Recently within the halls of St Paul Chuckery discussions have been taking place as to the financial stability of our Church and School. Since it has been the topic of discussion in council meetings, at last Sunday's Voter's Meeting, in the news letter and in the bulletin, it is likely that you have caught wind of this already. According to our treasurer the congregation is currently about $30,000 behind in meeting our expenses. Or, to put it another way, we have spent $30,000 more than we have taken in.
If you do the tedious work of balancing your checkbook at home, you will know that it is not good to spend more than you earn. A prolonged stint of such behavior can ruin an entire national economy, let alone a small church and school in central Ohio. It has happened to others. It can happen to us.
The “how and why” of this predicament is mulct faceted. There are many sides to the issue, details to be discussed that have to do with how we fund the mission and ministry of our church and school. God has blessed St Paul with just the right people for this task. And it is a good and God pleasing thing to be wise stewards of the material gifts as God gives them. That is a discussion for a different day.
Today, what guides the proclamation of the Word of God is our Epistle text from Ephesians; God's promise through the Apostle Paul that God is able to do far more abundantly than we either can ask or can think. And this God is at work within us and among us. To Him is all glory in the church and in Christ forever. This text has something to say to us today.
Chances are, there are a number of contributing factors to our present predicament. Certainly the cost of maintaining a church and a school is not cheap. Factor in the general belt tightening that is common among most households around the nation and you begin to tap into at least one source of our congregational economic downturn. People either have less or are worried about having less money.
Our text speaks to this situation in a handful of ways. The first is to remind us as a congregation not to worry. Again, “To him who is able to do far more abundantly that we can ask or think.”
God is not worried about recessions. God is not worried about depressions, God will not loose sleep over even a full fledged economic collapse. God doesn't care about projections of economists. God is not waiting for His stimulus check. God doesn't care about tax breaks or tax hikes. God isn't up for a performance review in his current employment and he can't be fired or downsized or let go. There isn't even the option for a buy out. God is God. He sits in heaven and pulls the strings on our little recessions. And those things we refer to as “mine” or “yours” are simply just His. Therefore, when recessions effect budgets and bottom lines, they do not handicap God from accomplishing His work of preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Those things happen for free.
The money needed to pay the people who do them is God's gift. If he desires that these things occur, he is able to do far more than we can either ask or think. So don't worry. The Church as the people of God is secure. We are in God's hands and God will provide for us what we need, when we need it.
But there is more to our text and therefore there is more to be said about our congregational predicament.
Paul tells us that he gets down on his knees to pray to God our Father and that He prays for three things.
1.That according to the riches of His glory he grant to us to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.
2.That, being rooted and grounded in love we might have the strength to grasp the full breadth and length and height and depth of the Love of Christ
3.that we might be full with all the fullness of God.
So what does that have to do with the Chuckery budget?
It has everything to do with the Chuckery budget.
Usually when we think about what Christian churches have come to call “stewardship” we often make the mistake of associating that too closely with the term “fund raising” We need money. People have money. We have to figure out a way to separate people from their money. We come up with all kinds of rules and principals and assume that will do the trick.
That's not what the church does.
Here at church you give offerings. There are 2 reasons for that. First of all, you have hired help: a pastor, teachers, professional staff. These people serve you. You owe them their wage. Paul makes that point elsewhere. He tells the church that just as they owe their farm animals food for the work they do on the farm, churches owe their church workers a wage for the work they do in the church. That is your duty.
The second reason has to do with these three things Paul prays for in his prayer for the Ephesians: God's strength in the inner man, a full comprehension of the Love of Christ, and being filled up with the fullness of God.
With this prayer Paul was making the point that all Christians, both the Jews and the Gentiles were one big happy family. God is the Father, no matter who your daddy might be, no matter what the color of your skin – no matter if you can trace your family history back to Abraham or to the families who founded St Paul Chuckery. God is the Father of the One heavenly family that exist in heaven and here on earth. Through Christ we are brothers and sisters. God has filled us up with with faith. God has filled us up with the Holy Spirit. We are blessed in him with an eternal inheritance that is hidden away for us in heaven, it can't be taken away, it can't spoil, it doesn't have a shelf life or a rate of depreciation. All of heaven's glory in Christ is yours.
That is the fullness of God.
Now if God's fullness overwhelms you in His love and in his goodness and in his generosity, and if we are then connected to one another through sharing in His Gospel, how then do you suppose that will effect our attitude and our action toward one another? Paul was talking to Jews and Gentiles about being of the same identical family. There was in His time often some bad blood between the two groups. Paul called for fullness in the Gospel. Paul called for love between Christians and charity and works of mercy. Paul called for Christians to give even as they had been given to.
Again, as far as our Chuckery budget goes, there are lots of possible and plausible reasons for why we are behind in our budget. Each family must privately make their decision about what money they give and how much money they give. Each of you decides this in your own home.
As you make that decision test yourself. The human heart is above all things sinful. The human heart is plagued with stinginess. Drawing lines of “mine” and “yours”. Withholding gifts from those who we determine in our hearts are not worthy. God does not do that with us. We aught not do it with one another.
The human heart is also plagued by fear. The notion that “I can't afford to be generous because I have bill to pay.” The cattle on a thousand hills belong to God (Ps 50:10). God feeds the bird of the air so that they do not go hungry (Matthew 6:26). Why do you worry about such things? (Matthew 6:27)
Having experienced the fullness of God, we are set free to give according to what our conscience sets us free to give. There is no compulsion. There is no minimum requirement. There is no requirement at all. If your heart and your conscience leads you to give nothing at all, that is between you and God. If your heart is convicted of sin but you still struggle with fear, that is between you and a God who drives out all fear with his perfect love (1 John 4:18) but who is also patient and enduring in his love (1 Cor 13:4). If you feel compelled to offer greater gifts out of the joy and thanksgiving afforded to you through the fullness of the gospel, than God will bless your gift.
Know this: God is your heavenly Father. He loves you. He cares for you. He provides for you. He will not let you go without those things that He knows you need.
Through faith you are also joined to your fellow Christians as brothers and sisters. God also provides for their needs – sometimes he provides for them through you.
God is also the father of our Brother Jesus whom God loved so much, (John 3:16) yet in spite of this love he commanded him to go out from heaven to take upon himself our flesh and to suffer and die as less than a slave. Jesus did this gladly and willingly. Jesus shared His Father's love for you and was glad to give of himself everything that he had.
Because of God's love, because of God's generosity, because of God's grace, because of the fullness of God's love for you, He has provided for you, he has given to you, he has signed sealed and delivered to you the fullness of His love in Jesus through his death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead and his ascension into heaven. God has done all of this, through the fullness of His Love for you.
So here's Paul's prayer; for the Ephesians, but also for you. Be transformed in your inner man according to the Christian faith given to you by the Holy Spirit. With this as your foundation may you understand the full breadth and length and height and depth of the Love of God. And finally, may you be filled with all of God's fullness given in the Gospel.
Amen.
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