Someplace or other at sometime or other, I heard of some
little girls who had gone on a hike with their scout troop. They
were all dressed up in their uniforms and most proud of the way
they looked as they tramped around the countryside. But, of
course, with all that tramping around, some became a bit
disheveled as the day wore on. One little girl, who normally
wore a St. Christopher medallion under her clothing (remember,
this is back in the days before St. Christopher got demoted),
became just active enough to have it pop out from its place of
concealment without even becoming aware of it. As might be
expected, one of her little friends was quick to point it out to
her: "Annie, your religion is showing."
Now, it is entirely possible that only a youngster would
come up with a line like that. But what do you think? Is your
religion is SUPPOSED to show...or not? God's Word says YES!
To show you what I mean, let me take you back twenty-five
hundred years, back to a time when Israel was just beginning to
get back on her feet as a nation. A few hardy pioneers were just
returning to their devastated homeland after a half-century of
exile in Babylon.
To be sure, they were glad to be there. This was, after
all, the land of their ancestors, the ancient dwelling place of
the heroes of their nation. But what they found there would have
been enough to depress the most wide-eyed optimist. The great
city of Jerusalem was totally destroyed. The walls were torn
down...no protection. Their magnificent temple, the legacy of
David and Solomon, the earthly "home" of their God, was in ruins.
Yes, the people were happy to be back...but sad at what they saw
at the same time.
To their credit, they got right to work in repairing their
place of worship. They got the great stone foundations ready for
reconstruction. They repaired the altar. But, along the way,
they got side-tracked: their enemies were giving them anxious
moments so they had to defend themselves; they had to eat, so
crops had to be planted and tended; they had to survive the
elements, so houses had to be constructed - all perfectly
legitimate undertakings...but they kept the people from finishing
their work on God's house...and not just for a little while...for
almost twenty years.
And those were hard years for those Jewish pioneers. They
might have thought that they were going back to a land of milk
and honey, but what they found was a land of famine and drought.
Nothing seemed to work for them; their crops and herds just never
seemed to provide enough for them...not enough food, not enough
to drink, not enough clothing, and most certainly, not enough
money: the "times that try men's souls."
But, again, this was no temporary condition; it had
persisted for almost twenty years. And no one seemed able to
come up with a solution. Or perhaps I should say ALMOST no one.
There was at least one man who had one, HAGGAI, the prophet of
God. His message said "YOUR RELIGION IS NOT SHOWING...and it had
BETTER show if you want things to improve."
Now, a nation other than the Jews might not have thought
that that was such a terrible indictment. After all, religion is
often considered a private matter. But the Jews had been a
people in special relationship to their God, and they knew from
their history of repeated incidents of distress and deliverance
that trouble would come if their faith and trust in God was put
on a back burner. Their allegiance to Yahweh had to be OBVIOUS
or their allegiance was no allegiance at all.
Haggai did not come with a denunciation of sin or social
injustice or the worship of false gods. His message simply
called attention to faulty priorities. These 38 verses we have
under his name in the Old Testament might lead us to think he had
a one-track mind: "get the temple rebuilt; get the temple
rebuilt; get the temple rebuilt. You have nice houses with roofs
over your heads. How can you expect your God to be satisfied
with any less? You say you love your God; you say you want to
serve your God; you say your God is worthy of your worship...and
then you leave your God's house a dump...a wreck...a ruin. What
kind of religion is that? Put your money where your mouth is.
FIX the place. YOU would not want to call a house like that YOUR
home; why would you expect GOD to want to." That was Haggai's
message.
But the prophet did not quit there. He went on to say that
if these impoverished people (and that is what they were -
impoverished) if they would have faith enough to dig deep enough
into their pockets to get the job done, if they would let their
religion SHOW by what they were willing to do, God would take
care of these other problems they were having.
As the scripture recounts it, within weeks of Haggai's call
to get going...and to get SHOWING...the nation had gotten the
necessary finances together to get the job underway. Granted, it
took four years to get the temple finished, but they DID get it
finished, and that is what Haggai had told them to do.
If old Haggai were to come back today, I wonder if he would
have a strange sense of DEJA VU. Oh, not that he would see God's
house in ruins (although there are some that do not look like
much more than that). What he would see is a great collection of
folks whose real religion is not much different from the one he
saw among his own people so many centuries ago: they come to
worship (when it is convenient); they say the right words; they
drop a dollar or two in the plate; and then go on about their
business. Why, if they did not SAY they were God's people, no
one would ever know. I suspect Haggai would say the same thing
all over again: "Your religion is not SHOWING and it HAS to show
if you are to get the blessings God intended for you."
Does that mean he would recommend more and greater
cathedrals, huge monuments; tremendous building programs? I
doubt it. The message would be "get your priorities straight,
and the place to begin is the same place MY people had to
begin...in their pocketbooks."
Years ago, Mora Morris whimsically caught the spirit of
the age VERY succinctly:
- I am twenty-five cents.
- I am not on speaking terms with the butcher.
- I am too small to buy a quart of ice-cream.
- I am not large enough to purchase a box of candy.
- I am too small to buy a ticket to a movie.
- I am hardly fit for a tip...but BELIEVE ME,
- When I go to church on Sunday, I am considered SOME MONEY.
Haggai would have said "AMEN!"
And of course, he would not be alone in that. You know very
well that Jesus would join in. Fully one-sixth of all the verses
in the Gospels attributed to the lips of Jesus and one-third of
all his parables concern the right management of possessions.
Jesus knew that we could easily come to love that which we have
accumulated even more than God. The rich young ruler came to
Jesus, anxious to know the way to eternal life, but his
possessions possessed him even more than his desire for life.
The rich man who built huge barns to hold his goods was called a
FOOL because he had placed the amassing of wealth at an even
higher priority than his own life. Yes, Jesus preached about
money... because he had to - it was (and is) a tremendous
stumbling block on the path to eternity.
One thing should be pointed out here: the people of Haggai's
day were finally willing to part with some of their hard-earned
cash to get the job done once they were reminded of their
obligation. But, as we said, these folks were poor - they did
not have all that much to part with. And that being the case,
their lack of money became a source of real discouragement to
them. They saw the huge foundations that were in place for the
temple-rebuilding project; they remembered the stories of the
grandeur of the building from their mothers and fathers; they
wanted to be able to at least equal that or even surpass it...but
the money was not there, not in the entire nation. So, three
months into the work, they got discouraged: "Gee, this place
won't amount to much. It won't be all that special. What are we
bothering for? Let's just give it up for a bad job and go on
about our business."
To be honest, those sentiments are echoed in churches all
around the nation every week. They see all sorts of magnificent
programs and staff that might be available to them; they see
great community projects in which they could participate and make
an impact in the name of Jesus; they see a tremendous work for
God that cries out to be done...and then they see their bank
book...and get discouraged. Haggai says, "Do not be concerned.
If you will be faithful in your giving, God will be faithful in
making your work splendid."
Let me share a true story with you. It happened in the
first church I served...the Liberty Hill Presbyterian Church of
Liberty Hill, SC. Liberty Hill was TINY, a VERY small church in
a very small village. The population was, for the most part,
retired and living on fixed incomes. For a number of years, the
presbytery had to subsidize them to keep the church operating.
When we first went there, Liberty Hill Presbyterian had no
manse. They had owned one some years before but had sold it
because they rarely had a minister and were unable to keep it
properly maintained, particularly with no one in it. The result
was that we ended up living an hour away from the church and were
thus extremely limited as far as much contact with parishioners
and community was concerned. Everyone knew that such an
arrangement was unsatisfactory, so for months people looked
around to try to find some place for the Leiningers to stay...but
to no avail - we could find NOTHING. Finally, after about eight
months of this, an older couple who lived right next door to the
church concluded that they were getting too old to live that far
out in the country so they decided to sell their home and move
into Camden, some twenty miles away. The church was offered the
property for $30,000. It was a fair price, but it may as well
have been 30-million because that little congregation figured
they could NEVER come up with the money.
Still, it was too good an opportunity to pass up - God had
dropped it in our lap. But good stewardship demanded that we not
go to any bank for the money because, at that time, mortgage
rates were sky high. So I told them that we should go ahead,
make the purchase, but pay cash for it. Needless to say, this
was quite a shock to them, but when they regained consciousness,
they got up and got to work. Within ninety days, they had put
together enough money, not only to buy the home but to finance
needed renovations as well. And they did it because they
realized the importance of priorities - they wanted their
religion to SHOW in Liberty Hill, and they were willing to do
whatever it took to MAKE it show. They wanted to tell the world
that what was being done for Jesus Christ in that tiny village
was of tremendous, indeed eternal, importance, important enough
to back their commitment with cash. By the way, in the years
since, that congregation has thrived...to such an extent that, a
few years ago, they were named Small Church of the Year in the
Synod of South Atlantic.
Quite frankly, here at First Presbyterian in Warren, we are
not faced with a challenge as visible as that one in Liberty
Hill. But the challenges are there none the less...the challenge
of maintaining an adequate staff, the challenge of mission
support both at home and abroad, the challenge of providing
Christian education for ourselves and our children, the challenge
of being faithful disciples of Jesus in our own community. They
might not be as visible as the need for a new manse, but they are
challenges to be met. Frankly, the biggest challenge we have
here is financing our work without relying on our endowment
funds. That is a powerful temptation, and one to which we have
given in too easily in recent years. We need to fix that.
Can we do it? Of course we can. All that is required is
the faithfulness of God's people in giving according to God's
standard: the tithe. Scripture does not mention Haggai saying
much about tithing to ancient Israel, but I doubt that he had to.
Those people knew what the standard was - one-tenth of their
income. Haggai's challenge was to go even BEYOND that for the
accomplishment of a monumental task. Here in this church, that
kind of challenge is not presented to us right now. All WE
really need to do is be faithful with the tithe. It is up to us,
just as it was up to the people of Haggai's day.
Mark Twain once attended a party where he was bored by a
paunchy tycoon who was pontificating on the subject of wealth.
"Money isn't everything, gentlemen," he said. "It can't buy
happiness, nor can it buy a happy home, nor can it lift the
spirits of the saddened, nor alleviate the sufferings of the
afflicted, nor buy the love of a good woman."
Commented Twain, "You refer, of course, to Confederate
money."(1)
Money, money, money. Listen to Jesus: "Give, and it will be
given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and
running over, will be poured into your lap." GREAT PROMISE! But
here's the kicker. "For with the measure you use, it will be
measured to you."
As has been said, "We make a living by what we get out of
life, but we make a life by what we give."(2) Are you ready for
that? I hope so.
Over the next several weeks, you will be hearing about a new
stewardship emphasis that will culminate here on Consecration
Sunday, November 17th. It has the potential to be a wonderful
blessing to what I believe is an already wonderful congregation.
Be on watch for it. And be ready for some surprises as God works
among us and helps us have a religion that shows. As someone
says so often on television, "You will be blessed."
Amen!
1. Streiker, Lowell D., A Treasury of Humor, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.,
2000)
2. James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc,
1988) p. 239
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