June 24, 2012
© 2012
I.
I am ambivalent about public expressions of Christian faith by sports
figures and other celebrities. “To Tebow” has become a verb and for some a joke.
Josh Hamilton has had to explain his faith in humiliation. When Webb Simpson
won the U.S. Open golf tournament last week he said, “I’d be stupid not to
thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, because it was tough out there, and I
was nervous, and I felt his presence all day.” On the one hand, these folk have
opportunities to let their light shine before others, as Jesus said in Matthew
5:16. Sometimes they seem to draw attention to themselves or make faith in
Christ seem silly. Letting our light shine has to balance with what Jesus said
later in Matthew 6:1, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order
to be seen by them.”
Early
in the 1994 college football season the Colorado Buffaloes played at powerhouse
Michigan. Colorado’s coach Bill McCartney has been very public with his
Christian witness. With six seconds left and down 26-21, Colorado regained
possession on their own 34 yard line. A Michigan fan seated on the 50 yard line
yelled to McCartney, “Hey, Coach, where’s your God now?” McCartney said that
was when he knew Colorado would win. On the last play of the game a 74 yard
pass into the end zone was tipped into the air and grabbed by a Colorado player
who fell over the goal line for the winning touchdown. On TV we often see fans
for both teams apparently praying during tense game moments. I honestly don’t
think God cares which team wins, but Coach McCartney felt the Michigan fan’s
taunt put God’s reputation on the line and somehow ensured that the tipped pass
fell to Colorado.
A.
The driving force behind David’s confrontation with Goliath was his
concern that God’s reputation was on the line. When David heard Goliath’s
taunts, he took them as defiance of the God of Israel, not just of Saul’s army.
David could not understand how Saul, his brothers or any of Israel’s soldiers
could let this go unchallenged, so he volunteered. When Goliath saw David
coming with shepherd’s staff in hand, he was insulted and cursed him in the
name of his gods. David returned the curse not claiming superior weapons but a
superior God. By the defeat of Goliath and the Philistines all the earth would
know there was a God in Israel.
B.
David shouted, “You come with sword and spear and javelin, but I come
in the name of the Lord of hosts.” And confidently said, “The battle is the
Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.” Goliath’s challenge was to
hand-to-hand combat. David’s shepherd’s staff was clearly no match for
Goliath’s sword. Nothing in the text suggests God miraculously guided the stone
from David’s sling to Goliath’s forehead. We do need to realize that David was
not using a small rock that would go in a slingshot. Slingstones were about
fist size, round and weighing 2-3 pounds. Modern major league pitchers can hurl
a baseball between 90 and 100 MPH. With the added leverage of the sling, a
skilled hurler could accurately propel a slingstone at 125 MPH at close range.
Undoubtedly Goliath’s skull shattered and his brain hemorrhaged. But David
would be the first to tell us that it was not about physics and anatomy. Goliath
fell to God’s reputation. Notice, also, that David’s language shifted from “me”
to “us.” He did not defeat Goliath for himself but for all Israel. I wonder if
David was remembering his day with Goliath when he wrote in Psalm 20:7-8, “Some
take pride in chariots, and some in horses, but our pride is in the name of the
Lord our God. They will collapse and fall, but we shall rise and stand upright.”
C.
A little later today you will be voting on the budget for 1st
Christian Church, Duncanville for 2012-13. I know that the stewardship and
budget team and the Board have put a lot of careful and prayerful thought into
this. As I observed this process, I was impressed that the budget is organized
around the mission of the church, not around administrative categories. Slipping
into a “how do we pay the bills?” mentality is all too easy. We start to think
of money as the means and limit of how we get things done as a church. David’s
story suggests that our dollars are something like his slingstones. Yes, the
number is limited, and they must be used skillfully, but the work of the church
is not done by dollars. It is done by people with the same confidence in God
that David had. As we think about stewardship today, put God’s reputation on
the line as you deploy your money and other resources for ministry.
II.
David perceived that Goliath’s taunts put God’s reputation on the line.
We need to ask, “Where is God’s reputation on the line today?”
A.
If you listen to the rhetoric, you might conclude that God’s reputation
is on the line in every theological, social, political, economic and ethical
debate that clambers for attention and adherents. However, these issues are
about our reputations, not God’s – even if we try to drag God into them.
1.
They may be more important than who will win this year’s World Series,
but God’s reputation is not at stake in this fall’s election, in the survival
of the Euro, in the stock market, in the schools.
2.
As much as people try to blame God for natural disasters and human
cruelty, from crime to war, God’s reputation is not on the line where we are
called to justice and compassion.
3.
God’s reputation is not at stake in our attempts at rational proofs for
God’s existence or the accuracy of the Bible, as though somehow God is at odds
with science, history and philosophy.
4.
God’s reputation is not at stake in the defeat of those we consider to
be our enemies. Martin Niemoeller was a pastor in Nazi Germany and was
imprisoned for 8 years for protesting Hitler’s policies to him in person. He
said, “It took me a long time to learn that God is not the enemy of my enemies.
He is not even the enemy of his enemies.”
B.
God’s reputation is on the line where unbelievers should be able to
look and see God.
1.
Wherever people see injustice and human suffering, unbelievers should
be able to see that God is confronting it. That may come through compassion,
through self-sacrifice or through exposing truth. We’d like that to come
through people who act in the name of Jesus, but God can work through
outsiders.
2.
In John 13:35 and 17:22-24 at the Last Supper, Jesus said that the
world would know we are his disciples by our love for one another and that the
world would know he had been sent from God when we are as united with each
other as Jesus is with his Father.
C.
If we approach our personal stewardship as deciding on an appropriate
amount or percentage to give to the church, our reputation is on the line, not
God’s. If the church’s budget is planned for institutional maintenance and
survival, our reputation is on the line, not God’s. But we can put God’s
reputation on the line as we deploy our money and other resources for ministry.
That happens when we recognize that what we have does not belong to us but to
God. We do not just give some of it to God and do what we want with the rest.
No! Everything is God’s, some of it we use individually and some of it we use
together as a church. God’s reputation is on the line when a church says,
“Serving people in the name of Jesus is more important that being comfortable
or surviving.”
III. To help you get the power of
Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4:35-41, you need to know a couple of things.
In that time, storms on water were thought of as the work of chaos and even
demons opposed to God’s creation and redemption. Also, when Jesus rebukes the
wind and speaks to the sea, he uses the same words as when he cast demons out
of people. This story is about more than Jesus’ power over nature. Jesus is not
just protecting the safety and comfort of this disciples; he is confronting the
chaos that is opposed to God. He had been teaching from a boat all day.
On that day, when evening had
come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”36And
leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was.
Other boats were with him.37A great windstorm arose, and
the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.38But he
was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him,
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”39He woke
up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind
ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40He said
to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”41And
they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this,
that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
A.
Jesus seemed disappointed in the disciples. What did he expect of them?
Faith and not fear. When we are afraid, we can be sure our reputation is what’s
on the line. Faith is what put’s God’s reputation on the line. Faith does not
always mean that every storm will be calmed and we arrive safely at a happy
ending. When they got to the other side, Jesus healed the Gadarene Demoniac and
went right back where they started. God’s reputation is on the line when faith
puts us where God is redeeming people.
B.
After Jesus challenged their fear and faith, perhaps the disciples
asked the wrong question. Instead of, “Who is this, that even the wind and the
sea obey him?” maybe they should have asked, “Who is this that even raging,
life-threatening circumstances do not disturb his sleep?” The question for us
may be, “If God’s reputation is on the line and not ours, why do we lose sleep
over what the future holds? Why do we lose sleep when the Dow is down? Why do
we lose sleep when we face puzzling decisions? Why do we lose sleep over what
others do?”
C.
If God’s reputation is on the line, stewardship is a question of faith
not fear. I’m not suggesting reckless personal or church spending. If anything,
I’m suggesting holding a steady course focused on serving people in the name of
Jesus even when daily storms threaten to blow us off course.
IV. The question comes down to
where will you put God’s reputation on the line as you deploy your money and
other resources for ministry?
A.
Perhaps you’ve heard this question. If someone looked at your
checkbook, what would they conclude is important to you? Whose reputation does
your checkbook put on the line? I’m not suggesting an austere, no-frills life.
Rather, I’m asking what does what you spend on entertainment say about what
brings you joy? What does your personal budget say about what you find
satisfying? What does your charitable giving say about your commitment to
justice and compassion as well as to your church?
B.
I already mentioned how powerful organizing this church’s budget around
mission rather than administration is. In addition, I learned at the last Board
meeting your policy of giving 10% of everything that comes in to mission in the
world, beyond your walls. A congregation that tithes together like this can say
to its members, we encourage you to tithe individually as well. This puts God’s
reputation out front. As your mission here prospers, Christ’s mission around
the world will prosper too.
C. As you put God’s reputation on the line to
deploy your money and other resources for ministry, you can be as confident as
David and Jesus were. Is a Goliath taunting Christ within your earshot? Don’t
resort to a slingshot pebble, hurl a full sized slingstone. Is a storm of chaos
threatening to swamp you? Do not be afraid. With faith in Jesus’ authority,
sail on through to heal the hurting people on the other side.
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