Just Say "Yes" to the Spirit

SCRIPTURE TEXT:  Acts 2:43-47, Rev. Monte Marshall

Beginning today and continuing for the next three Sundays, our focus will be on the stewardship of our possessions.  The theme is Just Say “Yes.”

Now as many of you may know, stewardship encompasses far more than our possessions.  Stewardship literally refers to the careful care and management of all that’s been entrusted to us.  Theologically speaking, John Westerhoff notes that “Stewardship is nothing less than a complete life-style, a total accountability and responsibility before God.  Stewardship is what we do after we believe, that is, after we give our love, loyalty, and trust to God, from whom each and every aspect of our lives comes as a gift.”[1]

Having said this, the stewardship of our material gifts is an especially important issue for us to consider because our possessions can so easily become like rival gods.  One commentator has noted that “money is the most pervasive idol of the times in which we live.  Even those of us who think of ourselves as ‘religious’ love money, think a great deal about money and possessions, and depend on money for our security and self-identity.”[2] 

Also, on a practical level, the decisions we make about the stewardship of our possessions each year determine the extent to which the mission and ministry of our church is supported.  This is again the case in 2016 as we begin to develop a church budget for 2017 based on the giving of our people.

But here’s the deal:  As followers of Jesus, we understand that making decisions about the financial support of our church’s mission and ministry in this or any other year, is never just a practical matter of calculating debits and credits on a ledger sheet.  We understand that spiritual discernment is required.  We understand that generosity is itself a fruit of the Spirit.  Consequently, we’re encouraged today to Just Say “Yes” to the Spirit. 

And let’s be clear, making these kinds of decisions, even through a process of spiritual discernment, is not the end of our stewardship journey.  In fact, our decisions are only small steps along the way toward something far more challenging that the Spirit has in store for us.

Stephen Covey offers wise counsel when he writes, “Begin with the end in mind.”[3]  Well, for me, Luke’s idealized portrait of a Spirit-empowered community that we’ll call First Church, Jerusalem, is a compelling vision worth moving toward. 

The text from Acts is set in the immediate aftermath of Pentecost.  The Spirit has been poured out upon the followers of Jesus.  And the Spirit formed community.  Those who said “yes” to the Spirit in First Church, Jerusalem practiced a stewardship of life that involved living together and sharing all things in common.  The people worshipped together, prayed together and ate together daily. 

When it came to the stewardship of their possessions, property and goods were sold and the proceeds shared with those in need within the community.  This kind of giving represents an open-hearted generosity that goes beyond percentage calculations such as the tithe.  This kind of giving remains open to human need and responsive to the impulses of compassion.  This kind of giving is an act of redistributive justice. 

As the New Testament attests, this is the kind of giving practiced by Jesus and urged in his teachings.  This is the kind of giving that flows from the Spirit of God at work within us.  And this is the direction our stewardship takes when we say “yes” to the Spirit. 

But make no mistake about it, in saying “yes” to the Spirit we are choosing to move toward a counter-cultural economics that is an alternative to our current system built upon avarice, accumulation, consumption and greed that leaves far too many people poor, homeless, hungry, disconnected, isolated and alienated from one another.

Pastor Mark Ralls illustrates the point.  He writes that a woman in his congregation named Elisha, “told him about a fisherman she encountered while vacationing on the tiny Greek island of Kea.  Every morning Elisha enjoyed watching the lone fisherman as he lowered his net from a small, rickety boat; waited patiently; and then pulled in his catch.  Each afternoon she watched again as he rolled in his nets and returned to shore.  There a long line of friends greeted him.  They cheered and hugged the fisherman while holding out empty baskets.  The fisherman smiled as he filled each of their baskets with fish. 

“After witnessing this routine for several days, Elisha finally could not contain her curiosity.  She asked, ‘Why do you give away so many of your fish?’  The fisherman just smiled at her and shook his head.  Elisha persisted, offering what she believed to be a helpful lesson in small-business economics.  ‘If you took all the fish you caught to the market and sold them you could purchase a new boat.  Eventually you could save enough money to hire an employee.  With him you could catch even more fish, and one day you might have enough money to buy more boats and hire more men.  Don’t you see the tremendous opportunity you are missing by giving away so many fish?’ 

“When the fisherman heard this, the smile disappeared from his face.  He said crossly, ‘Stupid American!  I follow your plan so I can do what?  Have a new boat and a hired man?  What if everything you say is true?  Still at the end of the day, I will have the same fish for dinner that I have always had.  And with your plan, I will not get to laugh and eat with the friends who meet me each day at the shore.’

“Throughout the rest of her vacation, Elisha reflected on the fisherman’s response.  She realized that while she knew how to make a profit, the Greek fisherman knew how to add value to his life.”[4] 

Well, it seems to me that the church in our day and time should be producing communities of people who choose to live into the counter-cultural, alternative vision of community described by Luke in the book of Acts, and the fact that we don’t, for the most part, goes a long way toward explaining why the church today is struggling for its very life.  After all, if we can’t demonstrate for all the world to see what the stewardship of life looks like in all of its fullness, then what’s the point?  Is the status quo as good as it gets?  Or is there something more that’s possible when we say “yes” to the transforming power of God’s Spirit? 

Well, something more is possible when we say “yes” to the Spirit.  It’s something more that adds value to life, that fills our hearts with joy and that motivates our praise.  And maybe Luke is right:  When we say “yes” to the Spirit, a new kind of community is possible that will win the approval of all the people and be so attractive and contagious that the church in our time will grow like First Church, Jerusalem grew.  Frankly, I think people today are hungry for this kind of community!

So I urge us all today to say “yes” to the Spirit and to realize that the decisions we will make over the next few weeks about the stewardship of our possessions for the support of our church’s mission and ministry in 2017 are but small steps in this larger journey of transformation and growth.

So that’s enough from me.  There are others among us who have a witness to share about why they say “yes” to God and Travis Park United Methodist Church.  I invite Betty and Brock Curry to please come forward.

WITNESS

Let me say it again:  Just Say “Yes” to the Spirit!  Thanks be to God.  Amen.