sermons

God & Money - April 22, 2012

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:36:26 +0100

(Sermon Easter 3, 2012 – St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Brighton – Fr. Rob Sweet – Gospel Reading: Luke 16:1-13)

I heard a story about a man who asked God an intriguing question: “Lord, what is a million years like to you?”

God replied, “To me, a million years is just like a single second of your time.”

Fascinated by this, the man queried further, “What about a million dollars?”

God answered, “To me, a million dollars is just like a single penny.”

On hearing this, the man gathered enough courage to ask, “Lord, could I have one of your pennies?”

The Lord replied, “Certainly, my child. Just a second.”

Here are some interesting facts about the mention of money in the Bible:

“The Bible contains more than five hundred references to prayer and almost five hundred references to faith, but there are more than two thousand references to money and possessions.

“Out of thirty-eight parables that Jesus told in the Gospels, sixteen deal with how we handle our money.

“Jesus said more about money and possessions than about heaven and hell combined. One out of every ten verses in the Gospels deals with money or possessions — 288 verses in the four Gospels.”[i]

How we handle our money is a good indicator of the spiritual condition of our heart. Today’s Gospel reading is about managing money.

Our Lord Jesus tells the parable of the dishonest manager. This man has been squandering his master’s property. When he finds out that he’s about to lose his job, he comes up with a plan.

He realizes that he is not strong enough to do physical labour and is ashamed to beg.

So he decides to make some friends, in the hope that they will welcome him into their homes when his money is gone.

He calls the debtors in one by one, and reduces what they owe. Imagine their delight when the bill is suddenly significantly smaller!

Now, the strange thing is the reaction of the master. He commended him -- “because he had acted shrewdly”.

We must think about this carefully. We do not know what kind of person the master is. We are not told. Perhaps he too was dishonest. Maybe that’s how he made his money. And maybe not.

Whatever the case, he was impressed by the shrewd action. Perhaps he was thinking: Well, this guy may be dishonest, but he’s certainly clever.

Our Lord is telling this parable to his disciples. Jesus is the Light of the world. His disciples are “the children of light”.

And he says, “The children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light”.

His point is: Worldly people know how to influence others for their own gain. And those who belong to Christ should know how to influence others too – but with a different goal in mind, and we’ll identify that in a minute.

As we serve God, we are to act shrewdly. Be creative. Be dynamic. Be resourceful.

Now Jesus gives some instruction that could be misunderstood. He says, “I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes”.

There is so much corruption in this world that money itself can seem evil. But money is really a neutral thing – neither good nor bad. What matters is the way we obtain it, the way we use it, and our attitude towards it.

If we have received money through dishonest means, we need to stop using it for our own gain. We need to stop, and seek God’s direction.

I remember something from a sermon by Charles Price of The Peoples Church, in Toronto. He mentioned a friend of his who had become a Christian. This friend was a partner in a business that had done the wrong thing. It had misrepresented a product.

When this man surrendered his life to Christ, he realized that he would have to compensate the customers he had wronged.

He had to convince his partners that this was the right thing to do. That wasn’t easy, because it would cost them a lot of money! But they agreed, and they did the right thing.

People are influenced by such examples of the Lord’s transforming power. They reconsider the good news about Christ.

And this is the goal of making friends. In the parable, the dishonest manager made friends who would welcome him into earthly homes. But our Lord wants us to make friends who will welcome us into the eternal homes.

Our goal is to make friends with eternity in mind.

I want to recognize three significant points in this Gospel reading.

First: In the service of God, act shrewdly. The children of light should be creative, dynamic, and resourceful.

Second: Make friends -- with eternity in mind.

Someday, because of the Lord’s saving work -- and because we have believed in Him and received Him as our Lord -- we shall be welcomed into the eternal homes: welcomed by the Lord himself, and by many friends who have gone ahead of us!

Perhaps they will say, “We remember your acts of kindness on earth -- how you showed God’s love to us.”

And with great joy we shall know that we invested our time, talent, and treasure in relationships that last forever.

Third Point: You cannot serve two masters. Choose God over money. Use money for God’s glory.

Jesus says, “You cannot serve God and wealth”. We have to choose who will be our master.

Lyle Eggleston served as a missionary for many years in a little town on the rocky coast of northern Chile. In time, the congregation grew to about eighty adults, but Eggleston was concerned that the Christians in that area didn’t seem able to support their own national pastor. The people were very poor, and the church’s offerings amounted to no more than six dollars a month.

One day, Eggleston brought the problem to the Lord during a definite time of prayer. A few weeks later he stopped to visit a middle-aged couple, new converts who had begun the habit of reading their Bibles every day.

They asked, “What does the word ‘tithing’ mean? We ran into that in our reading, and we don’t understand it.”

Eggleston didn’t really want to answer the question, for he knew that Manuel and his wife were unemployed and on the verge of destitution.

They were somehow managing to feed themselves and their twenty-five Rhode Island hens on the income from the eggs laid each day.

Nevertheless they insisted he explain the concept of tithing to them, so he turned to 1 Corinthians 16 and 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 where Paul urged believers to lay aside each week a portion of their income to the Lord.

The following Sunday Manuel handed Lyle an envelope and, smiling, said, “That’s our tithe!” Inside were a few bills amounting to about 19 cents.

The next Sunday afternoon, the couple flagged down Lyle as he rode his bicycle past their house. They had some exciting news.

The Tuesday morning after they had given their tithe, there’s wasn’t a bite for breakfast, nor any money.

Their first impulse was to take the few pesos that had accumulated in their “tithe box,” but on second thought they said, “No. That’s God’s money. We will go without breakfast this morning.”

There was nothing to do but tend the hens. Much to their surprise, there were eggs in the nests. (The nests were usually empty at that hour.)

Later in the day, a little man came along with a pushcart wanting fertilizer. They cleaned out their hen house, and the manure brought a good price.

After buying groceries, there was enough money left over for the wife to purchase a pair of shoes, so she rode the bus 12 kilometers around the bay into a larger town. There she bumped into a nephew she had not seen in five years … [She found out], to her utter surprise, [that he] owned a shoe store.

After she had found just the pair she wanted, he wrapped them for her and handed her the package with these words, “Oh no, Auntie, I can’t take your money. These shoes are a gift from me.”

The following week, Manuel got a job on a project that would last for two years, and soon the little couple was tithing on a much larger salary. Word got around the church, and others began experimenting with giving.

Soon the church’s income began to rise dramatically, and they were able to pay their own rent and utility bills, support a national pastor … and, in a short time, they were able to call and finance a pastor of their own.

Lyle Eggleston and his wife were able to move to a new location and start a new work -- as the little church grew in numbers, size, property, and faith.

Looking back on this, Eggleston said, “We had offered up a bit of prayer -- and 19 cents. And God did the rest.”[ii]

This is the way our faith grows. We do what we can do. And God does what only God can do.

God has unlimited resources. But he wants us to grow in faith by trusting him, and by doing those things that we can do. God wants us to take action for his purposes and for his glory. And God will do the rest.

As I finish now, I want to restate three significant points in the Gospel reading:

First: In the service of God, be creative, dynamic, resourceful. Act shrewdly.

Second: Make friends with eternity in mind.

Third: Choose God over money. Use money for God’s glory.

Amen.

[i] from, Morgan, Robert J., Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes, electronic ed. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000, S. 344

[ii] as above

Advent 4 - December 18, 2011 - Love Came Down At Christmas

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:06:27 +0100

LOVE CAME DOWN AT CHRISTMAS

(Sermon Advent 4, 2011 – St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Brighton – Fr. Rob Sweet)

You’ve heard the expression “ivory tower.” Here is the definition: “a place or condition of withdrawal from the world of action into a world of ideas and dreams.”

God has, at times, been described as a remote creator, uninvolved in the world — like an absentee landlord, or a watchmaker who put the world together, wound it up, and left us on our own to run.

But the truth is, God is deeply interested in what we do: deeply interested and deeply involved. We have the example in today’s reading from Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:26-38).

The angel Gabriel foretells the birth of the Messiah. Mary is to be his mother. But Mary says, “How can this be since I am a virgin?”

The angel replies, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”

No ordinary conception! No, indeed! This is a miraculous conception, the work of the same Holy Spirit, who hovered over the waters at creation (Genesis 1:2).

The child would be human, but mutch more than human. He would be divine.

We remember the words of Wesley’s hymn:

“Love divine, all loves excelling,

Joy of heaven to earth come down.”

And on the cover of our service leaflet this morning, we see the words “Love came down at Christmas.”

This is on the cover of the booklets our children received at the beginning of the service.

One booklet contains the Christmas Story, and the other is an activity booklet to engage children in thinking about it. On the pages of the activity booklet are the following statements about Christmas:

“Love came down at Christmas. Hope came down at Christmas.

Peace came down. Joy came down. Forgiveness came down. New life came down. Eternal life came down at Christmas.”

God is deeply involved in this world.

True, he has allowed us to make our own choices. We call this free will. And yet he has always been at work in this world, helping us to seek after the right choices.

MyFM Radio Station invited local pastors to give a one-minute message on “The True Meaning of Christmas.” One minute is not much time, and you can’t speak too quickly or people will miss what you’re trying to say.

My message was exactly one minute and two seconds. But this morning, I want to expand that message just a little.

Years ago, when I was serving as a police officer in Toronto, I shared the concern of my fellow officers about a new idea. The idea was to replace the position of chief of police with an administrator who might NOT have police experience.

Our concern? How would someone with no police experience understand the challenges we were facing every day? Fortunately the new idea was never implemented.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was God. And that he left the glory of heaven to be incarnate – to live among us as a human. He was, at the same time, fully God and fully human. Mind-boggling, yes, but nevertheless true.

St. John tells us, “Through him all things were made.” So Jesus knows what we are made of, being our very creator.

But in addition to that, he has actually experienced what we experience. He worked with us, shoulder to shoulder, on the front lines of life.

Love came down.

There is nothing like the real thing. We can talk forever about what we could do, would do, or should do. But if we actually do it, the deed speaks volumes. Love actually came down – born of the Virgin Mary.

In the 1980’s, I had the privilege of meeting Robert Vernon, who was then an Assistant Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. Bob Vernon came to Toronto as a guest speaker for the Canadian Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers.

Vernon told us that, as a Christian, he sought to live by the word of God in his private life and public life.

At the end of his working day, he would remain in his office for an extra hour. That hour, of his own off-duty time, was set aside for one purpose: to make himself available to police officers who wished to talk about matters of faith.

Skeptics might have been tempted to ridicule him. But Vernon had come up through the ranks. He had done the job – for thirty years, in fact.

Not only that, but he also made it his practice to come down from what could be called “the ivory tower” and to work in the patrol car with the front-line officer.

He did not forget the work, and he did not forget the workers. Vernon was a good leader who led by example. And though a leader, he was also a brother.

Now the best of all leaders, the Lord Jesus Christ, is our brother. The writer to the Hebrews says that Jesus, who sanctifies us and we who are being sanctified have the same Father. “For this reason, Jesus is not ashamed to call [us] brothers and sisters (Heb. 2:11 NRSV).

In the same letter, we find this exhortation: “Since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin” (Heb 4:14-15, NIV).

And that reality makes Jesus the one perfect Saviour.

True love came down: love without sin, but full of action.

You can look at the Bible’s love chapter (1 Cor. 13) and use it to examine your own actions.

Try substituting your name for the word “love”. Like this: Rob is patient. Rob is kind. He does not envy. He does not boast. He is not proud. He is not rude. He is not self-seeking. He is not easily angered. He keeps no record of wrongs. Rob does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

I must confess that I fall short of that characterization. But true love does not. And if we have true love walking with us along the path of life, we are encouraged. Jesus has promised, “I am with you always.”

“You can do it, Gampa.” That is something my grandson Zachary has said. I think he heard “you can do it” on one the TV shows for kids. Anyway, he has applied it to me a number of times. “You can do it, Gampa.”

And it reminds me of the words of St. Paul. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13, NKJV).

God is deeply interested and deeply involved, urging us to seek after the right things. So, heaven is no ivory tower.

And love has come down. We think of God talking with Adam and Eve in the garden.

We think of David’s close relationship with God.

But at the first Christmas, love came down in a way that has no parallel. It happened once in history, and it need never happen again -- because through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we have salvation.

I close now by repeating the statements about Christmas found in the booklets given to our children:

“Love came down at Christmas. Hope came down at Christmas.

Peace came down. Joy came down. Forgiveness came down. New life came down. Eternal life came down at Christmas.” Amen.

December 4, 2011 - Advent 2: Peace - "Give Us This Living Water!"

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:17:15 +0100

“I’ve Got Peace Like a River.” This is a simple song about the peace, joy, and love you can have deep in your soul:

“I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.”

“I’ve got joy like a fountain in my soul.”

“I’ve got love like an ocean in my soul.”

River, fountain, ocean: all refer to water.

In today’s Gospel reading (Mark 1:1-8), we see two references to water: First, people are being baptized by John in the Jordan River.

Why were they being baptized?

“John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”.

Repentance means being sorry for what we have done wrong – sorry enough to make an about-turn: away from the direction of temptation and, instead, toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

The people confessed their sins and were baptized with water. They repented, and sought the mercy of God.

The second reference to water? John makes a prediction that one who is more powerful than he is coming. And that the one who is to come (meaning the Lord Jesus) will baptize people with the Holy Spirit.

A second reference to water? Yes, but quite different from the water of the Jordan.

Now, before we consider this, I want to take a minute or two to watch with you a DVD from Samaritan’s Purse. This DVD is about a project that is providing clean drinking water for many, many people. And if you listen closely, near the end of the segment, you’ll hear mention of this different kind of water.

(DVD from Samaritan’s Purse showing the use of Canadian technology to filter water in countries where clean water is in short supply)

Near the end of this DVD segment, we heard the reporter talk about the “natural tie-in between clean drinking water and the life-giving water of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

Jesus gives to us living water.

In John, Chapter 4, our Lord has a conversation with a woman who comes to draw water from a well. During this conversation, he says to her:

"If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10-11, NIV).

“Where can you get this living water?” she asks.

Jesus is talking about spiritual things: the new life he will give to all who receive this living water: “The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

We find out later, in chapter 7 of John’s Gospel, that this life-giving water is, in fact, the Holy Spirit, “whom those who believed in [Jesus] were later to receive” (John 7:37-39).

Physical water is a necessity. So is the living water, the Holy Spirit. Dwelling in the believer, he is the guarantee of eternal life. He also helps us to understand and apply God’s word. The Holy Spirit provides counsel and power to do God’s will.

Ruth and I will never forget the report we saw one evening on a Detroit television station. This was roughly fifteen years ago, while we were living in Saskatchewan. It was about a campus revival.

College students went to a routine worship service one evening, and instead of staying the usual hour or so, they stayed for hours and hours. They felt moved to confess their sins.

After that, they got rid of bags full of stuff – garbage bags filled with the stuff that had gotten between them and God.

And then they formed “accountability groups.” These were small groups of students who met regularly to encourage one another in the faith.

They talked about the great freedom they felt. They said with conviction that God had visited them in a powerful way.

They spoke as if they really knew what it means to have peace like a river, to have joy like a fountain, to have love like an ocean.

We give our lives to Christ, and he gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit transforms our lives. But this transformation is a process, a lifelong process.

We may not always welcome his work. We shall sometimes resist. But it is far better to enjoy the fruit of the Spirit, which includes peace, joy, and love.

May we open our hearts to the transforming work of that life-giving, living water – “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” Amen.

November 27, 2011 - Advent 1 - God Is Faithful

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:16:25 +0100

This is a time of beginnings. It is my first Sunday with you and the beginning of a new church year. For Ruth and me, there are other beginnings too: a new home, a new church, and a new community. We have been here for just a week now. We have already met many friendly people who have welcomed us to St. Paul’s and to Brighton.

During Advent, we think about the coming of our Lord to this earth – his first coming – to the manger in Bethlehem. But we also think about the Second Coming promised in the Scriptures. And St. Paul gives this assurance: Jesus will “strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ”.The Greek word translated “blameless” means “unimpeachable” … “beyond reproach”. It “implies not merely acquittal, but the absence of even a charge or accusation …” (W. E. Vine, Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, I, 131; cf. Romans 8:33).

Only by the grace given to us in Christ is this possible. "Grace” means “unmerited favour.” We receive it; we do not earn it. We welcome it; we do not work for it – although as we welcome God’s grace, we work. I am impressed by the work that you do. I had a look at your Narrative Budget. This is a great way to understand the work you are doing by the grace of God. It is beautifully set out. It describes what you do – and also what you would do, if you could do more. The exhortation on the front cover summarizes the goal: “Let us BE the church.” Let us be who Christ wants us to be!

“God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

God is faithful. He will strengthen us to the end. And by grace, we will be blameless because of what Christ has done for us on the cross and through our faith in him. And even that faith is a gift from God.

I have been reading a book by John Bowen, Associate Professor of Evangelism at Wycliffe College. The book is called Growing Up Christian, Why Young People Stay in Church, Leave Church, and (Sometimes) Come Back to Church. In this book, Bowen presents the results of a survey. He sent a survey out to a large group of people who had grown up Christian. The questionnaire asked, “What would you say are the main factors that have enabled you to stay within the Christian faith?”He offered seventeen possible answers, plus an opportunity to write down other reasons he had not thought of. Here are some of the suggested reasons:

Having a church that was supportive and helpful.

Having models and mentors for the Christian life.

Finding helpful answers to the intellectual questions of Christianity.

Having a personal relationship with God.

Having friends who are Christians.

Finding help to resist lifestyle pressures …

Wanting to follow the example of parents, and so on.

When the surveys were tallied, the #1 reason for staying with their faith was this: their personal relationship with God.

As we would expect, Christian mentors and friends were also high on the list. Bowen quotes some of the respondents.

A 38 year old believer says, “No matter what circumstances I have experienced (especially in the last few years), nothing would make me run from God or turn my back on God. On the contrary, it is to God I run in times of trouble.”

Another person says, “During the separation period before my divorce, I seriously questioned my faith and what it meant to be a Christian. Do I turn my back on God or cling to him with all I’ve got? “The answer, obviously, was to cling to God. After that decision, life started to make sense again and I started making a new life which has turned out to be far better than before …”.

A 25 year old says, “I’m a Christian because I know that God is real – because I know him. That’s the kind of truth I could never really ditch, even if I wanted to. That’s not to say I have always been super close to God.”

A 27 year old says, “The church/God’s people are broken, but we must not let that brokenness interfere with our picture of a loving, righteous, and faithful God.”

And that brings us back to what St. Paul said. To finish now, here it is again: “God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Who called us? God called us. What did he call us into? The fellowship of his Son. And having called us into the fellowship of his Son, God will empower us to participate in that fellowship, indeed to foster that fellowship – if we surrender our lives, our wants, our needs -- to him. That is what is required: that we walk humbly with our God. For God is faithful. Amen.