Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Psalm 24:1-2
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  October 7, 2018

I read a story about an elderly woman from Florida who finished her shopping, and upon returning to her car, found four guys trying to leave in her vehicle. She dropped her bags, drew a handgun from her purse, and screamed at the top of her voice, “Get out of my car!” The four men jumped out and ran like crazy! The woman, understandably shaken, quickly loaded her shopping bags and got in. She wanted to get out of there as fast as she could, but for some reason, no matter how many times she tried, she couldn’t get her key into the ignition. It was about that moment that she noticed a similar vehicle parked four or five spaces away. She was in the wrong car. After she got into her own vehicle, she drove to the police station to turn herself in. The sergeant had trouble controlling his laughter as he pointed to the other end of the counter, where four men were reporting being carjacked by a mad, elderly woman. In the end, no charges were filed. It stands to reason, wherever ownership is mistaken, problems soon follow.

This morning we begin a 3-week stewardship series in which we seek to understand the joy of generosity. Today, we begin with a primary truth which undergirds the whole series: Everything is His. Joyful generosity begins by acknowledging God’s ownership of all things. In the words of our Psalm, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything that fills it, the world and all who live in it, because he founded it on the seas, and he established it on the rivers.” All of Creation belongs to God because he is the Creator. This is the beginning of stewardship because it defines us as stewards. We take care of God’s property. If everything is his, then nothing can truly be in our possession. Now, this may seem really basic, but it’s one thing to know that everything is his, and it’s another thing to act like it. Remember, wherever ownership is mistaken, problems soon follow.

We need to remember that, especially as Americans. The free and the brave do not take kindly to being told they are just stewards. Trusting that Everything is His can be very difficult here. Our country has been called the Mother of Materialism. Materialism is often thought of as valuing physical things over moral or spiritual truths. And it’s easy to see why our society would give birth to that mindset.  Commercialism, consumerism, capitalism–the desire for stuff inundates us. For instance, if you watch a football game today, over a third of the broadcast time will be spent trying to sell you stuff! We who breathe in this materialistic atmosphere need to guard our hearts. Because as much as I’d like to say that it hasn’t affected me, I’d be naive to think it hasn’t.

Professor Paul Wendland, the former president of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, grew up in Zambia, Africa, where his father was a missionary. He told us one day that three students were once dismissed from the seminary in Zambia because they were practicing witchcraft. One of my classmates laughed and asked how students who were at a seminary could still be involved with witchcraft. Professor Wendland replied that witchcraft was so much a part of the African culture that it was hard-wired into their hearts. And then, just to make sure we weren’t becoming prideful, he said, “If students from the seminary in Africa were to visit our campus in Mequon, and if they would see all the cars in the parking lot, and the laptop computers in the classroom, and then hear the students complaining about the price of tuition, they would think that we are the most godless and thankless Christians they had ever met.” Just like witchcraft in Africa, materialism is so much a part of our American experience that we often don’t even realize that we have swallowed it whole. It has been hard-wired into our hearts and we must fight against it. We breathe in the air of material idolatry every day. It would be foolish of us to pretend that we are not affected. To a certain extent we each have become shallow and compromised, because of how much we value the material things we claim to possess. At the end this is the real temptation: If we believe that humans own everything, then God has no reason to exist. Wherever ownership is mistaken problems soon follow.

When you really dig into it, Materialism is not just a mindset, it is a full-blown philosophy which has given birth to what we term as ‘materialism’ today. At its heart, it is much more dangerous. In 1996, Richard Vitzthum published Materialism: An Affirmative History and Definition in which he sets forth the basic theory of Materialism: Everything in the universe, including human life and consciousness, can be explained solely in terms of natural laws and can be reduced to the fundamental principles of nature. There is no God, no Creator. And without him no soul or spirit, no moral compass, and no spiritual reality. All that matters is matter, hence the name “materialism”. The great temptation of materialism, the root of shallow living, is the denial of God as Creator and therefore as owner.

However, the question this should cause most of us to ask is, “If all that exists is only matter only, where did all the natural laws that govern it come from?” All the big disciplines of science–biology, chemistry, physics, etc.–demonstrate that the universe is connected by a complex and beautiful network of energy, design, and information. We observe much more than matter; we see something which cooperates and holds together like a creation. The material we see is trying to tell us of a Creator! Believe it or not, King David talked about this far before we came to the same conclusion: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world” (Ps 19:1-4). The truth may be silent to some, but it still speaks. Our God is Creator and as such he owns this universe and everything in it.

In the ancient Siddur, or Jewish prayer book, the blessings always begin with the same formula: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה’ אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ, מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם “Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the Universe.” The ancient Hebrews recited God’s ownership of all things multiple times every day. As they started the morning, before they recited the Shema, as they put on a prayer shawl, before they broke bread, before they read Scripture, and at the start of the Sabbath rest. These were words Jesus would have repeated daily with his own disciples. And the most amazing thing to realize is that these words were spoken even on the day Jesus died. “Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the Universe.” The last blessing before the Sabbath was offered up to the King of the Universe as he hung on a cross. My friends, God has a claim on us, not just because he created us, which would be sufficient enough, but because he has purchased us. He is not just Creator, he is also Redeemer, and became so at a precious cost: the very life of his Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. This is what makes us doubly his. St. Paul writes: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19,20).  Jesus blood was enough to buy humanity back from its slavery to shallow sin. His blood is what purifies our hearts and allows us to come into God’s presence today with joy. The heart of joyful generosity is one that is first filled with the joy of being God’s dearly won possession. What a sincere joy it is to know that you belong to the Lord. You aren’t some impossible accident of billion-year-old bacteria. You were knit together in your mother’s womb by an Almighty Creator, who loved you enough to shed his own blood so that he could say, “This one is mine.” That’s where joyful generosity begins.

There is a joy in generosity because we know that what we give is from God. If we spend hours of time on the phone with a hurting friend, some might consider it a waste of time, but God needed to spend some hours with that person and you were the vessel he chose to display his love. You can be joyful in generosity because everything is His! Ask him how you should spend his time. If you decide to give 15% of your income to the church, some might call you crazy, but you know that none of this money is even yours in the first place. All of it is God’s and it is a joy to be able to give some of that money to the preaching and teaching of his Word. Ask God how you should spend his money. Maybe it’s been a long week with the kids or a long week at work, and just as your head hits the pillow your spouse asks you for something. Even then, you can remember that God owns you. He will give you the strength to be joyfully generous in service even when you might not think you can. Ask God how to love his people.

You know, it is often thought that churches take an offering during the service because they need the money to support their ministry. This is certainly true, we do want to keep the lights on here at Eastside. But that wouldn’t be the first answer I’d give. The function of the church and school isn’t the primary reason for the offering. It may sound crazy to say that, especially since it puts food on my table. But the truth is the offering is just as much worship as a prayer or a hymn. It is an act of worship because when we give an offering we put our money where our mouth is to affirm that Everything is His. It is worship because this type of joyful generosity says “Amen” to the Gospel of God’s generous love to us.

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9) God bless us as we consider this Word.

Amen.