Sermon Archive

I was tempted today to follow the example of the legendary pastor who decided he could best promote his parishioners’ generosity on Stewardship Commitment Sunday by preaching the shortest sermon he’d ever uttered.

It was only sixteen words long, lasted just eight seconds, and went like this: “Folks, the church needs money, and you have some. Give as much as you can. Amen.”

As I said, I was tempted to use that approach, but I succeeded in overcoming the temptation!

And it occurs to me that you folks, too, may be confronting a temptation to be overly brief this morning, a temptation to respond to my Sermon on the Amount with a quick line from Shakespeare’s Richard the Third—just eight words taking three seconds. Said King Richard to the Duke of Buckingham (IV, ii, 115): “I am not in the giving vein today.”

Still, I trust that you’ll be as successful in overcoming your temptation as I was in overcoming mine, and that today both my words and your responses will prove ample!

The great 16th-Century Protestant Reformer Martin Luther, of whom I spoke two Sundays ago, once said: “There are three conversions necessary in the Christian life: the conversion of the heart, [the conversion of] the mind, and [the conversion of] the purse.”

Now, in our First Lesson the apostle Paul seems to be urging just two conversions—that of the heart and that of the purse. But in reality, Paul is calling for the very same things that Luther was.

You see, Luther lived in the very midst of the Renaissance, when humanism was at work dividing the provinces of heart and mind, identifying the heart with emotions, with art, and the mind with reason, with science.

But the apostle Paul, in a much earlier age, did not make that same division between heart and mind. He thinks of the heart as the seat not only of our emotions but also of our reason, the organ where our plans and decisions are made on the basis both of emotions, like love, and also of reason. So in this morning’s First Lesson, Paul, writing in Greek, calls on everyone to “give as one’s heart has decided” (II Cor. 9:7) Yet note that the translation used in our pew Bibles renders that Greek word “heart” with our English word “mind,” and reads, “give as you have made up your mind.” But that’s OK, because for Paul heart and mind are the same.

So Paul is calling here for a conversion of the heart that is simultaneously a conversion of the mind, for it is such a conversion that will lead followers of Jesus to the kind of cheerful giving that God loves and recipients need.

In chapters 8 and 9 of Paul’s Second Letter to the Christians in Corinth, he is working to gather from his predominantly Gentile-Christian churches an offering for the impoverished Jewish-Christian congregation in Jerusalem, whose members are so different from Greeks in ethnicity, culture, and economic class. Paul tells his churches that we followers of Jesus are to live not only for ourselves but also for others, that we are to live not as isolated individuals but as a community whose concern for one another transcends all ethnic, political, economic, and cultural boundaries. So we followers of Jesus are to give generously and cheerfully both of our money and of our time and talent so that others may receive according to their need and give thanks to God.

Now the conversions of heart and purse of which Paul preaches are powerfully illustrated for us in the story of the widow told in today’s gospel lesson. The place is Jerusalem; the setting is the temple, bursting with pilgrims who’ve come for the Passover celebration; the time is just two days before Jesus’s last supper and arrest.

Back then, “no collection plate was passed during Temple services. People made their offering by announcing the amount to a priest [wouldn’t you love that!] and then depositing it in one of thirteen shofar chests. These chests were designed like a tuba with a wide mouth and narrow [descending] tube to discourage busy hands from taking out rather than putting in.… As Jesus watches quietly, many [rich folks] give impressive amounts. Then, he notices a widow enter the Temple court…” (Gary W. Charles, in Preaching Mark in Two Voices [Westminster John Knox, 2002 ], p. 202)

She, like most widows, is destitute, and she puts in just two pennies. Yet Jesus tells his disciples, “this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for [the others] have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty…” (Luke 21:3–4) Yes, it is the widow whose heart and purse have been converted; it is the widow who practices a selfless generosity in gratitude to God. And Jesus, having witnessed her act of giving, offers his judgment that it’s not the size of the gift that counts but rather the generosity of spirit with which it’s given.

So, the time has now come for each of us to witness to the conversions of our heart, mind, and purse—our conversions to the way of Jesus. And it's time for each of us to practice the cheerful generosity that arises from such conversions, remembering that it’s not the size of the gift that counts but rather the spirit in which it’s given.

Each of us is now asked to pledge a measure of the talent, time, and money that Christ has entrusted to our stewardship, offering these pledges of ours cheerfully in order to help dispel the suffering and sorrow overspreading our world.

Please spend a few moments reflecting quietly on God’s gift to you of love and grace through Jesus Christ. Spend a few moments reflecting quietly on what this community of faith, its sacraments, its fellowship, and its ministries of outreach mean both to you as an individual and to our community and the world at large. Recall that while 78% of your pledge assists programs of ministry through this congregation, fully 22% of your pledge will carry the love and justice of Christ to persons in need living far beyond our walls.

I invite you during this time of silence first to pray that God’s Spirit will kindle within you the same conversion of heart and purse, the same cheerful generosity of time, talent, and money that the widow exemplified and that Jesus embodied. For when the widow and Jesus have become the models for our stewardship, it is then that the conversions of our own heart and purse will lead us cheerfully to sharing fully with others the gift of Christ’s love entrusted to us.

I invite you this morning to consider pledging a fixed percentage of your income to the work of Christ through the Rutgers Church for 2005. The Bible urges us to devote to charitable giving a full tithe of our income—that is, 10%—and I invite you to consider offering up to half of that through this congregation. I invite you to consider pledging 3% or 4% or 5% of your income; or perhaps to consider increasing your pledge for 2005 over that for this year by 1% of your income. I believe that by doing so you will experience the joy that comes in Christ, the blessing that comes through cheerful giving.

Of course cheerful Christian giving is expressed through other means than just money. So I invite you during these next minutes to reflect on your available spare time, whether that be two hours a week, or forty hours a month. And then I invite you to pledge a percentage of your time to the work of Christ through the Rutgers Church, whether that be volunteering in our shelter or meal program, serving on a board or committee, teaching in the Sunday School, or offering daily prayers for the mission of Christ’s church. And this morning, I feel called to share with you my concern that the need for volunteers to staff our weekend shelter program is currently our #1 crisis in ministry. So I ask most earnestly that you consider making a cheerful gift of one overnight every month or every six weeks so that we can continue to offer shelter to those who have no home.

I invite you now to speak with God in prayer as you consider your pledge and fill in both the money side and service side of your cards.

Then during the offertory anthem, I ask you, as a sign of your resolve and commitment, to come forward from your pew to the communion table, the table of Christ, and to place in the plates that you’ll find there both your regular offering for this morning and your pledge of time, talent, and money for 2005.

I’ve mentioned before that it’s the custom of our brothers and sisters at the newest congregation in our presbytery, the Ghanaian Presbyterian and Reformed Church of Flatbush, to express their cheerful giving by dancing down the aisles toward the offering plates. And if any of you cheerful givers want to do that, please do so—or at least sway a little, or perhaps just swerve a bit!

Let us now express our conversions of heart, mind, and purse through our pledges of support for Christ’s ministry in our world.

[2 minutes of silence.]

Let us pray together: