This has been a challenging week for our country. Deep divides were revealed. Now, some of us had known the deep divides were already there. Others of us were genuinely flabbergasted by the vastness of our understandings and perhaps misunderstandings. On Wednesday, a group of folks gathered here at the church for communion after the Election. Communion/coming together among those who may have multiple differences, but share a similarity in a faith that unites us in commitment to Christ. I give thanks to God a chance to gather and ask God to continue to be the God of us, where we are now.
Whether you find yourself rejoicing or sobbing, numb or empowered, unengaged or fired up, as followers of Christ, we continue to have work to do. Friends, we would have work to do with any of the potential candidates, including the write-ins for Mickey Mouse, Harambre, Aaron Rodgers, and others. In the Hebrew Bible, the people begged God to give them a king. God told them each and every time, a king will disappoint you. A king will not be the same as God in the flesh. A king will not fulfill your needs, but the people begged and came before the Lord. God offered judges, but they were not satisfied. So, God, beginning with King Saul grants a king, as well as prophets who tell the truth to power, starting with Samuel. God granted kings and other power structures thorough the scriptures, and we today, find ourselves navigating our own power structures, alternately begging for rulers who rule and being disgusted with where we are.
This week, we find that our country, our state, our community, our church is filled with both: those who are begging for rulers who rule and those who are disgusted with who and where we are. For all of us, I remind us of our first commitment. Our first commitment is to following Christ with our whole entire lives. Not just on Sundays. Not just in times of trials. Not just when it seems to make sense. But always. Following Christ as our King means that we put Christ first in everything. We put Christ first in how we live our daily lives. We put Christ first in how we understand our society to be organized. We put Christ first in how we chose to respond to one another. We put Christ first regardless of how others acts. We put Christ first in how we understand the world around us, the people, and our role in it.
Our relationship with Jesus is based on following him first. Whole life living. Following Jesus in our waking and in our sleeping, in our work vocation and oud our families. Following Jesus in how we talk and how we care. Following Jesus in how we spend, save, earn, and give our money. Following Jesus in how we spend our time and share our talents. Following Jesus in all that we do.
Jesus speaks to the disciples in the gospel of Luke and he speaks to us today. This passage comes out of the center of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has been teaching for a long, long time. He has been teaching the people what it means to live faithfully as God’s people. To live faithfully, means that our faith will not be hid under a bushel or a set of philosophies to which we subscribe. Our faith will be visible. Jesus comes back to these teachings using trees and plants as metaphors. He uses these many places throughout the gospels, but here, he becomes dangerously clear. Our faith will be known by our fruits; the most public parts of our life will showcase the privately held of our understandings.
We have often wanted to change the meaning of our fruits or expand it so broadly that we do not have to talk about money. Money is one of our great taboos. Alongside sex and politics. (We’ve touched on two out of three today- Jesus was in the business of removing taboos). However, our money is one of the most common things Jesus speaks about. He speaks about it more than anything else, with the exception of the Kingdom of God. Jesus cares about how we earn, save, spend, and give our money. Not because it is money, but because it is the fruit of our understandings. It is one of the major fruits that give evidence to how we understand the rest of the gospel. If we spend all of our money on games of chance (gambling), drinks to numb our pain, and trinkets, we may have missed our call to care for those around us. We may have missed the call to care well for our families and those who have no families. We have missed our call to bring the tithe into the storehouse to bless God’s people and care for them.
Our passage from Malachi comes from the prophet who reminds us that all is not lost. Even when we feel like the Israelites in the book of Malachi that the world is run in a way that we did not agree to, all is not lost. Malachi reminds the people that the storehouse is the method through which those in need are blessed and cared for. In the days of the prophet Malachi, this was the temple. The temple that fed the poor and clothed the naked. Today, it is the church. It is the church that cares for those in need and urges the world unto the way of God, seeking to usher in the Kingdom of God. This is the church who opens its doors to the homeless through Family Promise and educates the children in spirit and in truth through CMO and Sunday School. This is the church who feeds the hungry with the food bank and clothes to the naked with the coat and clothing drives. This is the church that cares for those in the hospital with visits and assistance. This is the church that reaches out the incarcerated and cares for their families in their absences. God calls us out of gratitude to give a tithe, at least ten percent of what we have and received to the storehouse, the church to care for others.
It is in gratitude for what God has given us, that we give back. It is in gratitude for how God woke us up this morning and gave us breath. It is in gratitude for our very selves that we give back. Many of us have been cultivating our roots with this gratitude challenge – writing a thank you note to someone every day. Would you raise your hand if you have been participating? Thank you. You still have a chance – 17 days left in November. Join in and pick up thank you notes in the lobby to write a thank you note someone every day. We are cultivating gratitude and growing our roots.
Trees are known for their roots. Without roots, they become firewood. Trees, complete with roots, become our symbol of endurance and persistence. Trees that can survive and thrive in the midst of natural disasters and human tragedies. The oak tree here in south Carolina, that like many began as an acorn and across time became a unmovable, unshakable force of nature, enduring all things with a 30 foot diameter. Are we not like the tree, setting down our roots, sometimes extending beyond what seems advisable, growing towards our source in height, depth, and width? Are we not rooted in our gratitude and growing in Christ?
Around the world, the time of offering is not somber and reflective. We need to cry for the pennies we are giving up. Rather the time of offering is rejoicing, dancing and singing – truly giving thanks to God for all that God has given us. This different orientation reminds us our fruitful living come from God’s fruit-filled giving. Would you watch our district conference experimenting with this kind of giving as led from our missionaries from the Democratic Republic of Congo: (SHOW VIDEO)
Thanks be to God! Giving is an outgrowth of living. Living as a faithful disciple of Christ results in giving in gratitude to God. Not just, because we have hit the prosperity jackpot and everything went the way we hoped, but because God is good and calls us to be good. God is great and calls us to live in God’s way. God is generous and calls us to be generous. God cares for others and calls us to care for others. God is and cares for us.
Today, we offer our commitments, our intentions, our faith journeys to God. We offer our hopes for how we will live out our faith. We give thanks to God first then take steps of faith that involve gratitude at every turn. We who have given hesitantly are invited to give out of gratitude and give amply. We who have given generously and invited to give out of gratitude and stretch ourselves growing into who Christ continues to call us to be. With gratitude for who God is and how God has blessed us, let us give thanks and praise with our words, our lives, and our fruits.
This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
Old Testament Lesson: Malachi 3:1-4, 10
See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For God is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; God will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
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.
Gospel Lesson: Matthew 7:16-20
You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, November 13 ~ Saturday, November 19
Sunday: “You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?” Matthew 7:16. God uses the imagery of trees and gardening to help us understand our relationship with God. How is God being shown in your life? Write a note of gratitude to someone who has shown you God in their fruitful life.
Monday: “In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.” Matthew 7: 17. There are seasons when trees are leafy, but do not bear fruit. This does not change a good tree to a bad tree. Write a note of gratitude to someone who is enduring a leafy season.
Tuesday: “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” Matthew 7:18. A tree is cared for by the gardener, given water and fertilizer, pruning and care. Where in this season is God caring for you? Write a note of gratitude to someone who needs to remember that the Gardener God is still at work.
Wednesday: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.” Matthew 7: 19-20. Our fruits are our activities, our attitudes, our hearts, and our hands. Write a note of gratitude to someone who witnesses to God’s movement in their life with their attitude.
Thursday: “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 3: 1. Through the prophet Malachi, God speaks hope of messengers who prepare the way of the Lord. Write a note of gratitude to someone whose acts of mercy show you the way of the Lord.
Friday: “God will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and God will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.” Malachi 3: 3-4. Refinement is part of the process of uncovering the fullness of the gold and the silver. We are also refined. Write a note of gratitude to someone who is going through the refinement process.
Saturday: “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.” Malachi 3: 10. The faithfulness of God connects the spiritual with the physical. Let us bring our faithful tithes into the storehouse of the church, so that the leaders of the church can discern God’s will and way for those tithes. Write a note of gratitude to a church leader who works on the team who discerns the use of our tithes and offerings.