One day James wanted to do something special with his five year old son Jimmy. He asked “son, is there anything you’d like to do right now?” Jimmy said, “I want some McDonald French Fries.” His father said, “if that’s what my boy wants, then that’s what my boy gets.”
They got into the blue and white chevy truck and headed toward McDonald’s. Jimmy’s lips and tongue were silently moving as he could taste the fries before they even reached the store.
His Dad made the order, and Jimmy’s heart pounded when his Dad said make it a super size fry. James took the money out of his wallet to pay for the fries and a drink. Jimmy’s little teeth were ready to sink into those hot golden fries, before they made it to the table.
When they sat down, grace consisted of “God bless this food amen”, but it seemed like way too many words to Jimmy who was eager to delight himself with this huge blessing of French fries.
James was happy to see his little boy so happy over something so simple. He decided to join in the fun. He reached over to get a couple of Jimmy’s fries for himself.
To his surprise, his son quickly put his arms around his fries as though building a fort and pulled them toward himself and said, “No, these are mine.” His dad was in a state of shock for a moment. He could not believe what had happened.
James pulled back his hand and began to reflect about his son’s attitude toward the fries. Let’s walk together through the things that went through his mind. He was thinking, my son failed to realize that I am the source of those French fries.
At the counter, I was the one who gave the cashier the money from my wallet. I did not give him the size fry he was expecting, but something twice as big. Yet here he is talking about his French fries.
Not only was I the source of the French fries, he has forgotten that I at 6ft 1 and 195 lbs, have the power to take all the fries despite his little arms surrounding them as a fort. Or that if I wanted to, I could go back to the counter and bring him so many fries that he could never eat them all.
He also does not understand, “that I don’t need his French fries. I could go back to the counter and get as many fries as I wanted.”
As the Dad thought about it, one or two fries really would not have made much of a difference for him that day. What he wanted was for his son Jimmy, to invite him into the wonderful little world he had made possible for his son. He wanted his son to be willing to share the very blessing that he had provided. (1)
Yet imagine a very different situation - where a little child goes and takes their pocket money, and goes and buys a birthday present for their mum or their dad. The money of course came from their parents in the first place, but we can all see the joy on mum or dad’s face when they are given that small gift that doesn’t cost much but which cost the child a lot.
Today is our second Stewardship Sunday. Our first sermon two weeks ago looked at the generosity that is already going on here and how we celebrate that. This one, being Trinity Sunday looks at God’s giving of himself to us and how that can inspire us to give back.
But before I begin properly - you will remember that at the end of the first giving Sermon I asked you to pledge your safe amounts. Obviously, before you could make the big generous increases that you might want to give, you might need to talk to your wives or husbands; you might need to check your bank statements. You might want to pray. So I asked you to pledge the safe amount, the smaller amount that you could pledge there and then.
I want to say an enormous thank you to how you responded.Those of you who give weekly have so far increasedyour giving by £44.85 a week. Those of you who give monthly have increased your giving by £110 a month.
Obviously we are half way through the year, so we won't see all of this in 2015. But over a full year that means that you have pledged to increase your giving by a whopping £3,652.20.
Considering that this is only your "safe amounts" and that some (though not all) will in the end be able to pledge more, that is incredibly generous!
Thank you to everyone for your generosity.
But back to the topic in hand.
The bible does contain much about human beings giving to God - we have Cain and Abel with their Sacrifices. We have Noah - first thing he does after landing on Mount Ararat is to offer a Sacrifice. Then we have all those “highly exciting” instructions in Leviticus about how to offer sacrifices in the Temple, then coming on to the New Testament - we have stories like the former prostitute with the expensive jar of perfume who poured it over Jesus’s feet and then washed his feet with her hair. Or that poor babushka in the Temple putting her last coin in the collection
so there is plenty of stuff in the bible about human beings giving to God - but actually that is not what the bible is about.
At it’s heart- the bible is about God giving to us.
The bible begins with God giving us creation.
The bible ends with God giving us the new creation.
And in between? It is all about God giving…
We see God giving his children the promised land. We God giving them his presence in the Holy of Holies of the Temple. We see him giving them his words through prophets to lead them back from the mess they were making of their lives.
Then - when that was not enough we see God “emptied himself , taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death” Philippians 2:7-8
We see God giving himself to live amongst us - and bear our sins on the cross.
“For God so loved the world that he gave…”
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believed in him might not die but have eternal life”
Today is Trinity Sunday - and if we are to understand what goes on the cross, we need to understand that both Jesus and the Father are one God.
If Jesus isn’t God then what happens on the cross would be cruel. How could a petulant God demand that an innocent before he’d forgive our sins. That’s what some critics say. But it is not like that because Jesus is God. Jesus and the Father are in some sense one and the same.
So on the cross it is God who gives himself, who lays down his life that we might have life.
Those Jehovah’s Witnesses who knock on our doors (ding dong), those Muslim sisters and brothers who live next door to us - lovely people all of them. But their view of God is not the God I know. Our Jehovah’s Witness friends say that Jesus is just a demigod, a super-being created by the real God. Our muslim friends say that Jesus is just a prophet. A prophet who performed more miracles than Mohammed, but just a prophet.
But what both Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslims do is to make God distant. The God I know is not distant. Rather than sending someone else to do his dirty work - he comes himself. He gives himself to us.
As our reading from Philippians puts it “emptied himself , taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” The eternal Second Person of The Trinity God almighty, loves.. YOU .. so much that he leaves the majesty, the riches and the glory of heaven behind him to be born as a baby in palace … nope, sorry rewind - to be born as a baby in stable smelling of poo.
There’s three things we can learn from God’s giving of himself -
Jesus modeled giving WILLINGLY
Jesus modeled giving JOYFULLY
Jesus modeled giving SACRIFICIALLY
1)Jesus modeled giving WILLINGLY
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
why does he do it? Not because someone told him he had to - but because of love. He loves us. he loves you.
Jesus modeled giving JOYFULLY
Hebrews 12:2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
We know from the garden of Gethsemane that Jesus didn’t want to go through the pain. He was fully human as well as fully God - but he does so, because he knows of the joy that will be achieved through it
3) Jesus modeled giving SACRIFICIALLY(2)
what does God give to us?
eternal life
peace
a fresh start through forgiveness of our sins
a sense that you are valued because he loves you
all this is good but if it didn’t cost God anything it would be a bit like having a really rich uncle and he takes you out to that restaurant where the stars go (where is it? The Ivy…) and you think “well that’s really nice, but actually when you are not with me, you are going there 6 days a week anyway” compared with your wealth it cost you nothing.
But God is not like that. By dying on the cross Jesus shows us that the things we do wrong are bad. they have consequences. But he takes those consequences on himself
“he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” Philipians 2:8
That hurt. That is how much God gives to us.
And God continues to give himself to us. I was speaking to Debbie yesterday and she described how twice in her life when she has been prayed for she has really powerfully felt the presence of God.
Once when she was being prayed for she said how she went from tears to an overwhelming sense of peace and joy flooding through her.
The other time Debbie was being prayed for because she was in pain and as hands were laid on her she felt heat and peace flow through that part of her body. I have felt similar things. Others of you may also have felt such things as God gave himself to you in that way.
What is the main act of worship Jesus gives us to remember him? His very presence in bread and wine. That’s what will happen later on the altar. Jesus will become present in bread and wine and nourish us with his very self just as a mother feeds her child at the breast.
Let me finish with a parable. There was once a builder. Times were really tough. He could barely afford to feed his family. He couldn’t pay the bills. He, a builder lived in a hovel that he could not afford to repair.
A rich man heard of his plight -”I am so sorry to hear you are doing so badly. Let me help you. Here’s the money and you can build a mansion for me. Make sure you use only the best materials”
“Oh thank you.” said the builder and set to work.
It was a very good sum of money he was being paid.
“But” he thought “if I don’t dig the foundations quite as deep, he’ll never notice and it will earn me a bigger profit” “ If I use these slightly cheaper bricks here, he’ll never notice and it will earn me a bigger profit”. “If I only use old style double glazing instead of new tripple glazing he’ll never notice and it will earn me a bigger profit” and so it went. Corner after corner he cut, his eyes growing wider as he thought of the extra profit he could earn.
Finally the mansion was finished. The flaws were all hidden. It looked lovely.
The builder went to hand over the keys to rich man. And the rich man took the keys and handed them back to the builder “I saw how poor you are. This house my friend is my gift to you. That’s why I said, make sure you use only the best materials” (3)
Let us think how we respond to God’s generosity to us
Amen
(1)Taken from a sermon on this site by Rick Gillespie-Mobley
(2) Taken from a sermon by Guy Glass
(3) Taken from a sermon deliverd at Holy Trinity Barkingside by Robin Stevens, former National Stewardship Advisor
