[Propertalk] Fwd: [propertalk.topic] Giving to God

[Joe Parrish]

 Forwarded:

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Fisher <f.fisher.obl.osb at comcast.net>
To: PRCL-L <PRCL-L at LISTSERV.LOUISVILLE.EDU>; SBA <SBA at SBAbbey.com>; midrash <midrash at joinhands.com>; propertalk.topic <propertalk.topic at ecunet.org>
Sent: Sat, Oct 15, 2011 11:53 am
Subject: [propertalk.topic] Giving to God


Here's my sermon for tomorrow, the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time using the
Matthew pericope.  

PAX,
__

Frank R. Fisher, Obl OSB
www.ffisher.net
Interim Pastor
First Presbyterian Church of Gibson City, IL
http://www.firstpresbygc.org

aka

Brother Oscar Romero
Oblate of St. Benedict's Abbey
Bartonville, IL
www.SBAbbey.com


"I pray not that you walk in my shoes - nor I yours - but that together we
walk so close to Rabbi Jesus that we are covered with dust from his
sandals." - Neal Rylaarsdam

_________________________________

Those of you
who notice sermon titles
probably think 
you've a good idea
of what 
you're in for today.
After all,
we're getting close
 to our stewardship drive.
And when we get close
 to Stewardship Sunday,
Presbyterians everywhere
begin to mutter 
four letter words
as they nervously
 cover their wallets.

If that's
 what you're thinking,
I'm going 
to disappoint you.
I will be talking 
about stewardship today.
But I won't be talking 
about money.
So you can 
uncover your billfolds
while I talk you about 
a different 
four letter word:
a word 
you probably don't associate
with stewardship;
a word
at stewardship's very heart.
The word,
of course,
is love.

Zsa Zsa Gabor once said,
" A man in love is incomplete
 until he has married."
"Then he is finished."
While I fervently disagree 
with some implications
of this statement,
I do think
Ms. Gabor
 somehow did have a point.
For it was only after I fell in love
that I found the one 
who completed me.

At the time 
I fell in love,
I was averaging 
about four to five
such falls a year.
I quite regularly
found someone
who to me 
made the word love
live and breathe.

As you might expect
I discovered 
each of those "loves"
wasn't really love at all.
And in each case,
I discovered 
I'd been in love
with the idea of love
and not 
with a real person.

But there came a day
'when I began to notice
the roommate
of a girl 
I'd been casually dating.
Actually the word 
notice
is probably 
much too mild 
a word.
For it didn't take too long
for Joan 
to drive any thoughts 
of other girls
far away 
from my mind.
I wanted to know 
everything 
I could about her
and I treasured the times
when we'd simply sit
and tell each other
about our lives,
our hopes,
and our dreams.

Since Joan's an artist
I also began to collect books
on arts and crafts.
Unfortunately 
since I lacked 
a little thing 
called talent,
those books
 didn't really do much
toward making me 
an artist.
But they did satisfy 
the urge I had
to learn more
about the one 
I loved.
For when I read 
about the things
that gave her delight,
it helped me 
to share 
her delight too.

Of course 
falling in love
required some adjustments.
Probably 
my biggest adjustment 
came in the area 
of presents.
Truthfully it's 
an adjustment
I'm still having to make.
If I'd stop 
on the way back to Chicago
tomorrow
and buy Joan 
an expensive piece of jewelry,
she'd tell me 
it was very nice.
But after a week
it would be set aside
and I'd never 
see it again!

It took awhile
but I finally figured out
what she wanted 
was me.
Presents were nice
but it was much nicer
if I took the time 
I spent 
looking for a gift
and devoted it 
personally 
to her.

I'm always amazed
how the way 
I fell in love with Joan
is much like
the way 
I fell in love
for the second time 
in my life.
I discovered 
this love,
after Joan had managed 
to get me
to attend church.

We'd begun worshiping 
at a neighborhood church
soon after our marriage.
It was,
to put it bluntly,
not
 a friendly place.
After three years there
I could still
 sit at a table 
during coffee hour
and find
no one
would speak to me.
Eventually 
this unfriendliness
drove me 
entirely away
from the church
and from God.

But there came a time
when Joan 
asked me
 to check out 
another church.
I agreed,
mainly I think,
because I felt our children
 should be brought up 
in the church.
As you might surmise,
this church,
was a Presbyterian 
church.
I found my welcome there
to be more 
than a bit different
than my last church 
experience.

There,
in the midst
 of the people of God,
I found myself 
drawn into 
a relationship 
I hadn't intended.
I found myself
 in the choir
on my second Sunday 
in the building.
Six months later
I was ordained 
as a Deacon.
Two years after that,
I found myself 
on Session.
Before my term was up
I was enrolled 
in seminary.

When I began dating 
her roommate
I'd  no idea
I would fall 
deeply in love 
with Joan.
In the same way,
when I began 
attending a church
as a place 
for my children,
I had no idea
I would fall 
passionately in love
with God.

The parallels,
of course,
don't stop there.
For I found
just as my love 
with Joan deepened
with the time 
I spent 
being with her
and talking to her,
my love for God 
deepened
as I spent time with God 
in worship
and talked to God
in prayer.

And just as I 
became closer 
to Joan
by reading books
telling me 
about the things 
she loved,
I became closer 
to God,
by reading the book
telling us
about God's love
 for us.

I also found
these loves
 to be alike
in an even more 
basic 
way.
I found 
God isn't satisfied 
by gifts
that leave our lives
out of the equation.
Jesus talked about 
what God really wants
in today's gospel lesson.
The Roman coin
was made 
with caesar's image.
So Jesus 
instructed the Pharisees
to give it back
to the one 
whose image 
adorned it.

But we are made
 in the image of God.
We are made
to belong 
heart, 
mind, 
and soul
to the One
 whose image
 adorns us.

That love my friends
is the essence 
of Christian stewardship.
It's the type of love
described 
in our Book of Confessions
when the catechisms ask
"what is the chief end 
of humanity?"
The answer,
is to glorify God
and to enjoy God 
forever.
Its also the type of love
that will eventually decide 
the future 
of your congregation.

For if you're here
on the Lord's Day
to encounter the One 
you love 
with all your being,
you'll also
 take the next step.
You'll ask
how you can give yourselves 
to that One
without reservation;
how you
who are made 
in God's image
can 
totally 
offer yourselves
to your Maker?

And if you can
 ask that question
you'll have taken 
the first step
on the road
to make this congregation
truly live.

That life
is my prayer for you today
and always.
As individuals,
and as a congregation,
may you find 
this love.
if you have not yet,
May you open yourselves to it
until it consumes you.
And may the voice of all creation
sing with joy
when you discover 
the absolute wonder
of belonging 
heart,
mind,
and sout
to the One
to Whom 
you were made
to be 
completely 
bound.

To God alone be glory.  Amen



 
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