"RSVP: Personal Participation"

(Isaiah 65:17-25, Matthew 25:14-30)

Rev. Billy D. Strayhorn

Isaiah 65:17-25

says the Lord.

Matthew 25:14-30

"For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. 19After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.' 21His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' 22And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.' 23His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' 24Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' 26But his master replied, 'You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. 29For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 30As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

INTRODUCTION:

I have always loved this passage from Isaiah. It is filled with so much hope and so much promise. God says, "I am about to do a new thing." And then Isaiah begins to list all those things that God is about to change. Jerusalem will become a place of joy. We shall become a delight to God. Infant mortality and crib death will be wiped out forever. Life will get longer. And God's people will enjoy their work. In other words, God is going to change everything.

Somebody said or wrote: "Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine."

But most of us don't like change. We'd rather that everything stay the same. Ogden Nash once wrote or said, "Progress might have been all right once but it has gone on too long." (1) Most of us don't like change so the prospect of this passage frightens us.

Through Isaiah, God says, "I'm about to do something new, everything is about to change." How? Through us, the church. The church is God's change agent in the world. And how do WE change the world? Simple. One person at a time.

And it begins with us. The first person that needs to be changed is us. We have to be changed to be like Christ. We have to be changed to have a heart like Jesus. We have to let Christ touch our lives through the Holy Spirit in such a way that we are transformed into change agents. And once we are changed through our faith in Christ, then we can begin the process of changing the world, one person at a time, through the ministries that we offer.

In order to offer those ministries of change, we have to support them. For some that means they have to change their idea of giving. Since we're talking about change, and since we're in the middle of our Stewardship Campaign, I guess this would be a good place to change the title of today's sermon to "The Sermon on the Amount."

I. CHANGE:

A. I want to read a little book to you by one of my favorite authors, Judith Viorst. I have enjoyed her stories of the adventures of Alexander and his brothers. This is another one of those and it's entitled: Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday.

Alexander needs to change doesn't he? He needs for God to do a new thing in his life concerning his understanding and stewardship of money. The Biblical witness concerning stewardship is very simple. You find it in the first words of Scripture. "In the beginning, God."

For the believer, that phrase puts everything else into proper perspective. It tells us that everything that was and is and will be comes from God. It was created by God and given to us to use and care for responsibly.

We are the stewards, the caretakers of God's stuff. Just like the servants in the parable Jesus told. It's not our stuff, it's not our money or house or talent or land; it all belongs to God. It was created by God, it's all belongs to God. The mistake we make is that we think of it as OUR stuff, OUR money.

B. During stewardship campaign in a former Church, one of the young men by the name of Andy gave a wonderful stewardship testimony. During his testimony he had the ushers, give everyone a dollar bill. Andy and his wife had gone through and highlighted the phrase "In God we trust" on every one of those dollars and asked us to do whatever we wanted with that dollar bill, but to remember that it's not the money that we should trust, but God.

Later on, I was talking with one of the ushers. He had been reflecting on the event and talked about how easy it had been to give away Andy's money. It didn't bother him at all. He said it was actually fun because, it wasn't HIS money he was giving away. But then it hit him. He said, His money isn't really his money at all. It's God's money. And then he shared that he wished he could be as unconcerned about and as free in sharing the money and gifts God has given him as he was about the money Andy had given him to give away to all of us.

I think the change has already started in his life and in the life of a many of the members here. But some of us still need to change our attitude toward stewardship, money and giving.

II. THE TITHE:

A. The Biblical witness for giving is the tithe or ten percent. From the very beginning all God has ever asked for is a thank offering. Everything we have and are comes from God and is really God's to begin with, and all God asks is that we return a portion as a means of giving thanks. And God said that portion should be ten percent or a tithe. And that tithe should be from the first fruits not the leftovers.

Some people don't think it matters which portion they give to God; the first fruits or the leftovers, but it does. You see if you give God the leftovers, that's like eating an apple and giving God the core. And the apple core isn't very appealing is it? In 2 Chronicles 31, it tells us that during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when Hezekiah was king of Judah, an order went out for the offering. In verse 5 it is recorded. "As soon as the order went out, the Israelites generously gave the firstfruits of their grain, new wine, oil and honey and all that the fields produced. They brought a great amount, a tithe of everything."

God wants us to give but God doesn't want the leftovers. You wouldn't give them to your children or your spouse would you? God doesn't want them either. God wants a tithe of our first fruits.

B. I read a sermon that I was given a copy of at a Stewardship Seminar in Austin put on by the Texas Methodist Foundation. Unfortunately, the sermon didn't have the preacher's name on it anywhere, so I don't know who to credit. In this sermon the preacher talks about going on a mission trip to Haiti. Haiti is the poorest nation in this hemisphere. The second poorest nation in the world. Unemployment is 65%. The average family income is only $190.00 a year. Haiti is filled with staggering problems that are only surpassed by the staggering poverty.

While there, this preacher was invited to attend a local worship service. They went to a one room cinder block chapel on the edge of the jungle. It was filled with wooden benches scattered haphazardly throughout the room. There were 12 mission workers and 30-40 villagers. The service was much like ours, opening prayer, hymns, even a children's sermon. They took an offering and they gave their coins, few as they were. But then something unexpected happened. After the sermon, the preacher took the collection plates and passed them AGAIN, a second time. (Can you imagine what would happen if WE did that?) And again, these poor people, many of whom own no more in this world than a goat, gave their coins.

The preacher said he felt embarrassed for the host pastor. He even voiced it by saying, "The poor man forgot that they already took the offering. How embarrassing, especially in front of guests."

The translator heard him and said, "No, this isn't a mistake. This is our custom. You see, here in Haiti, we always take two offerings. The first is for the church. The second, we give to the poor." (2)

Can you imagine. In Haiti, the poor who have nothing give out of their nothing, to help the poor.

That story reminded me of another Biblical truth, it's only when we think of it as ours, that the amount of our giving becomes a problem. When we acknowledge that all that we have and all that we are comes from God, then we can give as easily and as readily as the ushers gave out Andy's money. And we can give as freely and lovingly as the poor in Haiti give of the money entrusted to them by God.

III. PROPORTIONAL GIVING:

Tithing is the Biblical standard. Tithing is also an act of faith, faith and trust that God will supply what we need if we get to the point where there was too much month for our paycheck. Tithing is a matter of faith.

For some of you, this may be the first time you've ever heard about tithing and how much God expects us to give to the work of God. You may be sitting there scared to death or angry or even trying to figure out how you can tithe when you hadn't ever thought about how much you should give to the Church.

We understand and God understands. So, let me suggest something else to you. It's called "Proportional Giving." If you find the tithe, ten percent, too staggering a place to start, then find that percentage with which you can start. If it's five percent, then pledge and start giving 5%. But don't leave it there. If during the year, you find that things are going great, bump it up a percentage or two. Keep trusting God, and keep slowly challenging yourself to bump it up at least every three or four months until you have moved yourself up to the Biblical standard, the tithe.

CONCLUSION:

Let me close with a story a friend shared with me this week. It seems that during the time when long distance phone calls weren't very practical and quite expensive, a woman went on a long trip to New York City. She was an antique lover and spent some time looking at the various antique stores. During her visit to one store, she saw a chair that she fell in love with. It was beautiful until she looked at the price tag. It was horrible. She talked to the owner and he wouldn't come down at all. So, she decided not to buy it; her husband just wouldn't spend that much money. So she went on looking at all the other shops. But she couldn't get that chair out of her mind. Nothing compared to that chair.

So, she sent her husband a telegraph explaining about the chair and the price. A little while later she received his reply and was absolutely ecstatic because it said, "No price too high." She knew he loved her but had no idea that it was this deeply. She hurried to the shop, purchased the chair and headed home.

When she got home, she rushed into the house and started thanking him profusely. He was startled and confused and then when she explained, he got angry that she had bought the chair. When he finally calmed down, she unfolded the telegram and said, "I only did what I thought you wanted me to do. The telegram said, 'No price too high.'"

And then he said, "But that's not what I sent. I told them to send, 'NO! Price too high.'" (3)

It's amazing what a little punctuation can do isn't it. Isaiah reminds us that God is doing a new thing in the world and we are part of that new thing. Through our ministries, we are agents of change. And not the kind that comes out of the vending machine.

We can look at the ministry dream sheet of our proposed budget and this stewardship campaign as an opportunity to say, "NO! Price too high!" and protect our wallets and our hide like the third servant did in Jesus parable. Or we can step out on faith like the first two servants, as God's agents of change and say "No price too high!" for the work and ministry of this Church. We know the promises of God. We know what God wants. And that's the challenge. Because the choice is ours.

What will be your choice? How will you respond?

This is the Word of the Lord for this day.

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Bibliography

1. Just Joking Software Version 1.0, (WordStar International Incorporated, Novato, California) 1992

2. Abundant Living, Essential Giving (Mark 12:41-44)

3. As told to me by Rev. John Aymond

Other References Consulted