10-28-07 Positively Change and the World Will Change With You
WESTMINSTER PULPIT
The Rev. Dr. David Thompson
October 28, 2007 “Positively Change and the World Will Change With You” Luke 6:
Text: Be compassionate as your Heavenly Father is compassionate. Do not judge and you will not be judged yourselves; do not condemn and you will not be condemned yourselves; grant pardon and you will be pardoned. Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure pressed down and shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap, because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be measured back.
Jesus in St. Luke 6: 35-38
Just think for a moment what a church would be like that followed this text as its mandate. “Be compassionate as your heavenly father is compassionate.” Becoming a kind church is one of the goals of Westminster. “Do not judge and you will not be judged.” Picture for a moment a church which simply did not judge people but accepted everyone. That is a goal of Westminster. “Do not condemn and you will not be condemned yourself.” What Christ is teaching here is the law of reciprocity and the law of attraction. Picture a church that never condemned people, a place so kind, so understanding of other’s failures that it worked with its people through failure (which is one of the great teachers of life) until the person was flying well again. This is a goal of the Westminster I love. We learn so much from failure—why throw that learning away? Let’s welcome failure as one of our best teachers!
Imagine a church that committed itself to pardoning people. And look what the reward is: we get to be pardoned ourselves because no matter how good we may be we all make mistakes and we all need to be pardoned. And picture the scenario when a person is wrongly accused of something and yet we still withhold pardon. Pardon is like building a bridge of mercy, and count on it, the day will come when we have to cross the mercy bridge, when we will need mercy. Have we built the bridge of pardon here in Westminster? This is a goal of the Westminster I love, a church that fully embraces each of us “warts and all”—total radical acceptance. Then comes this mysterious little verse on giving also put in the frame of the law of attraction: “Give and there will be gifts for you.” What a church we would be if we understood that in order to receive we have to give.
This verse on “full measure pressed down and shaken together” is an analogy taken from the grain trade. Picture for a moment the costume of the people of Jesus’ day that we see so often in Biblical art. There is a large fold at the front of the gown into which grain could be poured, sort of like a built in knapsack. What Jesus is saying is that what we give we get back. But God is so good that the return amount is shaken down and actually runs over the fold of the gown. This kind of pouring out is also connected to tithing and the parallel text for this is in Malachi where it says about tithing: “Test me in tithing and see if I will not open the windows of Heaven, and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it.” At Westminster we have a goal to become a tithing church. Tithing would simply solve our financial problems as a church. If it is such a good thing why don’t we do it?
Fear of loss, fear of not having enough for our household budgets hold us back. Yet the law of attraction still holds. Lack of faith in God’s promises is the real problem. Scripture also teaches us that God is no one’s debtor. We cannot out-give God. What we measure out will always be given back with spill over. Westminster’s goal is not to impoverish its members. Rather it is to help all its members reach abundance thinking that will attract more abundance through Biblical strategies. In the last Stewardship letter from Don Houser he uses a Christian formula for abundance: Tithe 10%, .Invest 10%, Live on the 80% and then watch the windows of Heaven open for what you give you receive. Scripture even dares us to tempt God in this way. “Try it on, Test me in this,” says the prophet Malachi and Jesus on God’s behalf. The Jesus promise is for “pouring out and spill over.” At the Stewardship Round Table we believe this to be true. There is nothing wrong with being wealthy in the Bible if we steward that wealth to help the world and others, loving them as much as ourselves. It is hard to be really generous if we are pious and broke all the time. That doesn’t honor God.
Joseph in Egypt became wealthy, Abraham was wealthy, King David was wealthy, and so was Solomon. All made sure that God was honored in what they did. They were generous in their giving and so they had wealth poured into their laps. All Christians who I know who follow this formula do very well financially simply because there is a law out there in the universe. What we give out comes back to us. I know this to be personally true in fact once when I gave a major gift within ten days I had a check come mysteriously through the mail in the amount I had given followed by more. I have personally proved that I cannot give to God without the giving coming back. But it does require faith both to give and to receive. How does it work out practically?
When we give we create good energy in the world system. We all respond to that energy positively and anyone of us may be the agent of the return of kindness. The truth is that when we change positively the world changes with us. The reverse is also true. Sow sparingly, reap sparingly. Makes sense doesn’t it? That when we are negative we get more negative back. Oh that we could as a church know this truth, because then we would abandon the negative, and thus transform Westminster into a radiant church. The good news in my view is that we are on the way to being like this. That is one of the goals of the Stewardship campaign, that we would celebrate our abundance with gratitude. No more negative scarcity thinking unless we want more scarcity. Not in our family and not in our church. How does scarcity thinking serve God? “Oh God I don’t have enough!” We often say. But why is that the case and what can we do about it? What positive actions are we taking?
When Jesus spoke these words about “whatever measure we put out we get back”, it was radical thinking. In Jesus’ day there were people out “to grab and get” (just as there are in our day) and they appeared successful with a lot of material things that proved that success. The motivation for just getting wealth in order to be wealthy is suspect, because “gain by getting” feeds our sense of self importance. For instance if a very wealthy man comes into the room watch what happens. He is given importance. I see this happen a lot. But when a poor man comes into the room frequently he is ignored unless the people are trained in the way of Jesus who does not put importance and wealth together as corollaries, as we often do.
You see if we are not careful we can fall in love with ourselves. We can fall into the trap of judging everything subjectively. We can fall into the trap of being interested in other people exactly according to the proportion to which they feed our self esteem. We lose our ability to enjoy life freely because we don’t ever get to forget ourselves. Selflessness is only brought about by giving. Jesus taught that success without giving is false success. In fact it leads to death on all fronts particularly spiritual death which results finally in a loss of meaning. But, Jesus gives to those who know him and practice what he teaches, a sense of being very much fully alive, free… not held back, joyful and spontaneous! Do you know these people? They are all givers not takers! Jesus taught “receiving by giving” and his promise to anyone who has ears to hear is that every time we try to do this in faith, more abundance in all areas floods in. This happens particularly if we tithe because God gets involved with those who trust him.
But there is a second important step that the church teaches. It is all about investing. Remember Jesus’ parable of the talents? The man who hid his treasure in the ground lost even what he had. The man who took risks in investment and doubled his money was given even more money to manage. Every person starting out in life needs good financial counseling about how to invest. The formula says take 10% of your money after taxes and tithe it and 10% after taxes and invest it. That is 20% of our income. Probably your investment counselor will advocate that you get involved in various kinds of investment. You should be comfortable with your level of risk. There are some very good investors in Westminster’s congregation. God has poured money into their laps through their faith and they are among our most generous givers because they realize that God is no person’s debtor. They have figured it out that tithing is a key not to financial failure but to financial success. “Try me in this,” says God through his prophets and Jesus.
Making a financial adjustment like this teaches us discipline. At first it will be hard to honor God because it will feel like sacrifice to tithe and invest 20% of our income and live on the 80%. But if we cannot do this we are living beyond our means. What Scripture says is this: If we tithe abundance will flow into our lives. If we invest well instead of burying our treasure in a low interest bank account, we will receive the same praise and success of the man who invested his lord’s money well.
Whose money is it when we are Christians? The answer is that God is the source of all our abundance, so it is really God’s money we are looking after. If we are prudent and wise and seek advice and we are faithful and disciplined in how we handle money, in the way we invest, we will be successful, particularly here in America. Story after story reveals this same truth; this is the “rags to riches” American theme. And the greatest investors learn early to give back to God and to society because it keeps the money flowing into their lives. Preserve that ratio and one day, like one man I know, you will find that you are wealthy enough to give all new income away, 100%!
In one church I knew a man who always came to the last church service on Stewardship to write a check for whatever the church needed to be successful. He would wait until everybody had done their best and then finish the job. He began by tithing 10% early in his life, then 15%, then 20%, then 30%, then 50% until he eventually tithed 100% of his income. He manufactured those huge earth movers used in creating roads and subdivisions and when I saw them being used I thought of him and his faith in God and the abundance that he both gave and received.
I am really encouraged by what I am seeing here at Westminster at the moment! Our congregation is receiving new members. We had a great seminar last weekend with Master Greeter Rich and he taught us so much about the importance of new members. He said that in a church this size the number of visitors in a single year would be about 150 more than the average Sunday attendance. In other words if the congregation was to be split into two sides of the church between members and visitors, there would be 300 people on the visitors side if the whole year was considered. When asked whether the old members brought new visitors who became members the answer was largely no. New people bring new people. When asked what the role of existing members would be he said to nurture new members, welcome them and make them feel at home.
In my last church an older member once asked me, “What are all these new people doing here? Don’t they have churches of their own?” I thought about that one for a bit and asked myself what are these folks looking for in a church?
Garry and I were talking about Westminster and he was saying that it is an endangered species today simply because we are inclusive of everyone. We are downtown, progressive in theology, believe in healing of body soul and spirit. We love music and are eclectic. We still sing magnificent old hymns rich in theology as well as upbeat contemporary praise songs. We don’t always know the tunes but when we do we belt them with descants over the top and full organ in the second service, and sometimes we unleash two keyboards in the first service and a great group of smiling singers.
Our social actions are legendary. We raise money for Women’s Empowerment and give to Loaves and Fishes and serve meals there. Our Deacons are something else. One of our members has a fatal cancer diagnosis. I know we care, for the members visit in the hospital, and have a casserole ministry for that hard to serve home meal, after a hard day at the hospital or at a bedside. So much wonderful work is done by our caring Deacons and they are so humble about it all. We look after refugees, we mentor young children in school, we have started guitar classes and young people are coming to our interact program on Wednesday with their skateboards under their arms looking for love and last week one of them prayed for our congregation who he doesn’t even know except on Wednesdays. Our Sunday school program is booming. I sometimes count as many as forty children in the second service children’s story. We care about the big issues as well; global warming, globalization and the poor. Garry has been to India with Westminster members and is going again in November to consolidate previous work there. We care about ethics and foreign policy and the war in Iraq and the constitution and freedom and good government whatever party delivers it or takes it away. We fearlessly speak truth to power when we think that it is out of touch and we try to do so lovingly. Many lobby groups use our facility for their justice causes. On the 18th of November I will be on a panel in a town hall held here at Westminster between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. on behalf of justice for Blue Diamond workers.
In true Presbyterian fashion and precedent you have empowered me to speak on controversial issues. The last one was Domestic Violence and members of this congregation cared enough to prepare me well for this task with information and love and support. And you have embraced listening to people with whom we may or may not agree. Our last speaker in World Wide Listening was Jack Rodgers and it was a great evening. We learned how this man with conservative roots in theology has opened his mind and heart to the gay, lesbian and transgender community. Last Sunday Garry and I were at the Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays and Transgender People’s annual service this year held at St. Francis church. We listened to the new Episcopal Dean tell us how he had become conscious and open to the needs of this community. Senator Darrel Steinberg was there and spoke well and then we read the names of those killed by acts of hate and remembered. What a great service! Our members support that organization and marriage equality.
Recently we had a national webcast from the Westminster courtyard about end of life issues. This year we, along with a few other congregations protested to the Presbyterian Synod of the Pacific about illegal action in our Presbytery and we were supported at the Synod level. The illegal resolutions were overturned.
Westminster members support the Covenant Network in the Presbyterian Church in their plea that all may serve in the church. We hosted here the shower of stoles which are silent witness to denied ministries in the church. Each one belonged to a pastor or worker who was denied ministry because of their orientation and expression of that, no matter how ethical that might have been. There are over a thousand such liturgical neck scarves in the shower of stoles. How sad that is, and how wonderful it is that Westminster is on the cutting edge of justice for all and hosts those stoles as a silent witness to the way of love and the radical acceptance of Jesus.
Last year I was honored on behalf of Westminster’s support of Death Penalty Focus, which wishes to abolish the death penalty in favor of life imprisonment. I could not have been so honored without your support. I know that some of us are not convinced about this and I am glad that you speak to me on these controversial issues. My own positions are not all agreed to by the National Church either although perhaps surprisingly, most of them are. At the national level we dare to do radical support from time to time. Recently some of our dedicated clergy members supported a meeting with Hamas and got reprimanded and fired for doing so by our National Church. That decision was a wrong decision. We are to love our enemies. We need to talk to democratically elected Hamas as Jimmy Carter has noted and not go on with the insane policy of isolating enemies. May the truth dawn in Washington… and may Westminster and other great churches and Mosques who are concerned be heard!
Last Christmas Eve we set precedents in Interfaith cooperation by having a Muslim Imam read from the Koran about the virgin birth of Jesus. That piece of news went as far as Pakistan along with Photos. It created enormous good will in the Muslim community. About a month ago I was honored on your behalf by the Salam Mosque. They put on the plaque this verse from the Koran: “The believers are but a single family.”
We can all be proud of our leadership positions on so many issues. We have one criterion: “What would the Historical Jesus do?” we ask, and then to the best of our ability we try to do it.
Surprisingly that makes us cutting edge because Jesus was far ahead of his time and still is way out there in front! I often say this with tears in my eyes, “That’s why I follow him.”, and that is why I am so delighted to be the pastor of Westminster. And that is why I financially support Westminster.
We will be successful in this Stewardship Campaign. How? Through gratitude practiced daily by every member, gratitude will slowly have her way with us and we shall be thankful as she leads us into the very Presence of the One, “Who to Know is life eternal.” And what a gift that will be from the Greatest Giver of all, to know God, not “through a glass darkly” but face to face. Amen.
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