Are you a good Christian? Perhaps that is a strange question for your pastor to ask, but it may be a question you have heard or even asked about someone else. When Jesus was approached by the man who said, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark, 10:17). He answered that no one is good except God. Are we ready to admit that we are not as good of a Christian as we might be or as we might think ourselves to be? Or, are we so ingrained by the thoughts and ways of the world that we would be insulted at the very question?
Our text for this morning, addressed to the Children of Israel, speaks of “the ritual offering of firstfuits [which] reminded the individual worshiper that the Promised Land is God’s gracious gift and is to be received with joyful thanksgiving.” God’s Word reminds the Children of Israel that in Egypt they were slaves and they had no land they could call their own. God’s Word reminds Israel and us that nothing that we think we own is truly ours, but the true and rightful owner of all is the one who created all, the Lord God Himself. This morning I want to talk about the ways of the world, the way of the Lord, the greatest gifts and our response of faith.
The way of the world is an egocentric way or an anthropocentric way. I am sure we understand the term “ego” in that we know of some people who have a bigger ego or thought of themselves than others. So, “egocentric” means one who is centered on their own thoughts of themself. The term “anthropocentric” may be a new term. The word “anthro” means man or human and again the word “centric” means to center on, so “anthropocentric” means to center one’s thoughts on humanity and especially on humanity as the end all of this world. So, the way of the world is that there is no one to look out for you except yourself. There is no one to take care of you except yourself. So, as we are taught growing up, you have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
We are also taught that there is nothing free in life, that you have to earn your own way. As a matter of fact, we are taught that if something is presented as being free we need to watch out because there are certainly strings attached, in other words, you will eventually pay for something that is presented as being free. Another “cliche” tells us that if something sounds to good to be true, it probably is.
And so we are raised to understand that we each need to work to make a living for ourselves. With that as our understanding, then when we do work, we believe that we have earned whatever it is that we worked for and we deserve it. This is what we are taught, either overtly or subtly, that we are the one’s who take care and look out for ourselves as no one else will. But how does this understanding compare to the way of the Lord?
The way of the Lord is this, first and foremost, God gives. God is the one who created this world in which we live. God is the prime mover. God created all things out of nothing. Certainly it does not take a rocket scientist to see that the complexity of this world did not bring itself into being and into order apart from a designer and creator. “Does not nature itself teach you that there is a God?” So, first and foremost, God gives. God gives to each of us life, our own life and He gives us our life at our conception. We did not choose to be conceived, nor did we choose to be born. God gave us our life and it was a life that began at conception. At conception we had all the necessary DNA, all the necessary genetic information and coding that was need. The only thing added after conception was food, nutrition and we grew into the human being we are today.
God gives life and God gives gifts, talents and abilities. Some people have special athletic abilities, others music abilities, others good people skills, others the ability to understand electricity, electronics, carpentry, food, textiles, and the like. Some people understand math, science, biology, even languages better than others. God gives us each gifts, talents and abilities in order to use.
God also gives us each a vocation and vocations in which to serve others and in serving others we are serving the Lord. Very often we work in more than one vocation. Perhaps we are at the same time a son, a father, a brother, an uncle as well as a welder or a mechanic or a surgeon, or any other vocation. Maybe we are a daughter, a mother, an aunt, a race car driver, a banker or any other vocation. God has given us the gifts, talents and abilities we need to serve others.
And as we use the gifts, talents and abilities God has given us in our vocation, we also earn money which is a means of barter so that through this means of barter God gives clothing and shelter, meat and drink, house and home. Have you ever thought about how God gives us a loaf of bread and what and who all are involved in a loaf of bread? The short list might include the farmer, the bread maker, the package maker, the shipper, and the grocer. The longer list might include the one who grinds the grain, the one who provides the salt as well as the one who mines the salt, the one who provides and makes the plastic wrapper, the one who provides the yeast, the one who provides the gasoline for the delivery truck and the list could go on and on. God provides all of these people as well as all the gifts, talents and abilities to do these jobs in order to provide just a loaf of bread.
God has given us the world in which we live. He gives us life. He gives us gifts, talents and abilities. He gives us a vocation, but even more, He gives us the greatest gifts we need. The greatest gift God gives is new life, even eternal life, through Holy Baptism. Yes, God uses plain, simple, ordinary water, connected to His Word, in particular to His name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to give faith and forgiveness of sins, the greatest gifts we need. Although we might wonder and even ask, how can God do such great things, especially with such an ordinary means, our answer is that He is God and He can do whatever He wants.
God gives life and new life through Holy Baptism. Daily God gives forgiveness of sins especially through confession and absolution. When we confess our sins, when we admit our sins, God is faithful and just and He gives us forgiveness, earned and paid for by Jesus.
God gives faith and forgiveness. God gives strengthening of faith through His Word and through His Holy Supper, the Lord’s Supper. Here again, through the ordinary means of bread and wine, connected with God’s Word, God does and gives amazing things, because He is God and because He can do amazing things even though ordinary means.
Our greatest need is forgiveness of sins, because without forgiveness we would be left with our sins and we would be eternally condemned, but with forgiveness is life and salvation. And so God gives us forgiveness of sins which He gives through the life, death and resurrection of His Son. Jesus came, not simply to die, but live for us, to live in perfection for us because we cannot. After living in perfection, after fulfilling all God’s laws and promises completely, Jesus took all our sins upon Himself and paid the price, suffered the eternal death penalty for our sins on the cross and He died. But death and the grave had no hold over Him, as on the third day He rose victorious over sin, death and the power of the devil.
God gives and He also works in us and gives us our response of faith which is what our text for this morning is really all about, our response of faith. Our response of faith is to recognize that the Lord gives, God gives first, God gives us all that we need, and God gives without our earning or deserving. As a matter of fact, if we actually look at what we have earned or what we do deserve, we would realize that what we have earned and what we do deserve, because of our sin, is eternal spiritual death and judgement. We have not earned, nor do we deserve all the good gifts and blessing our Lord so graciously gives to us. And we recognize and acknowledge God’s good gifts and blessing by returning a portion of what is truly His, back to Him.
We return to the Lord, from what He has first given to us, only as we recognize that it all comes from the Lord in the first place. Which means that the opposite is also true, that is that as we fail to return a portion to the Lord this failure is because we fail to recognize and acknowledge that it first comes from Him and then we fall back into our being and following the ways of the world, being egocentric and anthropocentric, looking to ourselves as if we have done something on our own..
To put this into a human analogy or illustration, we might be reminded that when someone gives us a gift, perhaps someone has giving us a French Silk Chocolate pie, our response, recognizing that this is a gift given to us from the gift giver, we have learned to invite the gift giver to have a piece of pie with us. Unfortunately, this is not an instinctive characteristic of our human nature, but because we are conceived and born in sin, recognizing a gift and the gift giver, saying “Thank you,” is something we have to learn. How often did we have to be told, as we were growing up, when we were given a gift, “What do you say?”, “Thank you.” Thanks be to God that as the Greatest Gift Giver, He is also the greatest Teacher and as He gives us the gifts He has to give so He stirs and moves in us to recognize Him as the gift giver and to return a portion to Him. In other words, we only respond as we are moved by the Lord to respond. Here as usual then, we know we get it right when we point not to ourselves, but to Jesus.
And so when we are moved by the Lord to respond we return in thanksgiving. Remember, God does not want a grumbling giver, God wants a cheerful giver. But even more, God does not want anything from you, except first and foremost He wants you. God knows that if He has you, He has all of you. And if He has all of you, you will respond, as He moves you to respond.
God gives and we are given to. God does and we are done to. God is the prime mover. It all begins and ends with the Lord. God gives us the world. God gives us life. God gives us new life, even eternal life. God gives us faith and forgiveness of sins. God stirs in us a response of faith. And we, being so moved by God, we return joyously. What else can we do?
As we begin another Lenten season, the season of preparing our hearts and minds for Maundy Thursday and the giving of the Lord’s Supper, for Good Friday commemorating our Lord’s death, for us, because of us, in our place and for our celebrating of His resurrection it is good to remember that it is God who is running the show. It is God who is the prime mover, who gives and does first. It is God who loves us so much that all He does He does out of His great love for us. It is God who gives us life, faith and forgiveness and stirs in us our response of faith.
So, first fruits, tithes and offerings are not charity, as if God needs our charity. First fruits, tithes and offerings are a response of faith, a returning to the Lord in a show of gratitude and faith for what He has first given to us, because there is nothing that we have, nothing physical or spiritual, that did not in one way or another first come from the Lord. And so, our Lord gives us the great privilege to honor Him, to give Him glory, by recognizing Him as the great Gift Giver. And as we recognize Him as the great Gift Giver and return a portion to Him, that is our way of saying, to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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