Lead Us Not Into Temptation

            By now, you have probably heard about the child sex abuse scandal involving Penn State University.  I won’t go through all the details here; if you somehow haven’t heard about it, you can go here to get more information.

            It’s a terrible, sad, awful situation, of course.  In addition to criticizing the perpetrator of the deeds, much criticism has been leveled at the Penn State administration and football coaches.  They have been accused of covering up the scandal, or at least of doing nothing to do anything about it.  The accusation is that they were concerned that the university’s football program if these accusations came out, so they tried to make sure the accusations would not come out.

            Much of the criticism is justified, but there’s still something that bothers me about it.  It seems to me that a lot of the criticism has an awfully self-righteous tone to it.  It is implied, and sometimes even stated, that “if I had been in that position, I’d have done something about it.  I certainly wouldn’t have covered it up or not done anything about it like these people did.

            Really?  Are you sure?  Don’t get me wrong—I hope you would have.  I hope I would have, too.  I am in no way trying to rationalize or explain away the failure to act by the Penn State administrators or coaches.  Still, I’m a little bothered by this easy assumption that if you or I had been in that position, we’d have done so much better than the people who were actually in those positions did.

            The reason I say that is that I keep looking at who these people were.  All of them were people who were very highly respected ten days ago.  No one thought any of these people would do anything like this.  There’s the president of a prestigious university.  There’s the athletic director of that university’s highly regarded athletic department.  There’s the head football coach, Joe Paterno, who had been considered the most honorable college football coach in the country until all this came out.

            None of these people are evil, horrible monsters.  They’re people, just like you and me.  In fact, until ten days or so ago, most of them would have been thought of as more honorable than you and me.

            There’s a reason why, when Jesus taught us the Lord’s Prayer, he included the line “lead us not into temptation.”  Jesus knew that sometimes, when we’re tempted, we fail to resist the temptation.  An alternative translation is “lead us not into a time of testing”, which works just as well.  Sometimes, when we’re tested, we fail the test.  We are human, and we are all subject to human failings.

            Again, this is not intended in any way to justify or defend the actions and inactions of the Penn State administration and coaches.  Still, self-righteousness is a sin, too.  I would suggest that all of us not be quite so quick to assume we’d have handled the situation so much better than these people did.  I hope we would, but I also hope none of us is ever put to the test.

Adventurers for Jesus

The following message was given in the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, November 13.  The scriptures were Luke 10:1-12, 17-20 and Joshua 1:1-9.

            Most of you know how much I love to watch sports.  So, you probably think my favorite television program is some sort of sports-related show.  You’re wrong.

           

My favorite TV show is a British science-fiction program called Doctor Who.  It’s been running for a long time.  Locally, we can get it on BBC America.  I won’t go into a lot of detail about the show, but essentially, the main character, called The Doctor, is an adventurer.  He has a machine that can take him to any place in the universe at any time in the past or future.  He goes to all kinds of strange places, fights various weird monsters, and generally ends up saving the world.  As a viewer, of course, you get to join the Doctor on his adventures.

           

Watching some else’s adventure on TV can be a lot of fun.  It’s a little different, though, when you’re actually living an adventure yourself.  Adventures can be exciting, but they can also be scary.  When you’re in an adventure, you never know what’s around the next corner.  It could be something terrible, or it could be something wonderful.  There’s no way to know in advance.  The only way to find out is to actually go around the corner and see.  It takes courage to go on an adventure.

           

As we come to the last message in our sermon series “what is the church”, I want to remind you about something we talked about back in the first message of the series.  We talked about a choice this church needs to make about its future.

           

We talked about how, in recent years, this church has seen its attendance decline.  That’s just a fact.  The choice involves how we’re going to look at that fact.  We can choose to look at this decline as inevitable.  We can choose to say that the church is slowly dying and there’s nothing we can do about it.  Or, we can say that our past does not rule our future.  We can say that just because the church has been declining in recent years does not mean it has to continue to do so.  We can say that there are all kinds of people in this area who are not going to church anywhere.  Those people need what this church has to offer, they just don’t know it yet.  Therefore, we need to find ways to reach out to those people with God’s love and with God’s word.  We need to find ways to make those people disciples of Jesus Christ, just as Jesus told us to.

           

I have yet to have anyone in this church tell me they want to make that first choice.  No one has come up to me and said we want to just accept that this church is going to decline and eventually die.  Instead, everyone who’s talked to me about this has said they believe in the future of this church.  Everyone who’s talked to me about this has said they believe this church can grow.

           

That’s good.  In fact, it’s better than good, it’s vital.  As important as it is, though, that’s only the first step.  See, it’s one thing to say we believe in the future of this church.  It’s one thing to say we believe this church can grow.  The thing is that it’s not going to happen by itself.  It’s only going to happen if we do the things necessary to make it happen.  That means we have to change some of the things we’re doing.  That brings me to the last thing we’re going to talk about in regard to what the church does.  The church goes out and takes risks to bring people to Christ.  In other words, we need to have a spirit of adventure.  The people of God are adventurers for Jesus.

           

When you look at the history of the Christian church, you can see that this is what we’re called to do.  Jesus was on an adventure every day of his ministry.  He constantly took risks.  He broke the Sabbath laws, he argued with the religious leaders of his time, he became the focal point of a movement that threatened the government.  The apostles were adventurers and risk-takers, too.  Some of them risked their lives, and some of them literally gave their lives, to spread the gospel.

           

Now, as I said last week, I know there are a lot of people here who do a lot of work for this church.  I’m not trying to imply otherwise.  I know a lot of you are very dedicated to this church, and I appreciate that. 

Even so, though, when’s the last time any of us, myself included, really took a risk to spread the gospel?  It seems to me that’s a question we need to answer when we look at the future of this church.  What adventures are we willing to go on to spread the gospel?  Do we have the courage to take risks to make disciples of Jesus Christ?

           

Those are not easy questions.  They’re not easy for me, and I’m sure they’re not easy for some of you.  A lot of us are not, by nature, either adventurers or risk-takers.  I’m not.  Not only is an adventure scary, not only does it take courage, it’s also hard work.  When I watch Doctor Who, or when we watch any sort of adventure show, you never see the hero just kind of lounging around, relaxing and taking it easy.  If he ever does, it lasts about a minute and a half, just long enough for him to catch his breath before something happens to start up the adventure again.

           

In our reading from Luke, Jesus sent the seventy people out on an adventure.  He sent them out with no weapons, with no money, without even any luggage.  He sent no one out in advance to tell people they were coming.  He told them they would not always receive a warm welcome.  In fact, he told them they were like lambs being sent out into the midst of wolves.  They had nothing to work with, nothing but a message of truth and love.

           

We’re not told how those seventy people felt when they left, but I don’t think it takes too much imagination to figure it out.  These people were taking a pretty big risk.  I think they were probably pretty scared.  I sure would be.  I’d be scared to death.  I’d be looking for any excuse to get out of doing that, to stay home, or to stay with Jesus, or to stay anywhere where it would be safe.

           

We’re all tempted, at times, to play it safe.  Playing it safe is almost always the easiest thing to do.  The easiest thing, though, is not necessarily the best thing.  There’s an old saying that a boat is safe when it’s tied to the dock, but that’s not what a boat is for.  A boat only fulfills it’s purpose when it’s out there, putting itself at risk.

As Christians, we only fulfill our purpose when we’re out there, putting ourselves at risk.  Jesus did not come to this world to play it safe.  Jesus did not come to this world to tell his followers to play it safe, either.  Jesus sent his followers out on an adventure.  The adventure started two thousand years ago, and it’s not over yet.

Adventures are hard work.  Adventures are risky.  The easier thing is always to do nothing.  The easier thing is to just stay where we are, to just do what we’ve done, to just be who we’ve been.  That’s the easy thing, but it’s usually not the best thing.  It’s especially not the best thing if you don’t like the direction in which you’re headed.  Decline is not inevitable, but it is if we do nothing about it.  If we continue to do the things we’ve done, we’ll continue to go in the same direction we’re going.  The direction will only change if we change.  The direction will only change if we do the hard work, take the risks and go on an adventure for Jesus.

Adventures are not easy.  Adventures have tremendous rewards, though.  Doctor Who saves the world in pretty much every episode.  Jesus, in his adventure, and in his way, saved the world, too.  The people Jesus sent out played a part in that.  When the seventy went out on their adventure and took their risks, they returned with joy.  Even the demons submitted to them.  Jesus said he watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.

Jesus is sending us out now.  Jesus is sending us out without weapons, without money, without anything.  When we go, we don’t know what kind of a reception we’re going to get.  We may not always get a warm welcome.  Jesus is sending us on an adventure.  Jesus is sending us out to the people of this community and this area with nothing but a message of truth and love.

Note one thing, though.  We are not sent out alone.  Jesus did not send the seventy out alone.  He sent them in pairs, so they’d have each other to rely on.  We, too, can rely on each other as we go out on adventures for Jesus.

That’s not all.  Look at our reading from Joshua.  God was sending Joshua out on an adventure.  He was going to do what Moses could not do, lead the people into the promised land.  He had big shoes to fill.  He was scared.  Three times in those verses, God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous.  This was not just idle talk.  God gave Joshua a reason to be strong and courageous.  God said, “I will be with you.  I will never fail you or forsake you...the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

If this church is serious about its future, if we really mean it when we say we believe this church can grow, we need to get out there on our adventure for Jesus.  Our ship needs to leave the dock.  We need to go out there and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We need to go out there and bring God’s word and God’s love to the people of this area to all the people who need it, whether they know it or not.

I’ve said before that I can see a day when there are a hundred, a hundred twenty-five, a hundred fifty people worshipping regularly in this church.  I firmly believe that can happen.  In fact, I believe it will happen.  It will only happen, though, if we’re willing to go out and do what’s necessary to make it happen.  It will only happen if we’re willing to take risks.  It will only happen if we’re willing to go on an adventure for Jesus Christ.

           

Adventures are exciting, but they’re not easy.  They take courage.  We can have that courage, knowing that we are not alone.  We have each other, and we have the Lord our God.  God will never fail us nor forsake us.  We can be bold and courageous, we can go on our adventure for Jesus, knowing that when we do, God will always be there.

Are You Serious?

Below is the sermon from the Oahe Manor communion service given on Thursday, November 10, 2011.  The scripture was Joshua 23:1-3, 14-25.

            I find this a really fascinating story.  Joshua basically tells the people of Israel, “My family and I are going to serve God.  How about you?”  The people say, “Yeah, that’s for us.  We’re going to serve God, too.”  Joshua responds, “No, you’re not.  You may think you will, but you won’t.  You’ll fall away from God.”  The people say, “No, really, we’re going to serve God.  Yeah, we’ve fallen away in the past, but we really mean it this time.”  So Joshua says, “Okay, but you better be ready to live that way, because if you don’t, there are going to be serious consequences.”

            Those of you who know the Old Testament, of course, know that the people did not live that way.  They fell away from God.  Sure enough, there were serious consequences.

            You know that thing in the Ten Commandments about not taking the name of the Lord in vain?  We think that talks about using cuss words, but it really does not.  This is what it really means.  It means that when we swear to God that we’re going to do something, we’d better follow through on it.  God takes that kind of vow seriously, and when we don’t live up to it, there are going to be serious consequences.

            That’s kind of scary, when you think about it.  Most likely, we’ve all taken vows before God.  If you went through confirmation class, or if you went through a believers’ baptism, you took vows before God.  If you got married in a church, you took vows before God.  If you had kids who were baptized, you took vows before God.  As a pastor, of course, I’ve taken some more vows before God.  Some of you have also probably taken some more vows before God, too, either publicly or privately.  It’s not something we should ever take lightly.

            The thing is, or course, that when we take a vow before God, it’s not enough for us just to mean it at the time.  We don’t know, but I think, in our story from Joshua, that the people of Israel meant it at the time.  I don’t think they were intentionally lying when they said they were going to serve God.  It’s just that, as time went on, they forgot.  They started making excuses for themselves.  They told themselves it would be okay for them to slack off a little.  Of course, once we start making excuses for ourselves, it’s a slippery slope.  We excuse ourselves once, and then we do it again, and then we do it again, and then we stop even bothering to make excuses.  We just do what we want to do.

            We have to start by meaning it at the time, but that, in and of itself, is not going to carry us through.  When we take a vow before God, we need to re-take that vow every day.  We need to affirm our decision to serve God every day.  Sometimes, if we’re really in a tough spot, we might have to affirm it several times a day.  We have to keep deciding, over and over, that we’re going to serve God, no matter what the circumstances are.

            That’s where the people of Israel failed.  That’s where we often fail, too.  Making that initial decision is an important first step, but it’s only the first step.  What’s really important is what we do in the second step, and the third step, and all those steps in-between.

            Now, understand that when we talk about living up to our vows before God, that God is not expecting perfection from us.  God knows how flawed and imperfect we are.  God knows it better than we do, because God created us.  God is not expecting us to never make mistakes.  What God does expect is that each of us does the best we can.  What God also expects is that, when we do make mistakes, we acknowledge those mistakes, ask forgiveness for them, and do whatever we can to undo the damage caused by those mistakes.  Finally, God expects us to reaffirm our commitment to serve God, and go back out and start doing the best we can again.

            You know, when you read the Old Testament, you see a cycle that repeats itself over and over again.  The people of Israel vow to serve God.  They fall away.  Bad things happen to them.  They pray to God to rescue them.  God rescues them.  They ask God to forgive them.  They vow to serve God.  They fall away.  This happens in the Old Testament over and over again.

            When you think about it, that’s often the cycle of our lives.  We vow to serve God.  We fall away.  Bad things happen to us.  We pray to God to rescue us.  God rescues us.  We ask God to forgive us.  We vow to serve God.  We fall away.  It happens in our lives over and over again.

            Now, don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying that every time something bad happens, it’s because we’ve fallen away from God.  I don’t believe that.  Bad things happen to us for a lot of reasons, some of which we don’t understand at all.  It is true, though, that our actions have consequences, and that we have to deal with those consequences.

            I don’t know where you are on the cycle today.  If you’ve fallen away from God, though, take this time of Holy Communion today to come back to God.  Ask God to forgive you, and vow to serve God again.  God is waiting for each of us to do exactly that.

We Don't Get to Stand Still

The following article appeared in the November issue of the Wheatland Parish newsletter:

            One of the joys of serving this parish is making the drive from Gettysburg to Agar to Onida and back again.  It’s such a beautiful drive.  One of the best things about it has been watching the crops grow and mature and, now, watching how the harvest is progressing.  The scenery is never quite the same from one trip to the next.

           

Because of that, it seems to be that those of us who live in rural areas should have a special understanding of how change is a part of life.  We see change every day around here.  The crops go through various stages of development.  So does the livestock.  So do the pheasants and the deer and all the other game animals and birds.  Everywhere we look, we see change.

           

The church is always changing, too.  It may not happen every day, but over time, it does.  If you could somehow walk into a church service from a hundred years ago, you’d see a lot of changes.  For one thing, the men would all be wearing coats and ties and the women would all be wearing dresses.  Not only would there be no overhead projection system, there’d be no sound system.  There probably would not even be electric lights, at least not if the church service took place in this area.  While some of the hymns might still be familiar, at least if you know traditional hymns, many would not be.  I’ve only scratched the surface here; there have been a lot of other changes in the church over the years, too.

           

Things will continue to change, too, because that’s simply the way of the world.  As I’ve said before, we’re always either moving forward or we’re moving backward, because we’re never allowed to stand still.  There have been times in my life I’ve wished it wasn’t that way, times when I really liked how things were and wished they could just stay that way forever, but that’s just the way it is.  If we’re going to make our way in the world, we have to be able to make changes.  If we don’t, we’ll discover that changes are being made for us, and they won’t be changes we’ll like very much.

           

I don’t know exactly what that means for this parish.  It’s not my decision to make, anyway.  A pastor’s role is not to force change on a congregation against its will.  That’s not even possible, not really.  The pastor’s role is to help the congregation make the changes that it agrees need to be made in order to be better able to serve God and bring God’s love to its community.  Those changes may not be the same in each church, nor do they have to be.  Onida may see certain needs, Agar may see others, and Gettysburg may see still others.  Each church needs to find the best way to serve God in its specific community.

           

The landscape of my drive within this parish is changing.  Our parish itself is changing, too.  That’s okay.  In fact, it’s inevitable.  Let’s not regret that or try to fight it.  Instead, let’s meet it enthusiastically, so that we can be in control of the changes we make and make them in ways that will help us serve God as well as we can.

What's New!

The following article appeared in the November issue of the Wheatland Parish newsletter.

            I wrote earlier in this newsletter about how things are going to change, and how we need to be willing to make changes rather than having them made for us.  There are a couple of good changes that have been made within our parish since the last newsletter.

            First, our parish has a facebook page!  Just go to facebook.com/wheatlandparish.  You’ll find a lot of interesting things there.  You’ll find a thought for the day, a scripture of the day, and a music video of the day.  You’ll find links to the pastor’s blog.  You’ll find links to current articles about faith.  You’ll find announcements, birthdays, and anniversaries.  You can also write things on the facebook page:  questions, comments, insights, whatever you have.  It’s easy to do, and it’s free!

            Remember, when you go to the parish facebook page, to click on the “like” button.  That way, you won’t have to go to the parish page every time, unless you want to.  Anything posted on the parish page will appear in your regular news feed.

            Second, we now have video of our sermons!  The video is taken in Onida and is available on youtube.com.  An easier way to find it, though, is to go to the facebook page I talked about above, because we’ll put a link there.  Again, if you’ve “liked” our parish page, the link will show up in your news feed.  Now, if you can’t be in church, you can still see the Sunday sermon!  If you know someone else who can’t be in church, you can send the link to them so they can see it, too.

            None of this is meant to take the place of the communication methods we already have.  We will continue to publish the newsletter, we will continue to have announcements in the bulletin, and we will continue to discuss announcements in church.  We do not want anyone to feel left out.  The fact is, though, that we can do things through the facebook page that we cannot do in other ways.  Therefore, if you choose not to go to that page, you are going to miss out on some things.

            Technology is neither good nor bad.  Technology just is.  What makes it good or bad is the way we use it.  We’re working hard to try to use it for good, so that this parish can reach even more people and make even more disciples of Jesus Christ.

No Excuses

Below is the message in the Wheatland Parish from Sunday, November 6.  The scriptures are Malachi 3:6-12 and Mark 12:41-44.

            As we approach the end of our sermon series “what is the church”, we need to remember that the first thing we talked about is that the church is the people of God.  Because of that, when we talk about what the church is supposed to be, what we’re really talking about is what we, both as individuals and together, are supposed to do.  Today, we talk about something very important that the people of God do.  The people of God give.

           

As we start to talk about that, I want to mention how helpful it was to me to be able to sit in the congregation last week as Janet Madsen and Kelly Luken handled the service.  Not only did I have a lot less stress when I was gone for most of the week, but sitting where you do reminded me what it was like to be sitting where you do.  It strikes me that, if I was sitting where you are this morning, and I heard the pastor say that the people of God give, the first thing I’d think is “Oh, gosh, I hope he’s not going to start talking about tithing again.”

           

Now, maybe some of you already tithe, and if you do, that’s great.  If you are giving ten percent of your income to the church right now, I congratulate you and give you permission to check out of the sermon for a while.  I’ll let you know when it’s time to check back in.

The rest of you, though, are probably like I was.  The reason I’d have thought that is that I knew tithing was talked about in the Bible as something we’re supposed to do, but it was the last thing I wanted to do.  So, I got really good at coming up with excuses for why I should not have to tithe.  See if any of these excuses sound familiar to you.

           

First, I thought, well, you know, I may not tithe, but I give a lot of time to the church, so that should count, too.  That one sound familiar?  Now, I want to say that I know there are a lot of people here who do give a lot of time to the church, and I really appreciate that.  You know, I go to pastors’ meetings sometimes, and I hear some pastors—not all of them, but some—talk about how they can’t get their congregations to do anything.  I just kind of smile when I hear that, because I don’t have that problem.  We have great people here, and lots of you do a lot of things for the church.  I know that.

           

Still, that’s really not an excuse for not tithing.  It was not an excuse for me, either.  See, the last time I looked, there were twenty-four hours in a day.  One-tenth of that would two point four hours, or two hours and twenty-four minutes.  Now, I don’t know about you, but before I became a pastor, I very rarely gave two hours and twenty-four minutes of a day to the church.  I do now, but I get paid for it now, so that really does not count.

           

Even if we did give that much time to the church, though, it would still not be an excuse for not tithing.  Serving God was never meant to be a substitute for tithing.  Tithing is one of the ways we serve God.  We cannot find anything in the Bible that says if we serve God in other ways, we don’t have to tithe. We’re supposed to serve God in other ways in addition to our tithe, not as a substitute for it.

           

So, that excuse was gone for me, so I moved on to the next one.  “Well, I may not tithe, but I give to other things besides the church, so that ought to count, too.”  That one sound familiar to anyone?  Now, again I’m sure there are a lot of people here who give to a lot of things besides the church.  That’s great.  I’m glad you do.  I’m not saying that’s a bad thing.  It’s a good thing.

           

Now, in my case, even adding the things I gave to did not get me very close to ten percent.  Maybe it does for you.  Even so, though, it still is not an excuse to get out of tithing.  Again, giving to other things is not a substitute for tithing.  We cannot find anything in the Bible that says we don’t have to give a tenth of our income to the church as long as we give to other things.  Even if those other things are good things, even if they’re ministry-type things, they are still not a substitute for tithing.  We’re supposed to give to other things in addition to our tithe, not as a substitute for it.

           

So, another of my excuses was gone.  Then, I thought of this one, and I really liked this one.  I thought, you know, tithing is really a legal thing, and since Jesus came, we’re under grace, not law.  Therefore, that Old Testament thing about tithing does not apply any more.

           

That sounds good, right?  We’ve even talked about that in the past, how we no longer have to follow those Old Testament laws.  In fact, Jesus even talked about these people who give a tenth of their income to the church but have no love in their hearts, and how that was the wrong way to go about it.  That must mean I don’t have to tithe, right?

           

Well, yes and no.  It’s true that tithing is not a golden ticket into heaven.  Giving ten percent or more to the church is not a guarantee of salvation, nor is giving less that ten percent a guarantee that we’ll be condemned.  Ten percent is a standard, that’s all.

           

Here’s the thing, though.  If we say Jesus saved us from being under the law and put us under love, then we have to ask what Jesus actually told us to do.  Jesus told us to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, with all our strength.  In other words, Jesus said we should give it all.  That’s the point of the story we read in Mark about the poor widow giving everything she had.  Allowing us to give just ten percent is actually letting us off easy.

           

See, the reason we tithe is not because of legalism.  It’s because of what that tithe means.  When we tithe, we’re saying that we recognize that everything we have comes from God.  As it said in our psalm, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, as well as the hills themselves and everything else.  When we tithe, we’re also saying that we trust God.  We trust God enough that if we rely on God, God will take care of us.

           

When it came right down to it, that was where I was really stumbling on the whole tithing deal.  What I was really saying was that I knew I was supposed to tithe, I knew I should tithe, but I just did not trust God enough to tithe.  In fact, the thought of actually tithing scared me to death.  I thought, I’m having a hard time getting the bills paid just giving the amount I give now.  If I give ten percent to the church, I’ll never have enough to pay my bills.  I’d like to tithe, but I just cannot do it.

           

Maybe that’s where you are.  If so, I understand.  So, I’d like to suggest that you do what I did.  This is not my original idea.  It came from a former pastor of mine, who got it from another pastor, who got it from somewhere else.  It’s been around a long time.  The reason this idea has been around a long time is because it works.

           

I looked at what I was giving, and it was about two percent of my income.  That’s pretty close to the average of what United Methodists give nationally.  I looked at that, and increased it by one percentage point, to three percent.  I said, I’m going to do that for a year, and just see what happens.  If I still have enough to pay my bills, then I’ll think about increasing it some more.  If I don’t, I’ll drop back to where I was.

           

In other words, I was testing God.  Now, some of you are thinking that was pretty risky, because scripture says you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.  That’s true, but in this case, God made an exception.  In our reading from Malachi, God says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse…Test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room to store it.”  In other words, when it comes to tithing, God specifically says it’s okay for us to test God and see what happens.

           

That’s what I did.  I gave at three percent for a year.  It was not always easy, but I did it, and at the end of the year, we had enough.  We did not have much excess, but we had enough.  So, the next year, I gave at four percent.  Again, we had enough.  Then I gave at five percent.  As you can see, it took several years before we got to the ten percent figure.  But each time we increased our giving, we found out that we still had enough.  We may not have a lot extra, but we always seem to have enough.  In other words, we tested God, and we found out that God passed the test.

           

So, that’s what I challenge you to do.  Test God.  Figure out what you’re giving to the church now, and increase it by one percentage point.  If you’re at one percent, increase it by two percent.  If you’re at two percent, like I was, increase it to three percent.  If you’re at three percent, increase it to four.  Do that for a year, and see what happens.  I’ll bet you’ll find out that you’ll still have enough.  I’ll bet that, if you test God, God will pass the test for you, just like God did for me.  God can be relied on.  God is worthy of our trust.

           

Now, those of you who already are tithing, I need you to check back into the sermon now.  Remember how I’ve been saying that nothing in scripture lets us substitute other things for tithing?  Well, there’s also nothing in scripture that says we have to stop at tithing.  Ten percent is not a ceiling we’re never allowed to go above.  Ten percent is a floor, not a ceiling.

           

Those of you who’ve gone to church for a while have probably heard this phrase:  “we will now give our tithes and our offerings.”  You know why it gets said that way?  Because our tithes are different from our offerings.  The tithe is the ten percent that we’re supposed to give.  Our offerings are the amount above ten percent that we give to show our gratitude to God for all God has done for us.

           

So, if you’re already tithing, that’s great, and I appreciate it, but don’t feel like you have to stop there.  Keep going.  Keep testing God.  God will keep passing the test.  God can be relied upon in all circumstances.  We can always trust God.

           

Again, I’m not saying we should tithe because God will send us to hell if we don’t.  I’m not even saying we should tithe because the church needs the money, although the church can certainly use it.  I’m saying we should tithe because it’s the best, most tangible way to show our trust in God.  It’s easy for us to say we have faith.  It’s easy for us to say that we rely on God.  When we tithe, though, we’re actually putting our money where our mouths are.

           

I understand that tithing is scary when we’ve never done it.  It took me several years to work up to it.  Sometimes, I still hesitate a little when I make out that check, wondering if the money is actually going to be there.  It always is, though.  God has never let me down yet.  God won’t let you down either.  Trust in God.  If you cannot put complete trust in God, just put a little trust in God.  See what happens.  God will pass the test.  God is worthy of our trust.

When Pastors Get Together

            As many of you know, I was recently at a meeting of pastors.  Now, if you’ve never been at a meeting of pastors, there’s something you need to understand.  You may think that, when pastors get together, they talk about the people in their congregations.  Let me reassure you that yes, that’s exactly what we do.

            That’s partly meant as a joke, but only partly.  We don’t spend the entire time talking about you, and we don’t reference you by name.  When pastors get together, though, we do spend a fair amount of time talking about, and in some cases complaining about, the people in our congregations.

            That’s not because we don’t love you.  It’s not even because we don’t like you.  It’s just that every job, even a job that we love, has some frustrations attached to it.  I’m sure yours does, too.  It’s just the way life is.

            We pastors are all too human in this regard.  Because of that, sometimes we just need to vent a little bit, to blow off a little steam.  It’s not because we don’t love our jobs; most of us do.  It’s not because we don’t love our people; most of us do that, too.  We simply need a place to unload our frustrations once in a while, just like you do. 

There are not very many places a pastor can do that.  We can’t go to the bar or the coffee shop and start talking about our frustrations, for obvious reasons.  Even if we develop close friendships within our town, we really cannot discuss the frustrations of our jobs.  We can discuss them with our spouses, and we do, but that’s not really fair to them, either.  So, what do we do?  We talk about them with each other.  We tell war stories.  Sometimes, we even exaggerate a little, because the point is just to get a few things off our chests.

The reason I’m telling you this is that when this happens, I always feel a little out of place.  I really don’t have any particular frustrations in my job.  I don’t have any war stories to tell.  Everywhere I’ve been a pastor, I’ve been blessed to serve with wonderful people.  The people of Wessington Springs are wonderful people.  The people of The ARK are wonderful people.  The people of the Wheatland Parish are wonderful people.  I wrote last time about all the blessings I’ve received in my life; this is another one.  Those parishioners I keep hearing about must be out there somewhere, but so far, I’ve never had one in my parish.

            So, basically, this is me saying thank you.  Thank you to all the wonderful people of Wessington Springs.  Thank you to all the wonderful people of The ARK.  Thank you to all of the wonderful people of the Wheatland Parish.  You continue to make my time in ministry a joy.  I hope I continue to feel out of place at those pastors meetings.  Maybe, instead of war stories, I can tell some peace stories, because ever since I’ve been a pastor, I’ve felt at peace.