"What He Said When He Didn't Speak"
Sermon for November 30th
Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. Sunday begins our four week preparation for Christmas. I have been interested in what happened to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist.
Zechariah was a priest. It was his responsibility to set up the format for worship while the people waited outside the sanctuary. While he was setting up the altar a voice spoke to him, and he was so moved by the voice that he couldn't speak.
Zechariah's preparation for the coming of the Christ Child, the coming of his own child, was silence.
That may be the best response for us this year. Perhaps this is the year that it finally comes to us; the true meaning of Christmas.
I found this quote from a source most of us will recognize:
“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes and bags. And he puzzled ‘till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” --Dr. Seuss
This week Bishop Elaine Stanovsky sent out the following message to us. I think she is on to something important:
Next week Christians enters the season of Advent, a time when we spiritually wait in
darkness for the birth of Jesus. There are times in our lives when we aren’t certain that God
is with us, and like the ancient star-gazers, we look into the night sky for a sign of hope and
of assurance.
Day after day we hear reports of “economic downturn” and “global warming.” These
are frightening words. It’s easy to feel powerless in their wake. What are Christians to do?
How can a prayer group affect global weather patterns? How can one church turn scarcity
into plenty?
Our faith has prepared us for such a time as this. It is our faith that teaches us to
look for the good news when all the news seems bad. It is the bible that tells of people
who, despite being uprooted, defeated and transplanted, irrationally followed God through
faith and hope to an unimaginable and incredible future of hope. In deepest darkness we
are called to live with hope!
INVITATION: extravagant generosity
Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly
from the field. Deuteronomy 14:22
I heard an economic analyst this week say that it’s time to dig a hole in the back yard
and double bag your money. There is no hope in a hole in the ground.
A different response to hardship is generosity. If you haven’t lost your house or your
job, and if you still have a steady flow of income, you are among the blessed right now. You
have a choice to live in fear or to live in gratitude. Fear would lead you to hoard what you
have. Gratitude would lead you to share. Faith invites us into generosity.
The bible teaches that one tenth of all we receive belongs to God: a tithe. That
means we return to God a tenth of our salary and income on our investments. I expect this
of myself.
I invite you, in a time of economic uncertainty to join me in an experiment. What if,
just during Advent, just for the month of December, you and your family gave one tenth of
your income to the church or to other charitable causes? If you already give a tenth, God
bless you! If we all did this, for one month, the financial uncertainty within the church
would disappear and every church would have the ability to share abundantly beyond its
doors. Just maybe we would learn that tithing isn’t so difficult after all.
I invite you to discover the abundance that comes from sharing.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
Those who lived in a land of deep darkness –
On them light has shined.
God bless you with great light and abundant hope in Jesus Christ this holy season,
Bishop Elaine J. W. Stanovsky
Perhaps, our best approach to Advent; especially at the beginning of Advent, is silence.
It's a time to stop and listen to the voices of reason; to hear the abundance we have; to know the important things are still important and the important things cannot be taken, or devalued.
When you listen what do you hear?
If you have some insights on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to have others read your thoughts click on the box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
AND BY THE WAY; "HAPPY THANKSGIVING"
Charles
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6 comments:
Tithing is not only difficult, it is impossible.
Although money was common in Genesis and essential for sanctuary worship money is never called a tithe. Biblical tithes were only food from farmers and herdsmen who lived inside Israel. Hebrews living outside of Israel and Gentiles could not tithe. Craftsmen and traders such as carpenters, fishermen and tentmakes did not qualify as tithe-payers.
NT giving is sacrificial, freewill, generous, joyful, not by commadnment or percentage and motivated by love for God and man. That is enough.
Tithing is not only difficult, it is impossible.
Although money was common in Genesis and essential for sanctuary worship money is never called a tithe. Biblical tithes were only food from farmers and herdsmen who lived inside Israel. Hebrews living outside of Israel and Gentiles could not tithe. Craftsmen and traders such as carpenters, fishermen and tentmakes did not qualify as tithe-payers.
NT giving is sacrificial, freewill, generous, joyful, not by commadnment or percentage and motivated by love for God and man. That is enough.
It seems to me Russell Earl Kelly, Phd has become caught up in the fallacy of misplaced concreteness; he has practiced the art of scholarly research to the point that he has missed the point in order to make the point.
If his analysis is correct that Biblical tithes were food items from farmers and herdsmen and women who lived outside Israel and if it is also true that carpenters and tent-makers did not qualify as "tithe-payers" then is he correct to make the assumption that the concept of a 10% giving level is an anachronism for us in our day.
His line of reasoning would reduce some of the other idioms we commonly use to the trash can of history. For example, would he suggest that it is improper to say that every person "has a cross to carry" is misguided because crosses are not used as instruments of death?
I think Dr. Kelly is correct that sacrifice should be "freewill, generous, joyful," and "not by commandment or percentage". I think Elaine, whose quote Kelly objected to, was suggesting that a response we can make, in times like these, when we are living under a cloud of economic uncertainty, is by being motivated by freewill, and generous, and joyful gratitude to become more giving and more open to others.
I plan to do more research on the whole matter of what the Hebrew Scripture and Greek New Testament mean when the word tithe is used. I thank Dr. Kelly for causing me to push the border of my unknowing.
Charles Schuster
Thanks for the dialog.
Rev. Charles Schuster has left a new comment on the post "Monday's thoughts":
It seems to me Russell Earl Kelly, Phd has become caught up in the fallacy of misplaced concreteness; he has practiced the art of scholarly research to the point that he has missed the point in order to make the point.
If his analysis is correct that Biblical tithes were food items from farmers and herdsmen and women who lived outside Israel and if it is also true that carpenters and tent-makers did not qualify as "tithe-payers" then is he correct to make the assumption that the concept of a 10% giving level is an anachronism for us in our day.
His line of reasoning would reduce some of the other idioms we commonly use to the trash can of history. For example, would he suggest that it is improper to say that every person "has a cross to carry" is misguided because crosses are not used as instruments of death?
I think Dr. Kelly is correct that sacrifice should be "freewill, generous, joyful," and "not by commandment or percentage". I think Elaine, whose quote Kelly objected to, was suggesting that a response we can make, in times like these, when we are living under a cloud of economic uncertainty, is by being motivated by freewill, and generous, and joyful gratitude to become more giving and more open to others.
I plan to do more research on the whole matter of what the Hebrew Scripture and Greek New Testament mean when the word tithe is used. I thank Dr. Kelly for causing me to push the border of my unknowing.
Dr Kelly,
There is no scriptural foundation to support the notion that tithes can't be money. Tithe simply means 1/10...of anything.
"Tithe" only means "a tenth of anything" when using secular dictionaries. However in God's Word "tithe" is always a "tithe" OF FOOD. That is a Bible fact and was not invented by myself. Many Bible dictionaries concur.
Although "money" was common even in Genesis and essential for sanctuary worship, money is never included in any of the 16 descriptions of thke tithe in God's Word.
What texts do you have to profve otherwise?
The increase came from what God miraculously increased from his own holy land of Israel. The increase did not come from man's hand.
If thithe was money then why was it rejected if it originated from pagan soil or had Caesar's imkage on it?
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