Who Is This King of Glory?

A sermon delivered by the Reverend Scott D. Nowack on November 20, 2011

at First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore, Texas.

 

"Who Is This King of Glory?"

Jeremiah 23:1-6

Luke 23:33-43

Many years ago, a young woman was working as a volunteer at Community General Hospital.  While she was there, she got to know a little girl named Erica who was suffering from a rare and serious disease.  Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her five-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. 

The doctor explained the situation to her little brother and asked the boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.  He hesitated for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, “Yes, I’ll do it if it will save Erica.”  As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, seeing the color returning to her cheeks.  Then his face grew pale and his smile faded.  He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, “Will I start to die right away?”

Being young, the boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all his blood.

Do you know anyone who is willing to die for you?  Do you know anyone who is willing to put your life ahead of their own?  Who are you willing to die for?

This little boy showed great courage and love putting his sister’s life ahead of his own.  Jesus demonstrated the love God has for each of us by taking upon himself the sin of all humanity and enduring the pain and suffering of the cross on our behalf. 

Jesus was called many things: Rabbi, Teacher, Messiah, Son of God to name a few.  Another one I wish to highlight today is Jesus Christ as a king.  After all, Jesus came to earth to usher in the Kingdom of God.  The Gospel of Mark has Jesus going to Galilee to proclaim the good news of God saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:15) 

What kind of king was Jesus?  Did he have a fancy palace to live in, or servants caring for his every need or the wealth or the army of an earthly king?

This is the kind of king people in his day wanted him to be and expected him to be; one who would lead a revolt against the Roman occupation; one who would restore the Kingdom of Israel raising up a new Jewish nation.

He was perceived as a threat to a lot of people, especially those entrenched in the political and religious power structure of his day.  He must be held up as an example to others to not revolt against the powers that be.  What better way to do this than by crucifixion. 

To die by crucifixion was one hundred percent pure torture.  There was nothing good about it, except to kill people.  It was the electric chair of the first century.  Brutality at its most brutal.

Add to it the mocking words of the leaders, the soldiers, the unrepentant criminal and the inscription put on top of the cross.  It is here that we are confronted with the true nature of Jesus’ Kingship.  On one hand, we hear the repeated demand, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” and “Are you not the Messiah, save yourself and us!”  They offer another temptation for Jesus to take the easy way out by saving himself and avoiding the cross.  But Jesus clearly remains focused on the goal of fulfilling God’s divine will. 

On the other hand, the words of the scoffers offer us an ironic twist about his kingly mission.  He is a Messiah, a king who saves others only by not saving himself. (v.35)  What kind of king is Jesus?  He’s the kind that refuses to obey the voices of temptation, even in his most desperate hour, to fulfill his calling as the Messiah.  Jesus stood the meaning of kingship and what a kingdom is on its head, upside down.

The crucifixion event is no political power play following the logic of most power plays we know: retaliation, competition, self-protectiveness and the like.  It is the event in which Jesus dares us to trust and obey the will of God that takes him to the cross and beyond. 

As the religious leaders lead the scoffing and mocking of Jesus, the second criminal is the one person here who gets it, who understands the truth of Jesus and dares to speak.  He’s the only one who witnesses the torture and death of Jesus and understands what God is doing here.  He realizes that Jesus will enter his kingdom not by coming down from the cross, but by suffering and dying for you and me.  He realizes that Jesus will enter the kingdom of God only by dying on the cross. 

When the repentant criminal says to Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (v.42), he is making a confession of faith.  It’s an indication that he understands the gospel; he understands that the mocking, insults, floggings, and crucifixion are all necessary parts that when fit together lead to resurrection. 

Do you know anyone who is willing to die for you?  Do you know anyone who is willing to put your life ahead of their own?  Who are you willing to die for?

We are called as Christians to not live for ourselves but for those around us no matter who they are and no matter what the circumstances.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “If a man has not found something he is willing to die for, he isn’t fit to live”.  If a person has not found something they are willing to suffer for, they aren’t fit to live.  If a person has not experienced the forgiveness and peace of God in Jesus Christ, then they are not fit to live the life they are called by God to live.

Who will die for you?  Who are you willing to die for? 

Stephen Neill, an Anglican bishop who served in southern India during the 20^th century, said, “We all have some dying to do.  Jesus showed us how it should be done through his work on the cross.”  Jesus died for you, enduring the pain and humiliation of death on the cross, so we can live for him and not for ourselves. 

We all have stuff in our lives that we want to get rid of: past behavior, bad relationships, regrets, memories, words and moments we’ve shared and didn’t share.  When you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have someplace to dump all that baggage weighing you down.  Jesus takes it away.  It’s gone.  Like yesterday, it’s gone.  Like history, it’s gone.  Like last Sunday, it’s gone.  Like the bullying you suffered from grade school, gone.  The baggage is gone if you are willing to let it go and give it to God.  God has unlimited storage capacity.

As we die to ourselves and live more and more for Jesus Christ, we have the ultimate example of how to live in this world: to suffer alongside those who suffer, to practice forgiveness no matter what, and to bring peace and love to others, even our enemies, through the amazing grace of God in Christ Jesus.

I want to close with this prayer written by St. Ignatius Loyola: Teach us, Lord, to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for any reward save that of knowing that we do your will.  Amen.

Overcoming Obstacles: The Top 5 Reasons Why I Don't Tithe Yet

A sermon preached by The Rev. Scott D. Nowack on November 6, 2011

at the First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore, Texas.

[i]Overcoming Obstacles:

The Top 5 Reasons Why I Don’t Tithe Yet

II Chronicles 31:1-10

From an early age, the word, “tithe” confused me a great deal.  I remember as a small boy wearing my first real tie to church.  It wasn’t a clip-on, but rather one I had to learn to tie by hand just like what my dad wore.  I was so proud that I had graduated from the clip-on ties to the real thing.  But one Sunday morning I was completely surprised by what I heard the pastor say.  So I asked my dad with a panicked whisper, “Dad, why did the pastor say they’re going to collect the ties and offerings?” 

What exactly is a “tithe”?  Unless I’ve missed my guess, there is someone here today who has never heard this word before.  Unless I’ve missed my guess, there are many of us who find ourselves wrestling with God and making excuses for not tithing as I do.  Is there someone here today who finds themselves stuck in the tension between giving to God, paying bills and doing what you want to do?  To set a tithe is a big challenge.

The “tithe” still poses a challenge in my life.  Not every pastor can say that he or she does NOT tithe, but I sure can.  I admit that God has not finished converting my bank account yet.  And since this week we all received the stewardship team’s color brochure and commitment card, I find myself once again wrestling with God, challenged by God through my own study and prayer, working through a myriad of excuses and reasons on how much to give.

I whittled down my myriad of excuses to the top five reasons why I don’t tithe yet.

Number 5: I don’t tithe yet because my church hasn’t talked about tithing very much and that includes me, the pastor.  I do not talk about tithing from the pulpit.  I never have.  I haven’t heard many other pastors talk about it either over the years.  And I find myself asking why not.  Why don’t we talk about it?  What are we afraid of?  Are we assuming everyone already knows what tithing is?  Are we embarrassed to talk about it because we ourselves are not tithing?  Pastors and church leaders tend to promote the church budget as paramount, as our first priority.  By doing so, we put the cart in front of the horse.  We end up ignoring the bible’s regular invitation for each of us to enter into financial communion with the Giver of every perfect gift.  Do we form our budget for the coming year and then give to meet that budget?  Or do we give to God all that we can with an attitude of gratitude for all God has given us and then form the budget based on what’s been given accordingly?  Give first what you feel God is calling you to give, hopefully it will a tithe of some kind, and the church sets the budget second.  Put the horse before the cart and oh the places we will go! 

Number 4: I am stuck in the mindset that giving ought to be useful.  I need to see that my gift is not being wasted.  How often do we hear stories about non-profit institutions that betray their donors through the misuse of funds.  There are many churches, too, that have betrayed the trust of their givers through a general lack of financial transperancy and muted the understanding of the various items that make up the budget each year.  In our text this morning, the Israelites didn’t worry about whether what they gave would be useful, helpful or functional.  The people of Israel responded graciously to God, giving a tithe of their possessions as a gift of love to God.  The first fruits of their crops were piled in heaps before the Lord by the priests.  These piles grew for over three months.  All that food was not good, a lot of it went bad and had to be thrown away.  All those heaps and piles of food and produce are about as useful as singing a hymn.  The best reason to sing and give is because we are in love with the God who made us and created us and loves us without end. 

Number 3: I regularly forget my entire life is a gift from God.  We are told that the Israelites gave grain, oil, wine, honey, produce and farm animals as worthy gifts to offer to God.  They knew that everything they had came from the gracious hand of God: gracious living through gracious giving. 

Pastor and writer Warren W. Wiersbe puts it this way.  “If life is to have meaning, and if God’s will is to be done, all of us have to accept who we are and what we are, give it back to God and thank him for the way he made us.  What I am is God’s gift to me; what I do is my gift to him.”

I can’t begin to count how many monetary gifts have I received over the years where I kept the whole thing and didn’t give any part of it to God.  I made excuses that I needed the money because I was broke or the water bill was due or I wanted to buy the latest Van Halen CD.  How we handle our gifts, the resources we have at our disposal, is a reflection of our deepest values and commitments.  I am challenging myself to give to God a tithe of what I receive in gifts from others.  And I challenge all of us to do the same.  Christmas is just around the corner.  Will you give thanks to God for the gifts you receive at Christmas?  I am planning on it.  I hope you’ll join me.

And this leads to reason number 2:  Giving is not a first priority or a regular discipline in my life.  Yes, it’s true.  Unlike the Israelites who gave their first fruits to God, I give my money first to my creditors and save some of the leftovers for God.  In the age of on-line bill pay, debit cards and on-line giving, how do we insure we give to God first?  I was talking with a colleague in ministry about this who does tithe and he said, “When the first check I write each week goes to the commitment to the church, I affirm that I belong to God before anybody else gets a piece of me.”

And the Number 1 reason why I don’t tithe yet is: I don’t trust God enough.  If I tithe my first fruits, will I be headed for financial self-destruction?  Can I trust God that I won’t be ruined, bankrupt and fed to the poor?  Why don’t I trust God enough?  The principle that God shows generosity to the generous is found throughout Scripture.  Malachi challenged his community in chapter three, verse ten, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.” (Mal. 3:10)  Jesus urged his followers to give, and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”(Luke 6:38 and 2 Cor. 9:6)  The Apostle Paul tells us that we are given the blessings we receive so that we might be able to give even more. (2 Cor. 9:8)  Everything we have, everything in the whole world and the entire universe is the Lord’s, so in truth we are only giving back to God what belongs to God.  In our scripture today, the people give generously, they find themselves generously blessed, so that they may in turn give all the more.[1]  So why is it so hard to tithe to God? 

What are your reasons for not tithing yet?  My hope is that every single one of us who does not tithe would commit to doing so, working your way up to ten percent for starters.  What did you give this year?  Challenge yourself to raise it a percentage point each year.  Or figure out what talent you can bring to the table to be used by God to his glory.  Are you a teacher?  Teach Church School or train others to teach church school.  Are you a health professional?  Volunteer as the parish nurse for the church sponsoring blood pressure screenings and other health and fitness-related events.  Are you an accountant or a financial advisor?  Are you a builder, a coach, an electrician, a manager, a homemaker: what time and talents can you tithe to Christ’s church?

I’m going to close with the life-story of the late John Templeton: Presbyterian elder, member of the board of trustees of Princeton Theological Seminary, investment guru and creator of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. What many do not know about him is how he gained his billions. John Templeton began as a man of very modest means. When he and his wife were first married, they made a decision that would forever change the course of their lives: They would live on 50 percent of their income, and the rest they would invest. This was very difficult for them, in those early days. It was a spartan existence. Templeton liked to tell how they ate their first meals together sitting on wooden fruit crates.  It turned out that John Templeton was an absolute wizard at picking stocks. Yet, and this is the point so often missed in a debt-driven economy, he would have had no money with which to buy the stocks he picked, had it not been for the decision he and his wife made to live on 50 percent of their income: a quintuple tithe for purposes of investment.  He used those same skills to build up the endowment for Princeton Theological Seminary.  Thanks to John Templeton, the endowment fund at PTS is large enough that the school runs on the interest generated by their endowment, including providing financial aid to 90% of the students seeking a M.Div. degree.  His “tithing” of his finances and talents have helped thousands of pastors, teachers, chaplains and counselors from Princeton Seminary to fulfill God’s calling on their lives, including my own. 

May we not be afraid to talk about tithing here at First Presbyterian; may we forget the idea that giving ought to be useful; may we remember our entire life is a gift from God where giving is the first priority of our lives; and may we trust God enough so that every dollar we dedicate to God is a statement of allegiance and an essential response to the God who has given us everything.

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[1] Interpretation: A Biblical Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, First and Second Chronicles by Steven S. Tuell.  (Louisville: John Knox Press, 2001. P.224.

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[i] The main theme of this sermon was informed, motivated and encouraged by the writing and ministry of the Rev. William G. Carter, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, published in Stewardship Magazine for Congregational Leaders, September 2006.  I am greatly indebted to Rev. Carter for helping me give voice to my own struggles with being a good steward of the many gifts and blessings I have received.

Overcoming Obstacles: When There Isn't Enough to Go Around (11am service)

A sermon preached by the Rev. Scott D. Nowack on October 30, 2011

at the 11am service at the First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore, Texas.

“Overcoming Obstacles:

When There Isn’t Enough to Go Around”

Matthew 14:13-21

What do you do when there isn’t enough to go around? 

This is the dilemma Jesus and the disciples find themselves in: the needs are great yet their resources are small.   After all, Jesus didn’t plan this event on the eastern shore the Sea of Galilee.  He just heard about the death of John the Baptist and in an effort to get some privacy and time for prayer he sails across the Sea of Galilee to the less populated side.  Nobody lined up the caterer for this gathering.  No water or any beverages readily available.  No brunch buffet was available for everyone to enjoy.  No Nanny Goats, no Napoli’s pizza.  And no portable toilets either.  What do you do when there isn’t enough to go around?

There are times when the needs of the world seem so great and our resources seem so small.  No other time is this more clear than when the leaders of the church put together the church budget for the following year.  They are very aware of the human needs in our community and the world, the financial demands of our church’s ministries, not to mention funding for repairing the sprinkler system or the air conditioning in the sanctuary.  I know what we the church are called to do, but there are so many times when we feel so squeezed to know how to respond people’s needs with our meager resources. 

What do you do when there isn’t enough to go around?

Let me offer to you these four observations about what is happening in our scripture today.  First, Jesus has compassion for the people when he arrives on the lakeshore.  He is empathetic and begins to heal the sick and bind up the broken-hearted on the spot.

Sure he was tired.  Sure was exhausted and upset and mourning the loss of his cousin John the Baptist.  But he didn’t treat the people of the crowd as a nuisance.  He didn’t ask if they had an appointment. He was never too busy for people.  He gave of himself.  He sacrificed his personal time, his personal schedule to meet the needs around him. 

It’s overwhelming to handle the needs of the crowd when our resources seem so small.  Compassion for others makes the difference and helps us focus on what must get done.

In the January, 2002 issue of Esquire, the late George Steinbrenner was quoted saying about giving of our resources to others in need, “The ability to have is so you can do things for others. If you can do things for others who are less fortunate, then it will come back to you.”  This is a sign of compassion as well as a voice of gratitude.

Gracious living through gracious giving: this is what Mr. Steinbrenner is talking about and it’s what Jesus portrays for us, except with a much more modest bank account.  Here we see Jesus showing that it is God’s gifts which he brings to each of us.  The grace of gratitude is rare among people and it is even more rare towards God.  When we truly recognize that all that we have, all that we are and everything we will become are gifts from God, that’s when our attitude changes.  We possess our possessions and not the other way around.  We are free to share and give our gifts to others to the glory of God.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.”  The disciples have a place in this ministry.  They are not Jesus’ personal assistants.  They are not chaperoning a school dance or a field trip.  The disciples are not on the outside looking in; they are in the thick of it.  As much as they may want to high tail it back home, they will not escape their responsibilities as Christ’s disciples.  Jesus tells them, “We’re not going anywhere.  You give them something to eat.”  Jesus insists that the disciples offer their own bread and fish.  With the five loaves and two fish, Jesus works through the hands of the disciples to reach the crowd. 

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are helpless without the Lord.  But I would also submit to you that the Lord is helpless without his disciples.  Jesus needs disciples like you and me through whom he can work as living vessels pouring forth God’s truth and love into the lives of others.  He needs people to whom he can give in order that they may give to others.  The Lord asks us as his disciples to be gracious givers at all times, in both bad and good times.

Gracious living through gracious giving: Jesus calls each of us to share and tell the world about the saving grace and love of Jesus Christ regardless of our bank account balance or our abilities and skills.  God does not demand we do this with any great magnificence or grandeur we don’t possess.  A little is always a lot in the eyes of God. 

Paul Harvey tells the story of an eight-year-old named Ben who won a contest at the local McDonald's. His prize was a brand new bike. When Ben got home, he told his parents that he already had a bike and that he didn't need two. Ben decided to give the new bike to a friend who didn't have a bike and whose parents were unable to buy one for him. When the manager of McDonald's heard about this, she invited Ben and his family to dinner and presented him with a $100 gift certificate. The next day Ben used the gift certificate to buy a crash helmet for his friend. For some people, gracious living through gracious giving is second nature.   

In the end, there were twelve baskets of leftovers, one for each disciple.  In the economy of God, the disciples who offered all their resources to the Lord received back everything they needed.  There is no wasting of God’s great gifts, even the leftovers.  God’s generous giving and our wise using must go hand in hand.

There’s a church I once heard about some years back that kept a loaf of bread on the Communion Table.  Since they didn’t celebrate the Lord’s Supper every week, someone coated the loaf in polyurethane, so it wouldn’t need to be replaced.  Not too long after, the congregation gasped when their interim pastor stood behind the Table and broke the bread with the words, “This is my body, broken for you!”  They breathed an audible sigh of relief when they discovered the minister had, in good fun, switched their ceremonial loaf with real bread.  After the service someone commented, “You upset us for a minute; we thought you broke our communion bread.”  The pastor responded, “Don’t you understand?  If it’s not broken, it can’t be shared.”[1]

What do you do when there isn’t enough to go around?  We break ourselves open and give.  We give of ourselves to others, time, talent and treasure, in order to reflect the light of Christ in a very dark world, a world groping in the dark looking for the answers, searching for the truth, desperately seeking direction and purpose for living.  We give of ourselves to others because we can’t help ourselves.  It’s something we want to share.  It’s something we want to live and tell about, so others may know the joy we discovered.

In the Kingdom of God, there is always enough to go around and then some.  Amen.

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[1] Stewardship Magazine for Congregational Leaders. Published by Stewardship and Mission funding PC)USA). (Louisville) September 2006. P.27-28.

Overcoming Obstacles:When There Isn't Enough to Go Around (9am service)

A sermon preached by the Rev. Scott D. Nowack on October 30, 2011

at the 9am service at the First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore, Texas.

Overcoming Obstacles:

When There Isn’t Enough to Go Around

Matthew 14:13-21

Once upon a time, there was a little boy the other children called “Sparky,” after a comic strip horse named Sparkplug. Even though the boy hated that nickname, he could never shake it.

School was difficult for Sparky. He failed every subject in the eighth grade. He flunked physics in high school. In fact, he still holds the school record for being the worst physics student in the school’s history. He also flunked Latin, algebra, and English. He didn’t do much better in sports. He made the school’s golf team, but his poor play ended up costing his team the championship.

Throughout his youth, Sparky was a loser socially. Not that he was actively disliked by other kids—it’s just that nobody paid much attention to him. He was astonished if a classmate even said hello outside of school. He never dated or even asked a girl out. He was afraid of being turned down. Sparky didn’t let being a loser bother him that much; he just decided to make it through life the best he could and not worry about what other people thought of him.

Sparky did, however, have a hobby. He loved cartoons, and he liked drawing his own cartoons. No one else thought they were any good, however. When he was a senior in high school, he submitted some cartoons to the school yearbook and they were rejected. Sparky kept drawing anyway.

Sparky dreamed about being an artist for Walt Disney. After graduating from high school, he wrote a letter to Walt Disney Studios inquiring about job opportunities. He received a form letter requesting samples of his artwork. The form letter asked him to draw a funny cartoon of “a man repairing a clock by shoveling the springs and gears back inside it.”

Sparky drew the cartoon and mailed it off with some of his other work to Disney studios. He waited and waited for a reply. Finally the reply came—another form letter telling him that there was no job for him.

Sparky was disappointed but not surprised. He had always been a loser, and this was just one more loss. In a weird way, he thought, his life was kind of funny. He tried telling his own life story in cartoons—a childhood full of the misadventures of a little boy loser, a chronic underachiever. This cartoon character has now become known by the whole world. The boy who failed the eighth grade, the young artist whose work was rejected not only by Walt Disney Studios but by his own high school yearbook, was Charles Monroe “Sparky” Schultz—creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip and the little boy loser whose kite never flies: Charlie Brown.

We have all experienced rejection and failure in life, but God has gifted each one of us with unique talents and abilities that enable us to make a significant contribution to the world. What are your gifts?

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.”  There is enough to go around.  There is enough need for us to take on all around us.  There are enough resources in this very room, in this very church, in this very town to make a positive impact on the world in the name of Jesus Christ.  What will you contribute?

Unless you attempt to use them, you will never discover how God prepared you to play your part. We need to be like the disciples in Scripture who gathered together those five loaves and two fish and used it to feed the 5000 men, women and children who gathered to see and hear Jesus on the rural hillside on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee with leftovers.  God takes our little loser selves and does something remarkable. Don’t waste it.  Don’t ignore it.  Don’t put it on the shelf and admire it from a distance.  Give your life away.

The time is now; for we have been called; so let us give and not be afraid.  Now, us, give.  Give.

Overcoming Obstacles: God Loves a Hilarious Giver

A sermon preached by the Rev. Scott D. Nowack on November 13, 2011

at First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore, Texas.

“Overcoming Obstacles: God Loves a Hilarious Giver”

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

You’re home.  It’s dinner time.  You and your family are gathered around the table ready to enjoy a delicious meal when suddenly, out of nowhere, the phone rings.  You get up from your seat to answer the phone.  Who is it?  It’s not Uncle Jerry or your cousin Tom.  It’s not a friend from church.  It’s the dreaded call from a telemarketer, who after a long pause and mispronouncing your name or worse yet calls you by someone else’s name and yet still wants to talk to you, wants you to give financial support to dig water wells in Africa, to pledge support for your alma mater, or give money to support the Fraternal Order of Police.

If you ever find yourself in this situation and you are anything like me, you are not very happy about this interruption.  And if you’re the person on the other end of the line, you’re not going to be real happy with what I’m about to say and do; with my response to your call.

All of us are constantly approached for financial help whether by phone, letters, emails, text messages, or personal invitations.  We want your money is their battle cry.  And we get tired of hearing all the requests.  We experience compassion fatigue after some time.  We respond reluctantly to these requests, no matter how important they may be to us.  Our response lacks generosity, compassion and joy. 

Are you a reluctant giver or a cheerful/hilarious giver?  I prefer hilarious over cheerful.  The original Greek word translated as “cheerful” is the root for “hilarious”.  I’m sticking with hilarious; an attitude of hilarious giving.

The Apostle Paul offers us some principles of hilarious giving in our text today. 

The first is that nobody who ever lived was a loser because he was generous.  The classic movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, plays on this theme through the characters of George Bailey and Mr. Potter.  George, like his dad before him, was compassionate and generous treating people with respect and dignity.  Mr. Potter was painted as a warped, frustrated old man who treated people not like people but like cattle.  When we invest in others, we will receive a significant return on our investment.  A hilarious giver reaps what they sow.

One day an angry little boy ran around his village shouting, “I hate you! I hate you!” No one knew quite how to respond to him.

Eventually the little boy ran to the edge of a steep cliff and shouted into the valley, “I hate you! I hate you!”

Back from the valley came an echo: “I hate you! I hate you!”

Startled at this, the boy ran home. With tears in his eyes, he told his mother that there was a mean little boy in the valley who shouted at him, “I hate you! I hate you!”

His mother took the boy back to the cliff and told him to shout, “I love you! I love you!”

When he did, back came the reply: “I love you! I love you!”

From that day on, the little boy wasn’t angry anymore.  When we give hate, we receive hate in return.  When we give love, we receive love in return.  We reap what we sow.

Giving is like sowing a seed, just as our scripture passage describes: “The one who sows sparingly will reap sparingly.  The one who sows bountifully will reap bountifully.”  Giving affects the giver.  If we practice generosity, God promises to change us and enrich our lives.  The enrichment is not material.  It doesn’t promise the wealth of things, but the wealth of the heart and spirit.  We are made in rich in love.  We are made rich in friends. 

At the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life”, the angel Clarence leaves a copy of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” with George Bailey with the inscription: “Dear George: Remember no man is a failure who has friends.  Thanks for the wings!  Love Clarence”. 

We are made rich in help: help we give to others and the help others give to us.  And we are made rich toward God.  What we do for others, the Bible says, we do for God.  Jesus says, “When you did it for the least of these, you did it unto me.”

The second principle of a hilarious giver is that it is the happy giver whom God loves and favors most.  God desires for us to replace the grumbling giving with hilarious giving.  When we do, this is where the healing in our lives begins.

The October 2011 issue of Presbyterians Today features a story about a ninety-year old retired Presbyterian minister and missionary named Arch Taylor.[1]  According to the story, giving has become a way of life; a life lived in a constant state of thankfulness. 

Upon retirement, Mr. Taylor inherited a sizeable inheritance from his father.  When he realized that his Social Security and pension provided sufficient funds on which to live, he began to look for ways to give away the “extra”. 

He shared this testimony of gracious giving through gracious living.  “During the time my wife was suffering with cancer, the mission board paid all of our medical expenses and they were generous in every way,” he says.  Mr. Taylor also remembered the full scholarship he received to attend Louisville Seminary graduating without any seminary debt.  So when it was time to give to a charitable cause, he gave to Presbyterian World Mission and Louisville Seminary.

“It’s not our money; it’s not their money; it’s the Lord’s money,” he says.  “I believe in the Presbyterian Church and I want it to succeed and I want to support it in any way that I can.”

Mr. Taylor knows what it means to be a hilarious giver. 

The third principle of hilarious giving from the Apostle Paul is that God can give each of us, like he has done with Mr. Arch Taylor, both the substance to give and the spirit in which to give it.  Paul writes in verses eight that God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. (2 Cor. 9:8)  What is Paul saying here?  He’s not describing someone who has all kinds of material things in abundance: a thousand acre ranch, an S-Class Mercedes, a home in the Hamptons, etc..  Rather, it describes a state of independence, independence from material things.  It’s a life based on not amassing possessions but to eliminating needs.  It describes the person who has taught themselves to be content with very little.  It is obvious that such an individual will be able to give far more to others because they want so little for themselves.  They are free to be a hilarious giver!

Are you a reluctant giver or a hilarious giver?

One of the greatest experiences of my life in ministry has been leading mission trips for youth, especially the first mission trip I ever led.  The youth I worked with were the children of affluent, successful, driven parents.  These kids were blessed with so many things and opportunities to grow and learn.  They always had food to eat, a nice comfortable home to live in, they took exotic vacations and elaborate school trips.  The sad thing was that many of them didn’t realize how good they had it and that there are so many youth who don’t have what they have.

So off to rural Maine we would go with our 50 plus high school students and 12 adults ready to enjoy a week of summer in Vacationland.  The first night was always interesting to see how the youth reacted to their rustic accommodations.  There was an outhouse for us to use.  We slept in the boat restoration shop on the floor or on the third floor of the boat shop itself.  We cooked our own meals.  We did our own shopping.  Every day the youth went out to various work sites to help the poor of the area, mostly elderly folks on fixed incomes and working poor families.  They skirted trailers, built wheelchair ramps, replaced water heaters and toilets and all kinds of plumbing.  They roofed homes, caulked and painted windows and siding.  They did work that week they had never done before on their own homes. 

Each day had a set routine: breakfast, morning prayer, off to work sites, return to the boat shop, bathe in the river, have dinner, worship and a bible lesson, small group time and bed.  By the end of the week, new friendships are formed, old friendships are strengthened and restored.  By the end of the week, each one of us experienced a joy we had never known before.  At week’s end, many of the youth would testify that this was the greatest week of their life and because of what they experienced they saw life and their own life very differently.  The youth and adults who spent that week serving others didn’t sow sparingly and reaped a small crop.  They sowed bountifully and received a bountiful harvest.  They changed the lives of those they touched and in turn their lives were changed forever.  God loves a hilarious giver! 

Are you a reluctant giver or a hilarious giver? 

May God transform your heart to give bountifully to others, to ourselves and most importantly to God.  May others see our good deeds, how we treat others and meet others at their point of need, and give God prayers of thanksgiving he rightly deserves.  The glory found in the gift of God in Jesus Christ, a gift whose wonder can never be exhausted, whose story can never be fully told and whose grace and love is always present with us. 

“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Cor. 9:15)

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[1] “Generous Living” by Erin Dunigan. Presbyterians Today, October 2011, vol. 101, No.8. p.17-18.

Overcoming Obstacles: Living a Life that Matters

A sermon preached by the Rev. Scott D. Nowack on October 23, 2011

at the First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore, Texas.

"Overcoming Obstacles: Living a Life that Matters"

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

If tomorrow was your last day, what would your legacy be?  What will you leave with the world when your time comes?

The legacy Moses leaves is unmatched.  It is extraordinary.  With God’s power and direction, he led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, across the Red Sea with God’s help hiked through the wilderness of Sin an now stand on the verge of the promised land of Canaan.  From Mount Nebo, God allows Moses to see the entire Promised Land.  He can see it, but Moses will not enter it because of the actions of the past generation broke faith with God.  This moment represents the culmination of a life lived as God’s faithful servant.  His day is done; his life complete.  And that’s where he dies, on the mountain top.  He was buried, the people mourned and the torch of leadership was passed to Joshua, son of Nun. 

Although Moses is dead, his legacy lives on established with Joshua and all the people through his teaching of the Torah, his very life and how he lived.  His legacy is a lasting one. 

I believe nobody starts out in life saying, “I want to live a life that’s mediocre, ordinary, plain; one that doesn’t ask too much from me or too much from others.”  We are given a drive deep within to discover the person God has created us to be and what our calling in life is, what is our purpose for living and where is my place in this world.  Psychologist Carl Jung says that, “act one of a young person’s life is the story of his or her setting out to conquer the world.”[1]  What will your legacy be?

We all want to live a life that matters.  We need to know that matter to someone; we matter to the world and that the world takes us seriously.[2]  We all want to know we made a difference with our life. 

Author and speaker Stephen Covey wrote about leaving a legacy: “The need to leave a legacy is our spiritual need to have a sense of meaning, purpose, personal congruence and contribution.”

Evangelist and author Billy Graham says it this way, “Our days are numbered. One of the primary goals in our lives should be to prepare for our last day. The legacy we leave is not just in our possessions, but in the quality of our lives. What preparations should we be making now? The greatest waste in all of our earth, which cannot be recycled or reclaimed, is our waste of the time that God has given us each day.”

What will your legacy be? 

So many days in my life I feel I wasted away; so many days wasted on meaningless, purpose-less stuff that has never made a lasting impact.  And I think about the financial resources I have squandered over the years.  I remember when I moved to Chicago after college and began attending a church there in the city.  The stewardship campaign was in full swing when I received my financial commitment card from the church asking me to prayerfully consider giving of my resources to the church.

I thought to myself, “What resources?”  I’m twenty-two years old in my first full-time job and working a part-time job, too, to make ends meet.  After the rent is paid and my other monthly bills taken care of, there are not many resources left.  I had nothing to give to the church… or so I thought.

That all changed one Sunday when Dr. Buchanan said in his sermon these words, “The life of faith is very much a journey”.  The scripture was Joshua, chapter 1, where God promises Joshua that he will be with him and the Israelites as they move forward into the Promised Land.  God wants Joshua to trust, to be strong and courageous, knowing God is with him and the people wherever they go. 

Then one of the elders gave a moment for mission on the stewardship campaign when he said, “When we dig deep to give to the church, it helps us re-order our priorities.”  He went on to ask, “If not now, when.  And if not us, who?”  When will the right time come for each of us to give sacrificially to our savior Jesus Christ and the ministry of his church? 

Who among us will step up; give sacrificially to God, and with faith, conviction and courage trust in the gracious gifts God has for us?

That evening I was looking closely at where I committed my financial resources every month.  I noticed I spent more on clothes in a month than what I gave to the church.  I noticed I spent more on eating out for lunch while at work in a month’s time than I gave to the church.  I realized this was not right.  I re-ordered my priorities and made what I believed at the time was a sacrificial financial commitment to the church: gracious living through gracious giving.  I bought fewer clothes and made my lunch at home to bring to work.

What will your legacy be?

As a young Irishwoman working in England in the late 1800s, Amy Carmichael decided to answer God’s call to serve in the mission field. She was sent to India.

The young missionary soon discovered that the way to reach the Indian people was not through preaching but through sacrifice.

So she reached out to the poorest, youngest, and most despised among them, especially the babies and children given to the Hindu temples who were forced to serve as slaves and were tortured if they were caught trying to escape. She said, “There were days when the sky turned black for me because of what I heard and knew was true. Sometimes it was as if I saw the Lord Jesus Christ kneeling alone, as he knelt long ago under the olive trees. And the only thing that one who cared could do was to go softly and kneel down beside him, so that he would not be alone in his sorrow over the little children.”

Amy not only felt sorrow for the children, but she was spurred to action. She rescued them, built a home, and recruited a staff to care for them. To those who profited from the enslavement practices, she was known as “the white woman who steals children.”

Amy Carmichael’s mission trip ended 55 years later, when she died at the age of 83. During that time she rescued over 1,000 abused, abandoned, and enslaved children. And though her stories, prayers, and devotions filled 35 books back in Britain, not once did she return to hear the praises of her friends and supporters. To Amy anything that called attention to her stole attention from the God she served. In fact in 1919, her name was published in a British honors list. When she found out about it, she wrote back to England asking to have her name removed.  It troubled her to “have an experience so different from his who was despised and rejected—not kindly honored.”

Ironically, the woman who wanted no honor other than that of being Christ’s servant became famous nonetheless, as tens of thousands of readers in Britain and America were moved by her writings. Her example of sacrificial love has encouraged countless numbers of Christians to follow her into the mission field.

            The path to a truly successful and significant life is through the relationships we form, through family, friends and through acts of generosity and self-sacrifice.  When we sacrifice ourselves for the life of another person, we make a difference in the world; we make a lasting impact on another and prove that in fact we do matter. 

What will my legacy be?  I am not a man of great financial wealth.  I won’t be leaving millions of dollars to the church or my alma maters or anybody.  So what will my legacy be?  It will be based on what kind of friend I am to others, what kind of husband I am to D’Anna, what kind of dad I am to Michael and Marissa, what kind of brother, son, cousin, nephew I am, what kind of pastor I am, on what words I say, what actions I take, on the decisions I make.  But most of all, it will be based on my relationship with God in Christ Jesus and living life in the sweet sound of God amazing grace.

When we give graciously to Christ and Christ’s church, we sacrifice ourselves and proclaim to the world that giving to the church is the answer to the idols of consumerism, materialism and acquisition that run rampant in our culture.  The challenge we face is not wealth itself.  Rather, it is the understanding that living a life that matters is not based on what we own, the home we live in, the car we drive, the clothes we wear and more.  It’s in the people whose lives touched ours and the lives we touched.  The legacy we leave is grounded in knowing we are all children of God because this is the place where we find comfort, hope, meaning and generosity for our lives.  Living a life that matters and leaving a legacy in the name of Jesus Christ clearly shows the world that life is not all about getting, but that true joy comes from joyful living; gracious living through gracious giving.  The offering we take every Sunday is not about the church’s need to receive, but about our need as disciples of Jesus Christ to give graciously of ourselves. 

            Moses gave himself fully to serve God and lead the Israelites to the Promised Land.  This is the legacy he left his people and all the people of the world.  He didn’t get the earthly prize, but he lived a life that mattered, a life of impact, a life of sacrifice, a life of service to God and the people.  What will your legacy be?

A legacy makes an impact that cannot always be seen or fully known.  It takes courage and faith to give sacrificially and make a significant impact to the ministry of the church.  We can trust in God to help us do this.  We can trust the one who began a good work in each of us will see it to completion in Christ Jesus our Lord.  We can trust in the one in whom all things are possible.  We can trust in the one who formed our inward parts; who knit us together in our mother’s womb.  We can trust in the one in whose book were written all the days that were formed for us, when none of them as yet existed.  We can trust God to help us leave a legacy, to live a life that matters.

Hear the words of the prophet Isaiah who declares, “I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might and he has become my salvation.” (Isaiah 12:2)

Now is the time; the time for each one of us to take courage, stand firm, trust in Him and give.  Give.

It’s our time.  Will we do it?  Of course we will.  Of course we will.

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[1] Kushner, Harold, Living a Life that Matters. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf Publishing, 2001) p.4

[2] Kushner, Harold. Living a Life that Matters. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf Publishing, 2001) p.5