,
It causes wars, devastation and famines.
It can at once be freeing and constraining,
There
is not one life in here that is not in some way,
determined or influenced by money.
Money controls where we live, what we eat,
where we go, how much power we have or don’t
have.
Money is a huge determinate in our lives,
the lives of other and in the world.
And
yet many people of faith feel like God doesn’t
have anything to say about money. Like it’s
outside of God’s concern.
Mark
Allen Powell, New Testament professor at Trinity Seminary
in Columbus tells the story about baptism in
the first century.
New converts were devoting themselves to
Christianity
and getting baptized.
But
when they were baptizing in Gaul
the men who were soldiers
would go into the water to be baptized and
hold their
dominant hand up outside the water because
that was the hand that would hold their sword
when they went into battle.
They
wanted to reserve that piece of their lives
and not have it influenced by Christ’s
teachings,
so they can go on and continue to do what they
were doing.
Dr.
Powell says that this is how many people feel about money.
He said we want to hold our wallets outside of
the waters of baptism
so we can do whatever we want with it and not
worry about God.
We
want to follow Jesus, but leave our money out of it.
The way I spend and share and invest money are
only my business.
Maybe our complicated feelings about money get
in the way,
And maybe it’s a feeling that the most holy God
would
have nothing to do with such a vile and profane thing as money.
But
money is mentioned over 800 times in the bible,
Money is discussed in the scriptures
constantly.
God is concerned with all that we are and all
that we have
and in many, many different ways, the
scriptures tell us that
God hopes that we share what we have.
Money is one way we deny ourselves and
sacrifice.
Now a lot of churches
have given themselves a bad reputation
by trying to separate people from their money,
and often with very bad and selfish intentions.
From indulgences in Luther’s time to many modern televangelists,
Some prominent churches have given
honest churches like our own a bad name.
People have found over the years that God’s hope
for our generosity is easily exploited.
And what they are exploiting is our basic need to give.
My first congregation
had a relationship with
a community in Honduras. The children in Honduras had to pay to go to any
grade in school above Middle School
and we gave scholarships to them so they
could.
The community was originally a large group of
people that had lived in boxes along the
banks of a river until floods had threatened
their homes.
The homes that were built for them were cinderblock homes
with many people living in one room.
Dirt floors, outdoor kitchens.
Bare houses without much in them.
The people were poor. Very poor.
The bus across town to high school cost a quarter, and many
of them struggled to get that money.
One evening, they had a
dinner for us at the school
and the teens who received scholarships
gave us gifts. They were all souvenirs of Honduras,
probably gotten from the mall in the city.
Trays, boxes with scenes of Honduras on them.
My gift was a little house, which my student Yasmine gave me.
These gifts were modest, but we knew they cost money
we knew they cost more money than they had to spare.
We asked our guide and
translator –
who was also the young people’s mentor— where they got the
gifts.
We were hoping maybe he gave them the money for them.
He told us they had saved up the money to get them.
They knew we were coming and they saved for months.
That freaked a lot of us out.
Someone kindly asked if they could give it back,
you know, so they could use these now super-precious
gifts
for themselves or return it for the money.
Our guide and translator
told us no.
They want to give something to us.
They need to give something to us.
That was their love.
This is their nature. Don’t deny them that.
As poor and in need as
they were, they had a desire to give.
And it was true, whenever we brought out candy
or toys for the little kids, none of them grabbed
all they could, they were always concerned about
the other children around them.
They always made sure that each one of them had enough.
It was humbling to say the least.
We had so much, and we were hesitant to give.
They literally had nothing, but didn’t think twice about
giving away what they had.
Giving is a need we have.
It gets buried in us by our fear about the future,
our own desires, our own greed sometimes,
and we lose touch with that.
But the truth is, God gives, abundantly, lavishly to all of us.
God has given this world and everything in it.
God gave us Jesus to take away the sins of the world.
Giving is part of God’s nature.
When we give, we come close to the heart of God.
This weekend, we remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
For his sacrifice to the good of our
life together as a society.
He said: “An individual
has not started living
until they can rise
above the narrow confines
of their individualistic
concerns
to the broader concerns
of all humanity.”
When we give to one another, to another organization,
to a church -- when we put our own individualistic concerns
aside,
and look beyond our own wants to the broader concerns of
humanity,
we get back the life that God has sought out for us.
For
those who want to save their life will lose it,
and those who lose their life for my
sake will find it.
